Each pattern idea has a description of the design (sometimes including a video demo) followed by the best practices information to help you design that next interface with great user experience (UX) in mind.

• What Problem Does The Pattern Solve?
• When to Use It?
• How to Use It?
• Why to Use It?
• Accessibility
• Sources
• Useful Links (to additional information)
• Code Examples
• Where is it Used? (actual real world web examples are typically provided)
• Comments (about the design)

By asking each other how we would define a webinar from a podcast, one of us turned around to the computer and looked up an (un)official definition of podcast. The definition contained a word that none of us heard before: episodically. Of course, that got us a bit amused. We in turn started to use different variations of the word as discussed how we would leverage webinars vs podcasts. It was good laugh.

In the end we concluded to put this PowerPoint/audio file in our “On Demand” webinars category. Episodically releasing podcasts are yet to come.

In the recent weeks, I’ve been working on an interface design for an upcoming project. The design will be released to the international community in the coming months–which has caused an interesting dialog between the project’s team members.

The interface is meant for operators to control the  high and low productivity, network structure, as well as some other features.  The interesting points made amongst the team members were focused on the high/low productivity controls:

• How should we represent the high control and the low control? Should there be a plus and a minus in their corresponding graphic?
• Where should the high control and low control be in relation to the productivity indication screen?

Decision 1: Use an up arrow for the high control; use a down arrow for the low control. Put a + in the middle of the up arrow and a – in the down arrow.

Decision 2: [This is the fun one.] There is no proper answer for where the high/low arrows should be in relation to the productivity indication screen. Or is there?

Concept A included the down arrow on the left of the indication screen and the up arrow on the right of the screen. This may seem backwards to you right-handers out there like  it did for me., but the left handers in the US and some of my co-workers in the UK (not sure if they were left-handed, right-handed, or both) chimed in that they liked it, it was easy for them to use.

–Scrap Concept A, could cause too many user frustrations.

Concept B included going with both of the arrows on one side of the indication screen; the up arrow on top, the down arrow beneath the up arrow.  Everyone in the team agreed that it made sense — what goes up is above what goes down.  Now only to choose what side of the indication screen the arrows should be on; left or right.  The overall design of the interface panel dictated that. It was wherever there was the most available room for the arrows to be next the indication screen.

–Concept B approved; put the arrow buttons to the right of the indication screen where there was the most graphical real estate.

Do you think Concept A should have been chosen? Think it was the best decision to choose Concept B? Or do you have a different suggestion? Take the poll: