uselog.com | the product usability weblog

Live webcast of Design for Usability Symposium

2009-11-10T13:42:00.008+01:00

The Design for Usability Symposium of November 12 will be viewable via a live webcast. It will remain online afterwards as well. The symposium starts at 9:30 am CET (GMT+1).

Your chance to see inspiring presentations by Gerrit van der Veer (President of ACM SIGCHI), Cees van Dok (frog design Europe), Abbie Vanhoutte and Robert Eijlander (Océ) and yours truly.

The symposium is fully booked, though you can still sign up and try your luck on the standby list or watch the webcast in an adjoining room if everyone does show up.

Comparing iPhone and Android application management

2009-11-03T20:52:00.000+01:00

An intriguing comparison of the iPhone and Android UI paradigm for application access and management, by Luke Wroblewski. In the end, the within-product consistency that the iPhone offers seems to nudge him to a judgement somewhat in favor of the iPhone.

I can’t help but wonder if the singular model Apple employs makes managing a set of mobile applications easier. Every app is accessed the same way and only open apps are running. Sure this is limiting in some ways (customization options, background processes) but empowering in others (clarity, control) at the same time.

PC owner, but actually an Apple fanboy

2009-10-30T08:27:00.013+01:00

Saw the guy in the picture above on the train during my commute. He covered the original logo on what appears to be a Dell XPS laptop with an Apple sticker. Imagine being the product manager for that Dell laptop and then running into this guy. No fun. If people put stickers of your brand's logo over that of others to create the (very poor) illusion that they have a different product than they actually have, you are doing a good job. Apple: congratulations. If people put stickers of another brand's logo over yours, you should worry. They've got no love for you. Dell: maybe you should look into love in people-product relationships?

I think that what I saw is not an incident. There are numerous applications that let you make your Windows PC desktop look like a Mac (ok, guilty myself, back in 1998...). Ever seen people trying make MacOS look like Windows XP? Somehow it reminds me a little of this absurdity.

(Oh, and if you think the picture is of poor quality, that's because of the crappy camera on my Apple iPhone 3G ;-))

UPDATE

Did a small twitter search on 'Dell laptop Apple sticker'. Putting Apple stickers on Dell laptops seems to happen more often than I thought...

Why tablet PCs have failed and will fail

2009-10-25T10:56:00.006+01:00

In this article in Design Issues design historian Paul Atkinson presents an insightful, amusing and at times depressing analysis of the rise and fall of the tablet computer, from the early pen computing of the RAND tablet, via the Momenta Pentop, to the inevitable Apple Newton Messagepad.

Technological or social challenge?
An interesting aspect of the article is that Atkinson analyses the issue from both the social constructivist and the technology determinism perspective. Social constructivists suggest that a complex range of factors are involved in the success of products, and that social factors have precedence in the process. From the technology determinist's perspective "technology and technological change are independent factors, impacting on society from the outside of that society—and that technology changes as a matter of course, following its own path, and in doing so changes the society on which it impacts."

The technological challenges have been solved...
In the end Atkinson suggests that the technological challenges that hampered early tablet PCs have been overcome, and it might be more of an issue of user acceptance than of technological shortcomings that stood and stand in the way of tablet-PC-world-dominance. Users may not want the complexity of the desktop or laptop personal computer in a handheld device and may prefer keyboard input over writing on a screen, especially because - for now - writing on paper is still considered far more comfortable than writing on a screen. So the questions that the history of the tablet PC highlights are: "Can we do it?" versus "Should we do it?"

Reference
Paul Atkinson Paul (2008) A Bitter Pill to Swallow: The Rise and Fall of the Tablet Computer. Design Issues, Autumn 2008, Vol. 24, No. 4, Pages 3-25, MIT Press.

