Technical Confidence
Every so often, I help a co-worker of mine (I will refer to him as “Phil”) by reprogramming his cell phone so that his ringer is not so loud at work. He is a smart guy, and though he doesn’t have a technical background, he is proficient on a computer. In fact, he uses a computer all day long for his job.
I think if Phil put his mind to it, he would certainly be able to re-program the phone himself. Which leads me to this post. I think that instilling confidence into our audience — whether on the web or on an electronic device — is an important component of good interface design. Something about Phil’s phone intimidates him, and eventhough he is embarrassed when his phone rings so loudly (keep in mind, embarrassment is a strong motivational tool) he doesn’t even attempt to change the settings himself because he is sure he won’t be able to figure it out. In fact, he is more willing to cringe and avoid eye contact with his colleagues as his phone rings loudly, than pick the phone up and start pressing buttons.
There are implications here not only for physical product design, but also web design:
- Are we offering so many features that even the most basic features go unused?
- Are we using industry jargon — or sometimes jargon specific to our company — to label our interfaces?
- Are we creating interfaces for our internal customers (inside the company) that are ineffective or unusable for the actual customers?
- Would you want to use your own product?
- Would your parents?
I know I’m not the first person to ask these questions, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. I am also interested in hearing how web designers can use their industry expertise to influence the decision-makers in our companies to make decisions that are good for the online customer. The traditional sales method of throwing as much in the customer’s face as possible just does not translate to the web, so it’s up to us to educate our bosses, and our boss’s bosses.
October 6th, 2005 at 10:04 am
You bring up some good questions here. I don’t think that all is lost, there are still some really good interfaces around, but for every good one there is probably an equally bad one.
One of the bad ones that amazes me is the website for a huge retailer, Lowes. Now that I think of it, the Home Depot site isn’t so great either.
I think with so many using computers (and gadgets) these days, it’s important to ask that last question. “Would your parents”. Even your typical digital camera is pretty complicated to use. And while I am at it…what’s up with the microwave?
Have you ever gone to someone’s house and tried to use their microwave. If it’s a different brand than you are used to, there is a completely different sequence of buttons that you have to through to nuke your food.
but I am ranting a bit here…To answer your questions…
Too many features?
Probably, but not always. I think the key here is to really identify what features people really want to use and make those the easiest to get to.
Jargon?
I have my own personal issues with jargon. I think sometimes people make things too complicated when they are speaking to people that are not in their field. It’s very important to be able to convey your message to other people. Part of that skill is the ability to talk in common language even if you don’t think that it will make you sound as smart as possible.
Unusable interfaces?
The interfaces I design are pretty specific to our industry. So that’sa hard one to answer. We could do a better job, but we don’t really follow any type of software design model to speak of.
Last two questions…
Maybe, and no