Q)How does one remember something?
A) When the mental artifact shifts from the STM (Short Term Memory) to LTM (Long Term Memory).
How does this process happen? One of the ways is through mugging. Now all of us are not smart enough to mug all the time. So when we encounter the artifact again and again in our tasks it gets imprinted in our minds eventually.
For Instance, they teach you in school that the capital of France is Paris in grade 1. You may or may not remember it. Maybe you remember it for the tests but then you forget it. So in grade 2 you encounter the same piece of information again. And again in the third grade. So finally it registers in the mind that the capital of France is Paris.
Forgetting Password
Similarly with Passwords. For the Accounts that you check more regularly the passwords are easier to remember because you encounter that piece of information everyday and hence you 'Remember' it. For accounts that you do not access frequently, the passwords are not remembered. Specially the accounts that you check once in 2 months or more. More so because you have many accounts online each with different usernames and passwords.
As a result, users forget their passwords. Now comes the usability issue. What many sites do is generate a new one instead of sharing the old one on the pretext of more security. This means that the user has now to remember a new piece of information. So sending him a new password as initiated a new cycle of forgetfulness. It has not helped the user remember it. This is because the user does not encounter the same piece of information for him to remember. Instead he has the challenge of remembering an altogether new piece of information.
Remembering Password
Instead the user should help the user encounter the same piece of information to the user by either giving him hints or mailing him his password. This ensures that the user eventually remembers his password. The users can delete the main containing the password immediately after getting the password is security is such an issue.
A word of Caution
When user does not remember passwords, he tends to note it down somewhere which is again a huge security breach. Instead its best the user remembers the password. We should therefore take steps towards making the user remember his password.
I am an interaction designer and my job is to create lots of screen flows and wireframes for software web applications.
I use powerpoint as my prototyping tool as its easier for the client to review and comment. ppt is very flexible but not designed to support prototyping. Visio is something that the clients do not have typically. So here goes the dream -
My ideal prototyping tool would have -
1. A library to store my widgets and templates - Most of the times I just copy paste the widgets I used in previous projects. I would like the application to identify and save these automatically.
2. Automatic Linking of Screens - The application could use my IA diagram and create a structure of pages automatically for me to work on.
3. A comment and review section - Each screen should have its own discussion place and pointers can be used to point things out on the screen. Reminders could be sent to reviewers who have not yet approved the screens.
4. Change at one place only - If I change the name of a link, label, button, then it should automatically reflect on all occurring places.
5. Ability to test it in the browser of choice - I should be able to test it in various browsers to see how it fares.
6. Suggestion of screen resolution - It should tell me what would be the best resolution for a certain browser and size of computer screen and other specifications.
7. Automatic Accessibility Accommodation - It should automatically accommodate accessibility considerations and notify the user wherever it is violated.
8. Web-based - So as to easily share it with stakeholders and peers. Anything new should be notified to the respective people. it could be downloaded anytime.
9. Automatic checking of standards and guidelines - I should be able to feed in the standards and guidelines and it should check these while I prototype and suggest an auto-correction.
10. Auto- generation of HTML - Finally my favorite feature :D!! .... It should generate HTML according to the standards and save all the donkeys from this work.
I believe that all this stuff is something we can out-source it to the machine and concentrate on the concept and ideas.
These features can be overridden at any point of time though. But really it saves so much of work. It we have a computer then might as well use it.
Introduction
In order to evaluate the usability of a system always judge how it performs for a typical usage. A few months back I presented in an HCI workshop for the benefit of engineering college faculties of Hyderabad. Usability is now being introduced at the graduation level and this presentation was an introduction to usability for these teachers. In the presentation I evaluated many systems for them, including an ATM Machine.
The pattern of evaluation was like this-
1. Identify the Usage Pattern of the Device or System
2. Evaluate whether the system facilitates the Usage Pattern
3. If not, then suggest improvements in design
Applying this to the ATM Machine
1. Identify the Usage Pattern of the Device or System
- Instant Cash Anywhere Anytime
- Quick and Easy cash
- For anyone literate or illiterate
- Most of the time amount withdrawn is the same
- Language chosen is same everytime
- Account time for a card is the same.
- ATM does not identify the account - Once the user enters the pass-code the system asks the user to select an account. But to my knowledge a card can be linked to only one account.
- It does not remember things - The user specifies the same language everytime. Why does not the ATM get it once and for all.
- Does not consider the typical usage - The user is got the habit of withdrawing the same amount over 90% of the time, so it should allow for dispensing that amount(checking from transaction history) at the click of a single button rather than having the user to enter the amount again (3 or more keystrokes).