[photo: CNET]

Nov.12: Design for Usability Symposium

2009-10-12T17:54:00.007+02:00

On November 12, World Usability Day, the Design for Usability symposium on usability for professional and consumer electronics will take place in Delft. The event targets usability and design professionals as well as academics. The morning program features state of the art lectures on usability and design:

Gerrit van der Veer (president of CHI): Designing for a moving target - from functionality to usability to experience
Cees van Dok (creative director frog design Europe): The challenges in interaction design for consumer and professional electronics
Abbie Vanhoutte and Robert Eijlander (Océ-Technologies): Usability in a productive print environment
And, well ehh, me, with: No silver bullet - why making usable consumer electronics requires organizational change

The afternoon program consists of workshops for usability specialists, designers, and product developers, with subjects such as: managing design for usability in practice, advanced user research and evaluation, guiding and changing user behavior, and small usability techniques.

Participation in the symposium is free of charge, but tickets and especially workshop slots are limited, so registration is required. The event takes place at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of TU Delft, in The Netherlands.

User-centered jigsaw provides background knowledge

2009-10-07T14:40:00.011+02:00

When I buy tools, usually I don't buy the cheapest ones, because I like them to stay in one piece for a number of years. But when buying this Black & Decker jigsaw I did not only get a product that seems durable (so far, at least), but also one where considerable thought has been put into making a user-centered design.

I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed (nudge nudge, wink wink), but I don't know by heart at what speed a jigsaw should be set for each type of material. Hence my liking of the speed dial on my new jigsaw (picture above) that lets you choose based on the material (wood, plywood, plastic, etc), but also lists the speed.

The second remarkable aspect of the jigsaw were its blades. At first I was angry, because I thought my saw lacked the blades that were supposed to come with it. Then I looked inside the manual and saw that the blades were actually in a compartment on the saw (see picture below). Like the speed dial, the blades are labeled with the material for which they are intended. I should point out that I was a bit annoyed that I could not find the blades to begin with, but that might be fixed by adding a usecue or a temporary label to the compartment for the blades. And as a colleague remarked: it remains to be seen whether the labels on the blades will stay on when you use them. So far they did, but I've only used the saw once.

And the hard-core do-it-yourself types might find it pathetic that I need all this extra information, but to me this whole product shouted: "Hey, we are Black & Decker, and we have put thought into how you will use this."

10 useful usability findings and guidelines

2009-09-24T12:34:00.003+02:00

Smashing magazine has a good compilation of (web) usability findings and guidelines, among which "Most users do not scroll" and "Blue is the best color for links". If you're on top of the subject it's not particularly new information, but its written down accessibly and attractively and it's very actionable information.

Placebo buttons provide the illusion of control

2009-09-22T09:14:00.004+02:00

Placebo buttons are 'false positives'. They're design elements that look like controls, but that actually don't do anything except to give you the illusion that you are in control. Both the NextNature and Design With Intent blog provide an interesting discussion on the subject. See also this 2004 story in the NYT on placebo buttons at pedestrian crossings.

[picture from NextNature]

Very clear Chinese sign

2009-09-17T14:21:00.004+02:00

In contrast to the somewhat opaque sign in the Beijing subway of the previous post, this sign - found in what is supposedly one of Beijing's Beijing duck restaurants - is very, very clear: no shit.

While on the subject of signage, be sure to check out this English/Welsh sign, and the background story on how it came about. (Thanks to 'anonymous' for posting it in the comments of the previous post).

General information sign

2009-09-14T10:15:00.003+02:00

Ran into this little gem of a sign while riding the Beijing subway.

Summer break

2009-08-18T20:04:00.000+02:00

I will be taking a break from uselog for the coming month. See you on September 14th.

Study: Expected versus experienced usability

2009-08-13T11:40:00.005+02:00

Today I presented, on behalf of my fellow authors and myself, an exploratory study on expected and experienced usability in electronic consumer products at the IEA2009 congress on ergonomics. You can download the full paper (pdf), or read a summary below. The study shows that expected and experienced usability can differ significantly under the influence of usage, how expected usability can be influenced, and what the effect of poor experienced usability can be.

Aim
In the paper we explore why consumers do not seem to have a very pre-purchase distinct preference for usable products, even though these would probably satisfy them more after purchase. We wanted to explore the hypothesis that this might be due to the fact that it might be to hard for consumers to judge before use whether a product is usable or not. We call the pre-use assumptions that people have about the usability of a product expected usability. Experienced usability is the opinion people have about usability after use. We wanted to explore what product properties influence expected usability, and whether and when there is a difference between expected and experienced usability. And what the consequences of that are.

