Revisiting – The Original Sin

The Original Sin (image source: IT Magz – October 2007)

RT @AnubhavSharma: Why is ‘save’ icon still a floppy? <— This question recently on my Twitter timeline prompted me to dig out from our archives this old article by Sunil Malhotra for IT Magz back in 2007, titled ‘The Original Sin‘.

The article had also mentioned the same issue and I post excerpts from it here –

Continuous and aggressive improvement is not as easy as it sounds. There are aspects that we technophiles must make ourselves additionally accountable for. Things that go so far unnoticed that they become absurdities. Here’s a simple provocation:

Who in today’s world would even know what a floppy disk is! The “Save” icon has lost its context but Microsoft does not seem to have even noticed its extinction. This illustrates how oversight or short-sight can create habits; even users stop noticing things that were meant to help them in the first place. The suggestion that emerges from the above example is to design interfaces that communicate at higher levels of abstraction so that their meaning is not lost when products of everyday use become obsolete. To think things through instead of either immediately imitating “œfamiliarity” or rushing into applying our existing skills. Imagine having the graphic of a dinosaur as a signage for a wildlife sanctuary in today’s world.

I can only suggest that we, the IT community, take a higher degree of responsibility for the total software experience – simply, that from our current focus on functionality and performance we must move up a notch into sustained usability.

Definitely something to think about. I love the term ‘Sustained Usability’ used here. Something you don’t get to hear of much, especially not from Experience Designers.

You can view the PDF of the entire article from here or access it from the IT Magz website.

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UI Design Patterns – Our Recommendations

More often than not, a good User Experience is not about reinventing the wheel but putting together in a logical (and aesthetic) manner, interactions that the user is already familiar with. UI Patterns are a great way of incorporating well researched and established rich interactions into your application without getting into extensive research or testing.

There are a number of sites which compile commonly used UI Patterns, indicate what the pattern should be used for and also show you examples of how these patterns are applied across different examples. As a designer, it is then up to your discretion to see which pattern fits your requirement the best and adapt it to your solution. Most UI Design Pattern Libraries are also a great source of inspiration – keeps you up-to-date and also shows you how other designers are implementing them.

Having gone through a number of UI Patterns sites for projects in the past, I will list a few that I find the most useful.

Design Pattern Libraries

Yahoo! Design Patterns

Yahoo Design Patterns Library
Yahoo Design Patterns

One of the most useful Design Pattern Libraries for me is the one from Yahoo!. They have categorised their patterns into useful sections like Layout, Navigation, Selection etc which makes them easy to browse. They also tell you which Design Pattern solves what problem which further helps in selection. Helpful resources – like related patterns and pattern code examples – for both developers and designers have also been provided.

Designing Web Interfaces (by Theresa Neil)

Designing Web Interfaces
Designing Web Interfaces – Theresa Neil

A 3 part series of Design Patterns – Screen Patterns, Essential Controls and Common Component Patterns . This one is especially recommended for beginners as it explains in detail which screen pattern should be used in certain cases and also provides multiple showcase examples. Download the pdf for Standard Screen Patterns and keep it as your handy quick-reference guide.

UI Patterns

UI Pattern Tap
UI Pattern Tap

A good compilation if you want to see a design pattern applied across different examples. Another great source for inspiration would be Pattern Tap – select a interaction pattern and quickly see multiple examples of its usage.

Go through these patterns and soon you will find yourself talking like a pro UX Designer. Beware though; these patterns can just give you guidance and offer tips & examples on how to use them. They are not a ready-made solution for your particular requirement. You will need to do your due-diligence for that. Or just bring it to us and we will do it for you ;-).

[Since we are developing a lot of mobile applications now, I am also researching Mobile UI patterns now and will share if I come across some good resources. Do drop a link if you know of any.]

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More often than not, a good User Experience is not about reinventing the wheel but putting together in a logical (and aesthetic) manner, interactions that the user is already familiar with. UI Patterns are a great way of incorporating well researched and established rich interactions into your application without getting into extensive research or testing.

There are a number of sites which compile commonly used UI Patterns, indicate what the pattern should be used for and also show you examples of how these patterns are applied across different examples. As a designer, it is then up to your discretion to see which pattern fits your requirement the best and adapt it to your solution. Most UI Design Pattern Libraries are also a great source of inspiration – keeps you up-to-date and also shows you how other designers are implementing them.

Having gone through a number of UI Patterns sites for projects in the past, I will list a few that I found the most useful.

Design Pattern Libraries

Yahoo! Design Patterns – One of the most useful Design Pattern Libraries for me is the one from Yahoo!. They have categorised their patterns into useful sections like Layout, Navigation, Selection etc which makes them easy to browse. They also tell you which Design Pattern should be used for what which further helps in selection. Helpful resources for both developers and designers have been provided along with the patterns.

Designing Web Interfaces (by Theresa Neil) – A 3 part series of Design Patterns – Screen Patterns, Essential Controls and Common Component Patterns . This one is especially recommended for beginners as it explains in detail which screen pattern should be used in certain cases and also provides multiple showcase examples. Download the pdf for Standard Screen Patterns and keep it as your handy quick-reference guide.

UI Patterns – A good compilation if you want to see a design pattern applied across different examples. Another great source for inspiration would be Pattern Tap – select a interaction pattern and quickly see multiple examples of its usage.

Go through all of these patterns and soon you will find yourself talking like a pro UX Designer. Beware though; these patterns can just give you guidance and offer tips & examples on how to use them. They are not a ready-made solution for your particular requirement. You will need to do your due-diligence for that. Or just bring it to us and we will do it for you ;-).

[Since we are going to be doing a lot of mobile application work now, I will be looking for Mobile UI patterns and will share if I come across some good resources.Do drop a link if you know of any.]

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