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Oh, there goes the big red clock counting down. I have to start! Hey guys, my name is Cameron Daigle. I'm the senior designer at Hashrocket, where our offices are located in Chicago, Boulder, and Jacksonville Beach. I'm the longest-tenured member of the design team, and we build Ruby on Rails apps, iOS apps, and do a lot of different things.
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What I'm going to talk to you guys about today is going to be another code-free design talk, so I hope you didn't want to see any more code today. It's almost an app and website-free talk as well because what I'm really discussing are not interactions that you're going to have in a normal context, like on your phone or laptop, but rather I want you to discover the interactions around you. That means I want you guys to build up the ability to actively participate in interactions that you might not otherwise think about, such as your habits, and be able to quantify what you do and don’t like about them. Hopefully, you can apply this to how we design products.
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My first example is Publix. Who likes Publix? Is anybody from the Florida area? Publix is a really nice grocery store. I don't know what you guys have in Chicago, but Publix is the best we've got in Florida. It provides a really nice user experience when you're getting your groceries. When you go to pay at Publix, this is a regular occurrence for me: you swipe your card, see the total, and agree to everything. However, when you get to the cash back screen, there's a prompt that asks about cash back. If I tap 'No' here, the purchase is considered completed, but that feels frustrating because the last thing I tell Publix is 'No' when purchasing my canned beer.
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It's this grating experience, and it's just a little detail that really matters. Every single person who interacts with Publix encounters this screen where they momentarily stop and think, 'Wait, what?' In contrast, when I go to Target, which is about a hundred yards from Publix, their final screen feels different. It also has a question about cash back, but it is presented in a way that feels less abrupt. The options are clearer and it's a more forgiving experience. Even though the phrasing could be improved, it illustrates my point that the world is full of forms where we input information and get some sort of result. The interactions we encounter when developing or designing apps have a lot of parallels in the real world.
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I was in Vegas a couple of years ago, and mostly what I remember was the traffic and concrete. I took a cab ride, which ended up costing about eighteen dollars to go two blocks. When I swiped my card, the little device inside the cab calculated my tip for me, and I thought, 'That's fantastic.' It made an otherwise miserable cab experience better because the person who built that interface took advantage of the situation by making an extra step easier. You probably recognize this from Stripe, where that kind of interaction happens often. On the other hand, I later took the monorail—and when I walked up to the ticket display, my friend and I were baffled by how complicated it was to buy a ticket.
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The screen prompted us with clear options for ticket quantity, but it's confusing to ask a yes/no question when presenting a simple choice of buying a ticket. It felt unnecessarily complicated and we found ourselves confused at the interface. This led me to reflect on why such designs exist and quickly realize that we don't always understand the rationale behind these design choices. Through my experiences with video games, like in Super Mario Galaxy, I've encountered similar issues. Sometimes game developers create quirky dialog options, which might stem from limitations in their design objects rather than a thought-out choice. It can be amusing, but it also reveals the depth of design that goes unseen.
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Another example comes from an error message I encountered in iOS, which was both hilarious and terrifying. It read, 'Unexpected token wanted,' followed by a confusing list of symbols. This type of humor can lighten an experience, but it also showcases potential flaws in design clarity. It's often that we encounter these amusing mishaps that draw attention to the inadequacies in a user interface. For instance, Siri’s interpretations may sometimes be humorous, but they reveal the complexities and risks of relying too heavily on a single design method. In the world of interaction design, we should examine these pitfalls to avoid inadvertently sacrificing clarity for complexity.
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This is where I want to introduce three types of principles that can help us quantify these design challenges. The first is respect for intuition, which raises the question: Does it do what I think it will do? It sounds basic, but more often than not, things don’t behave as expected. For example, with coffee makers, pressing the brew button might initiate a display wake-up but not brew coffee. It’s confusing for users because the button doesn’t function as labeled. This leads to the second principle of having a common language within an interface to manage users' expectations.
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When looking at car dashboards, we see a diverse array of designs and functionalities. Users commonly assume a button does one thing when it may actually perform a completely different function. This inconsistency in design can confuse new users. Consistent interfaces are crucial, as navigating through them can often be done by users who understand what these elements do. However, when manufacturers diverge too much from established practices, it results in confusion and frustration.
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Let’s talk about microwaves. I believe they might hold the title for having the most perplexing user interfaces in the kitchen. The variety of buttons and settings can baffle anyone who doesn’t use it frequently. User intuition is key; if someone is unfamiliar with the controls, the likelihood of misunderstanding their purpose is significantly high. Adding to this complexity are microwaves that shift modes without any clear indicators. For instance, forgetting which mode you’re in after pressing a specific button might lead to pressing the wrong controls. The interface should signal clearly when modes change, as with coffee machines, which often contain a wealth of complex controls.
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There’s a balance to achieving both simplicity and functionality. A well-designed interface respects user intuition by ensuring that options are clear and doable without much guesswork. It's crucial to design in a way that the user doesn’t feel lost, which is vital for user experience. When creating products, prioritize common language and context awareness in your designs, as those foundational elements greatly enhance usability.
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The last principle to consider is a sense of place. Where is the user in relation to your application or interface? Much like how navigation buttons direct a user within a building, our goal is to ground users and provide them with an understanding of their current action and location. Clear navigation helps users know where they are, both within an application and as it relates to the real world. For seasoned users of complex tools, this may be intuitive, but new users require clearly defined pathways to navigate the unknown.
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I want to wrap up by reiterating a call to action: discover the interactions around you. Respect your users’ intuition, language, and sense of place. Understanding where things go wrong in these areas will greatly enhance your ability to design effective interactions that are helpful and engaging for everyone. Recognizing this rapport is essential in all fields. We can foster better solutions through the learning processes derived from our observations around us, which ultimately leads to superior product development and user satisfaction.
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It’s important that we see these interactions not only as interfaces but as opportunities to tell better stories with our designs. Collectively, we should strive to show that we value the experiences of our users, demonstrating our commitment to their success and ease of use. This has immense implications for the way we design products, ultimately shaping the expectations users have for future interactions. Thanks so much for listening!