Over the last six days I have had the pleasure of traveling, presenting, and sightseeing in Beijing. The occasion was the User Friendly 2007 conference, where over 700 user experience professionals from around the world gathered to present and share with one another. It was another excellent and enjoyable event.? As per most professional conferences, there were good presentations, a few outstanding presentations, and also a few less-than-good ones.
But by far the most enjoyable part was the hallway chatter – the impromptu conversations, informal gatherings, etc.? Looking back, I realize that nearly every conversation I took part in eventually touched on how much energy and growth user experience is seeing in China and Asia Pacific. The UPA China chapter has leveraged this by recruiting young volunteers, often fresh out of school, to help organize and run chapter events and the UF conferences.
In return, the young volunteers are able to network with potential mentors and more experienced peers from in-country, as well as UX professionals from outside China. Clearly this is a golden opportunity for UX practitioners at the beginning of their careers. I would’ve loved to have had this opportunity when I was coming up. ?
These are interesting times in the UX field. China and India are coming into their own. While most native people I meet who hail from and work in Asia Pacific are individual contributors or first-line managers, I fully expect that as UX becomes more integrated into the systems development life cycle processes I will meet more and more homegrown Directors, Senior Directors, and VP’s. The same progression has happened here in the US over the past 15 years. It is happening in these regions now.?
The real interesting thing I am seeing is that the the UX communities in Asia Pacific are not simply adopting the old methods and processes. They are adapting them, changing them, improving them. I can’t substantiate this with quantitative data, it’s more a combination of gut feel and some anecdotal data. I promise to explore this in future posts. For now, I’m content to just set it down here and pick up on it at a later date. ?
Been meaning to post? a link to this little rant? I saw about iTunes. The author quite perceptively cites some of the biggest annoyances and usability issues with iTunes (both Mac and Windows versions), such as:
- Sort by *exclamation point*. Duh. I have a mass of broken links I want to delete and iTunes won’t give me a method to select and delete them all in one or two clicks.
- Find original tune for multiple songs. I can double click on a broken link and manually hunt for the tune. How embarrassingly easy would it be to do this en masse- select all broken links and resolve them all automagically.
- Check for dupes on import.
And there’s more where that came from. As much as I like the iTunes/iPod ecosystem, I have to say that iTunes has annoyed me to no end when it comes to music management. For syncing, it’s great. For managing my content, not so much.Remind me to tell you about the time I check a box in the Preferences screens, and “magically” ended up with dupes of EVERY SINGLE MP3 ON MY HARD DRIVE. Nice.?
Dear Apple: Why Does iTunes Library Management Suck So Bad?
(Click picture to see full-sized)
I just bought the girls the movie Ratatouille this weekend. Included on the DVD is a Pixar short called “Lifted”, a funny little bit about two LGM’s (little green men; aka aliens) practicing their abduction via tractor-beam skills on a sleeping farmer.The smaller LGM, in training to operate the tractor beam system, is quite daunted by the hundreds and hundreds of identical little switches, makes some hilarious errors of commission (as well as one big error of omission), and finally becomes frustrated, with hilariously slapstick results.
Worth seeing. Follow this link to watch a low-res version.
Hopefully this won’t read too much like a Twitter post…I’m on my way to Beijing China to speak at and attend User Friendly 2007, the annual conference put on by the China chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association.
The title of my talk is “Changing Processes and Cultures: Setbacks and Successes On The Road To Building? Customer-Centric Product Teams.” I’ve posted a slightly longer version of the talk to UsabilityBlog at this URL, if you’re interested in looking at it. (The longer version is what I presented last week at? the Atlanta? chapter meeting of the IASA, the association for software architects.)
The talk is a three-year retrospective on the process of incorporating user-centered design at Sage Software in North America. Here’s the blurb from the conference site, if you want more information about the talk:
We in the user experience field know that user-centered design and usability activities have the most positive impact when they’re carried out early in the product/service ideation, design, and development cycle. And our stakeholders – those colleagues in neighboring disciplines such as product management and product development – are often eager to become more customer-centric, and would like UX practitioners to help achieve this. However, our colleagues, and more importantly our executives, don’t always know just how disruptive it can be to successfully integrate UX processes and people into the organizational culture.
