Good Usability
1. Fit for purpose
2. Effortless user experience
3. Simple
4. Use conventions
5. Rapidly obvious, no signage
6. Universal symbols not words
7. Concise wording
8. Beautiful
9. Fun
Some of what I cover:
Every day situations, and websites, made un-necessarily hard - or thankfully; un-usually easy.
Don't make me think when opening a door or doing routine tasks on your website.
I offer constructive criticism so we can make the routine effortless & focus on important stuff.
Why is Apple removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7?
This is not rocket science.
Simplicity.
Jony Ive - Apple’s design chief, has repeatedly said Simplicity is key to what Apple do.
“Simplicity is not the absense of clutter, that’s a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product.”
Aggressively removing ports and wires that are inevitably going to be phased out or not required in the near future is at the core of this philosophy.
Yet - Apple rarely gets credit for removing things - and if it does - only well after the fact (e.g. floppy drive removal on first iMac).
This philosophy is why Apple’s hardware design has been better than everyone else, for so long. But if this philosophy works - nobody notices how the sausage was made.
Loss Aversion In most studies it has been shown humans are at least twice as averse to losing something, however small or theoretical the loss - as making equivalent gains. When the gains are hard to see (removing extraneous ports for a gain in simplicity) - this effect is probably amplified.
No reviewer ever said “I love the lack of ports on this MacBook - because of what that philosophy enables” (the new ultra slim Apple laptop with 2 ports total). People were almost universally critical of the lack of ports (although some did like the device).
This is at the core of mainstream ignorance. People were implying that it would be easy for Apple to just add 1 or 2 more ports with little or no consequence. Again this totally misunderstands why Apple are successful - and how good design happens; by being bold, by having an opinion, by removing the extraneous.
Ive: “So much of what we try to do is get to a point where the solution seems inevitable: you know, you think "of course it’s that way, why would it be any other way?” It looks so obvious, but that sense of inevitability in the solution is really hard to achieve.“
Leonardo Da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Antoine de Saint Exupéry: “It seems that perfection is attained, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.”
By removing the 3.5mm port you gain a huge amount in simplicity. It’s not about trying to squeeze an awkward battery into that space. It’s about following the philosophy of simplicity - that is what makes Apple’s products so good.
There are HUGE parallels between removing the 3.5mm jack - and removing the floppy drive on the first iMac. People lost their shit then too - and, weirdly - found their shit soon after.
The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling Same with removing the DVD drive from laptops. Same with the 30-pin to lightning switch. Same with having no removable flash storage on iPhones. Same with having a sealed battery in iPhones and laptops - or no upgradability.
Probably 90%+ of users of the iPhone 7 will either be using Bluetooth earphones (including Apple’s probably awesome Air Pods when released) - or whatever lightning earphones Apple bundle with the device.
For everyone else, to be at almost *precisely* the same place we are now - all you’ll need is a 2cm lightning to 3.5mm dongle. THATS IT (with passthrough charging).
If you don’t need a hole on the outside of the device, you don’t need components, space, drivers etc inside the device to support 3.5mm. Components you don’t use can’t malfunction, don’t use power & take no space. In such a small package these are HUGE wins.
For me, the big takeaway from the Microsoft Edge web browser in Windows 10 is the chunky sparse interface.
I love it - and I’m not using touch.
In addition to making it touch friendly, perhaps surprisingly they also make it nicer to use with a non touchscreen. Bigger touch targets force the app to have an uncluttered interface with fewer buttons - and make those it has very easy to hit with minimal mouse precision.
So, even if touch isn’t ever coming to the Mac - big buttons are much nicer and easier for users - this is my Dock right now in OS X:
and I love it vs my older more cluttered dock.
It lets me focus on what I’m working on and click targets are much bigger.
Bigger click targets require the user to think less and not be as precise - which help to get the OS out of the way and make using it less stressful and more fun.
