Advanced Simplicity Workshop from UX London (Giles Colborne)

Advanced simplicityGiles Colbornecxpartners

Hello! 2

Advanced simplicity? WTF? 3

He means:I would not give a ﬁg Dumbing Downfor the simplicity this is bad. But GENiusside of complexity, simplicity is great.but I would give my lifefor the simplicity onthe other side ofcomplexityOliver Wendell Holmes 4

Part 1 Part 2understanding it achieving it 5

is your life too simple ortoo complicated? 6

Do you alwaysbuy the simplestproduct on offer? 7

Do you try todo more things thanyou have time for? 8

Have yourchoices madeyour life toocomplicated? 9

You see, wealways want tokeep it simple... 10

but temptationoften gets the better of us. 11

If you can’t explain it simplyyou don’t understand itwell enoughAlbert Einstein so let’s see if we can make simplicity simple again. 12

What is minimal? GOabout tenyears ago, iwas workingon this online bank statement. 14

ol the date contr e worked just fin Usable in testing. But ed the more i look at it, the less i liked it.Mar 2011 GO 15

t you could selec a date in the future.Nov 2011 GO ERROR! 16

and you could select a date more than 12 ey months ago (th only kept 1 statements for ?) year - who knewJan 2010 GO ERROR! 17

Simple Mar 2011 Feb 2011and it struck m e Jan 2011there was a Dec 2010better way todesign this. Nov 2010 Oct 2010 18

simplicity = Extreme usability which made me t realise that jus because something was usable, that as didn’t mean it w simple. 19

n the web focuses o ne Web Usability getting the job do in the users’ own n’t time. Efficiency is a big factor - even when you watch users.Effectiveness Satisfaction Efficiency ISO 9241-11 perceived efficiency 20

if you’re aiming fo r Extreme Usabilityextreme usability, it then you try to h high scores in all areas. Effectiveness Satisfaction Efficiency ISO 9241-11 21

eSo an interface likthis, which seemsfine online... 22

eends up looking likthis - efficiency,effectiveness and llsatisfaction are a important. 23

Simple! So - that’s all we h need to do. hit hig ee. scores on all thr 24

not so fast! 25

ACTIVITY let’s vote on gs whether these thin are simple and d complex. We shoul all agree - right? simplE complex 26

Looks simple. But ?what does it mean 27

Simple. On theoutside. 28

ebut complex on thinside. 29

dodo one thing andit well. That’s the ity.mantra of simplic Right? 30

So what happenswhen you have akitchen full of ‘do itone thing and do well’? 31

Complex? if you’ve aever tried ‘typing’URL with a Wii-remotethe n this looks a lot better. (although i have to t ake issue with any re mote control with two on/off buttons.) 32

Simplicityis not the answerDonald Norman simplicity is a slippery e concept. mayb we need to reconsider.

Simplicity is the ultimatesophisticationLeonardo Da Vinci but this guy also k has a great trac record and he thinks it’s important. So let’s not give up yet.

ercan we find a bett theway of explaining exdual simple-compl enature of all thes things? 35

Simplicity isn’t asolution or aquality. simplicity rs’happens in the use head. Simplicity is experienced 36

Strong What using it feels like What it looks likeWeak How it’s made and with e e xperiences, som things matter s. more than other 37

works for any experiencebut today, we’re talking aboutsimplicity great. but if we aim fo r simplicity all the t time, won’t we jus get... bland? 38

Simplicity does not mean want orpoverty. It does not mean the absenceof any decor or absolute nudity.It only means that the decor shouldbelong intimately to the design proper,and that anything foreign to it shouldbe taken away.Paul Jacques Grillo, Form, Function and Design 39

Simple so we can add another layer to e simplicity to creat . richer experiences We do that with e motion and mood.modern traditional elegant 40

in the businessworld, we’re not ing very good at talk about emotion. 41

two identicalproducts -mastercard withadded loyalty benefits. and both brands have a reputation for r. m aking stuff simple he but you’d expect t experience to be ere different if you w eir to call each of th call centres. 42

name of product / servicePractical: it makes simpleEmotional: it makes me feel Social: it makes me look y here’s a simple wa nd . of capturing a bra 43

ACTIVITY Pick a brand MARKS & (or any SPENCER other) and a product (or any other) and describe the experience 44

how did you get on? 45

Can you make this simple & Friendly? how does brand + te simplicity transla into designing ? better interfaces to the first thing is find the points of friction. 46

name of product / service Photojojo Buying Photo Practical: it makes simple supplies Emotional: it makes me feel playful greatso take a Social: it makes me look creativeonline store likephotojojo... 47

