The organizers of the 2008 From Business To Buttons conference have put video recordings of a considerable number of presentations online, including Donald Norman's 'Cautious Cars and Cantankerous Kitchens' and Patrick Jordan's 'Four Pleasures'. They also provide the opportunity to download the slides of even more presentations. This must be one of the best post-conference sites I have ever seen.[Found through: The Hot Strudel]
After some years of drafting it's finally there: ISO 20282, the ISO standard for the ease of use of everyday products. It contains the following elements:- Design requirements for context of use and user characteristics
- Test method for walk-up-and-use products
- Test method for consumer products
- Test method for the installation of consumer products
If I sum it up, the standard is relevant for physical interactive products for personal (and not professional) use or in the public domain, but because ISO standards are made by committees you get sentences like these:
[The standard is] applicable to mechanical and/or electrical products with an interface that a user can operate directly or remotely to gain access to the functions provided. These products fall into at least one of the following categories: consumer products intended for some or all of the general public which are bought, rented or used, and which may be owned by individuals, public organizations, or private companies; consumer products intended to be acquired and used by an individual for personal rather than professional use (e.g. alarm clocks, electric kettles, telephones, electric drills); walk-up-and-use products that provide a service to the general public (such as ticket-vending machines, photocopying machines, fitness equipment); products used in a work environment, but not as part of professional activities (e.g. a coffee machine in an office); products including software that supports the main goals of use of the product (e.g. a CD player).Wonderful, isn't it? If your not that big a fan of Academic-speak, Userfocus' David Travis gives a good, plain language overview of what the new standard is about. Much more usable than the ISO standard.
See also:
> More information on usability standards: overview at usabilitynet.org
[illustration found here]
(Illustration: simplicity according to Soaphia.com)
Simplicity is something to strive for apparently. Muji does it. Philips does it. Paris does it. It just might become the 'user-friendliness' of this decennium: an appealing, but somewhat vague notion of 'goodness' in interaction. We all agree: it should be there, but no one is exactly sure what it is. Or is really sure, but everyone else disagrees. To some it means getting what you need, to others it means leaving out the frills.
So, time for some clarification. Or perhaps we should say diversification. In Simplicity, the Ultimate Sophistication Joshua Porter brings a number of authors (gurus, blog-heads and indeed some actual designers) to the stage to speak their minds on simplicity, such as Don Norman, Mark Hurst, Scott Berkum and John Maeda. Porter himself adds some flavor to the subject by bringing out Barry Schwartz' paradox of choice and applying it to product design:
Users face a trade-off when they must make a choice between a simple product or a complex product with more features. If they choose the product with fewer features and eventually need some functionality that is missing, they've made a bad choice. However, when users choose the complex product with more features, they don't have to make this trade-off. The complex product is more likely to have the feature users may need in the future.I usually call that the 'I-don't-know-what-that-feature-is-exactly-but-I-might-need-it-someday'-syndrome. Another worthwhile observation about simplicity can be found at GUUI.com, where Henrik Olsen points out the difference between avoiding visual complexity and providing true simplicity:
Usability is based on principles such as "Less is more" and "Keep it simple, stupid". But there is more to simplicity than meets the eye. By reducing visual complexity at the cost of structural simplicity, you will give your users a hard time understanding and navigating the content of a web site.In other words: reducing the amount of buttons and adding a deep menu structure does not necessarily make a product easier to use. See also earlier uselog posts on expected usability. Meanwhile PresentationZen reviews John Maeda's book 'The Laws of Simplicity', and illustrates it (how appropriate) with some appealing visuals.
What?
A proposal for a guide that helps consumer to buy a usable product. It was originally published in the Dutch Tijdschrift voor Ergonomie (Volume 33, Issue 1, February 2008). I've translated it in English, and added product examples and pictures that had to be cut from the final publication. The article (English version) can be found on my publications page, or to open the pdf-document directly, click here.
Why?
Somehow I always end up at people’s DVD-player. “Now this is what I call a stupid product. Can you figure it out? Here, take a look at this!” Or someone wants to buy a new mobile phone and will get the question what the user-friendliest model is. I may be working on a PhD on consumer product usability, but for one I don’t know the whole product portfolio of Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola by heart, and it is simply very hard to determine which phone would be best for someone. It really all depends. What are you good at, what do you want to do with it? Consumers should be able to assess for themselves which product works best for them. However, usability is not like styling, brand or price: it’s hard to experience a product’s usability without using it. Therefore: this step-by-step guide to enable consumers to purchase their your very own usable product.
Who is it meant for?
The guide itself is embedded in the paper, aimed at consumers, and written in plain language. I have added an introduction and short discussion section for product development professionals.
Summary
And the eight steps? In short, it comes down to this:
1) Functionality: What will you (really) do with the product?
2) Interaction: What is usability to you?
3) Determine the context of use
4) Collecting opinions – the Internet and friends
5) Support and manuals
6) In stores: try it out
7) Sales ‘advice’: always add a pinch of salt
8) Do-it-yourself usability evaluation
(illustration from www.lostgarden.com)
In a (somewhat older) alertbox column entitled Why consumer products have inferior user experience Jakob Nielsen provides two major reasons why consumer products suck usability-wise. Firstly, the (physical) consumer products industry lacks a usability incentive.
