A good overview of contextual user interfaces, including several examples.

A mildly entertaining JoelOnSoftware forum discussion on Logon versus Login. Which do you prefer?

There’s an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone. –Bjarne Stroustrup

Yahoo has a web UI design patterns library, giving names (and examples) to do dozens of usable things.

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience. –Mitch Hedberg

Which is more important, actual or perceived performance? I especially liked the referenced data showing how people may perceive performance.

Jakob Nielsen’s Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes. Read it.

It’s funny but I never realized how much Firefox’s non-native widgets bugged me. I installed the Grand Paradiso (beta 5) last week, and was surprised by how much smoother it felt. It’s a combination of things: it’s faster, the XUL widgets behave better, and many of the in-page widgets use the Gnome native controls¹.

1. Textareas don’t seem to use native widgets, however ↩

A great discussion about the usability of 3-column layouts.

Here’s a pointless Facebook error message:

There are a few things wrong with the text, not to mention an uninspired layout. The prose is redundant and fails to present a clear alternative. Worse, though, I see this type of message regularly while putzing around with Facebook. Can you imagine a Google page returning: search unavailable, maybe you can try again later?

My 0×02 bits? The best error message is the one that you never need to show.