Where to find Malcolm Coles, reviews, and tips on how to do things I couldn’t do.

malcolm coles


All my posts about: ‘usability’

Information Commissioner: please redesign your stupid form 0

November 19, 2009
No fields are compulsory

The Information Commissioner’s Office webform is a joke – the validation is awful. Also, they seem to have confused the internet with email.

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Web page word counts: reading vs linking 4

October 20, 2009
This data is for SEOMOZ articles

I thought it was interesting to compare two graphs as they seem to go in opposite directions:

SEOmoz’s new one on the relationship between word count and the likelihood of people linking to you
Nielsen’s graph from last year showing that the more you write, the less as a % of the total visitors will [...]

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Has Google redesigned the header of its results page (for the worse)? 9

September 05, 2009
The links that showed in the old Google header

Google seems to have redesigned the header section of its results page, removing the links to other types of search (web, images, news, blogs etc) and removing the ability to sign in.

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A wireframe for a new Express homepage 1

August 13, 2009
Express homepage: an alternative

The Express has a new homepage beta. I was rude about it on Twitter today. I thought I should be more constructive. So here’s a wireframe for an alternative.

The idea is that the 4 main areas – each dedicated to one of the Express’s obsessions – pull in content from around the web (including the Express’s own) in real time and link to it.

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UX tweeters- now with added bios 0

August 04, 2009

If you liked the list of user-experience twitterers that Done Bright put together, you may have wished, like me, that you could see the bios / description of each account. Well, I’ve played around with the Twitter API, and now you can!

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Five changes I'd make to the new Web User beta design 0

July 29, 2009
webuser-header

Five changes I’d make to the new Web User beta design. Well, they did ask …

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New design trend: Logos that change to show you they're a 'home' link 5

July 03, 2009
Amazon logo changes to show it

Three’s a trend. And five’s a default. Four examples of sites whose logo is a link to the homepage – and who make this abundantly clear by changing the image on mouseover.

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ABCe: please sort out your terrible website (again) 6

June 24, 2009
Search results for ABCe after redesign

In March, I appealed to the Audit Bureau of Circulations to sort out its terrible ABCe website. It’s had a redesign. Here’s a list of its latest problems.

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ITV shows why websites for mobiles are RUBBISH 1

June 23, 2009
ITV

I hate mobile versions of websites. And ITV’s dismal mobile site demonstrates why.

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Login designs: the 9 worst ones and where to find good examples 10

June 11, 2009
Asda

Here’s a round up of bad or hard to use login designs and functions – things to avoid if you ever sort your login out.

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BUSTED: bing defender is Microsoft employee - and have they deleted my post on bing's usability from bing? 7

June 06, 2009
Whois record for Yohan

Microsoft seem to have reacted badly to my post on the usability of bing – someone left a comment defending it without revealing they were a Microsoft employee (which is illegal in the UK). And they’ve either manually deleted the post from the bing search results or it’s taken them more than 4 days to index it …!

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12 ways bing is an absolute usability disaster 13

June 02, 2009
what is bing?

bing is a usability disaster – confusing links allied to unusable functionality. And is it called bing or Bing – make your mind up Microsoft.

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On the usability of taps and the lessons for web design 5

May 20, 2009
A massive sign with tap instructions

A review of the usability of taps – avoiding arrest for getting my camera out in public toilets and showers – in order to see what lessons the design of everyday objects can tell us about web design.

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Apostrophe usage: get them right to avoid wasting a Twitter character 0

May 01, 2009
No apostrophe in the 80s

With a 140-character limit, avoiding unnecessary apostrophes could make the difference between your tweet fitting … and not (this is no excuse not to include an apostrophe when you should).

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Content carousels reviewed: Yahoo loses, Sky wins 5

April 30, 2009
Yahoo UK news carousel

Carousels (sliders as they’re sometimes known) are a good way to promote several items of content without using up too much space on your homepage.

Here’s a roundup of sites using them – and how successful I think they are. Having studies several, I think the best ones.

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Newspaper sites: PLEASE improve your readability 5

April 20, 2009
Guardian (13.98px Verdana) vs Express (12px Arial) default font size

Newspaper websites are failing in some obvious ways to make their stories readable. Too many are using small fonts, long off-putting paragraphs, no subheadings, no in-content boxes or pictures, and no in-content links.

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