In the past, manufacturers have had little incentive to emphasize usability. For physical products, customers have no user experience until after they've paid for the device. (In contrast, website customers get user experience up front: if a site's too difficult, they won't do business with the company, as they'll leave long before they get to the "buy" button.)And secondly, the lack of a usability culture at consumer products companies:
Consumer electronics companies, in contrast, have a history of ignoring user needs. A few cellphone companies do a bit of usability, but in most industries, usability is unheard of. These companies are narrow-mindedly insular, and populated with lifers: automobile engineers only talk to others in the car industry; people designing cable boxes only talk to others in the television industry.In the chapter Design as Practiced from the book Bringing Design to Software Nielsen's fellow usability guru and business partner, Donald Norman, provides some additional organizational factors that can lead to products that - well - could have been better. It's a hilarious account of best intentions and practical issues.
[...] tells the story of the Macintosh power switch: of how he tried to simplify its placement and function, but was thwarted on all sides by sensible, reasonable technical problems. His central point is that design as practiced is very different from design as taught. In the actual situation, cultural, social, and organizational issues can dominate the user-oriented aspects of design.There's a quote from a famous Dutch poet: 'Between dreams and deads, laws and practical gripes remain.' The poem is about a man who is considering to murder his wife. Seems to apply to product development as well though. Conclusion: in product development compromises have to be made. If you continuously compromise usability related aspects, you're not going to make this 'easy to use' thingy you had in mind.
Usability problems are prone to surface more often in a product with a lot functionality, wrapped up in a small package; mobile stuff, like portable music players and mobile phones. Operating a 'smart' phone can feel like trying to eat a 12 course meal through a straw. On his website Small Surfaces, Frog Design's Gabriel White, tracks articles about interaction design, user interface design, user experience, usability and social trends related to mobile devices.
The title of his website reminded me of an article called Baby Faces: user interface design for small displays. It's written by - amongst others - by Erik Sparre, who was responsible for the design and usability testing of the UI of Ericsson's T28 mobile phone. And that phone had what I call a small surface. Which makes the achievement of Sparre and his team on that phone even more remarkable.
Dave Gustafson, a mechanical engineer at Frog Design, recently started a blog at www.unpressablebuttons.com, on 'product design use and usability, designs new and old, inspired and uninspired - the little things that matter'. What it comes down to is that Dave writes great posts - a lot of them - on product designs that could have been a little better, or are really good from a usage point of view.
Personally I like the fact that he does not make usability the only thing in product design; he also has a keen eye for other aspects in product design, such as engineering and branding. Take look, for example, at his comments on the 'Ring' alarm clock for couples that was selected for the Braun Design Prize.
Technorati Tags: consumer product usability, usability
Smashing Magazine provides an overview of 30 usability issues to be aware of. Though, as usual, the stuff is mostly web- and software-related (there's not a whole lot of eye-tracking studies being done on consumer electronics...), most if it applies to consumer electronics or other categories of consumer products. Anyway, it seems like a useful reminder, with 30 items across categories like: Rules and Principles, Psychology Behind Usability, Glossary: Terms and Concepts.
And oh yes, there's an awful lot of discussions to be had about the 7±2 rule, but to me the list just seems like a useful list of reminders or rules of thumb while designing and developing new products, and... there's a lot of cool terminology in there with terms like 'banner blindness', 'hotspots', 'gloss' or 'Baby-Duck-Syndrome'. Wouldn't it make you sound extremely cool if you could use those words in the next design meeting? By the way, 'Baby-Duck-Syndrome' refers to the following:
And oh yes, there's an awful lot of discussions to be had about the 7±2 rule, but to me the list just seems like a useful list of reminders or rules of thumb while designing and developing new products, and... there's a lot of cool terminology in there with terms like 'banner blindness', 'hotspots', 'gloss' or 'Baby-Duck-Syndrome'. Wouldn't it make you sound extremely cool if you could use those words in the next design meeting? By the way, 'Baby-Duck-Syndrome' refers to the following:
Baby Duck Syndrome describes the tendency for visitors to stick to the first design they learn and judge other designs by their similarity to that first design. The result is that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems. This results in the usability problems most re-designs have: users, get used with previous designs, feel uncomfortable with new site structure they have to find their way through.By the way, I love the irony of starting a list of '30 usability issues that are often forgotten' by mentioning the 7±2 rule.
Technorati Tags: consumer product usability, usability, user interface design, user-centred design
Technorati Tags: consumer product usability, usability
If you have a home theater system at home, you might not remember what your coffee table looks like anymore, as it's buried under remote controls. However, salvation is at hand: the universal remote. It's been asked for very often, it's been tried very often, but lately the product category seems to be becoming a little more mature. Remotecentral reviews remote controls, and one of the headings in the reviews is 'ergonomics and design'. So, you can see how they got my attention. See for example this review of the Sony VL900:The VL900’s design features nothing but hard buttons – the kind that can be used in the dark or even without looking. [...] You’ll find system macro and power buttons at the top, followed by component selection, keypad, transport, menu and volume/channel controls at the bottom, all grouped in distinctive ergonomic layouts. Although no keypad backlighting is provided, they will glow-in-the-dark for some time after the lights go down.
