Yearly Archives: 2014

A study was performed several years ago that explored the reasons why User Interface Designers, and people who work with designers, believe they don’t achieve the design results they desire. Perhaps surprisingly, the obstacles most mentioned by both designers and non-designers alike wasn’t a lack of skill or creativity. The main issues that often lead…

With the steadily increasing utilization of touch screen interfaces, new requirements and design considerations have become more prevalent along with the design flaws that don’t accommodate finger widths. This is made obvious when button placement comes into play. While the point of a cursor is far more easily controlled, the larger area needed for touch…

You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site.  — Frank Lloyd Wright The interface designer must balance the legitimate use of familiar paradigms, which ease the learning process, against the enhanced usability that can be attained by abandoning them.  — Jef Raskin Like all forms of…

A splash screen, when used correctly, serves a specific and valuable purpose: to convey to the user that the application has indeed been launched and that it is still in the process of loading. A branded image or resource-light animation acts as the app’s virtual waiting room and can reinforce a company’s brand recognition. A…

The importance of intuitive UI design in healthcare can not be overstated. As such, the importance of even the smallest design details in electronic health record interface design should always be given a proper amount of consideration and weight. When using metaphors within the user interface, keep them consistent. Mixing metaphors causes confusion, and with…

How people perceive and gather information can be interpreted in terms of intuition versus sensing. Sensing tends to involve a trust in information that is more concrete and experienced with the five senses. It involves looking at details and tends to be more dismissive of hunches that are not backed by data. The focus is…

User Interface designers have long preferred the use of rounded corners to straight-edged ones in their designs. The reasons go far beyond aesthetics. Rectangles with rounded corners take less cognitive effort to visually process than a rectangle with sharp edges. Rounded corners are also more natural and organic to how we use objects in our physical…

Some key issues to consider when performing remote user testing: Make sure to record the testing sessions. Sometimes you’ll get misleading comments when you ask users what they thought about their task. Watching test respondents’ behavior provides valuable additional insight into their true feelings and attitudes. It’s also important to have audio with your screen…

Areteworks, an innovative user interface design company, prides itself on creating inspiring and intuitive user interface systems and user experiences that not only meet our clients’ goals, but consistently surpasses them. We are a UI Design company with decades of knowledge and experience in all areas of product design and development, from user and behavioral…