Preventing Multiple Submissions with Prototype and jQuery

If there is one problem that plagues me across applications, its users that are too antsy to wait for the page to come back after hitting submit on a form. Even worse, some people just instinctually double and triple click. How do you keep these pesky users from duplicating records or charging themselves three times for that item in your e-shop? Click "more" to see how I do it in Prototype and jQuery.

 

Royksopp On Design

Ok, so not the most serious post, but Ray Camden Twittered about this video, and I have to say that it has some amazing diagrams and charts in it. I can't help but think that Edward Tufte would like it.

 

UX Rules: Four Rules for Form Controls

A reset buttonTime again for another user experience rule, and this time I couldn't stop at just one. I've got four rules for you about forms; one of the most daunting aspects of UX design. You can save yourself some trouble with the following rules:

Rule 2: Ditch the Reset button.

Rule 3: Make your Cancel button look like a link, or make it visually washed out compared to your Submit button.

Rule 4: Make sure that there is at least a 2em distance between your Submit and your Cancel buttons.

Rule 5: Submit on the left, Cancel on the right.

Read more to see my reasonings and an example.

 

UX Rule: Notification of Completion

Notification bars

So, as I move into exploring the realm of user experience(UX), I'm going to work on building a collection of rules for creating good user experiences. These rules are fast, but they aren't hard: every situation is different, and although these rules will be starting points, some negotiation may be required.

Rule One: All processing must display a notification to the user.

Read more to see my thoughts on when and how to do this.

 

Page Layout with Body IDs

HTML Code Snippet A while back I read about a technique to maximize the power of CSS: placing a unique ID on the <body> tag of your markup. Make each page have a unique body ID, and you can use CSS to override anything on that particular page if you want. I've played around with this a bit, and found it to be quite powerful technique.

 

Envisioning Information

Cover of Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

I'd actually ordered this book on Amazon before I read a reference to Edward R. Tufte in Slide:ology, and so I was immensely happy when I finally got my copy in the mail. Envisioning Information is packed with rich examples of presenting complex, layered data in ways that are usable and even visually pleasing. I recommend this book to any one interested in usability and interface design.

Be warned though, that this book is dense with ideas, explanations, and images. It reads more like my college biology text book than a normal design book, and the vocabulary is often times as complex. Reading this book can be daunting, but so far, the value I've gotten back out of it has been immense.

I think my only complaint about this book is that it is beginning to become dated. Written in 1990, Tufte spends most of his time talking about designs created for printed media, and the examples of computer displays seem very primitive by today's standards. Luckily, media is no impediment to the concepts in Envisioning Information; "flatland" and "chartjunk" are the same if on a poster or on the web.

 

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Jon Hartmann, July 2011

I'm Jon Hartmann and I'm a Javascript fanatic, UX/UI evangelist and former ColdFusion master. I blog about mysterious error messages, user interface design questions, and all things baffling and irksome about programming for the web.

Learn more about me on LinkedIn.