Posts Filed Under interaction



Metaphors

Over the past few weeks, Mike Kuniavsky has been posting pre-print draft chapters of his upcoming book, Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design. In Chapter three, “Too much metaphor” (part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4), Mike argues “metaphors may be most useful during first encounters with a new technology. [...As] the technology becomes familiar, the metaphor may lose its value. Eventually, the metaphor that seemed so helpful may start creating more problems than it solves. [...] Recognizing that metaphors have failed can be humbling, but metaphors, like all tools, need regular maintenance.“


Sony Magic Cap (via Mike Kuniavsky).

Most operating systems today are using a metaphor and a paradigm introduced over 40 years ago. The “desktop” metaphor and “paper” paradigm with folders, files, black text on a white background, etc. have been two of the key enablers for the democratisation of personal computers. First it allowed laypeople to easily operate this technology and make it familiar. Second, it created a bloodline of consumer devices (desktops, laptops, PDAs, mobilephones, smartphones, tablets, etc.) that infiltrated, over the years, every workplace, school, home, and coffee shop.

But as Mike noted, all metaphors eventually fail. Sometime in the late 90s when the Internet, mobile phones, and personal digital content (photos, music tracks, emails, etc.) exploded, the desktop metaphor failed. It failed to serve its most basic purpose by making the operation and manipulation of new devices, new content, and new usages unnatural. With the myriad of devices now forming our connected environment, the evolution of “computer/mobile phone” literacy and usages around the world, and the maturity of the discipline of interaction design, the last obsolete bits of this metaphor and paradigm should be relinquished.


People First UI © Nokia, 2007.

During the Homegrown project, we attempted to do just that with People First UI, which replaced the desktop metaphor and other levels of abstraction with a singular vertical list of content settling over time into a personal history of events. Designed for those of us who face literacy challenges, the user interface has a limited and precise interaction vocabulary (6 nouns and roughly 20 verbs) that reflects how people think and speak. The nouns (or content) – people, messages, photos, places, calculations, and alarms, are connected by verbs – make, call, write, and share. Content comes first, abstract hierarchical menus and applications are substituted with a simpler and universally understood question: what can I do with this? I know this is terribly obvious and not terribly new and yet, so important.

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Nokia Design In & Out Speaker Series – Nova/Chipchase

In a spirit of openness and education, In & Out Speaker Series invite designers, thinkers, experts, hobbyists, activists, etc. well people to engage in an exchange of thoughts and ideas with us. Us is Nokia Design Americas -a 20-people team based in Los Angeles doing advanced design with backgrounds in product, graphic, interaction, colour & material, motion design.

Nicolas Nova and Jan Chipchase were our first guests in our Topenga Canyon venue. Nicolas discussed tangible interfaces and some potential misconceptions drawn from user experience research, concepts. It’s absolutely not academic research but more “food for thoughts” for designers, like what I do for video game companies. This material is meant to trigger some insights and discussion about design problems/solutions and ideas.

Jan talked about how people do things ;-)

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The Whole Nine Yards

saynotodrugs

This is a recurring question I have every time I go to a public toilet. Why not having a smart plastic that test your urine for drug traces right on the spot instead of that stupid advertisement ? The ad reads “Say no to drugs”.

1) it would actually be useful by “informally” reminding people of their actions/status,
2) the results don’t need to be 100% accurate -no legal issue there
3) no privacy issue either -urinoirs are separated, the body blocks most of it and one ususally tends not to look at the neighbor’s.

Okay, drugs might not be the best example since traces remains in the body weeks after consumption.

The problem remains the same, why don’t designers (me included) go/push for the whole nine yards when it is so obvious and useful ?

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Tutorial

2D barcodes are all the rage in Japan, and they have been for a couple of years; yet a large proportion of potential users do not know how to use the service. While walking around Shimo-Kitazawa, I have noticed the poster below. I like how elegantly the tutorial has been integrated to the ad. Technology company/engineers/designers often neglect to teach users how to interact with their new killer product.

howto

Similarly mobile phones have been widely available for 10+ years, and S60 OS for 5 years or so, yet the Smartphone 360 study shows that people fall into the 20/80 pattern. In order to improve the user experience (and ARPU), Nokia is taking a similar approach than the Japanese advertisers. The Nokia N80 is introducing a Tutorial application which is designed as an interactive guide to help the user familiarize himself with his new phone/applications. Unlike this ad, the application is introduced to the user IMHO at the wrong time – during the first startup; and then buried into Applications>Tools>Tutorial.

Introducing or bringing up to “the surface” at the right time for the user such application or feature is one of unsolved challenge for interaction designers. Since most attempts happened to be very disruptive and annoying (Microsoft/Apple), it may just be impossible.

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