American peculiarities

Having just returned with wife and kids from a trip to Florida (to soak up a bit of sun, dolphins and alligators), I thought about a few things on the plane. First off: To lock a public restroom you just press a button on the doorknob. Pretty cool and easy to figure out. But why don't I get any indication that it's actually locked? In most places in Europe a small red tab will show itself on the door somewhere to indicate it is occupied. I felt quite insecure and certain that someone would barge in on me anytime.

Another observation: I was a bit worried that the car we rented didn't have GPS navigation. As it turned out, I needn't worry at all (interesting that we've come to this: in the good old days (10 years ago - i.e. pre-Garmin and TomTom) I was never worried that I should get lost). We got a map from Hertz which basically just showed the major roads in Miami (something like this)- and I thought that we would be totally lost because details on the map where sketchy at best. All roads where clearly marked and even showed numbers corresponding to the map. How is that for user friendly?

On a side note which has got nothing to do with user friendliness but everything with user experience: Our hotel in Miami, was quite nice, as was our somewhat cheaper stay in Sarasota in Holiday Inn on Lido Beach. The more expensive Miami hotel charged for internet access!!! $5 an hour!!! When will these people learn? I never make phone calls from the hotel room because they over-charge. And now this. If I was travelling on business I might have considered signing up, but frankly this hotel was not a business venue (as far as I could tell from the location). Ridiculous - I just waited for the next (and cheaper, mind you!) hotel where internet access was free.

PS: I finally got my hands on a touch screen device for own personal abuse (iPod touch). Will get back to you on that.

Chrome - re-visited ...

One year has passed since I downloaded Google Chrome to check it out. It's now my default browser. Can't really explain why, as most of the features (if not all) are in IE also. It just seems faster. Some of the reason is because they don't steal screen real estate at the top (or bottom) of my screen as much as IE does. And I love the ability to search directly from the adress bar (although you can also do this in IE). Interesting note on this: I tested a client app that was a Document Management System and we'd made one example using this approach (i.e a more or less blank screen and then an adress/search bar at the top. Only one of 8 users found out how it worked unprompted. The rest where stuck in the old "filing cabinet mode". Would be fun to test this approach in 2 or 3 years.

User behaviour when taking photos

Have you noticed how people now a days always hold the camera in front of their face (between 20-40 cm)? On our recent summer holiday in France a friendly person offered to take a picture of the whole family (normal photographer included), and he did exactly that. Problem is, we've got a digital SLR camera, which means that you can only view the picture on the screen on the back AFTER the photo has been captured. He never even thought of putting his eye to the finder on top of the camera. 10 years ago this would never have happend. Interesting how our habits change due to usage patterns without us even noticing.

Blackberry

I've had the mixed pleasure of being the user of a Blackberry the last 9 months. What a piece of crap! The menus suck and seems like in the "good old" WordPerfect days to just have grown and grown without ever being completely re-thought.

The browser works pretty decently I must admit, especially on sites built for mobile devices, and at least as good (if not better) than most of the Nokia's I've tried out.

Best of all when you read your mail, you don't always get everything in the mail (if it's too big), and you can the choose between "more" ... and "more all". "More all" - c'mon!

Although - other phones could learn from the watch feature which actually gives you the opportunity to use it as an alarm clock (you can choose to use the alarm time on weekdays, or everyday - which means that you don't have to set it every night - pretty smart).

And then there's the keyboard - what can I say? I don't even have "fat" fingers (many will testify to this), but find it close to impossible to use.

In conclusion: If ever I get the choice, the blackberry will be pretty far down the list of preferred mobile devices. Although the Pre looks "kinda slick"

Touch pad vs. Track stick

The household got a new PC (or rather laptop), because I got a new job where security is important and we therefore only have desktop PC's. Anyway - we ended up buying a Compaq Presario A900 with a 17" screen. It's really cool. BUT - there is no track stick (the small "joystick" between letters G, H and B introduced by IBM back in the day). I knew that I preferred this, but hadn't realized how hard it is to go without. I've now disabled the "click" feature on the touch pad so I don't accidently click something (which happens quite a lot - I'm beginning to fear Parkinsson disease). I also mark areas up without wanting to, when just writing (because I rest my hands down close to the touch pad). I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon because my 8 year old son clearly prefers the touch pad (he's even a bit angry that I disabled the click-feature on the pad itself). But then again - it's not like he's writing anything much (other than URL's to gaming sites) - so that may be the reason. I'm sure tons of usability testing has gone into the design of this - so why do I have trouble with it (and not a touch screen like the iPhone)? Really annoying.

