The devil in the detail: small but significant interface touches

They say that God / the devil is in the details and, when it comes to user interface design, I think they may just be right. The difference between a functional but uninspiring product and a product which is a joy to use is so often in the smallest, sometime almost imperceptible, touches - something which Apple understands only too well and has built much of its recent success on. Below are five example of tiny interfaces touches which make all the difference in the user experience of a product. Anyone got any other favourites?

Dynamic iCal icon



This definitely falls into the 'so subtle you might miss it' category. So used was I to the dumb/static icons of the Windows desktop that I initially failed to notice that the Calendar icon on my iPhone was updating every day to show the correct date. Such a simple thing but once I'd spotted it, I no longer had to open the app to check the current date - a real time-saver. I then spotted that the same functionality was present in the iCal dock icon in Leopard (but not, alas, in previous versions of OS X). Microsoft take note.


iPhone real-world physics



The discrete application of real-world physics to the iPhone interface is one of the things which makes it such a joy to use; pages bounce, icons wobble, emails fold up and disappear into the trash can. It's the visual design equivalent of haptic technology (e.g. force feedback) which reassures the users that their actions are having an effect on the objects they're interacting with; something the PC desktop has historically been so terrible at (e.g. "I think I clicked on it but nothing seems to be happening. I'll click on it again. Oh shit, now two of the things have opened...")


Blippr 'characters remaining' progress bar



The 'characters remaining' countdown is, in and of itself, a neat interface innovation and has now become a standard on mobile phones and microblogging services. However, it is Blippr's visual representation of this by means of a lowly progress bar which recently caught my eye on the basis that it's easier for the brain to absorb this information in peripheral vision when it's visually represented.


Wisia image suggest from Google Images



The thing that impressed me most about new Q&A service Wisia was not the wisdom of their particular crowd (who seem about as wise as most internet communities do in aggregate - i.e. not very), but the feature which automatically pulls in images from Google Image Search for you to associate with your answer. They offer the same functionality when choosing your profile picture so, in my instance, my avatar was automatically suggested as one of the top Google Image results for my chosen username (fabricoffolly).


TripSay profile completion ranking



Incentivising users to complete profile information is a perennial challenge for site owners keen to glean as much demographic data as possible. Many opt for a progress bar which reassures users they're nearly done, others promise greater functionality for those with completed profiles. TripSay has come up with a simple but ingenious approach to this problem which is to show your profile completion status relative to other users (i.e. as a ranking), informing me that "8360 people have rated more places than you" and tempting me to rate more with the knowledge that I could "Rate just one more place to advance to #7810".