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Question number 5 is am I making life difficult for my users?
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What does that mean?
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So you know when you go and buy a laptop you think about how much RAM is there in this laptop, how much
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memory does it have.
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Essentially you're looking at you know how many large programs can I run simultaneously and have my
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laptop still working smoothly and not freezing on me.
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That's essentially what that question is.
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And this is also what you should ask when you're designing apps for your users.
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As humans we also have a limited amount of RAM.
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And as designers we should treat that RAM with respect.
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We should try and minimize our toll on the user's brain.
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So just as when we're programming we're trying to make our code as lightweight as efficient as possible,
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when we're designing
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we're trying to make the interface as clear and as least confusing as possible for our users.
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So let me illustrate what I mean.
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We've all seen these horrendous password rules when you're trying to sign up to some website and they
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ask you to create a new password.
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Now this particular one is pretty bad.
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They have what eight rules.
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So your password has to include uppercase, lowercase, number symbol, 8 to 13 characters long,
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no dictionary words, no more than three adjacent or repeated keys.
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So I probably could come up with a password that fits all of these rules but I will never have to remember
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it.
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And this is that product asking to put a huge toll on my brain.
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Now, very often when I come across these types of account Sign-Up password rules, you know I think to
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myself "I'm not signing up for a job at MI5.
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I'm not signing up for the CIA.
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You know why does it need to be so secure?"
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Now of course security is really important and especially with payment details.
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But at the same time if I'm signing up for something like a service that helps you find dogs nearby
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to walk, do the password rules really need to be so stringent? And very often when you're designing product
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you'll notice that when the password rules get too complicated and you overload a user's brain making
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them think that this is way too much effort,
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you'll see that you'll sign ups drop off.
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And so there is a happy medium between keeping that password secure and encouraging your users to sign
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on.
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So I would urge you especially if you're making a product that doesn't require any payment details, any
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personally identifiable information, then just try and make your password rules as tolerant as forgiving
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as possible.
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Now the app equivalent to this is huge
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onboarding tutorials. Now in order to use this app you have to first get through nine screens of tutorials
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each telling you how to use the app.
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Now, firstly most users, you and I, included will probably just go skip skip skip until the end.
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We wouldn't have learned anything and it would have annoyed us ever so slightly.
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So you don't want to start off on the wrong foot with your users.
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Instead, what you want to do is you want to give people tidbits of information as and when it's needed.
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So make it contextual.
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For example, when you download the to-do app, on the home page if they're on no tasks, then the first time
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you open up this app it'll give you a slight hint saying hey if you press over here you can add a task.
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And when you do that, it'll give you another pointer saying "If you tab here you can see more options."
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Now these tips and hints are contextual.
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They are relevant to the task at hand.
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And for those people who are interested in accelerated learning or teaching methods, the most important
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thing is showing somebody something just as and when they need it
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and getting them to do it.
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To repeat that task.
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This is something that we embrace in our curriculum.
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For example, we have tutorial apps that teach you how to code up a certain functionality.
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You see me doing it, you seem explaining how it works
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and then the next step is you have to do it yourself.
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You have to solidify that knowledge by carrying out a task.
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And this is how you want to teach users to use your app.
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Don't overload their brain with loads of information at the beginning.
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This is called front loading and it's a really bad and it's really bad for teaching people.
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So tread gently on your uses brain. Try to minimize the effort that they need to put in in order to learn
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how to use your app.
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Now another way that you can overload a user's brain is with confusion tactics.
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Now what do I mean by this? This is the ATM PIN pad of all Barclays ATMs across the UK.
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Now the the thing that has changed over the last few years compared to previously is this button right
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here. This button used to say "CLEAR" and that makes a whole lot of sense because when you when you type
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in your PIN and you press this button, it's essentially the backspace. It delete your pin so that you
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can enter it again.
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And that button should be labeled clear
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because that's what you're doing. You're clearing the pin so that the user can enter it again.
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But recently they decided to change this to the word 'ERROR'.
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I do not know why, but this is really confusing because I'm at an ATM where I'm already paranoid because
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the machines telling me look behind your shoulders, see if somebody's stealing your PIN and then cover
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your PIN and it's it's a very stressful situation actually.
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And now I've entered the wrong pin because I'm stressed and I'm looking at those PIN pad and I can't see
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a clear button or backspace sign and all I see is this 'ERROR'. And I'm so confused, I'm thinking you know
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if I press this button, is the alarm bells going to ring?
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What kind of error am I-
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am I trying to report?
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So, don't confuse your users. Try to make your wording as clear as possible.
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And this is the app equivalent of that real life example.
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Now all of us are used to this idea that when we pull and we release, we are releasing to refresh.
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It's the same in Facebook,
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it's the same in Twitter, it's the same in Instagram,
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it is same everywhere.
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This is a pattern that has become ingrained in all of our brains.
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Now there was an app called Seed which decided that it was going to teach us a new trick and instead
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of pulling to refresh they decided that you should pull and release to
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add a reminder in the app and this was as confusing as hell.
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Nobody really understood this.
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And in the second version of this app they actually scrapped it entirely.
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But the damage was already done.
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They lost users based on this anti-pattern.
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When something is so ingrained such as pull to refresh or pinch to zoom, you can't try and map that on
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to something else.
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It will cause a lot of confusion
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and humans generally don't like being confused.
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They'll associate negative feelings with your app and so try and avoid confusing users
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if you can.