UsabilityInstitute.com
Jack Bellis, jackbellis@hotmail.com

Improving user interface design through simple communication improvements and lessons learned repeatedly in computerdom. Bellis' Law: "For every computer problem, even many hardware problems, there is a simple user interface solution."

Articles by Date
All of our past diatribes, rants, and expostulations

Before & After
Specific articles showing interface problems and specific solutions

• Problems with UI design will not be solved by more technology or testing—not that there's anything wrong with that—but by straightforward thinking and words.
• The most usable design is the one that anyone can learn quickly, and, once learned, use with increasing proficiency.
• Most usability improvements can be accomplished with only wording changes.
• Users aren't dumb, they just need a fighting chance.
• Most usability measures should address a mythical, "competent Windows user," and not necessarily a naive or uninitiated user.
• Computers are a worst-case-scenario of an invisible technology: electronics.

05-November-02001