Speaking with a friend recently about the fickleness of users, we inevitably came to the discussion of social networks and how users simply abandon one for the next.
The recent exodus from MySpace to Facebook, based solely on the amount of friend invites for Facebook in my inbox, would probably suggest how MySpace users are tired and bored of what they offer and see that Facebook has something at the least different. But in reality, there is probably more playing into this. Aside from MySpace’s spam issues and poor usability, user engagement has begun to dwindle. One of MySpace’s greatest points of bringing users back was the friend invite. A friend signs up and they want to connect, hence you come back and probably poke around the site for a bit while you’re at it. Eventually all your friends have signed up and you’ve connected with them all. It’s almost like collecting baseball cards. But once you’ve completed the set, now what?
The now what question seems to be the point at which users move on to something else. For some reason we as internet users have no problem creating new accounts, re-entering all the same data, uploading the same photos, and sending out invites to all the same people. Simply to start the same process over again.
Luckily, engagement is certainly evolving and the more modern social network tools are providing a reason to come back, and more than just to accept a friend invite. We can only hope that once you finish collecting your friends’ profiles you’ll be able to do more with them than just admiring your friend count.
12.04.07 — Culture, User Experience
Alerting users in a non-intrusive but informative way requires a bit of finesse. It is about providing information when it is needed but also not disrupting the work flow. When done right, it’s almost a natural assumed experience–seamless.
I was reminded of this in an unassuming place, not on a computer but at the grocery store. There are far more interactions at play in grocery stores than is often realized. In particular, in a grocer’s produce section where they seek to provide customers with fresh from the farm vegetables, the produce is kept clean and fresh by misting water on the produce–hopefully when a customer is not picking out vegetables.
In the past there used to be a person who would mist the produce with a water hose but today this process is mostly automated. But with the grocery store employee gone, customers don’t know when this misting is going to occur. The method employed to alert these customers of the misting, to possibly stand clear for a moment, is subtle but maps to a metaphor which requires no language, just an understanding of nature. Moments before the misting occurs the noise of a thunder storm rolls through. Thus informing the customer of the approaching rain showers, or mist in this case.
There are no spinning lights, bells, or muffled voices from a speaker to harshly grab the customer’s attention. Those are the obvious, thoughtless, and likely distracting methods. The thunder storm alert masterfully achieves its purpose unobtrusively of informing the customer but also plays into the whole experience of fresh produce, by pulling in other elements of nature.
12.03.07 — Design, User Experience
I have often felt that a great user experience can be defined by the little things. They’re the elements of an interface which pop up just when you need them and disappear when you don’t.
A nice example of this, is one I noticed today while using Google’s News Reader application. There is a subtle feature which by clicking a little arrow, minimizes the navigation pane to allow for more screen space for news content. It’s easy to miss, but it’s really a minor feature I think only a few people will truly take advantage but certainly a useful one to have.
Its subtly unfortunately can open a door to confusion, if a user were to accidentally click the little arrow. The user unaware of what has occurred, is left with an interface missing a major navigational element. But Google handled this issue with a little thing–a simple speech bubble informing the user upon the first time they use the feature that it is in minimized mode. And from then on, it disappears–there just when you need it and gone when you don’t.
What We Can Lean From This Example
Examples such as these display the difference between simply meeting a set of functional requirements and making a great user experience. When it comes to timelines and budgets, sadly these little things are the first to go. It can certainly be a battle to get the little things included, but as this example shows, it is a battle worth taking on.
11.29.07 — User Experience
As a New Yorker and avid subway fan, each day I admire the New York City subway map, designed by Michael Hertz. It is certainly a great piece of graphic design and a cultural icon of the city. Its representation of subway lines and geography is burned into many of our heads. I sought to reduce the map to its simplest form, the contouring lines which depict each subway line’s route. To remove the geographical context in order to expose the grand complexity of this weaving system of people movers.
This reduction evokes an interesting view into the history, sprawl, and the expansiveness of New York City’s subway. Through abstraction of the subway map, the often spoke of, subway as the arteries of the city, is made unequivocally clear. No borough or neighborhood is given prominence, only its veins are shown, almost like a medical illustration of the human circulatory system.
Through breaking down the gestalts of the subway map, with each layer different interpretations can be made. The map below could certainly be broken down more to emphasis different components.
Thanks Jeannie for the illustrator help
11.20.07 — Design, New York
I can’t tell if I have a predisposition to sitting with walls to my right, but I seem to consistently find myself in that awkward position of trying to overextend my MacBook’s power cable to connect it the left side of my MacBook. Often the power cable is just too short or gets disconnected due to the MagSafe connector detaching as I pull it tight in an attempt to compute comfortably.
My first inclination was that due to the annoyance of this situation, I was perceiving it to occur more frequently than it actually was. But when I began to keep this mind, I was noticing this issue each time I plugged in: at the office or on my couch. Maybe I’ve set up all the spaces I work within backwards. I think it seems to come down to MacBook Feng Shui.
11.16.07 — Design, User Experience
Earlier I had discussed the topic of only solving the surface problem instead of digging deeper into the real problem. The “Reply to All” solution has now been accompanied with other surface solutions to ’solve’ more email problems.
As an organization that deals with sensitive information, the leaking of such information even if accidental is a major concern. And one of the possible ways this information can be leaked is via email to external addresses. In an effort to thwart this issue, a design change has been made to the email software (shown below), which requires users to specify whether their email is being sent to internal recipients or internal and external recipients. If the user fails to select that his email is being sent to external recipients, he will not receive any indication that the email was not delivered.
