Usability
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I had one of those blenders and it did exactly the same thing. Right in the middle of making a mango lassi. Mango semi lassi. :|
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
Right in the middle of making a mango lassi.
I find it suspicious that you would make and drink something like that.
The Digital World. It is an amazing place in which we primitive humans interact. Our flesh made this synthetic machine. You see, we are so smart, we know a lot of stuff. We were grown from cells that came from the universe, which the matter and physics I'm typing in it is amazing how the universe is working. Human life is very amazing. How I experience this sh*t its like wow.
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While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
99 times out of 100 my request to ask the user what they would expect is trumped by a more senior person on the team stating let's just do it X (usually his or her personal preference which is usually completely opposite from a standard user experience idea) instead of taking the minuscule effort required to ask a user. My point: Most people on a team are not concerned with the final goal but merely with a 9 to 5.
Need a C# Consultant? I'm available.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -- Ernest Hemingway -
While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
Cuisinart *is* the yuppy blender but it works great. :) I went from a crappy blender to a cuisinart and it's always a joy to use. The thing about the cuisinarts usability is something that applies to every product: People are usually lured in with a zillion features but over the long haul they tend to prefer the product that just *works* every time, no muss, no fuss and doesn't try to be everything to everyone. I fully take that thinking into designing software, I wish everyone did. The downside is that when you design software that just works you have a harder time selling it at first but the upside is that you have a much easier time selling it (and upgrades) in the long run because people come to appreciate it. A Cuisinart blender is a perfect metaphor for a good product, more expensive (a *lot* more) but a much better product to own and use in the long run. It's like stereos in the 80's. For a long time you could very accurately tell how good a stero was by how many buttons and controls and displays it had, the fewer the better. Software is much the same, the truly great software that people the world over appreciate is always the simplest, easiest to use with the least amount of options that just seems to do what you want it to do every time. It's not hard to design software that way, you just have to stop thinking like a programmer and think like an end user and most importantly of all you have to understand intimately what tasks they are trying to accomplish. That's why often the best software is in niche markets and made by people who needed that software in the first place.
"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying." - David Ogilvy
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99 times out of 100 my request to ask the user what they would expect is trumped by a more senior person on the team stating let's just do it X (usually his or her personal preference which is usually completely opposite from a standard user experience idea) instead of taking the minuscule effort required to ask a user. My point: Most people on a team are not concerned with the final goal but merely with a 9 to 5.
Need a C# Consultant? I'm available.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. -- Ernest HemingwayI learned a *lot* when I first started doing contract programming (my first pay for programming gig). I used to sit in the office and watch the ladies work (it was always ladies) and then write the software that was automating whatever it was they needed. Usually the notes I got from the boss who wanted the software in the first place were utter crap. One old timer secretary in an office can give you a better idea of what the software needs to do and how it needs to do it in 10 minutes than hours in meetings with the bosses. No software should be designed without sitting down with the end users first and doing a mockup then sitting down with them again to walk through it and see it in action.
"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying." - David Ogilvy
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Chris Maunder wrote:
Right in the middle of making a mango lassi.
I find it suspicious that you would make and drink something like that.
The Digital World. It is an amazing place in which we primitive humans interact. Our flesh made this synthetic machine. You see, we are so smart, we know a lot of stuff. We were grown from cells that came from the universe, which the matter and physics I'm typing in it is amazing how the universe is working. Human life is very amazing. How I experience this sh*t its like wow.
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Yeah, I have some. I forgot I had it.
The Digital World. It is an amazing place in which we primitive humans interact. Our flesh made this synthetic machine. You see, we are so smart, we know a lot of stuff. We were grown from cells that came from the universe, which the matter and physics I'm typing in it is amazing how the universe is working. Human life is very amazing. How I experience this sh*t its like wow.
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While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
Shog9 wrote:
Is it really that hard to remember what you're doing? To stop, once and a while, and actually try to make the software you're writing do what every user it will ever have will expect it to do?
No, but - juding the "state of the industry" - it gets trickier to be bothered at all.
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
I tried the, probably over-refined, capsules once, to very little of the 'promised' effect.
Pits fall into Chuck Norris.
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Yeah, I have some. I forgot I had it.
