An experience with an interface today left a bad taste in my mouth, for two reasons. First, I call myself a UI designer, and expect more from interfaces because I know it’s possible to make them easier for users to love. Second, I was the poor user suffering under the loveless interface.
Consider this first screenshot, entered into evidence as Exhibit A:
Exhibit A shows descriptions for a list of items. Notice that each item that is too large to fit has been truncated andhad an ellipsis appended. I want to see the full descriptions, and I notice that the column is resizeable via a mouse-drag. How handy.
Alas, Exhibit B above shows the result. When I resize the column, no more text is revealed. Instead, I have a rather large column showing the same truncated text.
Now, this may seem picky, but I think it’s a legitimate gripe - I’d rather the column not be resizable if it’s not going to do me any good. Windows Explorer shows more text when I make a column larger - it’s a behavior I’ve come to expect. Instead, this interface make me scowl and utter, “Oh…oh yeah, you suck, interface.”
Please…please don’t make interfaces painful. It’s the little things that can either bring joy or pain in an interface. My vote is for joy.
-Jeff
P.S. Need a designer who obsesses over things like this on behalf of your users? Get in touch.
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