Philosophy

I am often asked what my philosophy or ideal is when it comes to user interface.  The answer is simple, if you’ve done your job correctly people don’t need to notice the interface.  Now that’s not to say that it needs to be boring and invisible, it just needs to have the ability to be invisible to the user who is only looking for specific content or trying to complete a specific task.  The reality of User Experience Design is that there is no “one size fits all”.  This is not just because everyone is different, but it’s also because every field and interest is different.

There is a difference between “Ease of use” and “Usability“.  Over the years I have found that these two items become confused so often and the end result is an interface that is not only ugly, but barely usable.  It used to be a common practice to let the engineer design the interface.  This ended badly and it wasn’t because the engineer had poor intentions or an inferior aesthetic.  It was simply because engineers look for different things than end-users.  Then there was a shift and user interface was being designed by marketing teams and graphic designers (this is still the most common practice).  The problem with this is that most marketing teams and graphic designers don’t understand how the code works.  They don’t understand databases or infrastructure overhead and they don’t understand how that impacts the maintenance cycle of a product.  The answer is a hybrid professional who is specialized in User Experience.

Here’s an analogy:

An engineer is organized, much like an auto-mechanic.  When a car comes into their shop for maintenance or repair, the mechanic (engineer) knows exactly what to do.  They know that they will need certain tools, and they know how to use those tools in order to complete the task set before them.  They don’t need to think about it, so they go to the place where they keep all of their tools…  The toolbox.  And in the toolbox they have a drawer for screwdrivers and a drawer for wrenches and so on.  When they need a socket, they know exactly where to find it.  It is because of this system that they are efficient and get the job done.  But we have to remember that these mechanics and engineers know EXACTLY what they’re doing.  They knew what the problem was, or how to find out what the problem was, before they even opened the hood of the car.

The end-user is not prepared for this.

Most end-users are doing one of two things.  They are either A) looking for something specific, or B) they are browsing.  When the end-user brings their car into their own garage, what they need is something different from what the mechanic needs.   The end-user can’t be expected to know that they will need to have a specific screwdriver or a specific wrench in order to complete a specific task.  What the end user needs is a “Tire Change Drawer” and an “Oil Change Drawer” and maybe even a “Replace the Clutch Drawer”.  And those drawers might have duplicate tools.   But, the end-user can arrive at that drawer and have everything they need to complete the task that is set before them.

The appearance of the interface should compliment, but not take away from the task that is at hand.  If possible I try to craft the appearance of the interface in such a way as to accent and highlight the usable nature of it.

This all sounds very basic, but you wouldn’t believe how frequently this doesn’t happen.  It’s hard to get over the visual aspect of a design and get right down to the usability.  As User Experience professionals, we need to keep this in mind and fix our focus on delivering highly usable designs that are targeted at our user base.   This means that not all websites have to be accessible for everyone on earth.  They do need to be accessible enough to meet any accessibility requirements set by law, but if you’re catering to a group of competitive, cross country skiing marksmen who hang glide from the finish-line back to their motorcycles before going home to their day job as surgeons…   You might not have to spend that extra week on screen-reader compatibility.   Believe it or not there are a great many dissenting opinions in this industry on that last remark.   There is a group of UX professionals who believe that everything ever created should be accessible and usable to all people regardless.   I think that is a noble and idealistic view of user experience and while it certainly is something to aspire to…  I wouldn’t advise spending your employers hard earned money, or diluting the value of a stock just to provide an easier to use interface to a user-group that is incredibly unlikely to use your application or visit your website.  I will reiterate, that I believe that we should always aspire for complete accessibility.  This philosophy comes to play in the end-polishing of a product.