Method
To study this, we showed people a number of consumer electronics products (1 navigation system, 3 alarm clocks), asked for their opinions through a questionnaire and an in-depth interview, gave them the product to use at home for two weeks, and then reassessed their opinions. So contrary to most studies on this issue people got to use the product for an extended amount of time and in their own environment.

What you see may not be what you get
The results showed that people's assessment of product usability can differ significantly before and after use. Expected usability was influenced by brand, price, styling and functional form. In addition, indications were found that expected usability can be influenced by marketing efforts, previous experiences with similar products, and opinions of other people. It was shown that product appearance (aesthetics and functional form) can be a misleading predictor for experienced usability. In other words: what you see may not be what you get.

Price as an indicator for experienced usability
For one of the alarm clocks a significant gap was found between expected and experienced usability. After having used this product the participants indicated they were considerably less willing to pay the indicated retail price. As one of the participants put it: "I would not use this alarm clock even if I would get it for free!" They seemed to use the price they were willing to pay as an expression for the poor experienced usability. These participants also rated usability as a more important product property before then after use. To paraphrase Tractinsky (2000): "When something is unusable, beauty no longer matters."

Functional form, styling and expected usability
The appearance of the product seemed to impact expected usability in two ways. The functional form aspects, such as number of buttons and screen size seemed to impact the participants' anticipations about the user interface of a product, while the styling of a product seemed to project a more general image of being easy to use or being aimed at a target group for which products need to be easy to use (children). So designers could use a products appearance to heighten expected usability. However, then the experienced usability needs to be in line with expectations, because disconfirmation of expectations is one of the triggers for customer dissatisfaction.

Reference
Kuijk, J.I. van, E.E. Preijde, E.N. Toet, H. Kanis (2009) "Expected versus experienced usability: what you see is not always what you get." IEA2009: 17th World Congress on Ergonomics, August 9-14, Beijing, China.

Upcoming usability and ergonomics conferences 2009/2010

2009-08-10T13:45:00.010+02:00

I'm currently attending the congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA2009) in Beijing, where I will be presenting a paper on 'expected versus experienced usability' (stay tuned, I'll post it thursday, after the presentation). Being here I thought was a good reason to list some of the upcoming usability and ergonomics conferences for 2009 and 2010. Enjoy!

MobileHCI09
September 15-18, 2009 - Bonn (Germany)
The 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services.

DPPI'09
October 13-16, 2009 - Compiègne (France)
The 4th International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces.

HFES 2009
October 19-23, 2009 - San Antonio (USA)
The 53rd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

DfU Symposium
November 12, 2009 - Delft (The Netherlands)
On World Usability Day 2009, the Design for Usability research project is hosting a symposium on usability in product development practice. Save the date for a whole day of engaging lectures, workshops and meeting user-centered design professionals and academics.

CHI 2010
April 10-15 April 2010 - Atlanta (USA)
The 28th conference of the ACM special interest group for Computer Human Interaction (or SIGCHI, or CHI).

UPA 2010
May 24-28, 2010 - Munich (Germany)
The annual meeting of the Usability Professionals' Association.

Redesigning the ATM interface for Wells Fargo

2009-08-06T08:57:00.007+02:00

When replacing their old ATMs with newer touchscreen models, US bank Wells Fargo hired design firm Pentagram to redesign the on-screen interface. Holger Struppek, who did the visual design on the project, has a highly illustrated story of the design process on his weblog physicalinterface.com.

In the story there's an excellent example of branding versus usability considerations when designing a user interface:

However, blue seemed to be a color that was genuinely pleasant to look at, and even though it was “off-brand”, everyone could live with it. It provided great contrast to the red Return Card button and the yellow alert boxes. During user testing, we presented participants with our color choices and got the same results: “It’s calming”, “I like the blue sky”, ... and so we went with it.

Surprisingly, Wells Fargo recently switched the UI to the current tan color scheme. I don’t know what prompted that decision, but it does bring it back in line with their brand.