- No prior notice of money finishing - There is always a queue that shifts from one ATM to another when the money gets over. Instead if a prior warning is given then users can find alternate means to take out money instead of wasting time in the queue.
- Does not simplify things - I have seen in many ATMs that in order to withdraw money, the ATM asks you to enter the amount to 2 decimal points, like 500.00. Will the ATM take out 50 paise if I do fill it?
3. Improvements in Design
- Adapt to the common scenario - The longer the process the harder it is for the user. So ask only what you wouldn't know at that point.
- Ask one time preferences only once -Language is one such thing.
- Simplify the Process - Identify the usage pattern and keep it as the default settings
So here it is. There are many more things you can do once you sit and start thinking. These are only a few of them.
Actual Implementation
Wells Fargo has recently changed the design of their 7000 or so ATMs to make it more user friendly.
Read Wells Fargo ATM Redesign
A brilliant example of gesture and touch based input is the unlocking system of the Android. It detects the pattern created by the user's finger on the phone and if the pattern matches then it unlocks the phone. It actually uses the idea of sequencing with dots. So simple that an illiterate could use it!
Take a look this android like system
A good article on this very different field of psychology that studies attention deficit problems in users.
"Information is no longer a scarce resource - attention is.... Computer-based interruptions fall into a sort of Heisenbergian uncertainty trap: it is difficult to know whether an e-mail message is worth interrupting your work for unless you open and read it - at which point you have, of course, interrupted yourself. Our software tools were essentially designed to compete with one another for our attention, like needy toddlers."
The thing is in a country like ours we are still living a life of needs. Very few have cut across the glass ceiling to have accomplished their desires. Very few have actually materialized their dreams. Mundane engineer, doctor, m.b.a professions have carved out a path for themselves nicely in our country because of the masses have treaded over it. However alternate professions are more like carving a new path for oneself. Finding solutions to new problems that noone else encounters usually is a challenging thing to do.
Simple things like efficient power usage, lightings, crossing a road, finding a regular food facility, finding conveyance, cooking food, etc. matter in life. Then there are bigger things like getting passport renewed, accessing right people for the right work, access to information and tools, access to courses and workshops, paying bills, booking tickets, and many more things take a toll on you. Where design and usability help is making processes for these simple and standardized such that life can move ahead. If booking tickets on phone is easy then people will do that, if paying bills online is easy then people will do that, if access to information in ubiquitous and easy then people will always be well equipped, if crossing roads and cooking food is easy then people will save time and effort, if power supply is efficiently used then not getting bogged down by power-cuts. To solve all these problems requires the involvement of usability professionals and designers who are not only big thinkers but they have ways to execute their designs as well.
Usability caters to the people who dream and work towards materializing their dreams. Its makes simple things of life easier, it adds value to product we interact with, gives positive signal of 'go ahead with what you were doing', it also becomes enticing and inspiring giving even more ideas to you when you want to accomplish something. Ever heard of the phrase - 'Design Inspires' ??
To analyze any service or product requires a step by step procedure from understanding the usage pattern to suggesting design directions. So what is the usage pattern of searching.
One thing we know is that we dun wake up one morning and start searching. That's fully faltoo and could form an edge case. For most people the need to search arises during inadequacy of present information. We need something all of a sudden and want to quench our thirst for the desired piece of info asap.
Let me jump to slightly different thread of thought. Technology, technology everywhere but not that all of us use it. Technology is still accessible to the geeks. Noone other than the geeks can just pick a technology and start using it. For the layman its still mumbo jumbo and they look for a nearby geek to break through it. Well, my point is search is something like that still.
Google search is excellent. It given me results instantly and is more relavent than other searches still. Google is become synonymous to searching. But still i find myself struggling trying to explain to the computer what is in my mind when i am searching for something. I change the words put then in a different order and use all my wits trying to understand what the computer can understand. And then luckily i get the results than i want.
The problem is that I need to talk the technology language for the search to work properly. To my relief one of my colleagues gave a shortcuts to search effectively in google. But then I am not a geek and do not have the patience to go through Help Files.
Search results in google is still a collectivist approach. It shows results based on popularity. It gives you results based on what most people mean when they type a certain word in the search box. However, this works when most people think alike. But most people do not think alike. Word associations differ with education, culture, context and past google experience. There are patterns of how people think.
