Conceptualizing AR
No commentary required. Excellent conceptualization of augmented reality by Keiichi Matsuda as part of his master's in architecture. Tomorrow's now today.
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Posts on innovation, user experience, research and design
I'm currently a product innovation manager with experience in product management, user-centered design, usability engineering, brand management and visual design.
Note: This is a personal blog containing personal opinions about research, innovations and experiences that I find interesting and informative. It is not associated with my employer in any way, shape or form.
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Apple Sets the Bar for Ford
Core77 had a short but interesting interview with Moray Callum, Ford's executive director of design. An interesting tidbit:
Core77: Stefan Lamm [executive designer, Ford Focus exterior] mentioned earlier today that things like the iPod and iPhone have changed how Ford approaches vehicles, because consumers are now used to these highly designed, really refined products. Do you find that to be the case?MC: Absolutely, it's the point of entry for us now. Consumers are much more aware of fit and finish, quality.
I've had many conversations with business partners and web service providers concerning customer expectations in which I've mentioned that the bar isn't set at what's expected for industry X, the bar is set by Google and Amazon and eBay - the companies that have defined what the web is supposed to behave like. It's interesting here to see the same disruptive power, this time from Apple, extending far beyond competitors in the iPod's adjacent fields (consumer electronics).Â
Great design not only has the ability to disrupt the industry it applies to, but also any number of other seemingly unrelated industries and interfaces. Ten years ago, who would have ever thought that an MP3 player would be a driving factor for design decisions made about Ford's flagship electric vehicle.
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Square's Innovation and Ergonomics
I wanted to capture a few more thoughts from Square's demo at Le Web a few days ago (embedded below). While the demo itself was a veritable disaster for Jack Dorsey, there's a lot of interesting information you can glean from it. If you're following along at home, the demo starts at about the 7:30 mark in the video below. First the good stuff . . .
- Square is listening to the card swipe - I'm not a hardware geek so the fact that Square was designed to plug into the headphone jack of a smartphone just seemed like a very commonsense thing to do. In fact, I wondered why it hadn't been done before. It's just another input device, right? Well, yes, but it is still designed to be an audio input device. What I guess I didn't realize until this video is that Square didn't hack this input for card data, rather their device is actually "listening" to the translated card swipe. As Dorey says of the self-powered swiper: "It's powered by the magnetic resistance of the swipe itself. It translates the swipe into to an audio signal and the phone picks it up and software interprets it." This may be pretty commonplace for the more technical among us, but for a simple mind like mine, this is very impressive; illustrating a powerful blend of innovation and strategic cross-platform design.
- "No receipt" is an option - I didn't catch this the first time I wrote about Square's interaction, so I wanted to make sure I set the record straight. I had previously expressed concern with requiring a user to enter their email address for a receipt and stated that No Receipt should be an option for the sake of efficiency and stage frightened users. Not surprisingly "No receipt" is already an option. Another counterbalance to my concern about the retail line-killing capabilities of inputing an email address is that the device remembers emails. Still a pain for the first time you have to enter your email address, but a nice remedy for repeat business.
- Quickbooks, inventory management and other open API ecosystem opportunities - While open APIs are sort of the standard protocol for new web services, what I really liked about Jack's comments is the thought that's already going into the API ecosystem (Quickbooks integration and inventory management systems are explicitly mentioned). When I first wrote about Square, I was most interested in the ability of Square to provide an out-of-the box loyalty program for business owners. The more I think about this the more it becomes clear that loyalty programs are just one layer of the power this system can provide small business owners. The open API will really enable this system to thrive.
- Contract- and merchant account-Free - Riffing off Hutch Carpenter and TechCrunch, I think this business model innovation could literally be a game changer for merchant services providers. While Square is very new, it would seem wise not to discredit their opportunity. The parallel between the bone-rattling fear emanating from the mobile and telecommunications industry at the existence of a Google Phone (which could pave the way for free, ad-subsidized phones calling and no contracts - i.e. no need for AT&T, Verizon or anyone else) is stunning. Sure, Square has an nascent technology compared to the full installed base of Verifone et al, but for the right price (free card reader + no contract, etc), merchants could flock en masse to Square. This has tremendous, tremendous potential.
- "Friction points" - This isn't really an observation of the UX, but just a term I noticed in Jack's presentation. I love how he refers to difficulties in card acceptance flow as "friction points". I'm probably drawn to the phrase because I mentally refer to breaks in user experience as "sand in the gears". If you've got friction or sand in the wheels, processes run less smoothly and eventually the process breaks from user fatigue/wear and tear. It's death by a thousand cuts (or long, irritating abrasion). It's also a reminder of how attuned Jack and his team are to user experience, making me believe that the concerns that follow have all been considered and are either in their implementation plans or have been otherwise dismissed as unimportant. Nevertheless . . .