The first thing Apple could improve, and the most fiddly aspect of OS X at present, is the red, yellow and greed buttons in every window:
These could be made larger right now - with very little effort. You wouldn’t even have to make the surrounding bar larger.
There are also positive accessibility benefits here too for those with sight and motor impairment. (I often find improving accessibility improves an OS for all users - not only those with a disability).
“A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.” George Orwell
Yes, you do speak & write like shit.
And so do I, but I’m trying to quit.
But this isn’t about language evolving - where meanings change, or new meanings are introduced.
I, for example, embrace txt speech. It serves a purpose in the right context - it allows ppl 2 txt quickly and efficiently.
English is a living language - our dictionaries reflect usage, and new usage is often good.
No, this is about nervous ticks that add un-necessary padding. Using long words instead of short words. Incorrectly used phrases repeated so often as to lose any meaning - that actively become annoying; that distract from the point being made.
These problems reflect a disorganised, lazy mind. They are inefficiencies. They inhibit understanding.
This is the increasing[citation needed] misuse of language, about diluting meaning, about using long complex words over short simple words, about using more words not fewer, about complexity over simplicity, about inelegance and the copying of lazy speech patterns.
The best writers like, say, Shakespeare, Hemingway or Orwell, cram extraordinary meaning into beautiful, short, efficient sentences.
They avoid cliche’s and verbiage; which we find everywhere. In podcasts, on TV, in emails, in Terms & Conditions, in ‘quality’ newspapers, in academia, in business.
The Cleverer You Think Your Writing Is - The Worse It Is Replay a sentence in your head without the verbiage, and it always sounds better.
Example from a podcast “A law clerk is basically a student who assists a lawyer” or “A law clerk is a student who assists a lawyer”
“basically” makes you pause and muddies your understanding. “So they aren’t a student, they are just something similar to a student - I wonder how they are different?”
Removing “basically” brings sharp clarity, lowering the mental load and freeing brain cycles for the following words. “They are a student - I get it - move on brain”
Example from UK Train Station “This station is monitored by CCTV for the purposes of security and safety management” or “This station has CCTV for your safety and security”
Shorter, more punchy, fewer filler words, 'management’ why on earth introduce a complex concept like that? This has 'the official tone’ written all over it (reference book “Revising Prose”) - where long pompous speech is seen as more 'official’ and expected. In reality it just clouds understanding.
Using too many words, or the wrong words, increases our cognitive load - and decreases our understanding. Rather than processing the concepts you are trying to convey - we are processing your overly long, inappropriate or incorrect language.
Want to be a better communicator? Read on…
—
We’ve all done some of the below. If you want to be a better writer or speaker; stop.
Literally The purpose of this word is to prevent confusion about whether you’re talking figuratively or literally.
It should not be used for emphasis, as a nervous tick word, or to demonstrate how clever you are.
Think. As with all verbiage ask yourself; if I remove this word will people still understand what I mean? If yes, remove it.
Instances where people might not be clear are virtually non existent so just stop using this dead cliched word now. Literally.
Ironically Like a certain singer, you think you understand what irony is, but you don’t. Stop using it.
Verbiage Intros Just remove these, the sentence will have more impact and lose no meaning….
“Basically” “Essentially” “At this time” All Verbiage
“Build *out*” ‘Out’ is Verbiage.
“Each and every” Pick one; it’s tautology.
“The fact of the matter is…” Because usually when you talk it doesn’t involve facts?
“To be honest…” You usually lie?
“I think that…” We know you think that, it’s you talking.
“Having read and evaluated the material printed in this report I think that” Just tell us what you think.
The Initial So A huge new phenomenon. Starting the beginning of an answer to a question with 'soooo ’. Harry Shearer has a whole section of 'Le Show’ dedicated to this.
Like “That is like totally like so like cool and shit.” Like stop idiot.
Nothing Worse Than X Yeah - childhood AIDS is worse than whatever you were going to say - along with most diseases.
