Tag Archives: Usability

Understanding Modality

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Yes that is a word. Yes it sounds like it came from Mortal Kombat II. Modal dialogs are a usability nightmare. Joel spoke about it, and we all have experienced it.

11-20-2009 10-42-13 AM For some situations, they are necessary however. When it is necasary it is important to only interrupt the user for what really matters. IE doesn’t do a great job at this.

The next time you are in IE and get prompted for a user/pass, try to change tabs. You can’t! The whole window is waiting on this modal dialogs.

11-20-2009 10-42-46 AM How does Chrome handle this?

Chrome allows you to change tabs. In fact it isn’t really modal at all, because modal doesn’t really make sense. You can’t can continue to the current website without a user/pass, but who says you even want to continue to that site. This small difference improves the usability of Chrome greatly. How many times have you needed to check your email tab to see what the user/pass is for a certain website?

To sum it all up, don’t use modal dialogs and when you do make sure the modality adds value, not detracts. Oh, and stop using IE and use Chrome.

The Welcome Screen

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Why would I ever want to see this welcome screen again?

Beautiful designs start with the needs of the user, not the the requirements of the business. This welcome screen probably started because someone said “We should welcome users every time they start the application, lots of other apps do it!”.

The problem is, this welcome screen is counter-productive and adds no value to me the user.

One thing I have learned is this type of thing is all too easy to happen to an application. Designers and developers should be in constant communication with each other, and users. Simple usability tests are the easiest way to make this happen.