When you have to fill up the rest of the page

I’ve noticed that I often run into the same problem in many projects I work on: It seems like I always end up having that extra space that I have nothing to fill up with.
It usually ends up with an additional space that I h…
Are "print" links needed on a website?

What do you think, does a website for a general audience need a “print” link or will the users know how to print the page for themselves (using the browser controls)?
Some background:
It’s not a content-heavy website, so
…
Is a confirm email address field still considered a best practice?

Having an input field to confirm an email address is pretty standard. However, I would like to know if using a confirm email address field still considered a best practice.
The Email and Confirm email input controls account …
Save vs Save & Exit

We’re designing an application for creating personalized photo books through a Flash-based interface. When the application first opens, we display a dialog encouraging the user to give their project a name (if they don’t, it …
Search Vs. Filter- what is the difference

From the view of the user (not from a technical view)- What are the main differences between searching and filtering data, in order to get specific results?
i.e.- in both cases the user is looking for specific data so why sh…
Are ‘share this’ buttons really effective?

On a lot of websites (especially blogs), we find ‘share it’ buttons like this –> .
Personally, I never used one. If I want to share something online, I copy the link and manually share it through SNS or IM. Other people cl…
Are ‘share this’ buttons really effective?

On a lot of websites (especially blogs), we find ‘share it’ buttons like this –> .
Personally, I never used one. If I want to share something online, I copy the link and manually share it through SNS or IM. Other people cl…
External links: Whether & how to distinguishing them from internal links, and to open them

How do other IAs/UXD’s treat external links & what are the perceived pros/cons of different options. Specifically looking for recommendations on:
whether & how to visually distinguish external links from internal li…
Should alert boxes be avoided at any cost?

Thanks to Gabriel Svennerberg and Sam K for this one – raised in a comment here.
I was fairly casual about alert boxes until a run of user tests where an alert box was put up to warn learners that if they left an online cou…