Write Less Write 1000 words - then condense it to 500 without losing meaning. Then 250. Then 125.
Use shorter, simpler, commonly understood words > Avoid buzzwords > Avoid cliche’s “He was working his fingers to the bone so at the end of the day his hard working family could stop using cliches on the international stage.”
No used like yes. “X is Y” “No, totally, I agree” This is a bizarre trend. Somebody will start agreeing by saying 'no’ instead of 'yes’. Not only is it distracting it’s illogical and potentially confusing.
Humble Brag People often over use this - and misuse it when they just mean brag. Brady from the 'Hello Internet’ podcast is a prime offender.
Does that make sense? Ya get me? Know what I mean? This demonstrates neediness, specially if done frequently. It also sounds ridiculous if you say 'does that make sense’ after something that isn’t complex. If you don’t want to look like a needy imbecile just stop; does that make sense? Hi @spacekatgal
Speak TO that - when you mean speak ABOUT that “X = Y” “Well, I can’t speak to that” No you can’t - because X = Y is a concept, and concepts don’t have ears or brains. However, you can speak ABOUT a concept, so why don’t you do that?
Wet mouth When people seem to enjoy what they’re talking about a bit too much, you get that awful lip smacking wet sound. Very distracting. cc @tferriss@imyke
Saying He or She - when gender isn’t relevant This is very distracting and jarring. It makes the reader confused and ask “is the gender relevant?”. Use 'they’ instead - even it if is technically incorrect, I think its clarity is superior.
Passive voice “Decisions were made that are now being re-evaluated” By whom? Take responsibility.
Legalese Verbiage laws & legal documents don’t serve the people - they should be written concisely and simply.
Kill the politicians. Kill the lawyers.
Why It Matters The purpose of writing and speaking is to efficiently convey information.
Clarity matters. Verbiage kills clarity.
Writing clearly and concisely gives you an advantage in a world full of waffly, impenetrable crap.
Speaking well makes you engaging and informative - not annoying, boring or vague.
Writing & speaking touch almost every facet of life; they’re super important.
Further Reading Politics and the English Language, George Orwell On Writing Well, William Zinsser Revising Prose, Richard A Lanham
More Verbiage Examples BBC Video not working:
“It appears your network is not available at this time” What a load of waffly shit. “It appears” & “at this time” are verbiage
This says it all: “Network Unavailable” or “Connection Problem” may be even better.
“Tweets are famously 140 characters, and the customer service team is going to study those characters to figure out how to solve this problem.” @jason
Famously? Characters is repeated. Customer Service Team - very complex un-necesasry concept. 90% substanceless. Trying to be clever. “Twitter are working out how to fix their trolling problem.” Simple, concise.
The Official Tone The book “Revising Prose” by Richard A. Lanham, introduces the concept of “The Official Tone”. This is one of the main causes of verbiage. An example:
“To re-iterate my earlier points I think that in this environment it is incumbent on the actors involved in the procedure to be both focussed and engaged in the processes required to implement the standards based approach all stake holders have both evaluated and endorsed as part of the greater framework all stake holders and actors have agreed is the optimal solution to what has become a long drawn out process that ultimately has lead to many decisions being made in both the private and public sectors both together and separately leading to a completely empty outcome.”
Academia loves this kind of long non-sensical writing. It is somehow worn as a badge of honour to show prowess in a particular field by confusing civilians.
The reverse is true, it is a badge of shame. If your work is good enough plain, clear, concise English is the best way to convey it to others. Language like this makes me think your arguments are weak - and your brain confused.
Today I saw this message 54 times. I may have a bad memory but ITS NOT THAT F****** BAD.
Every. Single. Time. I. Load. A. F******. App.
And just for extra protection - sometimes before I close them too after waking my device.
How on earth is this not irritating the hell out of the developers who work on iOS? Is it because they are all so rich they don’t care about paying more for data? (serious question) - or maybe Apple pays it.
