GUI Bloopers 2.0 Quotes

“0.1 second: This is the limit for perception of cause-and-effect between events. If software waits longer than 0.1 second to show a response to your action, cause-and-effect is broken: the software’s reaction will not seem to be a result of your action. Therefore, on-screen buttons have 0.1 second to show they’ve been clicked; otherwise users will click again. If an object the user is “dragging” lags more than 0.1 second behind the cursor, users will have trouble placing it. This 0.1-second deadline is what HCI researcher Stuart Card calls the perceptual “moment.” It is also close to the limit for perception of smooth animation: 0.063 second/frame (16 frames/second)”
― Jeff Johnson, GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and DOS

“Software developers come mainly from engineering and don’t see how similar their industry has become to the one that produces magazines, newspapers, books, TV shows, and movies. Most software developers haven’t yet learned to develop and follow strict standards for layout and graphic design and to pay as much attention to detail as traditional publishers and media studios do. As a result, graphic design and layout bloopers often get a “Who cares? It looks OK to me!” reaction from developers.”
― Jeff Johnson, GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and DOS

“Noneditable data should never be displayed in a control that looks editable or operable. Checkboxes, radio buttons, menus, sliders, and the like should never be used for noneditable data because they look operable. Even if they are inactive (grayed), they look like they can somehow be made active, and users will waste time trying to do so.”
― Jeff Johnson, GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and DOS

“Over the past four decades, much evidence has accumulated suggesting that responsiveness — a software application’s ability to keep up with users and not make them wait — is the most important factor in determining user satisfaction. Not just one of the most important factors - the most important factor.”
― Jeff Johnson, GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and DOS

“Consider Microsoft Word. Until the mid-1990s, repaginating a document was a foreground task. You had to invoke the Repaginate command and then wait many seconds—for long documents, minutes—for it to complete before you could return to editing the document.”
― Jeff Johnson, GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos