The title might feel pompous.
After I add my motto; Never underestimate the stupidity of a human being - It surely sounds even worse.
My excuse is that I admit my stupidity also as a designer. We tend to overlook the challenges users have in their interaction with our designs. The issue is the same, the important thing is that we study the issue - what ever the point of view may be.
Demystifying Usability has some good thinking on How to deal with Stupid Users.
The main points to remember are:
1. Users who have trouble with designs and feel stupid lack
a key behavior required in using most interfaces: Discovery
and Exploration.
2. Users who struggle with interfaces and feel of incompetent do not notice or use features.
3. Users who struggle with designs that do not feel intuitive are not
comfortable with interface elements that are too different.
4.Users who do not make interface design distinctions ignore complex or multi-step tasks.
5. Users that lack the confidence with
computers have a thinner comfort
barrier and a general helplessness.
How to lose leadership?
A friend of mine updated her status with wise words about not caring too much about the talk that goes on behind our back when we stand alone in the front line.
If you are few steps ahead of your peers or time, it might mean that you are leading. You usually have lot of people who are talking and shouting behind your back. All it takes at that point is to believe in what you are doing and enable people to follow you.
But what happens if you start listening the critics around, miss the focus or lose your belief? Sometimes it results in stress, pressure and hasty decisions in seizing funding or canceling projects.
-Decisions need to be made, but it is always good to analyze that what is my decisions really based on; peer pressure or analyzing the environment.
Following video is about gaining leadership, but to maintainit, leader needs the ability to trust your followers when they start to develop their own moves. -Unfortunately that is something what managers in big companies sometimes forget..
If you are few steps ahead of your peers or time, it might mean that you are leading. You usually have lot of people who are talking and shouting behind your back. All it takes at that point is to believe in what you are doing and enable people to follow you.
But what happens if you start listening the critics around, miss the focus or lose your belief? Sometimes it results in stress, pressure and hasty decisions in seizing funding or canceling projects.
-Decisions need to be made, but it is always good to analyze that what is my decisions really based on; peer pressure or analyzing the environment.
Following video is about gaining leadership, but to maintainit, leader needs the ability to trust your followers when they start to develop their own moves. -Unfortunately that is something what managers in big companies sometimes forget..
The third truth
The efforts to save Euro after the elderly bachelors along the Mediterranean have bankrupted the nearly whole EU is a hot topic. Hot topic also for the reason that anti EU discussion has raised it's head also in Finland.
In these discussions it's not our politicians who make the decisions, but abstract things like EU and Brussels, that have impersonated. People feel that they've lost their control and don't understand what is happening.
When doing decisions for other people it is natural to think how this law/system would be the best for the general audience and in theory. A lot of the decision making is not fixed into everyday situations, but instead in ideals and the Third Truth. -The truth we assume is the "right thing" for the general opinion, but might not be right for the creators of legislation nor for the people.
Similar kind of behavior is visible in how culture is formed inside a group of people, nation or in religions. Even yellow press is a huge player on creating a third truth in their way of writing things in passive "A bank was robbed". -But in this case it has an active abstract actor; EU.
I don't blame people talking about EU like it was a person doing decisions. -In a way, EU is an impersonation of that Third Truth.
In these discussions it's not our politicians who make the decisions, but abstract things like EU and Brussels, that have impersonated. People feel that they've lost their control and don't understand what is happening.
When doing decisions for other people it is natural to think how this law/system would be the best for the general audience and in theory. A lot of the decision making is not fixed into everyday situations, but instead in ideals and the Third Truth. -The truth we assume is the "right thing" for the general opinion, but might not be right for the creators of legislation nor for the people.
Similar kind of behavior is visible in how culture is formed inside a group of people, nation or in religions. Even yellow press is a huge player on creating a third truth in their way of writing things in passive "A bank was robbed". -But in this case it has an active abstract actor; EU.
I don't blame people talking about EU like it was a person doing decisions. -In a way, EU is an impersonation of that Third Truth.
Design for errors
Another good principle of "keep it simple" has failed in this case and there is some reported cases, when somebody has carefully closed the door behind - and locked a poor soul into the hut. Then again the repair (red string going inside the door) is kind of simple too ;)
Powerpoint organizations
2003 Columbia space shuttle was hit by a 760g piece of insulation with life threatening result. The threat was analyzed and presented to managers for decision making. Decision was to take shuttle down as planned. Seven lives were lost.
Data visualization specialist Edward Tufte analyzed the slide that was used to communicate the threat and pointed out several reasons why Power Point is a wrong tool to communicate complex information for decision making.
Similarly, PowerPoint can be dramatically wrong tool for creating organizations compared to any nodal presentation.
A human way to use PowerPoint is to pursue harmony, balance and clarity. This can result as over simplifying organizations into boxes with arbitrary amount of size eventually linked with solid or dotted lines.
After a few years of continuous experience of organizational changes, I claim that boxes don't discuss and further, cross discipline UX specialist don't belong to any boxes.
