There is a strange phenomenon that grips the user when their first looking at a new piece of technology. Obviously, the first is the look of the item, taken in by those two orbs filled full of vitreous humor, called eyes. The second comes when they touch it and take it in at a closer level, and for those big on haptics, this can be quite pleasurable. This state constitutes the stage most often referred to as the “shill stage”, where the features are listed (e.g., bluetooth, EDGE, WiFi). The third state is the one that is rarely mentioned, and the one that seems to continually get it’s own focus, oddly enough apart from the first two states: The user interface.

The user interface (UI) often seems to run tight on the heels of functionality. By that, I mean a UI usually only goes as far as linking the user with the necessary hardware. You want to send an SMS? No problem, there is a program written that allows you to do just that. Trying to retrieve your mail? Got you covered with a program for that too. But for the most part, that seems to be as far as it goes. And while companies think most people will be quite happy with that, they are dead wrong. People want, nay, need stuff that works elegantly and beautifully. And why not? This doesn’t seem like an impossible feat. After all, the designers are humans themselves (or I should still hope so!).

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Usability and design are what jumps out at me. And I must admit, I relish using a system for the first time; be it a new ABM (automated banking machine) or a new pay parking system. These are the rare times I get to jump out of my shell and test a system without any advanced knowledge of its functionality. I get to follow the instructions and if I stumble, I have no one to turn to. I know many people in my life who don’t feel the same. A new system fills them with anxiety, tension, and the fear of failure. Not me, I love it; relish it in fact. So when I have the opportunity to beta test, I gladly accept.

I recently signed on to a few new projects to conduct preliminary usability analysis, and was shocked appalled at some of the UIs programmers wanted to put onto the general public (one program stood out as a monumental calamity). My professors (and professional ergonomists agree) have always told me the enemy of usability are the coders. The tech junkies and gurus that love a challenge, understand the integral parts of a system, and are so deeply immersed in their trade that even the largest niggle seems rudimentary to them (what, you couldn’t figure out that you needed to press the menu button three times, hold shift, and then toggle the left mouse button to pull up the context menu in the advanced options list?). And this fact I always keep in mind. Be wary of alphas and betas that have had no formal usability analysis (paper prototyping, what’s that?), or structural framework in the design phase (rapid iterative design? well we did work on the UI rather quickly!).

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