Search is yet to be personalized to the way I think. Information should appear based on my past google experience. What is it that i ultimately select when i type certain keywords should somehow be taken into account. Based on the data accumulated for me, it should then predict what I mean when I type a certain keyword. Google should make use of the search data it accumulated to come out with persona types and searching patterns in order to predict search results effectively. It will know what I ultimately select when I stop searching. This is because I search only when information is inadequate. Once adequate I stop searching and continue with what I was doing.
This not only helps narrow down my search results but also reduced search results considerably. It saves time and effort. It makes search faster and more efficient. It also does not make me learn to think like a geek.
When i search for something, i am ultimately searching in a limited domain (like usability, hyderabad, graphic design, films, music, some more...) which it will recognize over a period of time. In a typical case (85% of all cases) I will search in one of these only. My word sematics is going to depend on my domain. When I mean User Interface it will be screens of appliances and not UML diagrams in most cases (95% of all cases). When I type potato recipe it will depend on my location and in a typical case will be an Indian recipe (85% of all cases) . When I type graphic design it means that i want to know more about it and not hire a graphic designer (95% of the cases).
So what I am saying is that in order to design a certain system you need to design it for a typical context of use who are trying to accomplish a typical goal. Untill then information foraging will be a geekish thing to do.
While scanning through a long list of pending blog reads, I thought of observing how I scan them. I realized the pattern to be based on
- my existing knowledge of things around
- my interests to know something
- the way the text is put on the screen
As I went scrolling down on my Google Reader article after article, I only stopped if a heading caught my attention.
When I looked at the information on the reader my eye moved top to bottom across text to identify something I was familiar with. This was based on my existing familiarity with things. Something that looked interesting. My eye was typically blocked by words that had the first letter as capital. A strong looking word blocked my eye from flowing. If the word was identified by me then I stopped to read the title else I moved on.
This tells me to use keywords that the target audience is familiar with so its easy identify them. Then make the first
letter as capital so that it blocks the Eye Movement.
If a heading had a number, it attracted more attention because it gave me some free information that i could look at without reading the article. I got stopped by numbers.
Where there was a lot of text that looked all the same my eye was blocked by pattern breaking elements like a link. Then again if I encountered a link in quotes introducing a new term, i typically clicked on it. I did not click on a link that I knew I was already familiar with. I also clicked on the first link that I found interesting rather than choosing among many of them. I did not click on more than 2 links in the same article.
I was also stopped by articles that had images because here again I get a story in mind before reading up the article. And if i get curious enough I go ahead and read it.
Some of the keywords that attracted my attention were:
Game, Micro, Google, 10, 11.1b, MacBook Air, 8 things.., 10 best ..., awesome, 2.0, Jobs, "Text In Quotes"
The new 2 rupee coin glistened under the KFC lights and as I took a closer look at its over simplified imagery and smooth form it looked unlike any other Indian coin I ever saw. To test its unique design would be great fun.
And so it begins, the experiment to know how usable the new design was.
Me: So here's a bag that contains different coins and kindly pick up a 1 rupee coin in 5 sec.
Subject A: (Moving hands in the bag) Here it is.
Me: Thanks, who is next?
After testing with half a dozen subjects, the results showed that 1 rupee coin was taken out successfully only half of the time and the in the rest of the cases it was the brand new 2 rupee coin that took its place.
A similar experiment followed with a 5 rupee coin with 100% success rate.
As we analysed why it happened,
We realized that the subjects while hunting for the 1 rupee coin, felt for smooth texture, lighter weight and limited thickness.
The premise for conducting such an experiment was to enact the real life example of taking coin out in a jiffy say while paying back to the auto fellow who is dying to leave, a crowded supermarket where people behind you are waiting in the queue, in a bus where you cannot let go of the handle bars for too long to pay the money for the ticket, etc. Coins are always given in a hurry also pertaining to its low currency value. So then fundamental charcteristics of shape, texture, weight and volume come into play very significantly.
So we placed a 1 rupee, the new 2 rupee and old 2 rupee coins on my palm with their backs upside and asked people around to tell me the currency on each one of them. They all gave correct answers for the 1 rupee and the old 2 rupee coin and but but not for the new 2 rupee coin. Besides the reason that it was new and wasn't very familiar to people, the new 2 rupee coin was hardly distinguishable from the 1 rupee coin. Also how is a visually impaired person supposed to make it out from the old 1 rupee coin? How are the millions of illiterate people we have in our country supposed to make it out from the old 1 rupee coin ?
So what goes in while designing a good coin?
Very fundamental things like size, shape, color, texture, weight, etc. All the factors that identify it in less that a second. Things where people don't have to read the text on the coin. Something that is accessible to everyone.
So let's start making life simple starting with the small things in life.
