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All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Usability Design for "When Things Go Wrong"
- 1. All That GlittersIs Not Gold
- 2. a.k.a. Usability Designfor "When Things Go Wrong"
- 3. Preface • I loveGraphic Designers • This talk started out of frustration • Thank you
- 4. Image from JamesPetts - https://www.flickr.com/photos/14730981@N08/11930527256
- 5. Iron Pyrite • a.k.a.Fool’s Gold • Looks pretty • Initial Perceived Value • Not much you can do with it in the real world
- 6. A Good UserExperience: • Delivers value to the user • Reduces effort to get the job done • Is invisible • Just works • But what if it doesn’t?
- 7. The Real Worldis Messy • Things break • Failures Happen • Let’s Accept It. Not Fight It
- 8. Mistaeks We’re Made •Designing for the happy path • Static Assets • PowerPoint/Keynote • Animations (if lucky) • “Nobody thought about that” • “That would never happen”
- 9. Kind of Failures •Net-Split • Bandwidth • Latency • Site is “Unresponsive” • Dependent Service Down? • Others* * http://rgoarchitects.com/Files/fallacies.pdf
- 10. Who You GonnaCall?
- 11. No Really… Who YouGonna Call?
- 12. Your User Doesn’tCare • It is on you, not a service provider • How can you still deliver value when things go wrong? • This is where the user’s experience really begins
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- 14. Start Getting OutOf The Hole Or, we can’t fix the problem, so how do we make it less intrusive
- 15. Provide Some Levity •Be Helpful when the user messed up • Github 404 pages
- 17. Provide Some Levity •Be Helpful when the user messed up • Github 404 pages • erlang.org’s not found page
- 19. Provide Some Levity •Acknowledge you messed up (and apologize) • Twitter Fail Whale • Reddit down time messages* * https://github.com/reddit/error-pages/blob/876f3e689206551722fbe77374e7739f54b52847/504.reallydown.html#L152
- 20. Make It AGame??? • Track how many times they have failed • Give them “rewards” for failures • Real, or emotional • DOOM faces? • Give them something to be grateful about • People can’t be grateful and upset at the same time
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- 22. Can one failuretake out your entire system?
- 23. Can one failuretake out your entire system? • How can we isolate that part of the system? • Can we safely restart it from scratch? • Is it critical to the entire system? • No, really, is it critical to the entire system? • Can we work without it until it gets better? • Do we have different, and unrelated, way of getting that information? • Can we provide “The Next Best Thing”?
- 24. Partial / Reduced Functionality •Netflix • Streaming • vs Personal Recommendations • vs Top Rated • vs Queue/Watchlist Management
- 25. Partial / Reduced Functionality •Amazon • Orders • vs “Customers Also Bought” • vs Inventory • vs Ratings • vs Reviews
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- 27. Automated Assistance? • AnalyzeEvent Streams and Analytics • Common user behavior • Uncommon behavior for a specific user • Can we helpfully take control on behalf of the user • Assisted driving • Don’t let the user mess up
- 28. What if “Everything” isunavailable??
- 29. Network is “down” •Airplane mode • International Travel • Local ISP is having issues • Bandwidth throttling • Local network is down
- 30. Network is “down” •Natural disasters • Backhoes • Backhoes 💖 datacenters • Cleaning Crews • That one server under the desk
- 31. Full Offline ModeSupport • Evernote • Your calendar • Home thermostat
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- 33. Internet of Things •Televisions / Home Electronics • Lightbulbs / Door locks / Toilets • RFID Inventory • Oil Pipeline Sensors
- 34. Multiple Sensor Devices •What happens when one fails? • Scary Time… • Planes • Cars • Medical Devices
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- 36. –Leslie Lamport “There hasbeen considerable debate over the years about what constitutes a distributed system. It would appear that the following definition has been adopted at SRC: A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable.” http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/distributed-system.txt
- 37. Self Healing /Regenerative • How can I know that something is wrong? • What is supervising/monitoring this? • Can I safely “turn it off and on again”? • Can this all be invisible to the user?
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- 39. –Peter Senge, TheFifth Discipline “Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static “snapshots.””
- 40. –Nassim Nicholas Taleb,Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty.”
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- 42. Call to Action Startthinking about these things. Ask how things can break. You might not be doing anything “critical” at this point of your career. But you never know what the future holds for you (or one of your coworkers).
- 43. Where to findme • @stevenproctor • https://www.proctor-it.com • https://www.functionalgeekery.com • https://www.github.com/stevenproctor • https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-proctor