This presentation will describe the setbacks and successes experienced by the UX group at Sage Software as we drove the adoption of user-centered design and user research processes across multiple product teams in North America over the last three years.
Enjoy. -Paul
(Click picture to see full-sized)
WTF is my webmail client asking me to agree to (or not agree to)?!?I swear, that’s the only thing it shows. There’s no popup message, no other information on the screen other than what you see.And while I’m ranting, what does “Click to Continue” do? Will it perform maintenance operations, skip maintenance, or do something else entirely?Somebody better answer quick, because I’m paralyzed from fear and indecision, unable to do anything, my fingers trembling over the keyboard.
Just playing.
I don’t remember what I clicked; probably “Skip Maintenance”.
(Click picture to see full-sized)
This summer it was consistently above 100F here in Atlanta, and our upstairs air conditioning just couldn’t keep up. So we bought a small flotilla of fans: one each for the girls and one for our room.
It sure is nice to have a remote with our bedroom fan…but I’m a little mystified by the iconography. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but…they’re kind of opaque to me.
A couple of people commented on this pic at its Flickr page, and here are some of the functionality guesses:
- The area labeled “Remote”: Dano says that’s the “OK” button. Turns out it’s not even a button; it’s just a big-@ss label on a protruding piece of plastic. Good guess though. (It’s hard to tell from the picture alone. You’d have to feel it to know.)
- The button with the hurricane icon: Cecily says that’s the oscillation button. She is correct.
- “Ion”: Cecily says it’s some ionic air-cleaning function. To be honest, I have no idea what this does. There’s a matching button on the unit’s panel, and I just haven’t futzed with it. For all I know if opens a portal to an alternate universe. When it comes to fans, I just want air movement. That’s all.
- Clock icon: Cecily says timer. She’s right.
- Fan icon: This is the fan speed controller.
Incidentally, that chrome button in the middle is the on-off button.
Also, my hand looks weird and puffy in this pic. What’s up with that?
Drop what you’re doing right now and go look at the screenshots of Android, Google’s open-source smartphone OS.
It’s…it’s…beautiful.
I want one. Now. Not now. Yesterday.
I know it’s not even a real phone yet, it’s just a reference design. But I want my next phone to run this platform. That’s how neat it looks.
A Visual Tour of Android’s UI – Engadget
(Click picture to see full-sized)
I saw this neat (but slightly flawed) UI on a water dispenser at Whole Foods yesterday. (Yes I know it’s shocking, but we do have them in Atlanta.) What’s good about this design? Well, by requiring that the user press two buttons simultaneously to dispense hot water, the designers have ensured that virtually no one will unintentionally get hot water. That’s a simple yet effective means to prevent an error of commission.
The design isn’t foolproof however. The original design relies on a single-word label (“Hot”) and a spare, minimalistic bracket graphic that visually connects the two red buttons with the label. Evidently this hasn’t been enough information for the average Whole Foods customer, because someone at Whole Foods decided that the unit needed a little more labelage. Note the sign at bottom.
Whoever made that sign took care to ensure that the user would make the connection between the sign and the panel – they replicated the hot buttons’ appearance, color, and orientation.
I can just picture the events that led the Whole Foods person to create the sign. They probably grew tired of being asked how to get hot water out of the dispenser, and decided it would be easier to make a little post-hoc design addition. Good call.
(Click picture to see full-sized)
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to have one of those “ahhh…*this* is how it should work!” moments. What happened? They replaced a few of the microwaves in the break room at my office. Two of these rotary-knob beauties turned up one day. It made me realize just how wrong-headed the “standard” UI microwave is for the most common use scenario, which is of course to nuke leftovers quickly.
The typical microwave oven UI has a touchpad – strike one right there – and requires at least 3 button pushes to get your food a-heatin’. And since half the microwaves in the world are designed “verb-noun-verb” (“Time Cook-Put your time in-Start”) and the other half are “implicit verb-noun-verb” (“Put your time in-Start”), you’re constantly experiencing negative learning between home and work. See below for a pic of the typical microwave UI.
