arnorhs - Web Development Blog

Designing User Interfaces for “Normies”

When I was working at a small web development shop in Iceland, we developed a lot of applications. Some of those applications were used by what you would consider the “older generation” and/or “normal users”. Working at a small company like that you need to wear many hats, so usually what would happen is that I would end up teaching the end users to use most of the applications I developed.

I really hated it and I’m guessing most developers do, however, I would also say that it taught me a lot at the same time. It would even be safe to say that it shaped how I see user interfaces today.

In this post I try to cover a few of the common patterns that I noticed among users with less computer understanding.

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The problem with “Lorem Ipsum” and What You Can to Do Instead.

Usually when designers are designing both print and website layouts, banner ads and other user interfaces, they need to have some text copy to work with. Most of the time, the client or the company they are working for doesn’t have text copy prepared, so designers usually place so called “Lorem Ipsum” content into their designs.

Lorem Ipsum has been used for many decades as placeholder content in print layout designs. It’s based on latin, but is actually just gibberish and doesn’t have any meaning. It’s purpose is to divert the reader’s attention away from the text itself and onto the layout and the design. That seems very logical.

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I like these fonts

Two fonts I like.

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Facebook’s “Problem”

My mom had a birthday gathering the other day (happy 52 mom). It was pretty uneventful as you would expect, but as sometimes happens these days, a conversation about Facebook got started.

Most techies you meet would say that they hate listening to normal people talk about anything technical – especially the older generation. I usually find these kinds of conversations rather enjoyable, especially if I can withdraw and not have to be a part of it and just listen. Because then you kind of get a sense for how normal people see things and what problems they run to, etc.

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Having problems with motivation and getting things done? These links might help

These two links are pretty good for helpful motivational tips, tricks and hacks. Read on.

Closures and Other Great Powers of Functions in Javascript

Closures are functions that you define “on the fly” that have access to the same variables (the same scope) as they get defined in. You can store them as variables, pass them around between other functions, and generally get treated like a normal variable.

In general they are very powerful. Read on for a deeper explanation of how they are useful and creative way in which they can be used.

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A git power feature that helped me 10 mins ago

I was setting up a new git repository (more on that in a later post) and I was using a wrong author, so the name was wrong on all the commits. I googled around and found this command which allow you to basically rename all the authors: It’s deep in dirty-commit-territory, so if there are [...]

I have arrived in Palo Alto

Good news. I have finally arrived in Palo Alto.

I just got to my hotel and I’m getting my apartment later this week (hopefully), so you could say that I’ve officially moved.

Best vim Cheat Sheet in the World / Planet / Solar system

This is awesome for all Vimsters out there. A guy named Michael Pohoreski seems to have had a similar problem to almost every other vim user/beginner out there. He couldn’t find a good vim cheat sheet, so he made the mother of all cheat sheets. It’s damn ugly, but pretty good: