Katelyn M. Thompson’s Blog

Although I have yet to have time to immerse myself in CS4, I ran across a post by Neven Mrgan showing the different slider bars found in Photoshop CS4.  Below are a sampling…

It is a general guideline, that a similar design be used when the user is performing the same or similar action. Usability.gov’s guideline states “Allow users to perform tasks in the same sequence and manner across similar conditions” (Guideline 2:3).

In the case of the sliders, it is unnecessary to have multiple designs for the same control. The first three sliders are all performing the same purpose, to allow the user to select a value from a range of numbers. They each show the title, the value, and the slider.

The 4th slider is slightly different and shows the blending of two layers, and therefore needs an additional slider control. There is little to no reason for there to be different arrows.

The only slider pictured here that I can make a justification for variation is the last one. The blending of the two colors along the slider is helpful in determining the desired color mix.

I’m unsure why all the inconsistency in the design of this great program. It seems as though they’ve kept sliders from previous versions and improved upon them as new features were included, but never took the time to update the old ones. Hopefully by the time the next version comes along they’ll have taken the time to not only include some amazing new features (content-aware scaling comes to mind) but also improve the ease of use of the system by sticking to some well-established guidelines.

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via SwissMiss

VueZone.com claims to be “the easiest and simplest way to remotely view your family, your home, your business…virtually anything, from anywhere, at anytime.” It works on web browsers and mobile devices. I think it is a really good idea, especially for people traveling a lot or vacation homes. The cameras aren’t for sale yet, they claim coming this summer. The two camera package starts at $299 and additional cameras coming in at $99. It’s not a bad investment for some people. Their UI seems pretty simplistic and easy to use at first glance. I think it’s a good option to be able to share with your “friends”. I’m thinking it would be helpful for my parents to be able to have access to my grandparent’s or aunt’s house while they’re on vacation.

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via Gadgetell