How to Design User Interfaces: Insights and Eight Rules Inspired by the User Friendly Book
User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play is a book written by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant, who explored how the world has changed and keeps changing based on the ideas of user-experience design, a discipline that was once relatively unknown.
Currently, User Experience Design (UX) is undergoing a renaissance driven by technological advancements. Designers are now primarily concentrating on crafting digital products. However, the authors present a fascinating exploration of the history of user-centric design, showcasing pivotal milestones ranging from Louis XV armchairs to the implementation of GDPR regulations.
The history of user-centered design is a captivating narrative filled with fascinating stories and unexpected twists. In their book, the authors delve into the profound impact that global crises, world wars, and even a nuclear power plant accident have had on the design. They skillfully illustrate how designing for individuals with special needs has not only fostered inclusivity but has also paved the way for groundbreaking inventions that have become indispensable in our daily lives. In addition, the authors explore the secrets of designing cutting-edge technologies, from autonomous vehicles to social media and artificial intelligence.
Additionally, they analyze our changing expectations of technology and how we engage with it.
The authors acknowledge that their purpose extends beyond simply outlining the history of design. Primarily, they aim to equip readers with the tools to critically examine the ubiquitous user experience design in our lives today. They do not shy away from questions about the consequences of innovations introduced by digital giants or why the next step in technological development will not be inventing a new phone model or application but rather a new metaphor.
What does User Friendly mean?
In the realm of user-experience design, the term "User Friendly" carries significant weight, shaping how we interact with technology and influencing the design choices made by designers.
"User Friendly" book provides a comprehensive exploration of this concept, shedding light on its historical evolution and its profound impact on our lives.
The definition of "User Friendly" provided in the book is as follows:
1. Computing. Of hardware or software; easy to use or understand, esp. by an inexperienced user;
2. In extended use: easy to use; accessible, manageable
1) Computing:
In the context of hardware or software, being user-friendly signifies a design that is easy to use or understand, especially for those inexperienced with the technology.
The authors, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant emphasize the importance of creating designs that are not only effective but also intuitive, ensuring a seamless interaction for both novice and experienced users. This facet of User-Friendly Design is crucial in empowering users and demystifying the complexities of modern computing.
2) Accessible:
User Friendly design transcends the conventional boundaries of traditional computing. In broader terms, it signifies more than mere ease for the inexperienced user; it encompasses designs that are not only easy to use but also accessible and manageable across diverse contexts. Whether navigating a physical space, comprehending legal regulations, or interacting with everyday objects, the extended application of User Friendly principles renders these experiences approachable.
Eight User Friendly Rules
“The easy and the simple are not identical. To discover what is really simple and to act upon the discovery is an exceedingly difficult task.“
— John Dewey, Experience and Education
The user-centered ethos should be the guiding principle for all experiences in design. This approach applies not only to innovative technologies like apps or wearables but also to everyday aspects of life, such as statements from health insurance companies.
Improving complex systems like healthcare demands diverse skills, spanning industrial, service, and environmental design. It's not about singular talents but the adept combination of design disciplines. The authors of "User Friendly" often share with their teams that "behavior is our medium," emphasizing the focus beyond products or technologies.
The essence of "good design" is found in people's reactions and responses, transcending individual talent. This shift also means designers must acknowledge the consequences of their work, not just its intentions or aesthetic appeal.
The approach to good user-friendly design is evolving into common sense—beginning with the user, gathering feedback, and iterating.
1. Start with the user
“Imagine you’ve been asked to design a home appliance or a personal- health app. How would you know which users and which needs are worth designing for? You could always start with yourself, but this can quickly become a trap, as you will naturally assume that your needs are the most important ones.“
When initiating the design process, it's crucial to begin by understanding the user. The goal is to avoid the trap of automatically assuming that designers comprehend user needs. Instead, designers should step into the users' shoes, immersing themselves in diverse perspectives to grasp the real expectations and challenges facing different user groups.
During his time at Frog Design, a globally recognized creative consultancy known for the Snow White design language used by Apple and the design of Disney Magicband, Robert Fabricant developed innovative approaches to overcome research biases. The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of user needs, frequently leading to valuable and unexpected insights.
One of the most surprising turns occurred during the process of revamping the customer experience for a large U.S. healthcare company, when Frog's team found themselves engaging with a group of hairdressers in Pensacola, Florida.
One of their initial tasks involved asking typical customers, "To whom do you usually turn for advice when your child is unwell?" In the interviews, several women revealed that they often share personal health concerns with their hairdressers. The unique aspect here is that a hairdresser, unlike a pharmacist or a doctor, lacks a vested interest in selling health products. This absence of a conflict of interest establishes trust with clients, making the hairdresser a potentially valuable resource for health-related insights.
“We found that consumers were much more willing to listen to health advice when it was paired with suggestions for other, more appealing ways to treat themselves, such as a certificate for a massage or pedicure“
It’s worth noting that once you identify a group of people to learn from, you have to meet them on their own terms.
Additionally, Fabricant stated that a crucial mistake that marketing-led organizations often make is to start by developing a new product and then try to make it attractive to their customers.
