Good interfaces help users achieve their goals as easily as possible. "Evil interfaces", on the other hand, are meant to trick users into doing things they don't want to.
Professor of Computer Science Greg Conti offers serveral examples in the video below:
Tuesday, April 27. 2010
"You may also like..." NOT
Giving people the gift of discovery is a noble pursuit, but clearly there’s room for improvement in recommendation engines.
Nick Cernis watched a video about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in YouTube, only to be recommended this video.
Why YouTube recommends heroin
Reza Behforooz was looking for a metronome in Amazon. Apparently their recommendation engine was at loss at what to suggest as a cross-selling item:
Better Together: white & red!
Read also: Tapping the Power of Recommendation Systems to Build a Broader Web 2.0 Audience
Nick Cernis watched a video about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in YouTube, only to be recommended this video.
Why YouTube recommends heroin
Reza Behforooz was looking for a metronome in Amazon. Apparently their recommendation engine was at loss at what to suggest as a cross-selling item:
Better Together: white & red!
Read also: Tapping the Power of Recommendation Systems to Build a Broader Web 2.0 Audience
Tuesday, April 6. 2010
This ATM machine needs a better interface
Another great (and funny) example of how just adding new features without proper user interface considerations can cause user frustration:
We're talking money here and all of a sudden my ATM is giving me practice questions for the SAT. If all men eat turnips and John is a man, does John eat turnips?
Read the article at The Humane Experience.
Thursday, March 18. 2010
It's called "forgiving format"
From time to time, as I try to log in to a website, I get a message like this:
How annoying is that the system will recognize that you are using your email to log in, and instead of actually accepting it for identification purposes, tells you to go find the username you selected when signing up?
Here are an example of a much better design solution:
Clearly, Twitter was created by people who care about user experience, and has a design that plans for errors, and tries to support, not fight, the user's responses. Other websites, like AAPH.org, have also come to the conclusion that typing into text fields isn’t most people’s idea of a fun time, and that the burden should be in the system, not the user, to fetch information that is readily available:
Unfortunately not all designers seem to realize that the user just wants to get something done, not think about "correct" formats. Refusing to allow spaces or dashes in entry fields such as credit card number and zip code is another common example of disregard for the design practice of "forgiving format" (see "No Dashes Or Spaces" Hall of Shame for samples).
Computers are good at figuring out how to handle input of different types, so when you design an application that requires user input, please let the user type whatever he needs, and make the software do the right thing with it!
Related posts:
How to annoy users during sign-up in two easy steps
Convince me first
It looks like you're trying to login with your email address. You must use the username you selected when signing up. This can be found in our welcome email.
How annoying is that the system will recognize that you are using your email to log in, and instead of actually accepting it for identification purposes, tells you to go find the username you selected when signing up?
Here are an example of a much better design solution:
Clearly, Twitter was created by people who care about user experience, and has a design that plans for errors, and tries to support, not fight, the user's responses. Other websites, like AAPH.org, have also come to the conclusion that typing into text fields isn’t most people’s idea of a fun time, and that the burden should be in the system, not the user, to fetch information that is readily available:
To make things easier, you can now log in using your email address or your username, whichever you like. In the case of AAPH, many people had created complex user names, e.g., "John Smith, Ph.D, CChT, MFC". That caused problems because the username had to be entered exactly the same each time to log in. Try using your email address - it'll be easier.
Unfortunately not all designers seem to realize that the user just wants to get something done, not think about "correct" formats. Refusing to allow spaces or dashes in entry fields such as credit card number and zip code is another common example of disregard for the design practice of "forgiving format" (see "No Dashes Or Spaces" Hall of Shame for samples).
Computers are good at figuring out how to handle input of different types, so when you design an application that requires user input, please let the user type whatever he needs, and make the software do the right thing with it!
Related posts:
How to annoy users during sign-up in two easy steps
Convince me first
Monday, January 25. 2010
Pull To Open
Perhaps this has happened to you. I went to the store and got a package of X. When back at home I wanted to use the X. The packaging was beautiful. Obviously someone had spent some time on the design of every aspect, especially the self-promoting advertising that covered the whole package. My puzzle was about how to get the X out of the beautiful package. Upon careful examination I found (in 8 point type, 25% gray printing over top of a giant image of a happy, beautiful person enjoying X) the word “Open” and a little tab of packaging. I puled the tab. It came off in my hand without altering the beautiful package in any other way. So I attacked the beautiful package with a knife, making it impossible to reseal. I put the whole beautiful mess in a zip lock bag after extracting my portion of X.
I thought this may be a case of function being subverted by form. Not really. The package is a billboard designed to make you buy X. That is it’s function. Once bought, the job is done and you’re on your own.
OK, so the purveyors of X are capitalists and selling X is their goal. That’s all fine.
I will even go so far as to say that I got a tiny bit of enjoyment from the game of finding the “Open”. Then it all went badly. Don’t tease me like that, it infuriates!
Why can’t they get it right? Just make it obvious and easy to enjoy a fresh portion of X.
“Open” sets an expectation in my mind that isn’t fulfilled. Worse, I feel cheated, double crossed when it goes wrong. My experience of X becomes negative before even getting to the main attraction.
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Jeff Howell has thirty years experience in computer industry, spanning hardware, manufacturing, QA and software in engineering, management and consulting.
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