On one side, sharing information has many clear advantages and a lot of money can be done with that. On the other side, there are already good examples on how protecting information or giving users clear control about what they share could be beneficial for users and businesses. As interaction designers we could and should improve those experiences.

A Venetian mask, symbol of privacy.

Anonymity and privacy also means freedom. On the contrary, being forced to be 100% public might, in many cases, prevent people to create new things and to share what they really think. There are many things one should not say in public; consequences could be hard if those messages have to be attached by default to the speakers real name. The magic of message boards and chats on the internet beginnings was their anonymity, without that many topics would have never been discussed in a truly sincere way.

It is clear that one benefits from others´ information. Is it possible to share information, keep the user secure and make money with it? Yes, it is; I have two good examples.

Genius, the Apple iTunes recommendation service, is getting tons of information from users, like favorite artists, most listened songs, playlists, movies and TV shows. In order to convince people to share all that, Genius proposes sharing in an anonymous way: no, with Genius you can not see what music your friends are listening. But that´s all right, the best recommendations are done through the analysis of the data coming from thousands of users, not just your friends. Is Apple making money with Genius? I bet they do!

Delicious is another good example of user protection. The public bookmarking service stores users´favorite websites; people allow that because in principle their data is kept private. Delicious reinforces that feeling of privacy through its interface design:

“If you do not want personal information to be displayed for other users to see, do not check any of these boxes”, a setting on Delicious profile creation page. This is a key feature of the Delicious service, without that many people would not share many of their bookmarks, like the ones related to politics or to adult content. Delicious is clearly profiting from sharing and being protecting at the same time.

The future

I predict people will share even more in the future but websites like Facebook will get more pressure to offer better privacy and the design of interfaces and services that offer more intelligent ways of sharing information without compromising privacy will become a big business.

Venetian mask picture by Misteraitch

I would like to give you some examples of successful products and services that are changing the way customers think:

Flickr

Flickr Homepage

When Flickr started it showed users that storing and sharing pictures online in a clean an easy way was possible. Flickr takes detailed care of their interface and provides an overall good experience.

Amazon

Product description page on Amazon

Is there any doubt that Amazon provides the best shopping experience of the web? A functional and fast website makes customers’ life easier. The ones used to this interface will require the same from competitors.

Mac, iPhone and iPad

Apple iPad with touch screen

This is a recurrent but important example, specially if you are producing software. Apple taught consumers that they should be taking care of their personal stuff and not of their computers. People are paying a premium price for their Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPods because they know they are reliable and they can do stuff faster, thanks to a superior interface.

Facebook

Why is it Facebook the undeniable number one social network that is being used even by 70 years old ladies? Facebook has a team of more than 30 interaction/user experience designers taking care of the interface. It’s clear that Facebook is very user centered and its interface is easy to use for everybody. The masses know that good interfaces are a reality.

Thursday March 25
Café Mozart
Pettenkoferstr. 2
U-bahn: Sendlinger Tor
(089) 59 41 90

http://www.cafe-mozart.info

We have the front/modern room (holds 20-25) booked from 7:00pm on. There will be no presentations this evening, just a chilled evening with a couple of drinks.

We hope to see you there!

I was doing some user research asking people to show me their way of using their web browser and I was specially paying attention to the homepage. These are some of my findings:

- It is very important to have search functionality in the homepage. Users go there as an starting point to a new search.

- People like having relevant information in the homepage, like feeds coming from different websites or news coming from a particular source (e.g. Yahoo!).

- Many users get lost when using tabs. I’ve discovered that many don’t even know what a tab is, the potential of tab browsing is something unknown to many people.

Based on that I prepared my proposal for the design challenge:

It would be nice to get your comments!

Find here more information about the Home Tab Design Challenge.

EA got it right with The Simpsons Arcade interface. The design has a blue joystick that looks like a ball. The good thing is that this touchscreen joystick works perfectly without raising the finger from the screen, just moving it a little bit is enough to control Homer.

On the contrary, this Pacman version got an unhappy design solution. The touchscreen reacts slower than a real button, for this reason raising the finger should be avoided. This virtual joypad forces the user to raise the finger the whole time. As a result, moving the Pacman is slow and difficult.

Dig Dug, such a fun game… Unfortunately, it also got a touchscreen joypad that works very slowly. Most of the fun is gone.

The Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone has another virtual joystick. Probably, designers were focused on making the game look good; and it does look good. The joystick behaves almost like a real one; with it the user has to move the finger too far from the origin (central point) making the movements too slow. Unfortunately, controlling this game is a nightmare.

In my opinion, the reason iPhone games should not be designed to make the user raise the finger from the on-screen joystick is that it is difficult to hold the device. The iPhone is a great device but it lacks the ergonomic features of a real joystick. Maybe that’s why Marware released an [expensive] iPhone game grip.

Processing is an open source programming language to program images, animations and interactions. It is used by designers to create prototypes and to create interactive interfaces. One of the best characteristics about this language is its community, which is encouraged to share what it creates.

Click once on the image and move your mouse to change the wind direction.