The simplicity debate ...

There's a debate running around the UX community initiated by Don Norman (typical of him really - and quite refreshing) that our long stated goal that simple is better may not be quite true. Joshua Porter's Simplicity: The Ultimate Sophistication (a repsonse to the article by Don Norman) argues back and forth about Don Normans claims that Simplicity is Highly Overrated because "the truth is, simplicity does not sell." Joshua's piece is well argumented and he gets around the subject.

But what I'm missing in this is the price tag. Joshua Porter has an example where price is factored in, but it isn't really conclusive of anything. I would argue (as does Joshua Porter to some degree) that you cannot discuss an either or scenario. It is a combination of several factors (including price) that triggers a buying decision. Other factors are features and design (as well as support - which may be considered a feature).

Some of us actually want to live with less features if it means that products are easier to use. An example: Last year our family decided that we needed our own GPS navigation device (instead of borrowing from family and friends). As per usual when such buying decisons are to be made I'm the one doing it (as my wife really is not that fascinated by the wonders of modern technology). The specification ended up something like this (abbreviated list):
+European coverage (because it should be used for holidays)
+User friendly software
+Nice design of hardware
+Could have TMC (but not crucial)
-No camera
-No MP3 player
-No external antennas
Note that there were several things we didn't want: Camera (we have a perfectly well functioning digital camera that at any given time will take much better pictures than any old device designed for something else (GPS or mobile phone). Same goes for MP3 player. It was important that we could easily enter an adress and get an accurate result quickly. And that was basically what we wanted from it. My wife usually waits about 6 months when new gadgets enter our home before venturing into the user domain. And if the experience is crappy she never goes there again (and I'm left to do all the operations on said gadget). Apart from these features that should be there I had placed an upper limit on what we wanted to pay (maybe because I'm a cheapskate).

To conclude: We (in our family) often forego features hoping to ensure better adoption. And I don't think we're all that special (except of course that given my work field I may be more conscious of this). But then again as Don Norman says: A majority will probably choose features over simplicity

PS: I almost forgot - before we got our media center we had a NAD stereo which I do believe is famed for their no-nonsense approach to features (i.e. there really are none). Also my wrist watch which an IWC Portofino hand wound is completely devoid of features (apart from telling time, of course).

The return of Jakob

Finally - after many not so precise and meaningfull alertboxes - Jakob Nielsen has turned out two in a row which offers some of the "old" provocative observations and alerts, but also some very good advice on designing user interfaces that we sometimes tend to forget in our (well, at least my own) search of new and cool looking application design. I wonder what Jakob thinks of Joost?

Check out the alertbox

Mental model: Shifting gears

I got my new bike a week ago (and all of a sudden spring is very, very far away). As mentioned in the previous post my old bike is actually very old. That means that shifting gears were done using two levers positioned on the down tube. My new bike (OK - so I took it for a small ride even though I shouldn't - considering the weather) has the shifting mechanism built into the handbrakes which is really cool. The right one shifts on the rear derailleur and the left one handles the front. Just like my old bike.

To get to the user experience point of view: There are two levers on each handbrake, one for shifting down and another for shifting up. You press them inwards to trigger the shift. I had no problems using the one for the rear derailleur; I shifted down and up like I never tried anything else. Piece of cake. But my left handbrake was obviously broken - I couldn't get it to shift up on the big chain ring. Until I tried the other lever (the one shifting to a higher gear on the left).

My "problem" is this: I correlated the shifting mechanism with the gears: Move this lever and you shift to a higher gear; move the other to shift to a lower gear. Basically they work just like the old ones - pull the left one for a lower gear, pull the right one for a higher one.

So why would I all of a sudden be confused by this? My guess is that with the old ones the mechanism was quite obvious - it just pulled the cable for the derailleur. And I knew that pulling the cable for the rear would get me a lower gear, whereas pulling the cable for the front would get me a higher gear. Now the mechanism is all wrapped up and hidden from view and I can't see how the cable is pulled. If this should get real "nerdy" I would say that this is usability heuristic #1: Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

I do believe, though, that they real key here is this: My mental model wasn't matched with how things worked. I'm pretty sure that I'll get the hang of it when spring comes and I can actually take the bike ot for some rides (instead of driving my wife crazy with frustration and the kids with laughter when riding it around in the living room).