Designers should come up with clever methods to gain fresh insights into the lives of users. For instance, they may ask individuals to unpack their bags while explaining why they carry specific items, ranging from practical things like keys to sentimental ones like souvenirs from recent trips.
This approach, known as "bag-mapping," was coined by Jan Chipchase, a former Executive Creative Director of Global Insights at Frog who mastered it during his time as a global researcher for Nokia.
According to Chipchase:
"Bag-mapping is a useful exercise to understand the norms of a society. Our choice of items to carry reflects who we are and the environment we live and work in."
Essentially, this technique aims not just to learn about the objects themselves, although that can be interesting, but to uncover the deeper motivations behind people's choices, especially their daily habits. It serves as a way to explore the gaps between what people claim matters to them and their actual actions in their day-to-day lives. The apps on our smartphones, in many ways, represent a digital version of these choices, which is why Jan perfected bag-mapping for Nokia, the largest mobile phone company globally at that time.
Everyday items in people's lives often reveal instructive stories and lessons. By examining the differences between what users claim matters to them and their daily choices, designers can create products that resonate with users' genuine motivations. This user-centered approach is crucial in designing mobile applications that reflect the choices people make in their everyday lives.
2. Walk in the User’s shoes
“One of the basic premises of user-friendly design is that the best work starts with a clear understanding of user needs—and not with the desire to produce a cool product or interface.“
When discussing the principles of User Friendly design, it's essential to mention Henry Dreyfuss, an American industrial designer who lived from 1904 to 1972. He was renowned for his dedication to designing products with a user-centric approach.
Dreyfuss was a pioneer in understanding the user's perspective by immersing himself in their daily lives. Whether it was operating a tractor, working in a factory, or pumping gas, he actively engaged in the experiences of his customers. In contemporary design, adopting Dreyfuss's approach and experiencing the day-to-day life of a typical user is widely recognized as crucial for creating user-friendly products.
To create tractors for John Deere, he learned to drive a combine and played at being a farmer; to create a sewing machine, he took sewing classes alongside the ladies. The method was a precursor to modern design research—a sprawling industry that would eventually capitalize on the talents of anthropologists, psychologists, and social scientists.
It’s worth noting that the real challenge for designers lies in approaching familiar routines with fresh eyes. And even if it may seem straightforward, it requires significant patience, especially in our overstimulated world filled with distractions. It often makes sense for designers to look for fresh perspectives, especially when they can’t test a product or experience it themselves.
Robert Fabricant often encourages designers to experiment with radical shifts in context. For example, when the team at Frog Design was asked to improve the waiting experience at a CVS MinuteClinic, a leading health solutions company, they started by observing the experience in a crowded emergency waiting room at midnight and then checking into a high-end spa. Designers at the From team tried to switch roles where possible.
“The critical component is to not just notice what people are doing, but to really try to understand what’s driving it”
As Fabricant notices the world is not chaotic or random, even if it appears that way. People’s behavior and choices follow certain patterns and routes that do not always appear logical when you first notice them. But if you tune in to their patterns and truly walk in their shoes, you can get at the hidden truths that drive their daily routines, whether they live in Pensacola, Florida, or Kigali, Rwanda.
3. Make the Invisible Visible
“Feedback is the fundamental language of user-friendly design. But the big challenge with designing feedback is figuring out when and where to provide it.”
When it comes to feedback, it's worth noting that, despite their significance, they are often perceived as bothersome, such as unwanted phone notifications. Consequently, designing appropriate feedback mechanisms proves to be a more challenging problem than commonly thought.
Consider the experience of using a MetroCard in the New York City subway as an example. While it has become a routine and almost unconscious action for regular commuters, an improper swipe can lead to the turnstile locking up and a painful collision with a cold steel bar. Despite existing solutions, such as a subtle sound confirming the correct card swipe, which works well in a quiet design studio, it may prove ineffective in a noisy Brooklyn subway station.
Fabricant encourages taking advantage of the efforts that some designers have put into their work and learning from it. This provides an excellent opportunity to comprehend the choices made by various designers when confronted with the same challenge: designing feedback.
“It is precisely the little differences between what you expect to happen and a slightly new experience that can radically shift our assumptions of what a product should be.“
For example, designers can find inspiration in their travel experiences to explore diverse feedback mechanisms within various cultural and environmental contexts. Travel exposes designers to unfamiliar scenarios, shedding light on subtle differences in user interactions and expectations regarding feedback.
By observing how feedback is delivered and experienced in foreign environments, designers can gain fresh perspectives and reimagine feedback systems for their own designs.
For instance, a hotel's innovative feedback system, like using a card key to control room lighting, could inspire designers to rethink personalized environments and create dynamic feedback-driven spaces at home.
Through "Feedback Travel," designers can unlock unique insights that challenge traditional feedback paradigms and foster innovative ways to shape user experiences. Embracing diverse cultural feedback practices can lead to breakthroughs in feedback design that surprise and delight users.
