“Usually, applications fail because they (a) solve the wrong problem, (b) have the wrong features for the right problem, or (c) make the right features too complicated for users to understand”. Read Jakob Neilsen’s Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes.

While we work on complex web applications, such as for CBD/TPdb or Faculty of 1000, we have to consider the balance of ease-0f-use and creating context for users so that they can understand what they are looking at. Cathy Shive discusses ‘Computer Administrative Debris’ in applications (found via John Gruber).

“Small screens, as on traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information–too often leaving users with ‘Where am I?’ puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space rather than stacked in time.” One of the leading lights of the design world, Edward Tufte, has casts his eye over the iPhone and how it deals with information on a small screen.

Recently on our CIH Housing and Global DataPoint projects we have been investigating best practices for presenting and explaining events - a deceptively complex issue. Via the 37 Signals blog we came across New York Magazine’s Agenda interface.

Using Apple’s recent release of Leopard as an example, Scott Stevenson discusses how user interface design isn’t always a logical process backed up with user research and rigourous thinking. Sometimes it’s just because people need to feel new stuff is ‘new’.

Giving a user a clear instruction on ‘how’ to move on in their task, rather than just ‘what’ they’re moving on to, is a good thing. Copyblogger and GrokDotCom discuss.

The Functioning Form blog summarises a talk by Liz Danzico about web design ‘rules’ that don’t stand up and should be seen as ‘considerations’.

Milissa Tarquini in Boxes & Arrows discusses the myth of the fold. One of the great false truisms in the field of web design is that users don’t like going ‘below the fold’ - the area on a web page that users would have to scroll down to see. Happily for designers, there is no evidence to support this myth.

While working with People’s Archive, we’ve investigated various video hosting sites, such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc. LifeGoggles has a great page making it easy to compare their embedded players and the quality of their video.

A post from Lines & Colors, a blog about artists and illustrators, on the frustration of many artist’s websites, but there are many points that ring true for anyone.

Microsoft has just launched an ‘interactive table’ called Microsoft Surface. The web will be abuzz with this all day, discussing the ins and outs of how this will work in application. Time will tell whether it will only be found in hotel lobbies and shops, or whether it will be genuinely useful at home. Whatever - it opens up interesting new ways of interacting with information and even objects, and it will be worth watching how it impacts on the industry (especially Apple). Found via Techcrunch and Crunchgear.

Jeff Jarvis in The Guardian discusses the papers recent homepage redesign and where news websites might go next (registration required).

A discussion as to why web appilcations should not try too hard to look like a desktop application by Bill Higgins (via Signal vs. Noise).

New and very good review site that manages to show graphically a good overview of how much reviewers like and dislike a product (via Kottke and Daring Fireball).

Jakob Nielsen, Matt Mullenweg (Wordpress), Lynda Weinman and others discuss what is required to ‘create for the web’.