Video calls have been part of human dreams and science fiction for a long time. Already at the beginning of the 20th century we have been thinking in ways to make this a reality. Although the technology to make it happen has been around for some years already, it is now when it is been executed in a way we really want to use it.

2001: Space Odyssey (1968)

Nothing like a face

Psychologists believe that our feelings are represented in big part through faces; with more than 40 muscles, faces can deliver more than 3000 different messages that our brains decode during a conversation. So no wonder we love faces.

A moving image, in real time, of a person makes us feel closer and confident.

In business, talking to a real person makes us feel comfortable and safer. Several studies showed that attractive shop assistants sell more because we usually trust good looking people. It’s the most primitive part of our brain who is giving us these directions and it’s difficult to fight against it. We enjoy to hear and to see real people.

Terrific user experience and implementation of video calls.

Shaping the next tools

We might be facing a new area in computer-based human communications. In the same way little children are growing up with touch interfaces and expect all interfaces to behave in this way, the general public might get used to video interfaces and might expect to get this dimension embedded in everything they use.

Specially smart phones, the new iPad 2 and Internet-enabled TVs will push for the use of video calls: no need for additional devices and setups, they are always on, always with you. No need to sit in front of the PC.

An Internet-enabled Samsung TV with Skype and an iPhone.

A little revolution

A project management software that makes video calls easy could improve communication, a warmer and video-capable Facebook, a video-based online shop or a video customer support. The list could get long if the medium, interfaces and user experiences are all properly designed; they have to be easily accessible avoiding to be intrusive.

We will be closer to friends and family, safer and more confident doing business. This is a new little revolution.

Sources:

S.F psychologist has made a science of reading facial expressions

Do facial expressions reflect inner feelings? Or are they social devices for influencing others?

Videophone entry on Wikipedia

Neuro Web Design, Susan Weinschenk. New Riders Press.

Your website looses users if your design doesn’t tell them straight away what they can do with it. This applies specially for new sites and services.

Let’s check Rondee, a website to make free conference calls. In one hand, they offer a great service and the site is, in general, easy to use. On the other hand, I can imagine that a lot of users reach their homepage and left without knowing how the system works.

The logo tag, gives users an idea of what they can do but it doesn’t tell anything about conferences.

They waist precious homepage real estate with cheap advertisement: “Rondee is the fast, easy and free way to hold a conference call”. Of course, most users would be skeptical about this and would like to know how the whole thing works.

Then, if you click on Learn More you get to 1,2,3 instructions: 1. Schedule, 2. Invite people, 3. Send!. Finishing the process with a “Send!” didn’t give me the impression that this website is actually to make conferences.

Only if the user click on Rondee Now gets an explanation about how the whole thing works. A good interface design is self explanatory and it’s successful if users don’t have to use FAQ’s. I would have written a short explanation in the homepage.

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Disclaimer: with this kind of article I want to point out usability and interface problems some sites could have. Please do not take this as an attack, take it as a free advice. I would like to make clear that this design problems could happen for many reasons, including lack of time or money.

It seems that lately internet telephone services have been out of the news, not many exciting new features, but recently I have learned about the new Jajah Buttons.

The configuration process could be a little bit confusing at the beginning with the system requiring a Screenname that can not be changed once you set it up (plus, FAQ section does not have a search feature!).

But the service seems to be interesting: it is a button you can paste in your blog, website, eBay auction and email signature. Then, when somebody sees that button and fills it with his or her telephone number Jajah connects that person with you. The owner of the button is the one paying for the phone call.

This could be a good idea for people interested in being contacted. It also allows you to change your phone number, block certain ones and reject calls.

eBay has recently deleted all listings containing the Jajah Button. The is that eBay owns Skype, a direct competitor. Too bad, eBay.

In my opinion, the button’s design is very smart, giving the possibility to choose different colors and sizes. At the beginning I thought that users would not click there, but Jajah guys were smart and placed an “information icon”, when clicked it tells you what is that Jajah Button about and makes clear that the call is free of charge.

This is the Jajah Button: