More UI Lessons from the Real World (Second Part)
You guessed it, folks. After the huge success of my first article Ten UI Lessons from the Real World, I decided to write the second part with more examples. Again, the idea is to teach UI lessons based on real world images that are funny and interesting for this type of discussion.
Lesson 11 – Don't redefine concepts
Please look at the image on the left. Why on earth would someone call a banana a "curved yellow fruit"?! OK, it is curved, it is yellow and it is a fruit, but WTF?
If you don’t know how to call a certain thing, please ask the business analyst. Don’t try to create a name that is meaningful to you but meaningless to the user. Applications should have standardized concepts and the whole team should understand them. FYI: this field of research is called ontology and it is a great domain analysis tool.
Lesson 12 – UIs should never surprise the user
The UI should never surprise the user. If it does, then the designer has failed to do a good job. One example of this problem is a link that doesn’t look clickable. This is actually conflicting with the idea that UIs should be clear and intuitive. How can something be surprising and intuitive at the same time?
Joel Spolsky has explained this lesson on his book User Interface Design for Programmers. Refer to the book if you want to see more examples on this problem.
Lesson 13 – UIs should never scare the user
Users shouldn’t be scared by the UI. If they are, they won’t use the system correctly and you will fail as a software engineer. If something can go wrong, it is your responsibility to create restrictions that will prevent wrong actions (unless the business itself is risky – e.g., trade market).
Lesson 14 – Don't ask users to do stupid things
I see two types of stupidity when it comes to user interfaces. The first type happens when the UI directly asks the user to do something stupid. This is best explained by the image on the left. Would you put your mouth on that thing? If you answered YES, you should talk to a psychiatrist. Some users might fall on that trap, but the real person that should be considered stupid is the person that invented that thing.
The other type of stupidity happens when you indirectly imply that something stupid can be done. You somehow tease the imagination of those people that have low IQ scores and have nothing else to do in life:
Lesson 15 – UIs should be easy to read
One of the ideas behind simplicity is that UIs should be understandable and easy to read. The clock on the left is an example of how things can get critical if you must read it immediately. Of course you know the position of the numbers, but imagine different situations where you must read them (e.g., the clock is rotated 90 degrees). Since you need some seconds to calculate the numbers, this will distract (and even disturb) you more than needed. By the way, what time does the clock show right now?
Lesson 16 – Users should never ask "What is this?"
Which animal is this? Is this a cat? A bunny? Some people say it is a small camel! Use your imagination :-P
Users should never ask questions like "What is this?" when it comes to your UI. If they do, the designer has failed to create a good intuitive interface. UAT (User Acceptance Tests) is a great tool to find problems in this sense and you should talk to your team about this. Watch how your friends use the software application and ask them to do certain tasks (e.g., open a new document; create a new invoice, etc). You should also talk to the support team and see what people have been complaining about. You will learn a lot from that, trust me.
Lesson 17 – Don't distract users with obvious messages
Please look at the next two signs and think. Are they useful in your opinion? What is the chance that you won’t see the stairs, but will see the sign? Or what is the real value of the second sign and its warning?
Please don’t add obvious messages to your UIs because they will distract (and probably disturb) your users. UIs should guide the user, not force them to look at every detail on the screen. Their eyes should do this job seamlessly.
Lesson 18 – Accessibility should work in practice
We all know that accessibility features (in general) are used by just a small group of users. But if you decide to implement them, please make sure they are really useful in practice. If you don’t know what I mean, please look at the image on the left.
Look, there are nice toilets on the second floor! Yes, but you need a crane if you are on a wheelchair.
Lesson 19 – Know your users
You can’t create good interfaces if you don’t know your users. Things can get more difficult if they are aliens, but it is always possible to figure out what they really want. Talk to your users (maybe using a translator helmet) and try to understand how the see the world (not only our world, but also their world).
Lesson 20 – Creativity Again
The last lesson of my previous article was about creativity and its powerful effects on our brains. I will keep creativity again as the last lesson of this second part because it is really worth doing so. Please look at the AXE marketing signs displayed at shopping centers and malls... they are simple, easy to understand and – most important – have a real marketing message.
Conclusion
This was the second part of my article about user interfaces and their lessons from the real world. What is most fascinating is the fact that we can take lessons from almost anything visual. All we need is to think about our problems and create a bridge to real world signs and objects. Stay tuned for the next articles.
Stumble it!
Dzone.com
Digg.com
Reddit.com
Del.icio.usComments
How does an unassisted blind person know the sign is there much less the braille?
Here, I'll reciprocate with an article myself if you're interested.
Top 10 Awesome Websites That Sell Cool Products You Probably Have Never Visited But Need To.
http://www.comember.net/blogs/firepixel/
Thanks
It's a general standard of sorts. I don't remember the specifics but to be blind accessible, door ways and entry ways are supposed to have signs beside them. Blind people are taught this and before they enter one they search the left side (usually) for a sign.
Think of it as the same way you know to stop at red lights. You are taught to.
Oh, and a lot of times you may wonder why the letters are raised on these signs, it's so blind people can feel the words.
Plus it makes me feel stupid when I get it wrong. ;o)
ex 11. why would someone call a banana a curved yellow fruit (and redefine bananas) because it's hilarious! No one is confused about the purpose and origin but they do get a good chuckle from an unlikely redefinition. Customers at that store were interested for a moment in something new and noteworthy, it grabbed their attention and probably their wallets too. So much so that the photo has received wide circulation on the internet.
does this mean that you should rename the shopping cart on your website? no, the principles that you apply are valid and time tested. You just fail to understand the examples you apply them to.
http://blog.titaniumdreads.com
No, I wouldn't be offended by a modest proposal and I do understand the meaning of each picture. The thing is that I have to look at them from a UI design perspective and this is a whole different context. Would you redefine concepts in your application just for marketing purposes? You would lose customers and market share if you do that. In the software world, you lose business when you don't get it right.
...this is taken out of context. The picture illustrates how to survive in a burning house where breathing will most likely kill you due to toxin smoke inhalation.
So to answer your question:
> Would you put your mouth on that thing?
yes I would in this situation and no I don't need a psychiatrist thank you.
Why not use that snorkel through a window? The principle is the same. So, "FIGURE 1" should be a user trying to use the snorkel through a window. "FIGURE 2" could be "In the worst case, try the toilet bow". Actually, note that the user leaves the nose out of the snorkel because he would die because of the smell.
If the snorkel were red, breathing through the window would also help finding people inside the house, since the rescue team would look at the windows (from outside) to find hanging snorkels.
So, as a final thought, I still think that this one is not out of context.
Further If you don't know what a banana is... how does the strange word 'banana' help you in understanding what it is? If you think about it 'Curved yellow fruit' in some ways is a more usable title for it as it informs the uninformed banana newbie what genre of edible it is whilst giving us initiated banana maestros a giggle! No?
Cheers!