[Via: Jane Pyle]

A short history of human-computer interaction, by John Carroll

2009-08-03T09:16:00.005+02:00

One of the 'founding fathers of HCI', John Carroll, has written an excellent historic overview of how the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) developed, diversified and matured. A must read, really puts some developments into perspective.

Today, largely due to the success of that endeavor, HCI is a vast and multifaceted community, loosely bound by the evolving concept of usability, and the integrating commitment to value human concerns as the primary consideration in creating interactive systems.

The future of home entertainment: we will all look like dorks

2009-07-31T08:57:00.006+02:00

Somehow Toshiba came to the conclusions that this is future of home entertainment. Or at least back in 2006 they thought so, because then they presented this helmet offering its user a full 360 degrees view of movies and video games through an integrated 40 centimeter dome-shaped screen. If this is the future of home entertainment I think that in the future we will all have really well-developed neck muscles and no self esteem. The picture is from a 2006 article in the Daily Mail, but it's so outrageous I thought it still deserved some attention.

See also:
> Movie from TV Tokyo showing the helmet (in Japanese)
> Fox News: Virtual-reality helmet gives 360-degree view

Modular mobile phone from ModuMobile

2009-07-28T12:43:00.006+02:00

An interesting new product proposition from ModuMobile: one tiny basic mobile phone module (pictured above) slides into a multitude of modules (below) that extend its functionality or just change the looks. Like Nokia's Xpress-on covers, but with built-in functionality. For now they're just selling in Israel.

See also:
> Techcrunch: Modu Comes Out Of The Woodwork With A Truly Innovative Mobile Offering

[Lower picture from TechCrunch]

Ensuring consistency and interoperability: monopolize or standardize

2009-07-20T10:09:00.012+02:00

So how is it that Microsoft Windows, with all the effort put into user experience design, does not seem to be able to measure up to Apple computers in terms of usability? There are probably many answers to that question, some of which involve stuff like creating a cult, appealing aesthetics, brand perception and legacy issues.

Owning the eco-system
One very important factor, I think, is summed up in the Mac vs PC commercial breakthrough. Mac and a therapist are trying to convince PC that it's not his fault that he's underperforming. The therapist says: "Unlike Mac, whose operating system and hardware are all made by the same people, your stuff comes from a bunch of different places. [...] Under those circumstances, who could expect everything to work together the way they should?"

This is a very interesting question, as consumer electronics are turning more and more into complex systems. The question is: how do you get all the parts of the system to work together seamlessly? I see two options: monopolize the eco-system or standardize it.

Monopolize the eco-system
If you look at the iPod/iPhone system it goes beyond just the hardware-software alignment that is mentioned in the commercial. Apple creates and/or controls the hardware (iPhone), firmware (iPhone OS), software (apps), connection software (iTunes), content delivery (iTunes Store) and software delivery (App Store). Owning the whole eco-system of a product makes it easier to create usable products as you can coordinate the application of user experience design guidelines, and deal with connectivity and interoperability issues. And though it might be argued that Apple's complete control over the eco-system might result in higher prices than an open market situation, consumers do get a better user experience for that price.

Standardize
Another way to at least get the different components of a system to work together - to ensure interoperability - is to standardize. As an industry you define a common standard. And stick to it. Think of for example USB plugs, Wifi signals, or compact cassettes. If you choose not join the standard, as Philips did with the VIDEO2000 video recording system, you run the risk of isolating your users from the rest of the system. VIDEO2000 users could not rent video tapes because they're medium was not the standard.

However, getting to a standard can be an excruciating process. It can require one system becoming so dominant it is the de facto standard (like CDs), an industry seeing a big advantage to standardization, or simply forcing it by law, as with the European Commission demanding standardization of mobile phone chargers. And even when interoperability standards have been established, some manufacturers may deliberately deviate from it - slightly - so they can claim to adhere to the standard (that's another check-mark on the box), but sales people will still have the argument that it might be better to purchase all equipment from this one manufacturer, because then you'll know for sure it will work.