Today It Reached Its Nadir
I was snowboarding near the Russian border - in Gudauri, Georgia. Ironically enough I was listening to ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ with Audible, on the lifts - then a nice deep house playlist on Spotify in the powder on the way down.
(as Steve might have said - this message is “Insanely Shit”)
I did about 15 runs in total. At the top of each lift I took out my phone, unlocked it, sometimes had to press OK on 'cellular data is disabled for Audible’, loaded Spotify, had to press OK on 'Cellular data is disabled for Spotify’, then press play on playlist.
Then when I came to the bottom of a lift - the same process in reverse.
In both cases people on skis and snowboards are trying to dodge me - and I’m trying to get on or off a lift. Delays are not what I wanted.
Had it not been such a nice sunny day - I may have thrown my iPhone off a cliff; there were plenty to choose from.
It also seems to inconsistently do this when I’m connected to WiFi too! You know - just incase….
Why I Turned Data Off
I turned data off for Spotify and Audible (and App Store, Castro, and Overcast - podcast apps) because - like 90%+(?) of people - I don’t [always] have an unlimited data tariff. These apps download large files that I only want to download on WiFi.
Virtually anyone with such an app - should have data turned off.
After a little 'incident’ with Overcast - @MarcoArment, developer of Overcast (@OvercastFm), has a nice solution with an 'Allow Cellular Downloads’ button visible on the downloads page. Similar implementations are piecemeal and inconsistent across apps.
We can’t leave this to individual developers to solve - a holistic solution is required.
Who Is This Message For?
This message is displayed when you have manually turned cellular data off for a particular app. When *you* turned it off. So this warning is for people who hit their head really hard and have temporary memory loss just before disabling data. So hard that they forgot they saw this message the last time - and every f****** time - they open the app.
Or people that did it by accident or forgot they did it. But - this is their own fault, what about the majority who *disabled it on purpose*. How is this acceptable User Experience?
Why It’s The Wrong Message
If anything - telling users wireless data is turned *ON* for 'downloading’ apps would make more sense. Apps like podcasting apps can easily - often in the background - download gigabytes of data on your limited cellular tariff; possibly costing you $1000’s.
How Apple Should Fix It
For the love of god (who obviously doesn’t exist while this bug does - and like because famine) - can we fix this! It’s so easy to fix, in order of goodness:
1. Remove this warning entirely.
2. Give us a universal option to disable this warning.
3. Show it once a day (week?) *at most*. There is no good reason to show me this message 54 times in one day.
4. Stop it being a modal dialogue that forces you to press 'OK’ or 'Settings’ - make it a tapable banner instead (90% fixed right there).
Beyond this, apps should have a flag the developer or Apple can set - marking them as 'data intensive’ or 'background downloading’. This flag causes the user to be prompted about cellular data when the app is installed "On/Off”
A further, prominent standard switch / information bar saying 'app cell data off’ within the UI itself would also be a good idea.
The current approach is broken to the point of infuriating me - and probably millions of other iOS users many times every day.
I don’t think 'infuriation’ is what Apple is going for?
So it’s reasonable to assume these are - largely - aimed at the Apple Watch. There are also a number of earphones coming out with lightning connectors - which would be able to charge a bluetooth battery as well as carry audio.
“A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.” George Orwell
I have Literally written a blog post…
Stop reading now.
Literally.
If you keep reading it will ruin your life and you will become like me. I can’t not see this now.
—-
Even people that use ‘Literally’ right, are using it wrong.
OK I admit it - I know I’m not fucking normal but this irritates the hell out of me. The moment someone says 'literally’ - I automatically do a mental check.
I am a dick to people that misuse it - even in polite company.
I think less is more - specially with copy. I think words should be used sparingly, efficiently and accurately (I also hate ‘the initial so’ but wont elaborate here).
The misuse of 'literally’ is driving me insane - and not only in the way you think.
