How to indicate that specific sections of a page can be swiped

There are a lot of mobile UI design patterns that support swiping, and these are designed based on interaction and animation that indicate the behaviour. Examples include the ‘swipe/pull down to refresh’ and also the page flip when users s…
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When you have a side panel open, and the user scrolls, is it better to leave it open or to auto close the panel?

Say you have a side menu that opens from one side after clicking on an icon in a website. This menu would take more than 40% of the view-port in the horizontal direction.
If the user scrolls down, is it better to let the user click on the…
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Why Greek letter mu (μ) on European keyboards?

AZERTY-style keyboard layouts in France and Belgium have a dedicated key for typing the Greek small letter mu (μ). While not having a dedicated (μ) key, keyboards in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden provide a means to…
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Alternative questions to the Net Promoter Score or better metrics of User Experience

There are some very detailed discussions about the validity of the NPS. But the take home message is that you can’t really improve what you can’t measure effectively, so it is still important to come up with metrics (preferably from a numb…
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Why are most game controllers left handed?

Most game controllers (game pads, joysticks) use the left hand for directional control, which is also the task that requires the most dexterity. Most people are right handed, but end up using their favoured hand for button mashing.
Back i…
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"New" vs. "Create"

For buttons that initiate some content creation interaction, which label is better:
“New X” or “Create X”? Are there specific uses that in which one is better than the other?
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Standard headshot and thumbnail dimensions and width/height ratio

Is there a preferred size and ratio for images that represent a headshot/mugshot of a person? I have a project where we’re taking photos of people, generate thumbnails, store the thumbnails and print them on identification cards. Those c…
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Best UI for horoscope/zodiac Android app

download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
I want to make horoscope Android applicaiton, and I’m not sure which navigation I should use.
I’m thinking about these two options:
ListView/GridView with two …
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Best practices for address item ordering for user forms

We are currently re-designing a profile portion for user signup to our Saas, and was looking for some insight into best practices for ordering location information.
Right now our currently ordering metric is:
– Address (Free Text Field)
-…
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Is there an accepted or commonly applied UX practitioner’s code of conduct/ethics guide?

Often in our line of work we are asked to do things that do not serve the user’s benefit and are not in line with UX design best practices, but is there a specific line that we should not cross as UX professionals, or something that we can…