Technorati Tags: consumer electronics, consumer product usability, interaction design, usability
www.redesignme.org is a website where you can submit pictures or movies of products that you think have poor usability.
A bit similar to www.thisisbroken.com, but redesignme.org seems to offer a little bit more control over the content to the users, and you can submit redesigns (as well as comments of course). And the whole thing has a YouTube-like look and feel to it.At redesign.org they think that products are hard to use because they are designed by engineers who are oblivious of what users want. It is not ill will, it is ignorance. And by having the website they hope to 'send a signal to industry'. I agree with the latter; it's always good to get/give feedback. However, on the first part (engineers being to blame etc.) I'll get back to you in a few months when I have completed my first case study on usability in product development.
Technorati Tags: business and usability, consumer product usability, consumer products, usability, user interface design, user-centred design
A nice concise visual overview of the human-centered design process, as described in ISO 13407 at this website (by the Mitsue company) and on the site of the usabilityweb project.
Technorati Tags: business and usability, usability, user-centred design
(Photo: http://www.funnyhub.com)
I just love these Seven Deadly Excuses for Poor Design, that Kevin Scoresby lists and explains vividly. It's al about how the ambition of making a great design can get completely distorted in the day-to-day practice. They apply to the world of software, but I think these excuses can basically be found anywhere:
1. We have to be first to market.Now how many of those have you heard from your colleagues?
2. Our budget doesn’t allow for design specialists.
3. The requirements make it clear what has to be done.
4. Well, it makes sense to me.
5. It will be so cool if we do it this way.
6. Customers will get used to it.
7. That’s what the help desk is for.
Technorati Tags: business and usability, usability, user-centred design
Day 5: OK/CANCEL
Strictly speaking OK/CANCEL is not a weblog, but a website that features weekly(?) comics about interaction and user experience design. But because the comics are so recognizable and fun, I decided to put them in. Or, in the autors' own words:
OK/Cancel is a comic strip collaboration co-written and co-illustrated by Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi. Our subject matter focuses on interfaces, good and bad and the people behind the industry of building interfaces - usability specialists, interaction designers, human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, industrial designers, etc.
Technorati Tags: usability, user-centred design
Day 4: InfoDesign - Understanding by Design
Lots and lots and lots of information on the subject of information architecture on this weblog, maintained by Peter J. Bogaards.Kind of curious though that the site is called InfoDesign, and the url is www.informationdesign.org. Confusing or not? That the news section is quoting Mark Hassenzahl saying "Usability [with its focus on effectiveness and efficiency] wants us to die rich; user experience wants us to die happy." in an interview... Well, bygones.
Technorati Tags: usability, user-centred design
Day 2: Usabilitynews
Usabilitynews.com is completely dedicated to usability, updated daily, and features an overview of usability headlines, events, paper calls and jobs. Mostly it concerns itself with usability in the web and HCI domain. Don't be put of by the slightly boring layout, this weblog really keeps you up to date on usability. It's maintained by people affiliated to the British HCI Group.
Technorati Tags: usability, user-centred design
In the coming week, every day I will post about an interesting usability or user-centred design weblog. There are so many worthwhile blogs that I've been sitting on, that I've decided to throw a number of them at you in one week. So they'll be off my list and on yours. If you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me. So, here we go...
Day 1: Passionate - Creating Passionate Users
Passionate: Creating passionate users features thorough, well illustrated essay-like posts by Kathy Sierra and Dan Russell about 'the practice of making users passionate about their lives and tools'. One of my favorite posts was this one about the difference in how companies treat you while you are a prospective client, and how they treat you once you've purchased their product (see illustration).
(Illustration creating passionate users)
Technorati Tags: usability, user-centred design
Usability in the enterprise is a project within the Usability Professionals Association, aiming to collect information on the impact of user-centred design processes on the business performance of organizations. Just pointing this out, because it's closely related to my own research subject (Usability in the Practice of Product Development).goals
The project aims to answer a number of questions, such as:
- What makes an organization user-centred?
- What are measurements for the return-on-investment (ROI) for user-centred design methods?
- Which business performance indicators are influenced by user-centred design activities?
the numbers game
In essence the project is about proving the value of user-centred design, mostly by joining the 'numbers game'. That's one way. Philips' executive Andrea Ragnetti allegedly used another strategy when convincing his fellow board-members of the sense of the sense and simplicity campaign. If I have to explain the business value of usability I use the story of a craftsman that makes leather gloves. If you were making and selling leather gloves, what would be better for (repeat) business and word-to-mouth: making really cheap gloves in one size, or making gloves that fit the hand of your customers comfortably (at a reasonable price)?UPDATE: learn more and participate
The project team is organizing a tutorial at the UPA2007 conference entitled: The Business of Usability: a tutorial for user experience managers, directors & team leaders (if you happen to be in the