Comments on: The human factor in gadget, Web design

New gizmos and Web sites may be cool, but they're not always easy to use. Some people are out to change that.
Images: Cheers and jeers for user design

[Lite Rocker]

Interested in interaction design? read this

http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interactions-Bill-Moggridge/dp/0262134748/sr=8-1/qid=1171292703/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9998220-3997618?ie=UTF8&s=books

Great book filled with interviews of some of the brains behind the Palm Pilot, iPod and more.

[markdoiron]

YouTube Succeeds for Another Reason

YouTube certainly succeeds for the reason cited in the article--because it simply works. All too often I click on a video link to have something start, then to get an error (this version of whatever not supported, you require this software, etc). I don't even bother at that point.

But, there's a second, even more important reason that YouTube succeeds: Because what they're providing on video is SUITED for video. It's not the video representation of information that's better gleened from the written word. All too often websites try to adapt TV footage to the web when a couple written paragraphs would provide all the information the viewer wishes, and within the 30-seconds he's willing to devote to the subject before he moves on to something more attractive. Video doesn't allow for quick scanning--You must commit to the entire footage, or risk missing what you seek.

--mark d.
http://www.summitpost.org/user_page.php

[vriley]

Interaction Design

I'm a human factors consultant, and I believe there are basically
three universal problems with electronic products: modes,
convoluted logic, and hidden functions. Modes are when a
control does different things in different device states; think of
the remote control POWER button that turns OFF the TV when
you try to turn ON the DVD player. Convoluted logic is when you
have to follow a sequence of hard-to-remember steps in order
to accomplish something. This was the typical VCR
programming problem. An example of a hidden function is when
the POWER button for a car radio switches power between the
radio and CD player when pressed momentarily and only actually
turns power off to the unit when pressed and held. All are
strategies used to access more product features with limited
control space; instead of a one-to-one mapping between
controls and functions, there may be fifteen controls and fifty
functions. I believe that the only way around the problem of
increased user complexity with an increasing number of
functions is the application of appropriate functional metaphors
- make the product work like the user thinks, so the user
doesn't have to learn how the product works. This is backed up
by research that suggests that Americans typically return a
product as defective if they can't get it to work within about
twenty minutes, and about half of all product returns are due to
this reason.

Victor Riley
User Interaction Research and Design, Inc.

[jeremy.pickett]

Shameless (though topical) plug

bMuze.com is currently doing to music what YouTube is doing to video--easy to upload, share, and play (yes, i am associated with bMuze.com so of course i think it is great).

but to the larger point, so much of the web is designed to make things *harder* for people--as an example, it took my wife four tries to get the Capchta right to sign up for digg.com (capchta's are those graphical squiggly things of text that are used to see if you are really human or not). these types of steps, along with needing to fill out forms detailing everything about your life to even participate in an discussion are getting a tad out of hand.

[debll]

which humans?

Touting the ipod and palm pilot as the be-all and end-all in human factor design misses something that todays marketers keep trying to avoid - the entire world is not made up of 15-30 year old males. Women outnember men in the population, and control more of the wealth. And boomers are still around, still have a lot of disposable income, and, if the the government social security statistics are to be heeded, outnumber the "new" generation. The Wii is doing as well as it is partly because girls and women love the intuitive interface. My 27 year old daughter HAD to have one, and her 54 year old mother plays with her. And Nintendo didn't insult us by making it pink. I programmed my first computer using punch cards over 30 years ago. And now that I wear bifocals I'm not going to stop using them - but I'll spend my money on what works for me, not for the annoying brat next door.
Technology is not an end in itself. It exists as a tool to make my life easier. When it fails to do that I spend my money on something else that does work for me. And eventually the brat next door will grow up and realize the same thing.

[teddevg]

That was an interesting read

As one Canada's largest consulting firms in human factors we can certaintly relate to the recent rise in awareness and acceptance of our field in the business world. Even in the relatively short time (6 years) Maskery has been around we find ourselves more often in the situation where we are explaining how we do human factors rather than what it is.

Companies now seem to more clearly understand the direct business benefits or understanding the importance of optimizing the interaction between people and technology. And at least now we know why its still so difficult to find highly trained experts in the field - Google and Nasa are taking them all :-).

[mozart11]

The human factor in gadget, Web design

Quote " In the '90s, Microsoft started building a user design team
that now includes roughly 500 people, industry experts say."

If this is the true then every criticism everyone has ever said of
Microsoft and it's software & hardware is true.

500 people that are inept at their job.