Most users think, Mac UI is all about slick graphics and “cool” icons. Well, that might be true partially, but user interface design isn’t about photoshopping or designing cool looking icons. According to Jakob Nielsen, aesthetics is just one aspect of usability. There is much more to user friendly software than just the “cool factor” or great icons. Recently, I was using Microsoft’s Excel to edit a dozen...

If you were following my tweets, you might be knowing that I got a invitation from Microsoft to test Microsoft Office 2010. Invitation to test Microsoft Office 2010 Yeah, From the screen shot it should be evident that I’m using a mac now. I testing Office 2010 by installing it on my Windows 7 Virtual Box image. Being a usability guy myself, In this article, I will primarily focus on usability aspects of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and...

OK, many of the programmers would have been confused as how to design a dialog on your website. In what order should the dialog contain the OK and Cancel Buttons? Should it be OK – Cancel like Windows or Cancel – OK like the Mac? Are there any “rule of thumb” why a certain standard should be followed? Or is it just a matter of taste? Firstly Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines state that, rather than OK or...

People always hate when things don’t work as they expect. This doesn’t have to apply for software products. You bang your TV, when it suddenly turns black and white. You shake your remote when it doesn’t work even though you know that the battery is dead. Usability is a great area. As a Usability expert, myself,, I always poke into applications and check whether it’s “easy to use”. One such example was my...

The picture says it all…WTF… I cannot shutdown if a file save UI window is open in...