Photojojo.com fand at the point ofriction, that’s ewhere they choosto do something y. simple and friendl 48

ACTIVITY Think of an experience that felt complicated to you what and why? 50

Find anything interesting? let’s pick out a couple of key points from ... what we found 51

things feel complex when w e’re acting like r a mainstreameExpert and the system mainstreamer r is designed foperfection experts. completionprecise control Ease of controltake it apart, explore afraid of breaking itExact match good enoughPrinciples examples, storiesdetailed mental model loose mental modeldeferred gratification i want it now!Read the manual What does RTFM mean? 52

if you’re ‘geek like edme’ then you’re us to feeling like an d e xpert. Let’s remin ourselves what it feels like to be a mainstreamer. ou so tell me what y do when you drive nd through a right ha did bend in your car. you say ‘turn the wheel’? 53

onthis is jackie stewart rldhis way to being F1 wochampion in the 70’s.He says that by the time hehe’d reached the top,saw each corner as having seven distinct phases. When you’re a d mainstreamer, it’s har to understand how . experts see the world 54

desire for system there are more expertsknowledge ers. than mainstream Experts parad ox: experts have Customised the status. experience mainstreamers us. nat urally want stat so they gravitate to en high -spec models. Th em. they can’t use th Mainstreamers Simple, Stable, Fast User (n) 55

these world viewsare useful when ou tyou’re thinking abpersonas. 56

Can you make an expert behave like a Mainstreamer? 57

in 1990 steward kpearce is a free kic s pecialist. 20 goals in two seasons - not bad for a defender. 58

he travels to italywit h england’s worldcup squad. in the w.semi final against o Germany, it goes t penalties. 59

pearce puts his lep enalty in the midd eof the goal and th sge rman ‘keeper save it. England are e eliminated. (and w on never stop going about it.) 60

r u nder pressure, ou s p erformance break down. the more complex the task, to the faster we fall pieces.Yerkes-Dodson Law 61

So i can look at thisnow and it makes .per fect sense to me gBut when i’m tryinto print out documents on a ter deadline, the prin always ‘breaks’. 62

swhat other devicedo we use whenwe’re underpressure? 63

we had three really great design exercises at this point. you’ll have to come to one of these workshops some time! Create a simpleruser experience for... 64

report back 65

kso let’s try a quicexercise. take elssomething that fe acomplicated - like ol DVD remote contr and... http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/redjar/136216608/ 68

Simplify this! 69

On/Off Quick OSD (On-Screen Display menu) FL Select (change the display on DVD player) Open/Close (Eject DVD) Advanced Disc Review (Review playlist) AV Enhancer (Adjust audio and video) Repeat (Repeat play) Multi Re-Master (Improve audio quality) Numeric Keypad Depth Enhancer (Reduce picture ‘noise’) Manual Skip (Skip 30 seconds forward) Quick Replay (Skip back a few seconds) Cancel Skip Forward Skip Back Slow Forward Slow Back Stop Pause Play Direct Navigator/Top Menu (Main menu) Play List/Menu (Show a disk menu or play list) Functions (Change on screen menu) Return (Return to previous menu) Up Arrow Down Arrow Left Arrow Right Arrow Enter Subtitle Audio (Change soundtracks) Angle/Page (Change angle/advance still pictures) Setup (Quick setup menu) Play Mode (All/group/random play) Play Speed (Changes play speed) Zoom Group (Selects groups of items to play)simpleandusable.com 70

The four solutions 72

Remove 74

Perfection is achievednot when there is nothingmore to addbut when there isnothing more to take awayAntoine de Saint Exupery o great - but how d you know what to n take away and whe to stop? 76

Expert mainstreamerperfection completionprecise control Ease of controltake it apart, explore afraid of breaking itExact match good enoughPrinciples examples, storiesdetailed’s a clue - tamodel loose mental model mental ke heredeferredallnthot trol. a away gratification i want it now! c n precisio f There are 5 ways o fast-forwarding. most of them can go. 77

n’tmainstreamers do nwant customisatioand fine-graincontrol. in places tlike this, you’ll geclues to what . experts only want 78

u i’ll bet lots of yo got rid of the but su btitles button. e for some peopl that ’s essential. it’s e, a pattern of us . So not a use style y it’s hard to justif it’s removal.sous titres sont disponibles 79

sa nd s ome interface edn eed to be packfull of stuff. stW almart just lo bnan estimated $1.8 - in sales by ‘de cluttering’ its ov e s helves. So rem is n’t always the . right solution 80

