Badly designed software is costing companies millions of dollars annually because it is difficult to use, requires extensive training and support, and is so frustrating that many end users under utilize applications. The support call centers exists because of poor UI design. Users do not know how to use the system so they make a call. This not only decreases productivity but also costs a lot of money. How can we prevent this to occur?
One of the main reason why these problems occur is poor human-computer interaction design. At the beginning of the computer age, programs were designed just for the need of computer scientists who deeply understood principles of the machines. Their effort was aimed to making the computation, input data and retrieve the results. Effort for making UI easy to use and understandable by people not involved in this research field was not the goal. In some extreme cases the contrary was true - the computer gurus were trying to make the UI not usable, make it mystery for the outer world. One of the reason was to secure their positions or just to remain their status of some geniuses who understand those machines.
Can you spot what is wrong in design of these teapots and why is it impossible to use?
Changing role of Human-computer Interaction design
But the power of computer was so big that it expanded to every part of human activity. Nowadays it is widely used and the consequences of obfuscation the interaction with computer are now clearly visible. Usability of many software products is very low, functional features of such products are not easily accessible for the users. And the features that are not easily accessible do not exist for the users which results in situation that users are requesting for already existing features.
Today, computation is not just sitting in front of desktop PC or laptop. The mobile devices are still used more and more. But that is not where it ends. We are surrounded by smart televisions, intelligent fridges and many more electronic devices. Sometimes we even do not realize we are interacting with such device. The computer seems to disappear and interaction is invisible or unobtrusive.
We should stop and think about the importance of the human-computer interaction design. Its main purpose is about getting users past the technology; help them concentrate on making things done, not on technology itself. Technology is extension of human capabilities and should be transparent as much as possible. Users are no longer satisfied with efficiency and effectiveness of the UI. They are also looking for emotional satisfaction. And attractive things make people feel good.
What happens when you understand the importance of the design?
Extraordinary UI is also a difference when user have multiple options of software selection. And this is also true for all the products in general. Apple realized this and they build their business on high quality design. When the iPad came out the critics dubbed it. Why would anyone want it or need it? It filled no obvious reason. If you already had a touch-screen phone and laptop, why on earth would you need iPad? And yet, the iPad is the most successful personal electronic device, selling 15 million in first months. Why? It is about personal experience of holding it in your hand and manipulating finely crafted objects on the screen.
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| The iPad |
Another example is the Apple's Time Machine. I am pretty sure that every major OS now has some functionally equal features like Time Machine. But nobody is using them expect for MacBook users. When Apple introduced the functionality for their users to backup data, seemingly a boring task for all of us, they did so with a stellar interaction design. They introduced cool metaphore of a time machine that users can go back in time and retrieve their data that were deleted accidentaly or lost. Most of the procedure was automated and the only thing users had to do was connect the backup medium. The interesting thing is that Microsoft had bakcup features since Windows 95! However, because of poor usability most users did not know it existed and even if they did it was too complicated and rarely do it.
I hope I showed that the interaction design is really important, in most cases even more than some extra functionality of software. In next parts of this series I will try to suggest some design principles and explain how to use them when creating user interface of a software product.