Interoperability and/or UI consistency
However, standardizing for interoperability is one thing, but what about user interfaces? What if - for example - you want to run a Route66 personal navigation application on a Nokia mobile phone? Whose interface should be dominant? The Route66 interface that is optimized for navigation, and that users of Route66 software are used to, or the Nokia UI, in order not to break within-product UI consistency? I don't think you're going to solve that one through standardization. Monopolization works better. I think we can expect the TomTom iPhone App to adhere to iPhone design guidelines.

So am I in favor of monopolies? No. But I do see some bright sides.

The Touch project: exploring the possibilities of RFID

2009-07-16T09:14:00.005+02:00

At nearfield.org you'll find a weblog on nearfield communication, run by the 'Touch' research project, which investigates the possibilities for new interaction styles using near field communication (NFC). The project features an inter-disciplinary team involved in social and cultural enquiry, interaction/industrial design, rapid prototyping, software, testing and exhibitions. It is based in the Interaction Design department of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway. The project ends this year, so it will be interesting to see the end results rolling out.

Online concept evaluation in Philips' Simplicity Labs

2009-07-14T09:41:00.007+02:00

Philips Research usually does not work on the next big thing in consumer electronics, but on the next-next big thing in consumer electronics. To give you a sense of the timelines we're talking about: back in 1994 they were exploring the possibilities of the networked home in the WWICE project.

Over the past years user-involvement has become more and more important when they develop future product concepts and now Philips Research is opening up: on their SimplicityLabs website you can see, evaluate and contribute to new interaction concepts. The presentation is not extremely engaging, and some of the concepts may make you wonder: will I ever use this? But that's the idea...

Overview of digital camera user interfaces

2009-07-10T10:24:00.006+02:00

Gizmodo provides an extensive overview of the user interfaces of all major digital camera manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon and Samsung.

User interfaces matter in these cameras more than ever because they’re increasingly the major way you drill down to change settings or switch modes—rather than manually cranking a dial, like on a pro DSLR. Some are pretty good (Canon, Samsung) while some are pretty bad (Casio).

[Via Small Surfaces, which sadly fell silent after a streak of excellent posts]

When a UI paradigm reaches its limits: Office 2007

2009-07-08T09:31:00.009+02:00

In this presentation at Mix08 on the development of the Microsoft Office 2007 'ribbon' interface, Jensen Harris, design lead for the MS Office User Experience team provides an excellent example of how a UI paradigm can reach a point, where it has to be overhauled completely, because it can no longer sustain the increasing functionality of the product. In the 45 minute presentation he very openly discusses Microsoft's struggle of fitting all (new) features into the existing user interface, leading to 'interesting' UI elements such as hidden menu items, task panes and paperclips.

See also:
> Adaptive path interviews Jensen Harris about the ribbon
> No new features in Office 2007

[Via HBR blogs]

13-year old reviews the original Sony Walkman

2009-07-03T09:11:00.003+02:00

On the occasion of the 30-year anniversary of the Sony Walkman BBC's The Magazine asked 13 year old Scott Campbell to trade his iPod for the original Sony Walkman for a week, which led to a (hilarious) review, including gems like this one:

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

Earlier the simplicity of the first walkman was heralded in an article called Objects of Desire (members only) in Technology Review, which included the following quote:

"It has simplicity of use," says Logan. "You could give it to someone who's never used one before and they can use it. "

And at the time I read that, I totally agreed. Only to be proven wrong by 13-year old Scott. Back then, in the 1980's, you could give the walkman to anyone and they'd know how to use it (also because in comparison to an iPod it has way less features), but today's (younger) users lack some of the required knowledge to interact with it. Once again it turns out that there is no such thing as a usable product. It really depends on who will interact with the product, what knowledge and skills this person has, and in what kind of context the interaction takes place.

[Via Nickbaum]

Usability as sales argument for Sharp copiers

2009-07-02T13:55:00.005+02:00

In addition to Xerox - just push the green button - and Océ, who have been paying attention to the usability of their copiers and advertising that, we can now add Sharp to the 'usable copiers' list. Or at least advertised as usable. In the commercial above, the protagonist asks the following question:

Why does my company have so many different printers and copiers, all different brands, with different controls? Give me one product line with a big colorful LCD screen and common controls. [...]
And I don't wanna use one of those mini-screen keyboards! How about: a built-in keyboard?
Was that too much too ask?