So I've covered a lot of Square's awesomeness above. But one thing that's still bugging me: swiping the card. This demo is a great example of how this device could be annoying to use, which may cripple long-term adoption. While the cool factor and the business model are compelling reasons for merchants to switch initially, the device can't be annoying or they won't stay. In the video, the device fails for about 4 minutes. I lost count of how many swipes it took and I'm not sure what caused the malfunction here but you have to assume that this isn't the first time this has happened. This is a brand new device. What happens in a year of steady use? This is as good as this experience will ever be. In any case, if you watch the demo, you see a couple of things happening. 1) The swipe looks a little awkward 2) the Square moves in the jack a little after the swipe.
So let's take these in order:
- The swipe looks awkward - I really can't put my finger on it, but it just looks odd to me. Maybe it's the square-ness or smallness of the device.Maybe it's the card and the device moving independently of one another, sort of like how you would try to spin a penny or a sharpen a knife. I don't know. All I can say is that it reminds me of the time my leaf blower broke. I used to start my leaf blower by holding it in one hand and pulling the starter cord with the other, i.e. both hands moving in opposite directions. It normally took about five cranks to get it to start. One day, the starter coil inside the blower broke. When I took it in to get it repaired the technician told me what the problem was. He said "How do you start it" I said that I started it as described above. He responded: "You shouldn't do that. You should always have it on the ground - put your foot on it to hold it down, then pull the cord." While holding it in one hand and pulling with the other seemed to give me more pull speed (two forces moving in opposite directions) the deal is that your energy is not as focused if you don't have the blower grounded/stable. When I took my repaired blower home, I tried it again using the mechanic's advice - it started with two pulls every time and has ever since. The grounding helped. My gut tells me this has a lot to do with the issues Jack had during his demo. Sure it had never happened before, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Square wouldn't benefit from some grounding. Keep the device stable - make the card swipe the only moving action. Along those lines . . .
- The Square moves - In all of the failed attempts to swipe the card, the Square moved around several times. Getting to the design of the Square, it would seem like it might be more grounded if it clipped onto the iPhone somehow to prevent that from happening. With it swiveling around like that it sort of seems flimsy or unstable. Now of course providing a clipping mechanism might make it un-usable on all smartphones. So I know the device has to be somewhat agnostic here, but I still think it needs some grounding.
Docking station remedy
Add these two together + the possible perils of handing an iPod back and forth in a busy retail checkout environment + the challenge of signing a small screen while holding the smartphone along with other goods you just purchased and I'm convinced that a docking station is absolutely critical to widespread adoption of Square. All you need is a simple device that seats the smartphone, secures the Square (providing it the grounding needed to make the swipes more consistent), and is angled so that consumers can easily sign with their finger. Put a swivel on the base so merchants can turn it around after entering a transaction amount etc and you've solved all of these problems. No dropped phones, a secured swiping Square, a hard surface to sign your name against and type your email address against. Win.
In any case, given all of the fantastic attributes of Square, the grounding issue isn't a deal breaker, but it would seem to greatly improve the experience and ergonomics of the system. I'm not sure this is something that Square would provide as part of their core business but accessories like the docking station would seem like a great way to diversify their transaction-fee based revenue stream and improve the overall experience of their platform.
Video of Jack's Demo at Le Web:
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Still Broken: LinkedIn's Advanced Search by ZIP
LinkedIn rolled out a new interface today designed to improve screen real estate and navigation. I wasn't aware of the redesign until I went out there this morning but immediately noticed the changes. While it's not stunningly beautiful, it's still very functional and that wins all the important awards in my book. That said, one area that still bugs me on LinkedIn is the Advanced Search.
A lot of times I'll go out to LinkedIn to see if I can find a contact, only to discover through the Basic Search that there are several David Jones (as an example) on LinkedIn. Go figure. Instead of paging through the results, I'll just back up and hit the Advanced Search.This is typically fine if I know the company that the contact works for, but in some cases, I don't know that information. I may just know that they work somewhere near Rome, Georgia. Unfortunately, to perform this search, you can't just enter "Rome, GA" into your search criteria. You actually have to know Rome's ZIP Code.
Yeah.
Harder-Than-They-Should-Be Steps
While I'm sure that's the easiest way for the search to function technically, it's not at all functional for the people using the system, unless of course you're this guy. He probably loves this "feature". But if you're not that guy, at this point in your search, you're going to need to hit the "Lookup" link. But not before re-scanning the page to make sure you're not missing a City/State entry field. (You're not).
Clicking on "Lookup", you're taken to GeoNames, a third-party provider of ZIP codes. Fine, so you type in 'Rome, GA" and you get 5 search results for Rome.
