|
|
|
Why put usability first
In web design, when you think about flow we mostly mean "task flows" and "flow charts" but there's another kind of flow that you have to consider. It's that feeling of total absorption when you're engaged in something you like to do and are not disturbed by frustration or boredom caused by steps that are misdirecting, too long or overly taxing.
Flow, as a mental state, was primarily introduced by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and is characterized by a distorted sense of time, a low level of self-consciousness, and total engagement in the task at hand. Program developers might feel it when they're working on their code, gamers do feel it when playing Guitar Hero III, Christopher Cross felt it when he went sailing. For design artists, it's exactly the feeling we hope to promote in the people who use our sites.
How do we create sites that promote that experience? First, it begins with a page that sorts out a serious problem and is complicated enough to require a certain degree of learning by people who use it. The goal should not certainly be to create a simple site. The purpose should be to develop a page that feels painless to navigate no matter how complex it actually is. However, you might be thinking, hasn't there been a simplicity trend in web design in the last few years? Yes, but there's a learning curve for all the sites that want to sort out a difficult task. We shouldn't mix simplicity with a desire to avoid needless complexity.
The trick to make the complex appear friendly is to consider flow in your structure. By creating a page that is fluid and intuitive and engages flow, you make people get familiar with it more quickly, reduce the chance that existing users get bored your site and change to another and produce users that evangelize your page to other people. That way you will get more users, growing activity, and bigger awareness of your page.
The first point in designing for flow is to set certain goals for your users. It's vital to develop both an overarching goal and smaller, phased goals. Goals help people understand what is their final destination and what steps they'll take to arrive there.
 Standard Toolbar Icons
Science Toolbar Icons
|
ArtIcons Pro can find, extract, edit and create Windows icons in color depths up to 16 million colors. Import and export icon images, create and handle icon libraries. It supports the new icon format introduced in Windows XP (8-bit transparency). Download it
|
|
IconXP can edit and create Windows icons in color depths up to 32-bit True Color. It supports the new icon format introduced in Windows XP (8-bit transparency). You can customize desktop and folder icons. Download it
|
|
Any to Icon allows you to convert multiple BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, WBMP and WMF images to Windows icons in one action. It also breaks down entire icon libraries into individual icons. You can change color resolution and size to create customized icons. Download it
|
|
IconUtils is a complete icon and cursor solution. IconUtils package can edit icons and cursors, manage icon and cursor libraries, convert icons into images (in various graphic formats) and vice versa, customize Windows desktop and folder icons. Download it
|
|
Icon to Any allows you to convert Windows icons and cursors into BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, ICO, CUR, WBMP and RC formats. It has a wizard interface. It's simple to process multiple files at once. You can find icons and make images for use on Web pages. Download it
|
|
ArtCursors allows you to edit Windows cursors in color depths up to 16 million colors. You also can search files and folders for cursors, import and export cursor images and create cursor libraries for better and more efficient storage. Download it
|
|
AhaView supports all popular graphic formats, including JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, ICO, CUR, ANI, WBMP. You can browse images in thumbnail mode, view pictures full screen with zooming features, convert images to JPEG, PNG, BMP formats and manage files. Download it
|
|
CustomIcons is an ultimate tool for customizing the icons on you desktop, in Windows Start menu and many other locations. Using CustomIcons you can easily replace default Windows icons with the ones to your choice. Download it
|
..............................................................................
|
|
Copyright © 2000-2022 Aha-Soft. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
