Chris Peters: Web Developer

Design & CSS

Design blunder: Using a sentence to point out your bad interface

Filed under: Design & CSS, Usability — Chris Peters, May 2, 2008

As a web developer, some design decisions are in your hands. The UI team (if you have one) isn’t going to decide on what every single screen should look like.

Every now and then, I run across something like this:

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In most cases, this sort of message appears on a system that people will rarely use. But, as the developer, you feel like your application is the most important thing in the world. So you find this to be a good opportunity to “train” the user on using your left navigation.

But why not change the message to this and make it easier on everyone? No one wants to read instructions on doing things. They just want to do it.

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