Tag Archives: UX Blog

Scrolling Redeemed

Page scrolling is a browser feature that was once shunned because the physical act of manipulating a web page with a mouse disturbed users’ “cognitive flow” (otherwise known as “patience”). But that was before mobile. Now, due to the predominance of small screens that can only show a tiny portion of a page’s content at a time, users have no choice but to scroll to read or find something. This would be bad except that mobile screens can be scrolled much faster by flicking a finger instead of dragging a computer mouse. The overall user experience is actually better since, with little effort, a whole page can be browsed in a few seconds.

Now that scrolling is being embraced, best practices have arisen to support scrolling in design. In fact, designing for scrolling opens up new possibilities for creating engaging websites:

… once you start approaching the long scroll as a canvas for illustrating a beginning, middle, and end (through graphics, animations, icons, etc.), then you start to see its film-like power in capturing user attention.

The following is an update that describes current thinking about scrolling and provides some tips on incorporating scrolling successfully in modern website design.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/2pO2m7N

Add to Cart, or Add to Basket? Why It Matters

Should the button read, “add to cart,” or “add to basket?” Designers often struggle trying to do something new, something more accurate, or something just for the sake of doing something. None of this matters to users though, who just want conventions, consistency, and simplicity to do what they need to do as quickly as possible. Once someone has to think, the interface is no longer intuitive, and we provide a good reason for the user to click elsewhere. But if you respect users’ desire to “scan, click, and go,” you’ll delight them with a good experience. And if you’re careful to not break conventions, you’ll avoid tripping up your visitors.

Changing your button label from ‘Cart’ to ‘Bag’ isn’t helpful if the former is what users are more familiar with. Designers think ‘Bag’ is more technically correct if their store doesn’t use carts. But being legalistic doesn’t get you the high conversion rate. Speaking the user’s language does.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/1W1nzaN