At last: PS2 in the house

Finally! My 6 year old wanted a Play Station for Christmas - and of course he got it. Being an old (and misery) dude I never wanted to buy one because I know myself good enough to know that I couldn't argue the case of spending the money and then using it so little as would be the case (I'm way past the time (untill he gets a real intersting game) where I spent whole nights shooting monsters in dungeons).

I was through serious considerations of going for the X-Box (because I could use the Media Center Extension on it, and he would therefore be able access the favorite recorded kids-shows from the living room), but ended up with the PS/2 because he needs to get into the gaming world first.

We've had some serious football games (FIFA 07) and it's really amazing to watch his approach to learning the system. There's absolutely no reading (or asking for that matter) of manuals. It's pure trial and error. And it seems to work: he already beats me half the time. I'm not quite sure how much is inteded and how much is pure luck that he hits the right buttons at the right time (he hits the buttons a lot!!!). Anyway: Quite impressive user interfaces that are easy to learn; the kid of 6 (who can't really read yet) navigates effortlessly through them. And even more funny: much easier to watch DVD's on than our regular (low price) DVD player residing in the little girls room.

A little bit about Microsoft...

I just went to a 2 day seminar. Microsoft were there and they had quite a lot of PC's running Vista and Office 2007. Man! - That is just really cool. I tried it out some and did not see too many new features - but old ones wrapped in new skin. It's amazing, really, what it did; it just felt like a whole new (and better) experience. I'm looking forward to running this on a regular basis.

On another Microsoft note: Last night I updated my Media Center PC with the newest Rollup 2 update and another patch as well. After this my Live TV was blurry (to say the least); all of a sudden I had this feeling that I had been drinking heavily before turning on the TV. Not very pleasant - especially since I did not get to enjoy the drinking part. I used Microsoft's Update feature (where you're directed to a website and your PC is checked) - a very nice and userfriendly feature. Kudos to the guys from Redmond. I can even see what it has installed (nice long list) - BUT: why don't I get the option of uninstalling (which I really needed after the blurry TV images)? I had to go into the control panel and choose remove programs and then after some looking I found the option to tick of so I could actually see the updates and not only the programs. I somehow have some difficulty seeing my old mom doing this. Actually I know that her local tech-support (me) would get a call. This could have been easily remedied if I had the option of removing the stuff from the Windows Update page (I'm not sure what this involves in programming, though!).

MP3 player usability

I just bought me an MP3 player, The Sandisk Sansa e260. Beautiful - and there's no manual. And no need for one either. Only thing a bit troublesome is the menu-wheel which can be a bit tough to turn and is raised which makes it harder to press the other buttons. But it glows a cool blue when you turn the thing on - completely useless, but the never the less a feature I really love (I can't explain it - there's just something about blue light ;-)).

And to top it off: I plugged it into my Media Centre PC et voilá: New device found - want to synchonize? And then I could just select the music I wanted to transfer to the device. And no hassles with iTunes and strange proprietary formats (other than Microsofts that is).

More real life intervention

I recently moved to a new house. All is nice, but there is one thing that is very strange. The outside handle on the garden door is mounted vertically instead of the usual horizontal. It took me a while to figure out that the door would not be able to open if it was placed in the "normal" way. I can live with it - but it bothers me a bit. What's interesting here is that my wife hadn't even noticed - she just opens the door ;-)

I'm not even sure what the usability learning points in this is - except that even though it is not the standard we can still figure it out. So that means that you will accept strange interaction schemes just because you use it often. This is leading into the "theory" of inductive vs. deductive user interfaces.

Toilet user experience ...

Recently I attended a meeting in a major Danish company. Before the meeting I had to go to the bathroom and the only one near by was equipped for handicapped people (e.g. wheel chair users). The door was wide, there was plenty of room next to the toilet to park the wheel chair - BUT the toilet paper holder was placed on the wall approximately ½ meter behind the toilet. What's with that? Do they really imagine that someone using a wheel chair can twist themselves to reach there?

To top of the experience: When I washed my hands (as my mother has taught me) it felt strangely sticky. It wasn't until I read from the soap dispenser (there were two identical ones - one on each side of the sink) that I realised that I was washing my hands using hand moisturizing cream - the soap was in the other dispenser. The dispensers were labeledd - but the labels were so small that even ants would find them hard to read.