Categorie usability

Why the iPhone causes you to make spelling errors

Do you ever wonder why you are making all those spelling errors on your iPhone? Or rather – why the iPhone keeps inserting them for you?

This is because the auto correct function has a few obvious flaws in the way it works: It’s in the wrong place, it has the wrong trigger and it is not designed for a touch interface.

Usability detail bij Twitters Tweet Button

Sinds gisteren kun je bij artikelen een Tweet Button plaatsen: als de bezoeker daarop klikt krijgt hij een twitter boxje met een door jou bepaalde tekst erin. Dat is handig, maar waar ik pas echt enthousiast van werd was een klein detail: slechts een deel van de tekst is geselecteerd.

Displaying post dates: why Twitter forces you to think

Everyone just seems to love the way Twitter displays its post dates: 5 minutes ago, about 9 hours ago, etcetera. It’s one of those examples where everybody just copies everybody without giving it a second thought. And yes, it certainly has a nice tone of voice, and it looks really user-friendly. But it isn’t. It forces you to think.

Fortunately, it’s easy to improve this elapsed time notation. In this post, I’ll explain how to make it work, and I offer a php function that you can just drop into your project.

Reset password? Offer to change it

Great example of offering functionality just when the user needs it: when you forget your Wordpress.com password, you can have it reset. When you log in with this automatically generated password, Wordpress offers you a link to change it…