I cannot ascertain whether additional screening measures are performed on emails which are defined as being for external recipients, but based on communications about the changes, it appears they exist as a means of reinforcing how to properly handle sensitive information (i.e., it most likely shouldn’t be sent to external people). Certainly an odd way of communicating of this though, as users can simply always just select internal / external e-mail just to feel safe that their email will be sent. This is especially due to that by default users will be given the impression their email is being sent when in fact it essentially may have never made it past their outbox.
As an aside, the changes are having an interesting side-effect: as emailing becomes more of a pain to do, alternatives such as IM are becoming a seemingly easier option.
11.15.07 — User Experience, Work
I have a pre-paid 30 day subway MetroCard, which means for 30 days I can swipe my MetroCard and never think about it until that 31st day rolls around and the turnstile tells me “insufficient fare”. You hate being that guy holding up the line and hate being behind the guy that that happens to. It slows the entire process down, especially when it’s the morning rush hour and there are only two turnstiles.
What is surprising is that the turnstiles, shown below, do provide the user with some information, but not much. Although, if you use a Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard, turnstiles actually do give you some useful information–how much money is left on your MetroCard.
Which makes it odd, due to that the turnstiles could provide meaningful information to 30 day MetroCard holders–when their MetroCard will expire. The display has the space and it obviously does know this information. Instead, users must find out the hard way on that 31st day or swipe their MetroCard at designated card checkers.
Due to that your 30 day MetroCard can start on any day of the month, having that reminder of its expiration every time you swipe at a turnstile, could save you the embarrassment or having to wait in a long line for nothing.
11.07.07 — User Experience
Sweeping the dirt under the rug, putting a new coat of paint on an old car, opting for a diet coke and calling it healthy living are all solutions to surface problems that never truly solve anything. They’re the easy and quick things that we think can actually make a difference. Just like in any other space, in software design we see solutions to surface problems passed off as answers to greater issues.
Are You Sure…
My workplace has a culture of excessive email CCing, which I’m sure exists at many other people’s companies as well. As a result, many people complain of bloated inboxes with emails which may only indirectly involve them. The probelm is the culture of blindly CCing–a result of people wanting to cover their bases, an irrelevant email to someone is easier to deal with than a missed email to someone important. And as such, an email propagates, recipients “Reply to All”–resulting in an exponential increase in email that may be irrelevant to a fair amount of people. Often this fact is made apparent by the amount of people who reply to all, pleading to be removed from the email chain. Chain is probably a good word for this too, as users literally feel they become chained to email.
So how does one solve this issue? For the IT staff it was by creating a new dialog box which prompts the user to confirm whether he truly wants to “Reply to All”. Sadly, this only attempts to solve the surface problem [people simply replying to all], as opposed to delving into the true root of the problem; that of the email culture of CCing a swath of people without regard for taking into consideration if all people need to be included. Instead, users are now left with an additional step, that solves nothing, in order to reply to an email, even if replying to all consists of only two people.
[note: The email protocol as an effective collaboration tool can be debated as a greater root problem.]
Forgot Your Password, Forget About Calling
The previous example is mostly a minor annoyance and for the most part, people will get on with their activities without much of a hiccup. A more pertinent example, which ultimately had greater consequences, involves the often challenging user authentication process. If a user who should have access can not get access, it is a major problem, one which as time elapses grows even greater. The issue at hand was that a “Forgot Password” function was taking an excessively long time to email the user the link to reset their password. As such, users, after waiting hours, assumed something was wrong and that they should call tech support. This resulted in an excessive amount of calls to the tech support call center.
What is interesting is that the call volume was perceived as the problem. First, they needed to figure out how to stop users from calling about forgotten passwords. The solution was a quick fix, a message was put in place next to the tech support telephone number:
Not for forgotten passwords
It was a very out of sight, out of mind solution. It took care of the surface problem, calls reduced, but the true problem still persisted. Users now had little recourse in finding a way to get back on track. Worse still, was that now, the people who should care don’t even hear the users since they’ve turned off that avenue of communication. Luckily, many people refused to follow the directions provided and called anyways.
Digging Below the Surface
During a user interview, a user may describe what they don’t like or why they don’t think it works. And while observing a user in a usability test it can be easy to identify what they get caught up on. The natural instinct is to “ease the pain where it hurts”, but often in software or product usability the problem’s cause could come from an array of different areas.
This isn’t news, but when design decisions such as the ones I described keep occurring it is good to remind ourselves about spending that extra time to think deeper about what we are solving.
10.29.07 — User Experience, Work
Photographs of our planet are so commonplace to many of us that we don’t even really think about it. Imagery of our planet has always existed in my lifetime. It was only recently that I even thought to realize that in my father’s own lifetime, photographs of our planet from space did not exist. The first photograph of Earth from space was taken by the Explorer 6 satellite in 1959. My dad was 8 years old at the time.
The image above is not the photo taken by Explorer 6
10.23.07 — Culture, Personal
All too often, exiting a subway station and getting your bearings can be a bit disorienting, especially in New York City’s grid. Gothamist.com reports on a new wayfinding system, developed by New York City’s Department of Transportation and the Grand Central Partnership, to assist people on finding the right way upon exiting a subway station. It is about to be tested around the MTA’s Grand Central Station subway exits. The sidewalk decals feature a compass image displaying which street is in what direction.
It’s interesting to see that the decals will not be placed in actual N,S,W,E orientation (Manhattan actually points Northeast), but placed according to what New Yorkers correlate to North and South (i.e., Uptown and Downtown).
It’s a great start, but now we just need the subway map, local street map, and “Next Train” notifications posted at street level. Not too mention the one shortcoming of the MTA’s subway map, depicting which trains are express and which are local. Even I still have a bit of trouble remembering which of the N,R,W,Q trains are express.
10.16.07 — Design, User Experience