September 18, 2009

Zune HD: Effective Use of Animations

Microsoft’s new Zune HD uses animations to make it obvious what exactly is happening with its on-screen elements and to convey the navigation model, but also to create an aesthetically pleasing user interface. Check out this movie:

Here’s another movie.

Truly great and very effective animations help make the best possible use of the Zune’s limited screen space. Your move, Apple.

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If you liked this, you'll love my book. It's called Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web. In it, I cover the whole design process, from user research and sketching to usability tests and A/B testing. But I don't just explain techniques, I also talk about concepts like discoverability, when and how to use animations, what we can learn from video games, and much more.

You can find out more about it (and order it directly, printed or as a DRM-free ebook) on the Pragmatic Programmers website.