Organise 81

i like ‘organize’because it’s cheapand reallypowerful. 82

and even whensomething workswell in testing -like thisinterface... 83

... a little bit of‘organize’ makesthings feel a lotsimpler. 84

Hide 85

hide: either usinga hatch - like thisor by using atouch-screen andputting theadditionalcontrols inhidden ‘layers’ 86

Back in office2000, microsofttried to hide byonly revealingthe ‘mostfrequently usedfeatures’. 87

but what i usefrequently isn’tthe same as whatyou usefrequently. sothis approach ledto confusion. so, again, a better way of hiding is based on expert versus mainstreamer. 88

the other thingabout hiding is,people are afraidto hide stuffproperly. as i read this article in the NYT, i wondered ‘what’s a bodega’. So i highlighted the word ready to google it... 89

and this featurepopped up - NYTwill define anyword youhighlight. but thefeature is hidden. the trigger is your behavior. Anything else would distract from the reading experience and make it feel complicated. 90

Displace 91

one othersolution is toturn the remoteinto a kind ofmouse anddisplace all thecomplex stuff toan on-screenmenu. of course you need to make that on-screen menu simple. By removing, hiding and organizing. but you can also displace to another part of the system - the user. 92

My Travel Plan STRATFORD-UPON-AVON OXFORD LONDONBATHa few years ago i wasasked to create atravel planner. So iwireframed aninterface whereusers could addjourneys anddestinations to anitinerary and itwould tell themwhen they had theperfect itinerary. 93

My Travel Planclick on anactivity... STRATFORD-UPON-AVON OXFORD LONDON BATH The Roman Baths Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi commodo, ipsum sed pharetra gravida, orci magna rhoncus neque, id pulvinar odio lorem non turpis. Mon-Fri 0900-1830 (includes Bank Holidays) Sat-Sun 0900-1730 Christmas: Closed £10 Adults, £5 Children / Student / Over 65 Allow 1 hour minimum Add this 94

My Travel Planbuild up a LOCATION ACTIVITY TIMEtravel plan STRATFORD-UPON-AVON Excelsior Bath N/A Hotel OXFORD The Roman Bath 0930-1030 Baths LONDON BATH Train to Bath 1042-1153 Oxford The King’s The Roman Baths Oxford 1230-1400 Head Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi commodo, ipsum sed pharetra gravida, orci magna rhoncus neque, id pulvinar odio lorem non turpis. Oxford Punting 1415-1515 Mon-Fri 0900-1830 (includes Bank Holidays) Sat-Sun 0900-1730 Ashmolean Christmas: Closed Oxford 1530-1700 Museum £10 Adults, £5 Children / Student / Over 65 Train to Oxford 1722-1835 London Allow 1 hour minimum Add this 95

My Travel Plan LOCATION ACTIVITY TIME STRATFORD-UPON-AVON Excelsior Bath N/A Hotel OXFORD The Roman Bath 0930-1030 Baths LONDONbut the system tried BATH Bath Train to 1042-1153 Oxfordto do too much. usersfelt constrained. it Oxford The King’s 1230-1400 Headwas like trying tocomplete a jigsaw Oxford Punting 1415-1515puzzle without knowingwhat the picture was. it Oxford Ashmolean 1530-1700 Museumdidn’t work in testingand we decided to put Oxford Train to 1722-1835 Londonour effort elsewhere. 96

when i next tackled theproblem, i just gaveusers a set of folderswhich they could nameas they pleased and Tuesdaysave whatever theythought would fit.People set their owngoals and used it inways i’d not expected. Kid’s things Travel discounts 97

these kinds ofinterface - a fewsimple rules thatpeople can easilylearn and put to use -are remarkablyadaptable and developin unexpected ways. For me, that is the essence of advanced simplicity - the ‘so simple it’s genius’ kind of simplicity. 98

1. Remove features2. Organise features3. Hide features4. Displace features 99

Let’s try! so, take what you’ve learned and apply that to the design exercises. 100

Deﬁning simplicity (or any user experience)Making it emotionalExperts / mainstreamersFour strategies 1. Remove features 2. Organise features 3. Hide features 4. Displace features 101

No matter how cool youruser interface,it would be betterif there were less of itAlan Cooper 102

Thank you!@gilescolborne 103

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Advanced Simplicity Workshop from UX London (Giles Colborne)

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Advanced Simplicity Workshop from UX London (Giles Colborne) — Presentation Transcript