(Click picture to see full-sized)
The unit with the rotary knob, in contrast, is drop-dead simple to figure out and even simpler to operate. Just twist and wait. If you’re like me and hate to over-zap food in the micro, it’s easy to undercook, check the food, undercook again, check the food, etc.
On the standard microwave, that process is a total drudge. And all the while my food is cooling down while I “reprogram” the microwave. Which totally messes up my obsessive-compulsive calculations about optimal heating time.
The timer knob on this unit is nice and weighty, like the old stereo volume knobs from the early 80’s. And it has perfectly-designed detents at each 10-second interval. Not too deep but not too shallow either.
Sure, you lose a little bit of fine-grained control because you can only set it in 10-second chunks. But for me, that tradeoff makes perfect sense. And anyway, if you’re anything like me you always press “33″ for a 30-second zap, “44″ for 45 seconds, and “55″ or “66″ for a one-minute nuking. Because it’s a *pain* to jump from one number to another on the touchpad, that’s why…
If ever there was an iPod-like feeling of deep satisfaction to gain from using a microwave, it can be gained from this unit.
(Originally posted April 2005 – P.S.)
There is one constant across almost all office-based work environments: the office worker is subject to innumerable interruptions and distractions. Yet when we test software and web sites for usability, we always seek to minimize interruptions and distractions. Should we?
The usability test lab environment is a contrived setting. It is purposefully designed to eliminate (or at least minimize) distractions and interruptions. It resembles nothing so much as a laboratory for psychological experiments.
Once the test session begins, the facilitator makes every effort to ensure that the participant is free from distraction. Other than asking for occasional clarification, the effective facilitator is trained to interact in a neutral, non-judgmental, clinical manner. This allows the participant to concentrate on the tasks at hand.
However, the typical office worker deals with a range of distractions and interruptions throughout the day – some self-imposed, some from external sources.
Given the ubiquitous nature of distractions and interruptions, it might make sense to replicate some of them in the test environment. Doing so in a controlled, deliberate manner would help illuminate how the product might fare under real-world conditions.
As a hypothetical example, consider an intranet site within a large corporation that allows employees to enroll in and make changes to their benefits. Imagine also that the benefits enrollment process was user tested in the usability lab with a variety of user types ranging from administrative assistants to software engineers. For our purposes, let’s assume that it earned high marks with users during this round of testing.
However, when it’s rolled out the organization finds that a significant number of employees are committing errors when enrolling or making benefits changes. Further investigation reveals that errors are most prevalent among tech support employees and mid-level managers. Why wasn’t this revealed during user testing?
One reason could be because tech support reps’ and managers’ work time is characterized by frequent interruptions and a multitude of distractions competing for their attention. While the benefits enrollment process might “test well” in the serene confines of the lab, in this case efficient use of the web site’s interface is hindered by frequent phone calls, emails, and the vagaries of working in a team environment.
It turns out to be difficult for people to ascertain the status of the application and of the operation being performed when a constant stream of distractions and interruptions characterizes their work environment. Had this been discovered before rollout, the design could have been adapted accordingly.
Studying how people use a product under conditions that replicate the distractions and interruptions of ordinary life would reveal additional information about the product that would not necessarily be revealed by traditional laboratory testing.
I meant to post this ages ago but didn’t get around to it. Better late than never.
As a board member of the Usability Professionals’ Association, one of my duties is to ensure that the UPA periodically surveys the user experience field to learn more about people’s roles, titles, salaries, etc. A few weeks ago, we launched the 2007 Salary Survey. I strongly encourage those of you in the user experience field to take it. You do NOT have to be a UPA member to take the survey. Please help the UX community – and yourself! – by taking the survey.
The UPA runs this project for the entire UX community, which means that you will be able to download a version of the report in about three months. Our most recent salary survey netted more than 1,300 responses from nearly 20 countries, and is used world-wide by UX professionals and hiring managers. You can access the UPA 2005 Salary Survey at this link (or use http://tinyurl.com/2wutr9) to learn more about this UPA project.
Please encourage others to take the survey as well. To take the survey, simply browse to this URL. You can also access the survey from this alternate URL: http://tinyurl.com/2n2oc2.
Or general availability as we called it in the telecom software world.
Again, go get yourself a copy. It’s the most enjoyable, highly functional web browser out there.