Conclusion is that, if you want to "use UX professionals in all levels of your organization", but you don't want to increase your headcount, stop lying to yourself and admit that your organization will not be a UX driven one. -Possibility that a rationally thinking manager in resource pressure would create a PowerPoint box for cross disciplinary UX specialists is expected to be quite low.
Data visualization specialist Edward Tufte analyzed the slide that was used to communicate the threat and pointed out several reasons why Power Point is a wrong tool to communicate complex information for decision making.
Similarly, PowerPoint can be dramatically wrong tool for creating organizations compared to any nodal presentation.
A human way to use PowerPoint is to pursue harmony, balance and clarity. This can result as over simplifying organizations into boxes with arbitrary amount of size eventually linked with solid or dotted lines.
After a few years of continuous experience of organizational changes, I claim that boxes don't discuss and further, cross discipline UX specialist don't belong to any boxes.
Facebook now showing clearly what information is shared to applications
Now the information shared to 3rd parties is listed in clear language and creates a feeling of trust through it's transparency.
Extra effort caused by elimination of disposable packages
One of those is cleaning. Especially anything related to toiletries should deserve extra attention. Unfortunately this is often overlooked by maids, as well as the people who make the cleaning contracts.
Xbox Live credit card hoax disquised as Automatic Renewal
I spotted an interesting line from my credit card bill, which said Xbox live 19,90.
This was clearly unauthorized charging since I paid extra attention to my choice of Live membership and payment method after warnings from my colleague who had previously experienced continuous charging of credit card.
I decided to remove my card data as once from my xbox. -Unfortunately this move had been thought at Microsoft headquarters. Removal was not possible to do on the xbox!! Instead the prompt asked to visit http://www.xbox.com/support for membership info and how to turn of automatical renewal...
At this point I can give you a hint. It's nowhere near there. You might get a better start from the address https://live.xbox.com. -The end result is not any better, but least that's wehere it is supposed to be..
The guidance what you'll in the end find is useless:
Ok, lets find that billing information then manually...
You'll probably find several errors from the system:
But if you hit the right spot, you'll find your billing information:
There it is finally; "Cancel my service".
-But let's first think for a moment that which service it was you wanted to cancel.......
Ok, here we go. Thumbs up everybody!!
Still not possible. -It Really is made impossible to cancel the automatic renewal and charging from the credit card!
Time for some conclusions:
I consider this a criminal credit card hoax, with the difference that this is done globally, diguised as legitimate and sealed with the human lazyness and self accusations. -And definitely not good businness on the long run.
Next: Calls to Consumer Agency and Microsoft.
This was clearly unauthorized charging since I paid extra attention to my choice of Live membership and payment method after warnings from my colleague who had previously experienced continuous charging of credit card.
I decided to remove my card data as once from my xbox. -Unfortunately this move had been thought at Microsoft headquarters. Removal was not possible to do on the xbox!! Instead the prompt asked to visit http://www.xbox.com/support for membership info and how to turn of automatical renewal...
At this point I can give you a hint. It's nowhere near there. You might get a better start from the address https://live.xbox.com. -The end result is not any better, but least that's wehere it is supposed to be..
The guidance what you'll in the end find is useless:
Ok, lets find that billing information then manually...
You'll probably find several errors from the system:
But if you hit the right spot, you'll find your billing information:
There it is finally; "Cancel my service".
-But let's first think for a moment that which service it was you wanted to cancel.......
Ok, here we go. Thumbs up everybody!!
Still not possible. -It Really is made impossible to cancel the automatic renewal and charging from the credit card!
Time for some conclusions:
I consider this a criminal credit card hoax, with the difference that this is done globally, diguised as legitimate and sealed with the human lazyness and self accusations. -And definitely not good businness on the long run.
Next: Calls to Consumer Agency and Microsoft.
Improving UX design by managerial decisions?
I fell in love with this feature and bought the mixer. The disappointment was huge when I found out that some "UX aware manager had clearly improved the design" by extending the cord for any of the usual reasons and simultaneously ruined the design.
I don't believe in the democracy of expertese.
Suddenly everything stops
Suddenly you get a feeling that there's no rush and the best thing to do is crawl on the floor in total blackness.
-Further you can't avoid thinking that this was not considered, when the brilliant idea of key card operating main switch was introduced to hotel businnes.
Light treatment
Oulu based Valkee is studying and manufacturing bright light treatment device that deliveres the light more directly to the brain, saves eyes, allows user to move around while treatment and makes the treatment significantly shorter.
The main issue here is that it's really hard to believe this method is really working. You can evaluate the idea next time you turn your face towards the sun. -Is it your eyes or the tissue behind those, that enjoys the sun.
Design for not-in-use
When do you actually see your newly purchased OBH soda maker looking like this? -The machine stays unused 99% of the time looking like it's literally missing parts. Only time you actually keep the bottle attached to the machine is when you make the soda. And that's actually when all other functions (like attaching the bottle instead of good looks) are critical components in creation of the user experience.
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