Comments on: Usability mistakes with radio buttons http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/ on programming, usability, and design; by Patrick Dubroy Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:29:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3781 Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:02:40 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3781 <p>Good points about my design :-) The comments was the last part I did, thinking I would eventually revisit and fix them up. But you know how it goes...</p> Good points about my design :-) The comments was the last part I did, thinking I would eventually revisit and fix them up. But you know how it goes…

]]> by: Anand http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3780 Sat, 29 Sep 2007 23:44:04 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3780 <p>Even better, if as you hovered over the label (text or button) it had a subtle highlight appear underneath both. A nice pastel color or something.</p> <p>I was making fun of the font but looks like my firefox was acting up and scaling up the images. What i saw was much uglier than whats up there now.</p> <p>In your new blog design, make sure you have better distinction between the comments on the comments page. They just blend right together. Also maybe make the "Comment by" text smaller?</p> Even better, if as you hovered over the label (text or button) it had a subtle highlight appear underneath both. A nice pastel color or something.

I was making fun of the font but looks like my firefox was acting up and scaling up the images. What i saw was much uglier than whats up there now.

In your new blog design, make sure you have better distinction between the comments on the comments page. They just blend right together. Also maybe make the “Comment by” text smaller?

]]> by: Ryan Lowe http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3751 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:54:49 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3751 <p>Being able to click on the labels has been built into Windows GUIs since the 3.1 days. It might be more intuitive than you think. :) But yes, the radio position relative to the text is critical as well!</p> Being able to click on the labels has been built into Windows GUIs since the 3.1 days. It might be more intuitive than you think. :) But yes, the radio position relative to the text is critical as well!

]]> by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3744 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:20:56 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3744 <p>Ryan:</p> <p>Being able to click on the label instead of the button would definitely be more clear, but if the buttons are still there, it's kind of "hidden functionality", isn't it? It might not be obvious that you can click on the labels, and the radio buttons would still be ambiguous.</p> Ryan:

Being able to click on the label instead of the button would definitely be more clear, but if the buttons are still there, it’s kind of “hidden functionality”, isn’t it? It might not be obvious that you can click on the labels, and the radio buttons would still be ambiguous.

]]> by: Ryan Lowe http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3742 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:14:56 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3742 <p>Another thing that helps is using form labels properly. You can give each radio a unique id and point to it from the label tag. When you click on the radio's text label, the proper radio is selected.</p> Another thing that helps is using form labels properly. You can give each radio a unique id and point to it from the label tag. When you click on the radio’s text label, the proper radio is selected.

]]> by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3705 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:34:29 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3705 <p>Anand: </p> <p>You're right, if the spacing is done right, it would be much better. You just have to make sure that you don't have a button or label wrapping down to the next line.</p> <p>About the font rendering, you can thank Windows for that. The first one is just plain Verdana, the second is Lucida Sans Unicode. I have ClearType turned off because I the Windows font rendering looks like ass (well, specifically the colour that appears on the edge of the letters).</p> <p>Interestingly, I discovered that my Windows installation has both "Lucida Sans" and "Lucida Sans Unicode" installed, and the two fonts are very different. Plain-vanilla Lucida Sans looks a lot better than the Wordpress example above.</p> <p>And I'm aware of the problem with my comments link...yeah I know, it sucks. I'll be moving to a new design soon and it will be fixed.</p> Anand:

You’re right, if the spacing is done right, it would be much better. You just have to make sure that you don’t have a button or label wrapping down to the next line.

About the font rendering, you can thank Windows for that. The first one is just plain Verdana, the second is Lucida Sans Unicode. I have ClearType turned off because I the Windows font rendering looks like ass (well, specifically the colour that appears on the edge of the letters).

Interestingly, I discovered that my Windows installation has both “Lucida Sans” and “Lucida Sans Unicode” installed, and the two fonts are very different. Plain-vanilla Lucida Sans looks a lot better than the Wordpress example above.

And I’m aware of the problem with my comments link…yeah I know, it sucks. I’ll be moving to a new design soon and it will be fixed.

]]> by: Anand http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3702 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:09:17 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-mistakes-with-radio-buttons/#comment-3702 <p>Putting radio buttons online is compact man, it makes sense for a long form. As long as you disambiguate with lots of spacing between the radio button + text and the next one I think you're fine. </p> <p>I love their beautifully rendered text though. </p> <p>Speaking of alignment issues, your Post a comment link on the topmost entry is appearing way out to the right for me, past the right-hand sidebar.</p> Putting radio buttons online is compact man, it makes sense for a long form. As long as you disambiguate with lots of spacing between the radio button + text and the next one I think you’re fine.

I love their beautifully rendered text though.

Speaking of alignment issues, your Post a comment link on the topmost entry is appearing way out to the right for me, past the right-hand sidebar.

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