Category Archives: Errors

Poka-Yoke Design

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Poka-Yoke is a concept coming from Japan and means mistake-proof. It could be any mechanism helping users to avoid making mistakes while using an interface or product. The concept it’s focus on prevention, influencing the users’ behavior through the design of the product or interface. Poka-Yoke not only improves the user experience, it also helps improving safety.

I would like to show you some Poka-Yoke examples.

SIM Cards. Thanks to the trimmed corner, a SIM Card can not be put into a cell phone in a wrong way.

Close look to SIM Card SIM Card. Picture by Declan Jewell.

On Search. Poka-Yoke concept is used by Google’s search box and by other search engines to suggest users possible search terms. In the example, I mistyped “Poka-Yoke” so the search box proposes to search for the right term. The problem with this behavior is that these suggestions could influence what users search.

Poka-Yoke behavior on Google SearchGoogle search box.

iPhone. Every time a user starts a new note on the Notes application for iPhone, the upper case option is on and ready for the first letter. This is a way to prevent orthographic mistakes.

iPhone Notes application screenshotiPhone Notes application screenshot.

USB Connector. Thanks to its inner shape, an USB connector can not be connected in the wrong way.

USB Connector, inside viewUSB Connector. Picture by PJstoneson.

…actually, the shape of the connector not only prevents from connecting it upside down but also to connect it in the wrong place.

Different connectors in a MacBookDifferent shapes for each connector. Picture by Goodrob13.

Padlocks. Good padlocks do not release the key if it is not totally locked, making sure that the mechanism is totally closed and avoiding mistakes. In this case safety is a big issue.

Padlock in San FranciscoA padlock. Picture by Greenkozi.

A Problem That Happens, a Solution Designed

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Accidents are gonna always happen, you can prevent them but nothing is going to stop them happening. Users loosing passwords, usernames, invoices with wrong prices, etcetera, etcetera…

An important part of a good design is the prevention, how to avoid erros and headaches. But, as problems can not be totally avoided it is very important to design a good "recovery" experience, a way to solve those issues. The iTunes Store gives us an example of good problem solving design. 

iTunes Logo

 

After buying an album I got the following invoice per email. The underlined text "Ein Problem melden" means in German language "Notify a problem". This is great. Users could have problems with downloads or audio quality, for example. If this happens they can contact Apple in a very handy way. 

Notify a Problem

 

Problems make users unhappy but if you provide a way to solve those issues users will understand that you are trying hard to make things work.

Making Clear Error Messages

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Explaining errors is one of the basic concepts in usability for the web. It is as simple and obvious as telling the user what was wrong and how to solve that problem.

"It is important that error messages are clear…"

There are many ways of explaining errors, like going back to the web form marking the erroneous fields. It is important that error messages are clear, avoid things like "error 4055".

Digg Error Message

 

Digg, the social bookmarking website, displays from time to time an error message at the end of the submission procedure. I don’t really know why this happens because the error message is not clear, no solution is proposed and there is no entry about that on the FAQ section. The user experience could not be worse in this situation.

See previous entries about this topic.