In the video, Jakob Nielsen talks about user interface design fails.  He considers computers to be a failure because he says that only 5% of the population is truly empowered by technology, and that the majority of people can only perform simple tasks.  He also notes that there is a problem with desktop websites taking the mobile version and just enlarging things.

New York University

-User Interface Design Fails

-How to Design a Good Search UI

-Direct Manipulation in User Interfaces

-The Visual Principle of Scale in User Interface Design

Nielsen Norman Group Design Talk/Videos

Nielsen Norman Group Source

User Interface Design Fails

In the video, Kara Pernice talks about how to design a good search UI.  She says that having a search function is very important, because people will want to search things on your website.  However, the reason why people may not be using the search function very much on a website is because of its visibility.  She suggests having a blank search bar at the top of the screen, rather than just having a magnifying glass icon, or having text in the search bar which can also take away visibility.  She also points out another issue with the icon search function, saying that it requires the user to click in order to expose the search field before they can type a query.  This "introduces unnecessary interaction costs."  On the other hand, with mobile, depending on how important the search function is to your website, you may want to have a collapsed search function because of the lack of space.

How to Design a Good Search UI

In this video, Raluca Budiu talks about direct manipulation in user interfaces.  She gives an example of dragging a file on your desktop into the recycling bin.  Direct manipulation is an interaction style that is very prominent in modern interfaces.  Interactions happen through physical actions like dragging and dropping, and these physical actions promote recognition over recall.  The objects in direct manipulation are also always on screen, and the actions are always incremental.

Direct Manipulation in User Interfaces

"Summary: Users pay more attention to big things than to small things, and this design principle can be used to prioritize a user experience design, such as a web page or application screen."

In the video, Kelley Gordon gives tips on using the design principle of scale.  She says that it is good to have three sizes, small, medium, and large, as a way to establish visual hierarchy and variety in your design.  One example of this is seen in newspaper websites, with the title being large, the subtitle being a medium size, and the body text being small. 

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