I personally do not like ALL of it. It is definitely a huge improvement over their previous design, but still could use some serious cleaning up.

One of the main tabs on the site is their “News Pulse” section which offers up a view at the most popular news from as recent as 15 minutes, all the way up to 30 days.

Let’s take a look at the layout…

My biggest problem right away is how busy it seems with the text “show details” sprouting up on every single item, but I appreciated the alignment of the titles, and text, which seemed to offer a nice flow.

Ok, let’s click “show details”

What happened to our nice alignment?

Let me state for the record clicking on the photo when it is collapsed will toggle the details, which is great. Once expanded however I would expect one of two things to happen:

1. read the full story by clicking the image
2. toggle to my previous view (hide the details)

Neither of these are possible. Nope. To read the full story you need to click on either of the two instances of the words “full story”, which are completely overlooked at best.

By constantly showing the text “show details” they are letting you know they want your focus over there.

Here is where the eye travels:

So, we are forced to zig-zag across the page to read between stories. Fun.

How they could improve the layout quickly

• Progressive enhancement.
  • Just by hiding the “show details” text until you are moused over a title, or that news cell would clean it up greatly. It would also help with the whole zig-zag issue.
• Get rid of the comments column.
  • Maybe this is a special feature for members or something, but I cannot click on the comment counts, so why show this information?
• Help me read the full story.
  • I am confused with that they want me to do here? Should I just be reading a quick overview of each story? Sharing seems to be important, but what happens when I click that button?
• Can I sort this “table”?
  • It appears as though this whole thing could be sorted by clicking the column headers. Fail.

This page is just plain strange. What do you think about it? How could it be improved? Am I completely off the mark here?

Most of you are probably familiar with Netflix. Maybe you don’t use it, but understand it exists. On the “your queue” page you are able to add, reorder, and delete items. There are three ways you can move a selection:

1. ‘Click’ the “top” icon, which will move that item to the first position
2. ‘Drag + Drop’ a selection to a desired location.
3. ‘Type’ in the textbox the order in which you wish the items to appear (least favorite method)

When mousing over a selection they offer a nice visual queue that it can in fact be moved, by changing the cursor to a little hand that looks like it is grabbing something, as well as a subtle background color change.

Don’t judge my selections, you don’t know me!

Here is the CSS they used:

cursor:url(http://cdn-0.nflximg.com/us/cursors/grab.cur);

Simple enough for you?

It is the little touches like this that separate out good application design from the rest. Of course, use your BEST creative judgement. A dancing Pumpkin, although festive does not have any place on the Web ever, especially not for a cursor.

This is the only reputable link I could find for a trial version. I am sure if you Google well enough, you could find an online converter. Download at your own risk though. If anyone has any other programs they use, I am all ears.

So, go forth, create those cursors!

Was this post helpful? Let me know, thanks!

Leaving Photoshop out of your design process might be suicide to say the least. I think one of the things I have learned more about over the past year is the process by which you choose to work from.

Starting with paper is the way to go

This is ideal if you are in a meeting, and are looking for a quick and dirty way to just get the ideas flowing. If I am at home, I prefer to use my whiteboard near my computer, or a little portable one for the couch. Just sketching out the main elements, and leaving out the detail can help you see what is going to work, and what is not.

Now some HTML

I want to actually play around with the elements at this point. Make sure I have made wise choices, if not, luckily I am not too far from that whiteboard.

Did someone say CSS?

Basic layout styles are applied next. It is starting to come together now. Well done!

Ok, it might look a little bland, and this is when I go to Photoshop. I might have had some ideas kicking around throughout for some designs, and now I can see if they are in fact what I need to make for the best user experience. Because, that is the whole reason we are in this business.

Another thing about my previous post…It was way too long.

Have you thought about your design process lately?

Just a quick hello, because I need to get working on much more interesting posts.

My name is Matt Rossi, and as it says in the header of this page, I am a Web & User-Interface Designer. That is right. I design things for the Web, and do my best to make them as usable and inviting as possible. I ran/run a small blog, ifohdesigns.com, and it does me great pleasure to get back into it.

For the past 3 years I’ve been working as such, in various fields of business. It wasn’t until about a month ago did I realize it was time for me to strike out on my own and go for the American Dream. Being your own boss.

What can you expect from this blog?

I will mainly be focusing on the user experience side of things including, but not limited to:

• UI design tips
• CSS
• HTML (HTML 5…and so on, there are some “X”’s in there too, I think)
• JQuery

I will also be writing about my adventures/pitfalls in freelancing, and am always open to discussion and criticism, which I may ask for when stuck on some projects.

Enough for tonight. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you decide to stick around.

Oh, and Happy October.