Do you remember the VCR that always flashed “12:00″?
Behind the scenes, that was a piece of software. Sure, you had a few buttons for ’set’, ‘up’, and ‘down’. That was the “User Interface – Input”. Obviously, the display was the “UI – Output”. By most accounts, it wasn’t a very good interface. But it was probably the first piece of software that most of the world was exposed to. It followed a program by responding to inputs that the designer intended the user to interact with. It is very important that the designer do a good job of designing the User Interface. Without a good one, software will not get used.
If you have been to the hospital, you’ve probably seen the little machine that pumps the IV. It has a user interface. Basically, it wants to know how fast to pump. It could have been done with a dial that had an “off” position and marks from “1″ to “10″. That wouldn’t even need software, just some resistors to vary how much electricity went to the pump. Ahh, but with a computer, the machine can be “setup” (e.g. “programmed”) to vary the speed, support multiple IV’s, only run for a certain amount of time, monitor the pressure, and monitor the amount left. The more abilities added, the more complex the User Interface. Obviously, a lot of time is spent on medical devices to ensure they are easy to use in order to minimize the chance of mistakes. That time translates to more cost for the item. In some cases, it is money well spent.
Our lives – and our society – are increasingly being defined by how a software designer wants us to interact.
Normally, Capitalism would render poor designs to the bin. But with a few major companies dictating operating system choices, they also have a lot of influence over how you use things. Customers have become used to a certain way of using a computer or choosing from a set of options. On nearly anything that has a screen, people look for the X in the corner. While that’s not a bad thing, it can have some unwanted results. For example, I’ve trained a lot of people to not use that X. It appears that some folks think that clicking X is the same as clicking ‘OK’ – it closes the window / dialog. But in reality, depending upon how the programmer has written their code, clicking X will throw away all changes in the window / dialog. I don’t recommend clicking X. Another shortcut I’ve seen is people clicking ‘OK’ without clicking ‘Apply’. I used to do this myself. I stopped when a couple of applications I was using didn’t apply my changes. Again, the person writing the program doesn’t have to put the same code behind the ‘OK’ and the ‘Apply’ button. And – because they are *always* pressed for time, they sometimes won’t. Programmers are – generally – a ruthlessly efficient type of person. If putting the code to save your changes is in the “Apply” function, they won’t want to put it in the “OK” function too. Duplicate code really grinds their gears. Yes, a smart programmer will make a function for each to call. But what percentage of the coders are that good? Statistically, less than half are “good”. (Less than half of _any_ group are “above average”.)
So, when it comes to using the interfaces of whatever you run into, consider that the options presented were choices made by someone who probably isn’t using it and is probably in a hurry. And they probably don’t think like you do, either. So it isn’t enough to learn how to think like you think, you have to learn to think like how the designer thinks.
I’ll write more on this later.