For starters…. Andy Weir’s recent book, “The Martian”, soon to literally be made into a Hollywood movie - is an excellent case study for overuse - and misuse - of the word.
(I misused literally above).
He uses literally 10 times in his book; it’s very distracting after a while.
Some of his uses are good, eg
“For normal potato farmers, it’s not worth doing because they’re working with literally millions of potato plants.”
Potato farmers are often working with literally millions of potatoes, and saying ‘millions’ can be a figure of speech. Two thumbs up Andy.
Another…
“The Hab’s atmosphere is 90 times as dense, so it turns to liquid at much higher temperatures. The regulator gets the best of both worlds. Literally.”
Not bad, quite clever in fact.
—-
I have devised two tests to see if literally is being used correctly (I’m sure I’m not the first person to do this).
Recently he also literally posted a photo of his dick on Twitter by accident. I wish I was misusing literally here.
But I digress. Another…
In a recent episode of John Gruber’s Apple leaning ‘The Talk Show’ podcast, Guy English referred to his past blog posts as “literally little fireballs”.
Gruber said “we’re literally armchair quarterbacks here”.
Were his blog posts *literally* fireballs?
Was he *literally* an armchair quarterback?
I will leave you to evaluate those examples - though getting an armchair onto an American Football field would be fun to witness. And I’m not sure how flame retardant my MacBook Air is… (actually I am; it’s not).
This is the case where people misuse ‘literally’ to emphasise something.
Secondly
We passed the first test. The phrase *is* literal. The next test….
Are people likely to be confused whether what we are saying is a metaphor - or literally true.
Just because something is literally true - doesn’t give you cause to use ‘literally’.
Back to The Martian…
“Hermes will have their EVA specialist, Dr. Chris Beck, suited up and ready the whole time. If necessary he will literally grab the probe with his hands and drag it to the docking port.”
Ohhhh, you didn’t mean metaphorically grab the probe with his hands?!
Here literally is verbiage.
This is better: “If necessary he will grab the probe with his hands and drag it to the docking port.”
Once you begin to see this literal abuse, it’s impossible to ‘un-see’ it. I’ve become a dick and I can’t stop myself.
Here’s some more…
“But then you got on a giant bomb that blasted you to Mars. And I mean that literally.”
No you don’t. Actually this is wrong in a different way. He is specifically saying something is literal - when it actually ISN’T. This gets an honourable mention as a third category.
He wasn’t put on something designed to explode. A rocket isn’t a bomb, although they share characteristics.
more…
“I felt that way all damn day today. 5km/h is literally a walking pace. And I drove that speed for eight hours.”
It might be - but I didn’t think you metaphorically meant a walking pace. GAAAA.
“We’re going to have to literally blow up one of the doors, Lewis explained.”
Oh jesus fuck.
I literally just shat my pants.
I mean metaphorically.
I need some metaphorical adult diapers.
A good one from Guy English to end on:
“I literally have the grinder app and I’m a straight male.” Me? I metaphorically have the grinder app; that’s way better….
If your door needs instructions; you really need to question both your level of failure in life, and the reason you haven’t ended it yet. (harsh?)
But if your door needs pathetic, pleading, desperate instructions like ‘Push Only’ you are not only a complete moron, but you’re too stupid to even have any idea *how* stupid you are.
ITS A DOOR. DONT PUT A HANDLE THAT SAYS PULL ON A DOOR YOU HAVE TO PUSH. Use a push plate.
It is, perhaps, no co-incidence that this bar is largely frequented by dumb rich people. This picture was taken at 'Chill Sky Bar’ at the Uber launch party in Saigon. This place plays your typically too loud AWFUL relentless Asian cheese 'dance’ - and whilst it’s not 'Chill’ - it is high up which is handy for throwing yourself off the 30th floor when you can’t stand the DJ anymore….
Usability Hell is by me, Nick Donnelly.
