I just recently bought my first smartphone. I know, I know... welcome to the 20th century... wait...uh, 21st century (man, where do those centuries go?). Anyway, as expected, my smartphone is smarter than me. At least it has more functions than I'll ever use, many of which are truly awesome, probably. The thing about it though is this, I don't have enough patience to learn them. Yes, there's a nice 27 page manual (pdf) I could print off that would tell me everything I need to know about how to make my smartphone do all kinds of smart, cool tricks. But do I need all those things? Not much. I can't even imagine situations where they might come in handy, let alone remember how they might be used. Then there are the bazillions of apps (produced by the bazillions of tech startups that everyone seems to work for these days), each with it's own little universe of quirkiness. Like the camera app, one of the most basic and functional things you can do with a smartphone, right? It has a hundred different features (probably) that could make me the envy of National Geographic. Will I ever use them all? No. Will I use maybe even most of them? No. Will I at least be able to see them when I'm standing outside in broad daylight? No. Believe me, I've tried. The other day I got home and had a twelve minute video of the inside of my pocket. I thought I had taken an earlier snapshot but had apparently touched the wrong button (or slid it the wrong way, or something). I can't even tell when an app is still running, or not.Which brings me to the main problem I'm having in trying to be smarter than my smartphone: I have to operate on its turf. Somehow the glass interface with all its tapping, turning, sliding, pinching, circling, shaking, etc. etc. just does not seem very intuitive to me. Plus, I must have really fat fingers or something. I have this dissonant memory of trying to teach my mom about computers years ago. She couldn't grasp the analogy of files and folders, documents and desktops, let alone cut and paste, right click/left click and so on, so she'd write short instructions to herself on little post-it notes which were pasted all over her desk. She wondered why they couldn't just make computers more like cable tv. I'm more sympathetic now.
I read an article today about experience design with a quote that seems particularly apt to this rant/discussion:
Today, Buxton, who is principal researcher at Microsoft Research, says that the next challenge for experience design is to create a constellation of devices, including wearable gadgets, tablets, phones, and smart appliances, that can coordinate with one another and adapt to users’ changing needs. This focus on the totality of our devices stands in contrast to where we find ourselves today: constantly adding new gadgets and functions without much thought as to how they fit together. (For instance, anyone lugging around a laptop, iPad, and iPhone is also carrying the equivalent of three video cameras, three email devices, three media players, and probably three different photo albums.) Even as our devices have individually gotten simpler, the cumulative complexity of all of them is increasing. Buxton has said that the solution is to “stop focusing on the individual objects as islands.” He has come up with a simple standard for whether a gadget should even exist: Each new device should reduce the complexity of the system and increase the value of everything else in the ecosystem. (...)I guess the alternative would be more of the same (e.g. seven remotes scattered around the living room), or as my friend suggested when I told her about my phone issues: just go find a kid.
In the wrong hands, this is a dystopian prospect—technology’s unwanted intrusion into our every waking moment. But without the proper design, without considering how new products and services fit into people’s day-to-day lives, any new technology can be terrifying. That’s where the challenge comes in. The task of making this new world can’t be left up to engineers and technologists alone—otherwise we will find ourselves overrun with amazing capabilities that people refuse to take advantage of. Designers, who’ve always been adept at watching and responding to our needs, must bring to bear a better understanding of how people actually live. It’s up to them to make this new world feel like something we’ve always wanted and a natural extension of what we already have.
by markk
Image: markk (sans duck lips)
