you sick liiitle monkeeeey!

Today, I tried to edit my Blogger job title box and got this error when I tried to save:

Why this very bad design: this error only serves to frustrate the user because it does nothing except to inform him that he basically effed up.

This is bad design because it doesn’t offer a visible remedy. The user has no idea what the maximum length is nor was he informed ahead of time that a limit exists. Only by trimming away the text by trial and error can he get back under limit and save his changes.
If this form was designed properly, a user would NEVER be able to see this error. Let’s assume that the maxlength Blogger allows is 50 characters. Firstly, there should be a message under the input box that say “max characters: 50″, apprising the user ahead of time of the character limit. Then in the HTML, the input should have a MAXLENGTH=”50″, as a double reinforcement. The box will simply stop accepting input after the user types 50 characters.

Lastly, although maybe overkill, might be a Javascript “character remaining” countdown display.

Synopsis:

Problem: invisible character limit error — user has no idea how much text he is allowed to enter
Solution: tell the user what the character limit is, and have a MAXLENGTH in the HTML

This is a very simple interface design solution, but somehow Blogger has missed it.

Found this while researching door hangers for a client. WTF is a baby doing down here in the payment section?

a cheapy ad I for Patalk. The blistering effect on the button wasn’t my idea :)
Drawn in Illustrator CS2, animated in ImageReady.

Christmas Non-denominational celebration of religious significance greeting card.

MWW Group is an ad agency in NJ I did some work for last year. This is one of their holiday greeting cards. I supplied the concept and storyboards, their designer provided the static vector illustrations. I put it all together and did the fireplace lighting effects (randomized), animation design, and dynamic snow (reload and see for yourself — it’s always different!). Shape tweening the ribbon and making it look like it was untying was a little difficult.

click here for finished Flash card

The original storyboards called for more interactivity, but after seeing a screen test, the client decided to strip it all out and make it non-interactive so even computer-phobes can see this.