Now you need to remember back to the other screen and recall that you are searching a 50 mile radius. Since Rome, GA is way smaller than that, you can pick any of these and you should be fine. Even still, you have to remember that search radius and after remembering you still scan that list one more time just to be sure you pick the right result. These are unnecessary mental reps that ding the usability; the system shouldn't make you think this much. Regardless, once you decide to pick one of the ZIPs, there's no "Use this ZIP" button or anything, you have to physically copy the ZIP, close the window or tab and then paste it (or memorize it or transcribe between screens) into the LinkedIn field.
Now complaining about copying and pasting sounds supremely lazy, but that step is just the culmination of a couple of harder-than-they-should-be steps. This search has just gotten annoying via death by a thousand (or 5 in this case) cuts. The reason these are cuts to the experience is that we're all used to Google (and other smart) searches now.
vs Smart Searches
Compare: I was playing cards with my buddy and he was showing off his new Droid. Specifically he was raving about the Google Search enabled voice dial, proclaiming. "You don't even need to have Pizza Hut in your contacts when you say 'Call Pizza Hut' . . . it just knows where your phone is, looks up the nearest Pizza Hut via Google, and calls that number for you." I had a similar experience with Google Search the other day. My wife and I were trying to send directions to a local park to some friends. The problem was that I didn't know the address of the park. I did, however know the name of a restaurant right next to the park. So in Google Maps, I just typed the destination as "Downwind Restaurant". Sure enough, Google knew where that was.
Compare: I was playing cards with my buddy and he was showing off his new Droid. Specifically he was raving about the Google Search enabled voice dial, proclaiming. "You don't even need to have Pizza Hut in your contacts when you say 'Call Pizza Hut' . . . it just knows where your phone is, looks up the nearest Pizza Hut via Google, and calls that number for you." I had a similar experience with Google Search the other day. My wife and I were trying to send directions to a local park to some friends. The problem was that I didn't know the address of the park. I did, however know the name of a restaurant right next to the park. So in Google Maps, I just typed the destination as "Downwind Restaurant". Sure enough, Google knew where that was.
These are smart searches. The system is working for me in these examples. Contrast that to LinkedIn's search and you see why its geography search is distracting and annoying. Just let me type in "Rome, Georgia" or "Rome, Saskatchewan" "Rome, Italy" and have the system know the what I mean. Worst case, let me simply choose from the top three most likely places.
And sure this Advanced Search commentary is about a very small piece of functionality in an otherwise solid application, but attention to these details is what can set your brand and user experience apart. Better to be set apart by good experiences (Google's search) than frustrating ones.
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Traffic light + progress bar = Eko
Interesting concept by Damjan Stankovic, a Serbian designer/innovator. While Damjan lists several green attributes to the light, I'm more sold on the one that deals with stress. One of the fundamental tenets of good usability and user experience is providing the user with an awareness of a system's status. Doing so allows the user to set expectations for system behavior and plan for their next actions. This light accomplishes this sharing of system status information in a very elegant way.
From the site:
Eko light is a simple yet, highly practical concept for traffic lights that not only helps preserve the environment by reducing pollution but promotes safer driving as well. Eko can be easily installed onto existing traffic light systems without much effort while significantly improving overall traffic dynamics. There are many benefits of the Eko light, the main ones being: Less pollution. Drivers can turn their engines off and cut carbon emissions while waiting for the green light. Turning off your vehicle while waiting on the traffic light can lower fuel consumption in the long run. Less stress
Since you know exactly how long you have to wait you can sit back and clear your head for a while. No need to keep your foot on the gas. Relax. Safer driving
With the Eko light both drivers and pedestrians can be fully aware of how much time they have left before the light changes and that way reduce the chance for potential traffic accidents.
In any case, I think it's a great concept that's accompanied by several other interesting concepts on Damjan's Relogik site.
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Experiential Nits: Facebook Self-Serve Ad Charts
One of my favorite blogs is Junk Charts. The reason I like it (and Tufte's books and other chart/visual design resources) is that graphics are such a critical and often overlooked component of making a compelling argument. While complicated graphics can obfuscate meaning, a total lack of charts makes deciphering meaning from textual data significantly more difficult. Your chart should convey all the data necessary for communicating your message. No more. No less. Since message clarity and communicating meaning/importance are also fundamental to designing experiences, chart design principles also apply to aspects of experience design. As with charts, good experiences depend on message clarity. In this department, Facebook's Self-Serve Ad graphics fall short of delivering a compelling argument. While I've snapped the images I'm referring to, you can go to Facebook Advertising and click on "Case Studies" to see them in all their glory. A couple of things here:
Now I'm not a professional chart designer (or graphic designer for that matter) and I'm not intentionally picking on Facebook, but it was very surprising to me to see a company like Facebook make two very noticeable graphical mistakes in the information surrounding one of their most innovative features - self-serve ads. I guess I'm just expecting more polish from a big web name like Facebook.
Then again, maybe it's not so surprising.
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