We interact with websites, applications, and devices. Our productivity depends on the robustness, speed, load tolerance, connectivity… things that we all measure and monitor. Turn your back on these for half an hour, face the soft factor of messaging, and learn how to boost the performance of your product.

1. ISTA Sofia 27 Nov 2014
Soft Performance: Messaging
Dimiter Simov, SAP

2. About
Dimiter Simov - Jimmy
Usability and user experience
Soft performance

3. Performance
a task or operation seen in terms of how successfully
it is performed
pay increases are now being linked more closely to
performance
the capabilities of a machine, product, or vehicle
the hardware is put through tests which assess the
performance of the processor
Source: Google define

4. Recall ISTA 2013: performance has a soft side
text and formatting
Fitts’ law
layout and structure
user success and engagement
presentation of progress
aesthetics 1 x 1.618 – the golden ratio

5. Let me tell you a story
5

6. 6
At SAP, we have this nice “social” tool

7. 7
I participate in a few groups
I decided to start a new group

8. 8
Here is the new-group
form

9. 9
1. I filled out all the
necessary details.
2. I even decided to
activate the group.
3. I clicked Create
What happened?

10. 10
Error
The description you
entered is too large.
Please limit yourself to
255 characters.
OK
I clicked the only option

11. 11
Gone: the message, the dialog, and all my input

12. Our goal today
Talk about messaging
Good, bad, or necessary evil
No recipe – be practical

13. I do not like to write
messages

14. What’s in a message?

15. Sign
source of icons: http://www.iconarchive.com/show/soft-scraps-icons-by-hopstarter.html

16. Text
0. Who shows the message
1. What happened (or did not happen)
2. Why it happened
3. What users can do about it

17. Closing: Traditionally a button

18. Here is another story

19. Install Twitter app on my mobile
I do not want them to
upload the contacts from
the address book on my
phone, so I cleared the
checkbox
Then on Sign In…

20. …from Twitter
… I get this
Now they speak of friends
no idea what they
mean!?!
And I do not know any of
the 48 people they want
me to follow

21. Messages by type
21

22. Warning
when: Every time I start Windows
fix: Do not show
OR Show more info so users know why it is important and
what to do

23. Critical
When: Every time I start Windows
fix: Show option to remove from start-up list
OR: Allow re-installing

24. Validation
fix: Parse the input and ignore spaces, dashes, dots…

25. Confirmation
Translation:
Your electronic signature
is valid and you can make
money transfers online
fix: Hide the gibberish. Show a
normal message.

26. Informative
fix: State that the downtime will be at night and last only 1
hour and use my timezone

27. As you type
fix: Accept Cyrillic
OR: Add to the message that only Latin characters are OK

28. On Yes, the program starts
On No, the program does not start
Guess what
fix: Do not show, just use the default location
OR: Ask users to select a library location

29. Numbered
Glad I did not encounter the previous three
fix: Say what happened, why, and what users need/can do

30. Another time
English: Access is blocked! Reason: #34!
Please call the Eurobank officer who serves
you.
Human: you are
trying access outside
business hours
fix: Fix the site to work 24/7
OR: Tell users to log in only during business hours

31. Another place
fix: ?!?!
OR: Link to a travel site so users can book a ticket to USA

32. Make me think a lot
what!?
fix: Simplify and state the acceptable range

33. Make me stop thinking
Now I’m lost
fix: No idea

34. Series of increasing severity
Unusual error… not enough storage
Unusual error… no scroll bars
Unusual error… catastrophic failure
fix: Fix the code

35. Schizophrenic
Not available… Not accessible… or Access denied?
fix: Explain in plain words; see the next slide for an example

36. Why not this instead of the previous message
You may have no permissions to
view the content of the folder, or it
may be located on a computer with
which you do not have a connection.
Check your connection and try again
or contact your administrator for
permissions.

37. Useless
fix: Show the list of external references or link to it

38. Unnecessary
fix: Do not show (no need to tell users in a browser that a page
will be reloaded, unless the reloading will take 3 minutes)

39. In progress
fix: No fix needed

40. In progress
fix: Use a normal progress indicator - see how the others do it

41. Predictive
fix: No fix needed

42. Preventive
fix: No fix needed
OR: Avoid the popup – see the next slide

43. 2014: jetBlue “eliminated” the popup

44. …the message now obscures the input
fix: Make the message non-modal
OR: Make the user input visible

45. CAPS LOCK IS ON

46. CAPS LOCK
We sometimes need to type in all caps
Caps Lock is a mode, we often do not notice it is ON
The Caps Lock key is too easy to hit, next to Shift
When we type passwords, we don’t see what we
type
fix: I challenge you to design one or two fixes!

47. Do and don’t

48. Try to avoid messages
Reconsider the limitations:
why limit the password
length?!

49. Try to avoid messages: 2
Parse the user input:
 both 12/05/14 and 2014-05-12 mean 12 May 2014
Change the UI:
 a calendar picker might work well for entering dates

50. Try to avoid messages: 3
Spare the technical details:
most users do not care how the program works
example: “We found search results but will not show
them in this mode. Search again on another screen.

51. Use modal messages as a last resort
Show a modal message only if you:
 have no idea what else to do
 have no time to do a better thing
 feel it makes business sense
 know it will never show up to users

52. Jimmy’s axiom on messages
Any internal message
that is not supposed to be seen by users
finds a way to float to the surface and
shows up to users

53. Coordinate text and closing

54. Keep messages short, yet complete
We want to do work (have fun, find information) not
read messages
Yet we do not want to guess what is going on

55. Frame messages positively
“You have only view permissions”
is better than
“You do not have edit permissions”

56. Think twice before you try fun
and before you write “oops“

57. Ask for help
Have a reviewer
Better a colleague to find your splling mistakes
Work with a writer
These people are trained to write words and sentences

58. Test with users
Yes, you can user-test even messages and it pays off

59. Soft performance boosters to take home
1. Avoid messages, especially modal ones
DON’T WRITE MESSAGES, DESIGN INTERACTIONS
2. If you have to give a message, make sure it is obvious
who shows it. State:
 what happened
 why
 what users can do about it
3. Be practical

60. Bonus
The best message ever

61. source: http://tangra.si.umich.edu/~radev/public/onlybg2/Only_In_Bulgaria_08.jpg
FISHING
PERMITTED
CARP
1 KG – 3 LV

62. What makes this message good?
Non-ambiguous
Language familiar to target users
No excessive info; just the necessary
Substantial information: price
Gives direction
Large font: can be read from a moving car
Unobtrusive

63. Dimiter Simov @ ISTA 2014
This talk is now over. We ran out of material,
and time is ticking. You can comment and ask
questions or wait for the next session.