Carmony’s current poster campaign shows just how ubiquitous UI is becoming. Selling gadgets like iPhones on sexy interface is easy work; online used car sales are a different matter.
The girls got some Playmobil as a present recently. On the back of the box, this icon indicates which ‘Product World’ the set belongs to. Baffled? Surely, it’s either Tramptown or Bad transvestite land.
Answer: A quick trip to the Playmobil website reveals that it’s actually Farm. Can you think of a better way of representing a farmer?
Getting People to Talk: An Ethnography & Interviewing Primer is a wonderful video made by students at the Illinois Institute of Design. It’s also a great example of a Participatory Video approach as one of the creators, Gabriel Biller, notes on his blog:
… we hope that this will be just the first of many videos produced by ID students to help teach others about techniques, methods, and other aspects of design through the powerful and entertaining medium of video.
I won’t try and summarise the film here other than to say that it does an excellent job of demystifying ethnography and showing the benefits of getting in to the field.
Dan Saffer asks about new techniques to try in 2007. (We’re closer to 2008 now, but I started this in response to Dan’s post so I thought I ought to finish it off before we hit New Year again.) Participatory Video (PV) has been around for a long time, but with YouTube making national news and video mobiles well established, a cut-down version could provide a useful addition to the toolbox of methods available to researchers and designers.
PV creates a story told by users in their own way about issues that matter to them. In the traditional version, participants film and share short videos. The researcher acts as a facilitator providing training to use the video equipment; a series of games to introduce specialist concepts like storyboarding; and help to identify issues for study. When done well, it presents the ‘inside view’ in a lively way that is accessible to people at all levels. It promotes the skills of filmmaking and storytelling and delivers outcomes that can be used as tools for education. This isn’t like a diary study, capturing things exactly as they happen when they happen. It’s about people telling a story, distilling the essence of an issue that matters to them. Remember a group project you did at school or college, then add video and you’re getting there.
A streamlined version could see some of the facilitation done online or through pre-prepared packs, with people recording clips on mobiles then exchanging and responding to them using services like Google Video or Viddler. Imagine workers at a car production plant making a film about their day, or a group of diabetics sharing the story of their condition.
If this sounds interesting, why not check out Insight UK’s fantastic ‘Insights into Participatory Video: A Handbook for the Field‘ (you can download a free PDF version of the book from their website; you just need to register a few details). It’s an excellent guide to using Participatory Video and a great example of an accessible and practitioner-focussed resource. Even if you don’t think there’s much mileage in PV I’d still suggest having a look at the handbook. It really is excellent. (I’m not in any way associated with Insight UK, I just think they’re doing good work.) And anyway, it looks like Participatory Video is already happening on sites like YouTube. The question is whether we as designers want to embrace it.
England’s recent friendly against Brazil gave me my first glimpse of the new Wembley stadium. For an architectural structure that’s created so much controversy, taken so long to build and cost so much it seems a bit, um, underwhelming.
The ‘triumphal’ arch is impressive from a distance, but there’s no element of surprise or delight to the stadium. No emotional connection.
Contrast that with Munich’s Allianz Arena.
The outer shell changes colour depending on which of the local teams is playing. Red for Bayern Munich, Blue for 1860 Munich (with white for derbies and Internationals). Amazing and guaranteed to ignite passions. Imagine being a home supporter and seeing your team’s colours enveloping your stadium. The simplest, yet most visceral connection for any football fan. Suddenly, all of the triumph seems to have disappeared from that arch.
Talking to a friend who’d visited Wembley a few weeks ago it seems that the architects got some things right. He marvelled at the number of toilets (it’s always details); 2,618 of them according to the official Wembley site. A lesson learned from the limited facilities at the old stadium which lead to some, er, interesting workarounds from spectators. At half-time there were usually three queues of people waiting to relieve themselves: one for the cubicles, one for the urinals and one for the sinks. Still, I suppose it makes for easy access to the taps afterwards.
Photography from sismastery, rp72, gonzales2010 and probek on flickr.
The paradox of interface design is that when it’s done well you shouldn’t notice it. Good interfaces seem natural because everything you want is to hand. (A principle described as what-you-see-is-what-you-need by software interface heavyweights Constantine & Lockwood.) It means that you can get on with what you’re trying to do rather than worrying about how to do it. When you don’t see what you need breakdowns happen; flow is broken and suddenly the interface is the problem.
Consider this screen from Amazon’s Marketplace service. The idea is to provide feedback on your purchase to help drive their reputation system. And it works well, up to a point. The designers even remind you of the information you need to complete the task in the ‘Questions to consider’ panel, but then don’t provide an interface to all of it! Look at the second question. It’s probably one of the most important things in any transaction: ‘Did the seller accurately describe the items?’. Yet, despite having this information in their database, Amazon expect you to to recall the original description from memory.
This constantly frustrates me because it makes it difficult to give accurate feedback; the cornerstone of any reputation system.
Here’s my revision. Simply adding the original description (by exposing a field in a database) gives me the information I need to properly rate the book purchase.
To know what people need in their software interfaces you have to appreciate how the software is being used; what the people using it are trying to achieve; and the information they need to get that job done. And having made the effort to understand what’s to be done you need to make sure that your application supports it.
… what do I have to do to make sure this film is shown in Birmingham?
Cool, straight-laced Swiss type (50) seeks partner for illicit liaisons and fun. GSOH essential.
Glorious! But, alas, no digital version. (Now where did I put my film setter?)
See more beautiful bastardised fonts in Typographica’s fantastic interview with Phil Simmons Martin. (Oops! Thanks to Stephen for pointing out my mistake.)
I hoped that the ‘mirrored everything’ effect would disappear before I got a chance to write about it. It’s just such a useless ‘me too’ fad, like drop shadow 10 years ago. Take this example from the .net framework website. It actually makes the headline more difficult to read because the letter shapes are less distinct.
And what to do with those pesky descenders? (They do so tend to break the illusion.)
If you want my advice, lose the reflection and stand out by being different.
Foldschool’s child-friendly cardboard furniture appeals directly to the tightfisted, recyling, origami-loving, paper prototyper in me. (And having just moved house I’ve got an abundant supply of old boxes I can re-use.) Brilliant!