More about the Processing project here

Download the Design vs Art Christmas Card code to modify

Is there a limit for multifunctionality? The following imaginary design illustrates the problem of multi-function devices and applications: the solution reaches a point where a big amount of features offered block the access to them and makes the whole product unusable or difficult to understand.

An overwhelmed Swiss knife

Multifunctionality could be also a problem in graphical interfaces. In the following picture there is a screenshot of the FStream applicaton for Apple iPhone, an application to listen online radios and other sound streams. This app used to have only 3 visible options at the bottom:  Play, Favorites and More. Now it is already showing the option “Record”, which, I assume it is only useful for limited amount of radio listeners. Ohh… it’s so easy to add just one more feature!

FStream App for iPhone

Google Android phones (and iPhones) are a good example of multi-purpose devices. Thanks to their good interface design users are able to manage a huge range of different tasks: music, pictures, work, maps and more. Still, they are victims of their own success; multitasking people could feel the need for more than one phone: users can do several things with them, but not at the same time.

Picture from Google Mobile Blog

Logitech Harmony Remote is a device that remotely controls 225000 different devices, including televisions, DVD players, radios and video games. A real do-it-all device. Unfortunately the interface description on the Logitech website is very vague but if the interface is well done it could eventually be a good product for geeks. But they are not going to sell it to my mother…

The Harmony Remote controls 225000 devices

“Reading is an important activity and deserves a purpose-built device”, said Jeff Bezos to the New York Times. He might be partially right, probably many users don’t want to see more features on the Amazon Kindle. Many think the audio book feature is already redundant (why would you need it if you have a great pocket size iPod?). On the other side, Bezos’ statement might just lack of sincerity; maybe he is not putting more features just because the device is limited by a low resolution, black and white, slow, not touchy screen.

The single purpose Amazon Kindle

Few devices can be more purpose-specific than the WikiReader. Many laughed at it when it was announced, now it’s a top seller. Simple interface design makes it a king in the only thing it does: accessing Wikipedia information without complications. Maybe someone using an iPhone won’t need it but what about children?

The single purpose WikiReader

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.

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.

Google 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 screenshot.

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

USB 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 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.

A padlock. Picture by Greenkozi.

The TDK Designer Solar Panel. Picture by Engadget.

A good example is the TDK solar panel design that has different draws and patterns on it. It could be argued that this device may not be as efficient as a normal solar panel but making the solar panels attractive could do a lot to make the adoption of the technology faster; and that’s important. The real potential in this technology is for use in big surfaces (like buildings) and maybe not just as personal devices.

Docomo Touch Wood phone

Many could think that the Docomo Touch Wood phone, made of wood, looks good. As this is avoiding the use of traditional plastic this design could be going in the right direction. In comparison to bio plastics, wood could last longer and, eventually, the case box could be reuse. Can we imagine updating the inner part of a wood phone instead of throwing away the whole thing?

Novothink solar charger for iPod

I am a little bit more skeptic about the greenery of this specific-use gadget. This is yet another gadget and the amount of resources needed to build it is probably big (water, energy, plastic, etc.). This is a big question we should ask ourselves as designers if we design a product to be marketed as “green” or sustainable: with this thing, do we save resources or do we consume more out of the planet?

The Samsung phone made of corn

Bio plastics are a very interesting material, still their advantages are questionable. They could be made of different sources, like potatoes and corn, fact that makes them not only less polluting but also morally incorrect (many people would argue). Of course that might depend on the efficiency of the producing of these materials: how many potatoes do we need to produce a kilo of bio-plastic?

]]> http://www.designvsart.com/blog/2009/10/16/make-sustainable-products-attractive/feed/ 3 http://www.designvsart.com/blog/2009/10/07/graphical-and-physical-keypads/ http://www.designvsart.com/blog/2009/10/07/graphical-and-physical-keypads/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:11:15 +0000 Alexis Brion http://www.designvsart.com/blog/?p=695 What can go wrong with a keypad design? Not much, we could think. Actually there are several things to make the interface easier to use (or usable at all!). Let’s see some examples.

Google Voice interface. Image from funkyspacemonkey.com

It’s difficult to imagine a keypad interface clearer than the one of Google Voice for iPhone. Everything is in the right place, there are no possibilities for confusion.

The Android interface. Picture by xda-developers.com

The Android keypad is not bad, but I’m a little bit skeptical about the lack of separation among the number columns and about the fact that buttons don’t look like buttons. Still, I think it might work pretty well most of the time.

Windows Mobile keypad interface. Picture by extremeppc.com

The Windows Mobile keypad interface could be a little bit confusing, I don’t like the fact that numbers are located on the right side of the buttons (instead of being in the center). Some people, specially the ones with big fingers, might accidentally press on the wrong button if they try to tap on the number and not in the center of the button. This configuration could also be a little bit disturbing for the users’ eye, humans tend naturally to look for symmetric signs and this buttons lack of that harmony.

Door keypad in Starbucks. Picture by Alexis Brion.

The last example is coming from the physical, real, world, not from a software interface. This is the keypad to unlock the toilet door at the Starbucks located in the Düsseldorf central station. I was sitting close to it and I couldn’t help watching the clients fail several times when trying to enter the code. Numbers are not located on the buttons, they are below them. Users were confusing labels: which is the number 5 button?