Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [usability]

Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. To paraphrase, how simple is something to get some work done.

Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. To paraphrase, how simple is something to get some work done.

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Should a stack trace be in the error message presented to the user?

I've got a bit of an argument at my workplace and I'm trying to figure out who is right, and what is the right thing to do. Context: An intranet web application that our customers use for accounting and other ERP stuff. I'm of the opinion that an…
Vilx-
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"My stuff" vs. "Your stuff" in UI texts

When refering to a users stuff should you use My or Your, for example: My Cart | My Account | My Wishlist Or Your Cart | Your Account | Your Wishlist I found this article that argues for the use of your. It says flikr does this. It also says…
JD Isaacks
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If the bug is 5+ years old, then is it a feature?

Allow me to add details: I work at an institutional place with many coders, testers, QA analysts, product owners, etc. and here is something that bugs me: We have been able to sell crappy (albeit pretty functional) software for over a decade. It has…
Job
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Are captchas worth the decreased usability?

When is it useful to use a captcha? When is it an unnecessary hindrance? Is a captcha just a quick fix for the lazy/unexperienced programmer, or are they really the best way to prevent spam and bots?
Atomix
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Has the syntax of any programming language been usability tested?

Before being release to the public, has the syntax of any programming language undergone usability testing? If so, what kinds of testing was performed, what were the results, and what impact did the testing results have on the design of the…
Justin Tanner
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How long can it take for a screen to appear before it's considered a performance issue?

I am involved with the development of a Windows application that has various screens. One of them takes ten seconds to appear with no spinner or other indication that the screen is loading. I consider this a serious performance issue but I seem to…
blue
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How do you conquer the challenge of designing for large screen real-estate?

This question is a bit more subjective, but I'm hoping to get some new perspective. I'm so used to designing for a certain screen size (typically 1024x768) that I find that size to not be a problem. Expanding the size to 1280x1024 doesn't buy you…
Berin Loritsch
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How do I convince my users not to use a sketch UI?

I recently worked on a prototype of a new system using Sketchflow, and now some key stakeholders are pushing for a sketched look & feel in the final product. To make matters worse, the people viewing the prototype were asked to provide feedback on…
Bennor McCarthy
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Multiple APIs, or one API with a "chooser" parameter?

Say you have a web service, which adds business logic on top of a data source. What each API of this service pretty much looks like is - given a set of constraints, give me the items from the data source that satisfy these constraints. You can say…
RuslanD
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How do you organize your usability testings?

What is your process? How do you get feedback? What software do you use? (like Morae from TechSmith) Who does them? Have you measured how it positively affected the quality of your software? I'm looking for your experience on the subject. This is…
user2567
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How do I determine which language/framework is best for our web-based project?

I'm in the early stages of development for a web application that has three developers (myself included) working on it. The project is, at its core, a web-based database that will be used by around 5,000 people. Its primary purpose is to track…
corvec
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Good resources for web form design and usability

Can anyone suggest good resources about web form design and usability for web applications? Especially complex forms with 15+ fields etc.
Alexey Anufriyev
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How to deal with legacy functionality conflicting with new feature

I am working on a well established (aka clients using it for a while) video player. We recently found out that the drawing engine (ddraw) is deprecated in windows 8 and 10, and choose a modern solution to replace it. Issue is, a completely different…
UmNyobe
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Are there any GUI or user interface design patterns?

I was curious about GUI design patterns, so I searched and got some information, including a list of UI patterns for the web. This UI patterns website says that: UI Patterns is a growing collection of User Interface Design Principles and User…
Niranjan Singh
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What is Black Box Testing? Are Functional and Usability Testing its types?

I am writing about testing and I am confused about the following: What exactly is Black-Box testing? Are functional testing and Usability testing two different types of testing and are they types of Black Box testing? I have to perform two different…
Ali Shaikh
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