Expectations are Changing; UI Designers and UX Designers Take Note

In recent years, the massive shift towards web apps and mobile apps have completely changed user expectations around how software should look and work.

When most folks are using the computer, they’re on the web (and increasingly not in a Windows app, except, of course, for the web browser that they’re using to access the web) and at these web sites:

[cols]
[col class="1/4"]

Google
Facebook
YouTube

[/col]

[col class="1/4"]
Yahoo
eBay
Amazon

[/col]
[col class="1/4"]
MSN
Pinterest
Hotmail

[/col]
[col class="1/4 last"]
Bing
Wikipedia
Twitter

[/col]
[/cols]

 

And, these same folks have a smartphone and are using these apps:

 

 

 

Users are expecting apps to be simpler, dynamic, “active” or “alive,” personalized, and responsive:

  • 3 days ago”; relative date/time formatting
  • Content first; labels and other items demoted
  • Mixed Case vs. all UPPERCASE; natural and easier to read
  • Hierarchy represented with whitespace and lines vs. rectangles within rectangles
  • Minimal horizontal scrolling
  • Modal; focus on one thing at a time
  • Beautiful and actionable dashboards
  • Progressive disclosure (show stuff as-needed)

What does this mean for the user experience design of your enterprise applications?


WinDirStat - See treemap of your file system, easily find big files

WinDirStat is still a really great tool, even after all these years.  Very useful!

I don't know of any other way of quickly and intuitively finding out what's taking up my disk space.  Perfect use of the treemap visualization.


Use These Mockups: Lots of Design Patterns in Balsamiq Mockups (BMML) format

For those of you that use Balsamiq Mockups, here are a bunch of templates I created that you might find handy.
Download them all in one ZIP file (90KB).

I find myself re-using many of these elements when I design applications (especially the boring/tedious/must-have features, like Forgot Password, Sign In, 404 page). Enjoy!

The following mockups are included in the ZIP file:

Home Pages

Home Page, Members Only Mockup
Home Page, Downloadable Product Mockup

Feature Tour

Feature Tour Mockup

Pricing, Upgrade, Downgrade

Pricing Page Mockup
Upgrade & Downgrade Mockup
Upgrade "Thank You" E-mail Mockup

Read-Only List of Items

Read Only List of Items Mockup

Editable List of Items

Editable List of Items Mockup
Add Item Mockup
Edit Item and Delete Item Mockup

Invite Friends

Invite Friends Mockup
Invite Friends Via E-mail Mockup (Popup)

Settings / My Account Page

Settings / My Account Page Mockup

Sign In

Sign In Page Mockup
Sign In Popup Mockup

Forgot Password Process

Forgot Password Page Mockup
Password Reset Email Mockup
Reset Password Page Mockup

Miscellaneous

404 Page Mockup
Log / History Page Mockup
Downloading Page Mockup
Windows System Tray Mockup
Windows Tour Mockup