Designing usable money is not nickel and dime stuff

2009-06-29T14:18:00.003+02:00

One of the perks of spending some time abroad is that you get to be naive again. You are not accustomed to the design of what you interact with in daily life, so you see new things. I've had the opportunity and pleasure of spending two months at Northwestern University's Segal Design Institute and MMM-program. And for all the things I thoroughly enjoyed in the US, I must say, it was not the design of the coins and banknotes.

What confused me about US coins
First of all, looking at the coins (pictured above) you can see that it's not very clearly indicated what the denomination of the coins is. On most of them it is printed in quite a small typeface, and in the case of the 10 cent coin it doesn't even say that it's a ten cent coin. Just 'one dime', which basically is jargon to an ignorant foreigner like me. And then there's the size. The five cent coin is bigger than the 10 cent coin (but the material looks very similar). I guess it's because traditionally the value of a coin was inherent - it should actually be worth what it represented. Once again, no biggie if you've been using it for years, but for me - the naive Dutch guy - that was pretty confusing. Especially because in the line at the counter you don't usually have lots of time to start reviewing each coin. You'll get nasty looks from the people in line behind you.

The old Dutch Guilder coins
Now, here's a range of coins that's different: the coins of the old Dutch Guilder. Sorry for the slight hint of chauvinism here, but this is just the best example of functional coin design I know. They're obviously all designed using the same design language. The designer, Bruno Ninaber van Eyben, chose to communicate the denomination of the coins using their size, material, typography and a system of lines. Note that the 10 and 5 cent coins only have vertical lines, the guilder and the quarter have horizontal and vertical lines, and the 2,5 guilder coin (rijksdaalder) has vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. I can't be sure, but I think a naive user would have less trouble with these coins than with the US coins.

US banknotes
In addition to being outsmarted by coins, there were banknotes to make my life harder. My gripe with US banknotes (but many bills all over the world have the same issue) is that they all have the same color. Basically in your wallet a stack of Dollar bills looks like this:

And those are actually 1, 10, 20 and 50 dollar bills in that picture. The only way to distinguish them properly is to read the denomination. Recently the five Dollar bill got a slight makeover, making the denomination easier to distinguish, but the overall color of the banknote remains the same. ~~By the way, you don't have to be foreign to notice this issue. American~~Richard Smith has started the The Dollar Redesign Project: anyone can submit their designs for a better Dollar.

Dutch banknotes of the guilder
But aren't most banknotes of the same generic color? Well, no. Take a look at these - again, I'm sorry - Dutch banknotes by Ootje Oxenaar, once heralded by the English visual design magazine Creative Review as the most beautiful money in the world.

But actually I'm not into them because of their beauty. I love the functional use of graphic design in these banknotes: because of their very distinguishable color scheme (and slightly different sizes), if you put them in a stack in your wallet, you get this:

And that makes it much easier to locate the right one. Now, the aforementioned Guilder coins and bills have of course been replaced by the Euro coins and banknotes. But thankfully the Euro bills and coins have the same properties that made the 'design of the Guilder' so appealing to me: differences in color and size, clear typography, and an overall design language. Though I should say I find the graphic design of the bills not particularly inspiring.

A lack of incentive
So why are there so many poorly designed banknotes around? These are products that are used by millions everyday. Why not make that usage a little easier? Well, I think first of all there is no incentive for the creator of the notes to implement a better design, as usage problems with bills don't cause product returns or customer complaints at the help desk, and people have no alternative. Users of the - let's just say - Australian Dollar will not suddenly turn to the Euro because the Austrialian Dollar could have been designed better. And there's lots of incentives to keep stick with an old design: tradition, nostalgia, etc. The design of the Dollar bills stems from the 1930s. That's a good deal of tradition, right there. And if you want to do it right you have to design and replace a whole range of coins or bills at once. That's quite the logistics operation. So in the end it probably all comes down to the motivation of a country's central bank.

More about Ootje Ooxenaar
> Transcript of lecture by Ootje Oxenaar on designing banknotes
> Interview with Ootje Oxenaar on YouTube