Idiot UI of the day.

[dsrtao]

I came across a domain name that sounded like a word, but not a word I had ever heard of. Weird. So I pulled up Firefox, typed "charvolant" into the search box, and asked for a dictionary.com search.

Go on, do that. I'll wait.

Okay, what's the big deal, you ask? It's just not a word that that dictionary has heard of.

Look at the recommended alternatives. Yes, that's right. The first two of them. "char-volant" and "char volant". They don't have entries either.

Rule for UI designers: if you present the user with a link to your own site, it must be a) valid and b) contain relevant information, not just a default error page.

Sheesh.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Click here to fail at your task!

The even more classic blunder is "click here to fail at your task and damage your data!" But I'm sure you're familiar with that one, too.

charvolant

[dauphin1974.livejournal.com]

coined word for a cart pulled by a kite. see google?

UI Design. Yes - links should go someplace.

Ciao.

Re: charvolant

[dsrtao]

Yup. Google Is Your Friend. In this case, I knew about kites pulling boats, and was pleased to see land vehicles, too.

I had to actually read your LJ userinfo to figure out who you are.

Re: charvolant

[dauphin1974.livejournal.com]

I figured my profile was clear enough that if you read it and you knew me personally, then you would instantly say "oh, him". Glad it worked in this case...

W/R/T UI design... In the olden days (ok, very olden days, ok very very olden days of computers (think DECSystem-10), there used to be a rule: you need two different user interface designs, one for beginners and one for experts, and there was not much you could to to build one that worked for both. In today's WEB world, you need a third one - for people who just want it to work - it's even simpler than "beginners", because beginners want to learn how it works and want to "get it". This third class just wants the answers and is completely uninterested in how/whether it works.

-- ciao.