Comments on: A good user experience can be subtle http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/11/a-good-user-experience-can-be-subtle/ Interaction experience design blog - web, social, gov 2.0 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:53:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Nathanael Boehm http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/11/a-good-user-experience-can-be-subtle/comment-page-1/#comment-3266 Nathanael Boehm Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:36:11 +0000 http://www.purecaffeine.com/?p=349#comment-3266 Yes, when the system or application faults and it can't fix itself (though it rarely tries) then it should report the error to the user in a useful and meaningful way. But a user not entering a phone number correctly because the website didn't tell them to remove spaces - that's not a user error, that's a design fail. Telling users they stuffed up in these situations is going to irritate them. Yes, when the system or application faults and it can’t fix itself (though it rarely tries) then it should report the error to the user in a useful and meaningful way.

But a user not entering a phone number correctly because the website didn’t tell them to remove spaces – that’s not a user error, that’s a design fail. Telling users they stuffed up in these situations is going to irritate them.

]]> By: Fábio Silva http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/11/a-good-user-experience-can-be-subtle/comment-page-1/#comment-3260 Fábio Silva Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:34:06 +0000 http://www.purecaffeine.com/?p=349#comment-3260 You talked about "error" messages. "Error" messages are really necessary when they ACTUALLY help the user to solve the problem. I can't stand things like "An unexpected error ocurried and the program will close. The error was caused by a wrong memory allocation at [ put yout big hexadecimal number here ]". I can't solve memory issues. That's a coding problem or an OS problem. But what the hell: Why do I have to be aware of that if I can't do anything to help ME ? That's pretty much a fail user experience. You talked about “error” messages. “Error” messages are really necessary when they ACTUALLY help the user to solve the problem. I can’t stand things like “An unexpected error ocurried and the program will close. The error was caused by a wrong memory allocation at [ put yout big hexadecimal number here ]“. I can’t solve memory issues. That’s a coding problem or an OS problem. But what the hell: Why do I have to be aware of that if I can’t do anything to help ME ? That’s pretty much a fail user experience.

]]> By: Nathanael Boehm http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/11/a-good-user-experience-can-be-subtle/comment-page-1/#comment-1597 Nathanael Boehm Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:03:06 +0000 http://www.purecaffeine.com/?p=349#comment-1597 Was quoted at <a href="http://www.inspireux.com/2009/11/14/a-good-user-experience-can-be-subtle/" rel="nofollow">InspireUX</a>, thanks! Was quoted at InspireUX, thanks!

]]> By: Nathanael Boehm http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/11/a-good-user-experience-can-be-subtle/comment-page-1/#comment-1590 Nathanael Boehm Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:15:13 +0000 http://www.purecaffeine.com/?p=349#comment-1590 Take the Book Depository site for example. It's not particularly attractive but the layout of the checkout page just works for when I want to order with the usually credit card and ship to the usual address. Don't over-cater to edge cases. I go to the checkout page, I can see my card, check the box, leave everything else as default, enter my CCV number (they've done a great job of making that step quite obvious) and then place the order. Takes about 5 seconds. Small changes could destroy that flow. Having the CCV number on the left away from the Place Order button, or less obvious, making it harder to determine which credit card and shipping address are being used etc could slow me down enough to make it painful. Like my Zazzle experience earlier this morning. To be fair, I haven't used Zazzle in a while so all my personal information was very, very out of date. Take the Book Depository site for example. It’s not particularly attractive but the layout of the checkout page just works for when I want to order with the usually credit card and ship to the usual address. Don’t over-cater to edge cases. I go to the checkout page, I can see my card, check the box, leave everything else as default, enter my CCV number (they’ve done a great job of making that step quite obvious) and then place the order. Takes about 5 seconds.

Small changes could destroy that flow. Having the CCV number on the left away from the Place Order button, or less obvious, making it harder to determine which credit card and shipping address are being used etc could slow me down enough to make it painful. Like my Zazzle experience earlier this morning. To be fair, I haven’t used Zazzle in a while so all my personal information was very, very out of date.

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