The Digital World. It is an amazing place in which we primitive humans interact. Our flesh made this synthetic machine. You see, we are so smart, we know a lot of stuff. We were grown from cells that came from the universe, which the matter and physics I'm typing in it is amazing how the universe is working. Human life is very amazing. How I experience this sh*t its like wow.
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While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
When you have a primary user who will count the number of click to achieve something and then start perstering you if she's not happy you very quickly learn to take these into account. I also think this is one of the main areas where experience tends to make a difference. Old farts are usually irritated by irrelevant operations and naturally remove them.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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I learned a *lot* when I first started doing contract programming (my first pay for programming gig). I used to sit in the office and watch the ladies work (it was always ladies) and then write the software that was automating whatever it was they needed. Usually the notes I got from the boss who wanted the software in the first place were utter crap. One old timer secretary in an office can give you a better idea of what the software needs to do and how it needs to do it in 10 minutes than hours in meetings with the bosses. No software should be designed without sitting down with the end users first and doing a mockup then sitting down with them again to walk through it and see it in action.
"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying." - David Ogilvy
Most of our core application features are driven by users. Every release breeds a plethora of new feature and change requests, and after bug fixes, that forms the bulk of work for the next release.
Pits fall into Chuck Norris.
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While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
Shog9 wrote:
a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless.
We have a Kenwood blender. It has one button (on/off) and you just push the jug down onto the top and it connects. Bloody marvelous. The cognitive cost of using it is so much lower than any other device in the kitchen that I enjoy using it.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:
At least he achieved immortality for a few years.
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While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
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While grilling hamburgers and enjoying tasty blended adult beverages, the neighbor and i got to discussing blenders. He mentioned the experience he'd had with a Cuisinart blender, purchased as a replacement for a much cheaper brand... while the yuppie brand had a much more attractive appearance, it did not actually do a very good job of blending, and had the additional downside of a rather complex drive gear which shattered after the pitcher was improperly seated rendering the machine useless. This reminded me of certain experiences i've had with software. There's a common theme that tends to appear in discussions of software usability, an attempt to compare competing products based on their ability to "do what the user expects". These tend to devolve into flames, as the different expectations of different users give rise to intractable differences in opinion as to which product best fulfills this nebulous requirement. As much fun as these are, they're ultimately useless - these design decisions will steer some users in the direction of a product, but they won't keep them there if more fundamental requirements aren't met. A word processor needs to give the user basic editing ability, a good idea of what their document will look like when printed, and the ability to print. A web browser needs to load, display, and allow interaction with websites. A data-entry application must accept and record input accurately and reliably. An online shop must allow users to browser products, select those they wish to order, and accept the eventual order. These are the most basic assumptions, and yet, far too often it seems that they are de-emphasized - like the Cuisinart's drive gear - in favor of trendy designs or superfluous decorations. I was shopping online for brake pads - for skates - when i was called away. Upon my return, i resumed my activity by clicking on the link to order... and was informed that my session had timed out and i would need to restart from the main page. This was after having to navigate through several areas of the site to find the product i was looking for... and at no time had i logged in or done anything else that might require the existence of a session, much less one that would time out in anything under a week. Yet, there i was, inconvenienced by a design that gave little priority to the basic needs of a product catalog user. Just about every day, i run into things like this... from the file manager that hides files, to the text editor that tries to be a file manager, to the source control client
I highly recommend this blender http://www.oster.com/ProductCategory.aspx?mpcid=2&cname=Blenders&cid=1550&pid=4532[^] Or any oster blender with a glass jar. And if you're lucky enough to lose the base of the blender during a move, you can buy another one and have 2 glass jars!
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I highly recommend this blender http://www.oster.com/ProductCategory.aspx?mpcid=2&cname=Blenders&cid=1550&pid=4532[^] Or any oster blender with a glass jar. And if you're lucky enough to lose the base of the blender during a move, you can buy another one and have 2 glass jars!
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Most of our core application features are driven by users. Every release breeds a plethora of new feature and change requests, and after bug fixes, that forms the bulk of work for the next release.
Pits fall into Chuck Norris.
So are ours and you have to be highly picky about which of those suggested features are added and how they are added or you can end up with a monster of unusability on your hands; but that's entirely unrelated to watching a user actually using your software and finding out that how you use it as a designer and a developer often bears little or no resemblance to how the user uses and thinks about your software.
"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying." - David Ogilvy