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Demand More
By Micha | March 29, 2008
What is a software application?
When we think of a software application, most of us will conjure up the image of some sort of user interface splashed across a computer screen. As far as most of us are concerned, whatever is on the screen is the software. Period.
Engineers will tend to look at it a little differently. They are of course very aware of what goes on ‘behind the screen’ that makes all this stuff appear as it does and do all the things it does.
As a user interface systems designer I look at the screen as bit of a battleground. Two decades of working in the industrial software biz makes me intensely aware of the people behind a given application and sometimes I can almost hear the arguments and debates that must have taken place in the process of its creation.
In that sense I see a software application as an attempt by a small group of people (behind the screen) to communicate with a large group of people (in front of the screen). Typically, the purpose of this communication is so focused on some functionality that we usually see the software application as a thing unto itself rather than as a meeting point between engineers and users or vendors and customers.
What I mean is, we treat a software application as a distinct objective entity rather than as a measure of a complex relationship between two distinct groups of people.
From the point of view of a usability specialist, and standing just slightly behind the screen, I see a software application as an attempt to anticipate something significant about who you are as a user and what tasks you are trying to accomplish. It’s a sort of disembodied sketch of you and aspects of your life.
Your ease of use for a given application is directly related to the accuracy of the image that the software’s creators have of you. If the producers of the application never bothered to put themselves in your shoes as a user, then your experience of that software will probably be somewhat uncomfortable if not outright frustrating. Perhaps you can recall such an experience. Perhaps you can recall many.
On the other hand it is not always easy to do that envisioning work, especially if the application is a new invention or a venture into new territory. Unless the application designers have their feet on the ground and are truly able to see things from the users’ point of view, their efforts may be wasted.
And worse yet for the vendor’s business plan, the entire R&D and marketing efforts may be at risk because if a better alternative comes along, customers may well flee at the first opportunity.
I saw something the other day that illustrates this situation quite nicely.
This billboard serves as a wonderful analogy for the type of software application that misses the point. In this case, the ‘functionality’ is not distracting, in fact there may be no functionality at all beyond the intent to entertain pedestrians at a busy street corner.
I think it’s safe to say that the entertainment value comes from the mysterious trick that our eyes seem to be playing on us. The point being that the dot is objectively half way down the triangle but when we look at it, it seems to be closer to the top.
But in this particular deployment, if the Passerby User thinks to herself “but the dot really does look closer to the top” she would be perfectly correct. Look at the metrics up close.
This ‘Billboard Application’ was deployed on the roof of a building and, from the user’s perspective, the dot is closer to the top because of the non-linearity of the optics. However slight it may be, the subjective experience is in fact more accurate than the creators had perhaps anticipated and arguably the entire point of the application is lost.
So there is a similar kind of disconnect here between the intent of the application creators and the experience of the application users.
As a User Advocate my point is this: like a gigantic billboard towering over a streetscape, a computer software application may carry a certain air of objective authority. We, as individual users, are often made to feel very small and are forced to adjust to its way of doing things.
So often we have no choice, no matter how frustrating the user experience may be. We often don’t question the way an application behaves because we are too busy trying to use it. We’re trying to book a plane ticket or print out an invoice or find a bus route or whatever the task is at hand. We are usually so focused on trying to achieve that particular goal that we can’t step back far enough to see how this application could be made better - beyond wishing it would just place the right button at the right time in the middle of the flippin’ screen.
So, fellow users, if you can take away one thing from all this (listen up fellow designers and engineers) I would hope it is a strengthened sense that your experience is what really counts. It’s worth remembering that, from your perspective, the software is the tool and not an end unto itself. If you find yourself feeling confused or frustrated by the way an application behaves, you are entitled to absolve yourself of blame and see the problem as lying on the other side of the computer screen. Demand more.
Topics: user interface design, subject oriented design, artificial intelligence, usability, graphical user interfaces, systems, customer relations, user relations, user experience, functional design, ineffective communication, understanding technology, effective communication, target users, target markets |