Mike Gallers shared examples of poor user experiences both in the digital world and physical world. In the digital world, examples included confusing websites, hard to use interfaces, and unclear error messages. In the physical world, examples included doors that did not clearly indicate if they should be pushed or pulled and signs/icons that did not effectively communicate their intended meaning. The overall message was that designers should put themselves in the user's perspective and thoroughly test designs to avoid frustrating, confusing, or unclear experiences.

1. Mike Gallers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegallers
https://twitter.com/delcerebro
mike.gallers@gmail.com
Friday October 30, 2020
Want to present? Facilitate? Help organize?
Reach out to Mike G
A look at scary experiences in the world. Not like bungee jumping scary, but bad/
crappy/horrible. :) Many are digital, some are IRL. Usually they are great learning
experiences. How to think more and better about the users/customers (HUMANS!)
that will experience the thing you are a part of creating.
https://www.meetup.com/thoughtful-rdwd/

2. Task 1: Land the
shuttle safely on
Mars.
(yes, I know you’ve
only had 1 day of
training and it was a
flash presentation but
GO!)

3. Examples in the digital world

4. Just noticed this morning! Flickr? Tumblr?
Why isn’t it just empty textboxes where you put in URLs??
I went to add LinkedIn but its impossible.

5. Go Math!

6. Customer
reporting? Sure,
just connect to
VPN, then log in to
remote desktop.
Then open IE (yes,
it only works in IE).
then use a super
old, SUPER
confusing, super
hard to use website
that makes very
little sense.

7. Classic
example of
‘Not enough on
the page’

8. SUPER helpful error
message.

9. Stock Photos
“Stock photos that mean
something are not entirely a bad
option, but some are so generic
and commonly used across
different websites that they can
damage the perception of your
business.”
https://usabilitygeek.com/10-characteristics-
bad-user-experience/

10. Why group things?
People love scrolling
through long lists.
I mean, at least they are
alphabetized.

11. Classic ‘Shame the User into
behavior’ tactic. #DarkUX
More Cruel Optouts (tumblr)

12. Its always fun to
explain your button
labels instead of just
using better button
labels.

14. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/10-classic-ux-design-fails/
Its great when
mobile apps make
you go to the
website.

16. Before mobile
design was
thought about
and tested for.

17. When mobile design
was new.

18. Thank all that’s
holy, that
software has
gotten better in
the last 20 years.

19. Education portal
2014

20. Education portal
2020

21. How we
requested
access to
systems in
2015

22. https://podcast.theunusable.com/

23. When the web was new

24. When the web was new

25. Examples in the physical world

26. How should I interact
with the thing?
There is actually a term for
this: Norman door. A Norman door is
a poorly designed door that confuses
or fails to give you an idea whether to
push or pull. It was named after
Don Norman, the author of The
Design of Everyday Things which
explored the phenomenon.

27. Affordance
Handles are for pulling. Flat
panels are for pushing.
The control should afford how
it should be interacted with. It
shouldn’t need instructions

28. Layout and
placement are
important design
techniques to
master.

29. Lots of examples in
this presentation come
from Doug’s twitter
feed. I recommend you
follow it immediately if
you do not already.

30. Do not use this chopping
board as a chopping
board.
???

31. Probably should have
some QA before your
wireframes or
placeholder copy
goes to prod.

32. You are not your
user.
Till they use it, you
cannot predict how
they actually will.

33. We repeat: You
are not your user.

34. Perfect place for a
toilet!

35. Why have just a flush
button when you can
have 15 buttons!
More features ==
better

36. Whoops. we forgot to
think past the product
design and packaging
design to the journey step
of “opening the package”

37. Don’t quotes often
indicate an ironic or
satirical suggestion?
“why are their
quotes?”

38. Got it. I should not enter
via the entrance.

40. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/10-classic-ux-design-fails/

41. Icons, Signs, & Symbols
They’re pretty. We love them.
They are often terrible at communicating their intent.

42. The one that started it all (for me)
#LaunchTheOctopus
“What does this button do?
A. Launch the octopus.
B. Activate the showerhead.
C. Activate the Grow Light”

43. These icons obviously mean:
• Harry Potter's goblet
• the Tesseract will float in
your hands
• the umbrella Academy
• the air goes up from the vent

44. A rupee from Zelda is moving
REALLY fast to the right.
Don’t play dice with squirrels.
Don’t put your
sword into this
stone?

45. Consistency >
Differentiation &
Clarity
(not really)

47. Mike Gallers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegallers
https://twitter.com/delcerebro
mike.gallers@gmail.com
Friday October 30, 2020
Want to present? Facilitate? Help organize?
Reach out to Mike G
Thanks for joining!
https://www.meetup.com/thoughtful-rdwd/