Software Interfaces That Mimic The Real World

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It seems to be already a strong trend in software the mimicking of real-world objects. The trend has been recently emphasized, specially, by Apple and it is creating a lot of controversy among usability experts and interaction designers.

At a first glance, it doesn’t seem to be a bad thing, specially on interfaces designed for tablets targeted to the mass market. But the following is what is ringing a bell:

 

Address Book for Mac OS Lion

 

It seems that the new Address Book for Mac OS X Lion will look like a real address book. This could bring several problems with it, but the most important one is the brake of the user interface standards put in practice by Apple itself. Aside from that, Address Book is a very important productivity tool and this design seems, with several distractions, to require a lot of attention from the user.

The last time I used a non-electronic address book was 11 years ago, then why would I like to go back to a paper-like interface? Even worse, this old style interface might not be understood by the younger generations, many have never seen a paper address book.

 

Kindle App for iPhone iBooks App for iPhone
Kindle for iPhone and iBooks

 

Above, you can see the default home screen for the Kindle (left) and iBooks (right) apps. The later mimics the real world with an inefficient way to present titles in the library.

 

Stanza for iPhone iBooks for iPhone
Stanza for iPhone and iBooks

 

Above, the Stanza (left) and iBooks (right) apps. Stanza focuses on the content and does not try to mimic the real world: flipping pages is really fast and no visual decorations are added.

 

So why?

It’s a fact that applications that look good are perceived by users as easier to use. From the marketing point of view, applications mimicking the real world might also get much more attention from the general public.

 

So what’s the problem?

In many cases these applications are not efficient and not follow the rules. It is hard for me, as an Apple fan, to accept the fact that the wind of change might be blowing through Apple: they are braking their own rules.

Although these cases might only be bad examples, the worrying part is that Apple is usually a trend setter and many developers and designers might be tempted to follow. All-right, if users don’t complain at the beginning; most user interface designers know that this path is a dangerous one.

 

This post is a recap of a vivid discussion I had with my friend and usability expert, Martin Schultz. The topic was also recently mentioned in the episode 17 of the Build and Analyze podcast.

  • http://vincent-kahl.net Vincent

    When looking at the book stores, I can see 9 books at Apple’s application and just 4.75 books at Amazon’s application. Thus iBooks seems to be more efficient to me. However, it can probably be argued that not having the book’s title written in a standard font makes it difficult to recognize the book you are looking for. On the other hand, giving visual support to the users by displaying the different form factors of books and having bigger covers, might make it easier to recognize a book, too.

    Anyway, I don’t see a big issue with the Addressbook’s new appearance, yet. The way it works seems to be identical to the old addressbook. However, I had wished Apple had invested the time in improving the interaction design instead of changing the visual design.
    This new style just seems to be a skin – nothing more.