4. Build on Existing Behavior
“I often encourage the designers I work with to observe a situation as if they were cinematographers, zooming in and out from small details (the way someone folds a napkin or splits the check) to the larger scene as it unfolds around them (the flow of people, particularly those who manage and run the restaurant), looking for patterns that emerge at each level. What objects are people using? Where do they seem completely confident and engaged versus hesitant or frustrated? Where do groups gather and why? I instruct my teams to make careful note of what is surprising or confusing. Patterns of behavior will emerge naturally.”
Fabricant encourages to pay attention to outliers that stand out from the norm and look beyond the target customers to find valuable insights from users with pronounced needs. This tip can provide invaluable insights for innovative design solutions since designing user-friendly experiences requires keen observation, understanding of users' behaviors, and identifying patterns that emerge at different levels.
Fabricant regards extreme or outlier research as a pivotal factor in achieving competitive differentiation. This approach frequently sparks solutions that may not occur to clients deeply immersed in their fields.
Additionally, he observes that people often integrate multiple products or services to fulfill their needs. For example, during the work for the UNICEF Office of Innovation, designers engaged users in three cities — Jakarta, Nairobi, and Mexico City — to understand how individuals manage their health or ensure their children's safe travel to school.
“Some users are not satisfied with everyday jury-rigging and will go one step further by adapting or augmenting their world to better suit their needs. Most designers are trained to pay particular attention to work-arounds and augmentations to existing experiences, even when these so-called hacks have become invisible to the users themselves“
Harnessing the power of unconventional user behaviors is a cornerstone of user-friendly design. In observing how people apologize for their ingenious workarounds, it becomes evident that these adaptations are not signs of weakness but rather demonstrations of resourcefulness. Designers who actively seek and appreciate these unconventional solutions gain invaluable insights that can uncover gaps in the user experience.
Embracing unconventional solutions and building upon existing behaviors, even those initially dismissed as makeshift, can result in innovative and impactful design solutions, embodying a fundamental principle of User Friendly design.
5. Climb the Ladder of Metaphors
“We all use metaphors to understand our world. They are a powerful tool for designers. Inspiration for metaphors can come from almost anywhere, even the candy aisle.“
Cordell Ratzlaff, who was in charge of the OS design group at Apple for many years, shared that Steve Jobs once taped a Life Saver to the computer monitor used by one of his UX designers as a metaphor for the colorful, glossy button that would delight end users of Apple’s operating system, OS X.
In the context of the given anecdote about Steve Jobs using a Life Saver as a metaphor for vibrant and glossy buttons, it's worth noting that today, metaphors in design have evolved. They go beyond mere surface personality to influence the behavior of products and suggest how users might interact with them over time.
Therefore, designers should often look for metaphors that can help organize and guide a broader set of relationships. By understanding users' mental models and incorporating relevant metaphors, designers can elevate the user experience to a whole new level.
As we previously mentioned, Frog Design was responsible for making Disney MagicBand, and you might think that the metaphor for this came from jewelry, given that it is worn like a bracelet. But it was just the physical shape of the band.
The guiding concept work came from the biblical metaphor of “the keys to the kingdom,“ in which the visitor has been given special privileges to enjoy the park in exactly the way they see fit. This metaphor encapsulates a host of qualities and behaviors that are embodied throughout the park, with the potential to elevate the user’s experience to a whole new level of “magic.”
“As designers, we are often brought in to help bridge the transition as familiar products morph into something new and different“
In established products, building upon dominant metaphors is crucial to enhance user familiarity and reduce cognitive load, as people generally prefer what they already know. Following Jakob’s law, where users spend the majority of their time on other sites, it becomes evident that users prefer your site to work similarly to the ones they are already familiar with.
By embracing a Metaphorical Immersion approach, designers can transcend conventional design paradigms and develop groundbreaking products that connect with users on a profound level, mirroring their distinct needs, aspirations, and cultural values. This method not only enhances the design process but also cultivates increased empathy and understanding between designers and the diverse communities they cater to.
A recent example in the realm of app design is Airbnb's intriguing use of metaphors with Airbnb Rooms. They implemented an animation resembling the opening of a passport, providing users with a familiar point of reference. This intentional use of metaphor aimed to enhance user understanding of the product.
6. Expose the Inner Logic
“The title of this book was inspired by my father, Richard Fabricant, who is an extremely sharp and active eighty-eight-year-old with little patience for technology. Whenever he gets frustrated with something new, he turns to me and remarks, “I thought the iPhone was supposed to be so user friendly!” Never has “user friendly” sounded so cutting.“
Mental models operate beneath the surface, representing users' conceptual understanding of how a product or service functions. Despite lacking self-awareness or the ability to express these deeper models explicitly, individuals heavily depend on unconscious mental models in their daily interactions.
It's crucial for designers not to assume a single correct mental model for a product or service. Users often blame themselves for not grasping something, and it becomes the designer's responsibility to empathize with the user, attributing any shortcomings to the product or its design whenever possible.
“One common approach that I have used throughout my work is to ask the user to sketch the way something works from memory. This exercise can be particularly good for dense interfaces such as a television remote control. Most users will remember the basics, such as the volume and channel buttons, but their mental models diverge from there. “
It’s worth noting that we build mental models as we go, largely through feedback loops. And the designer’s job is to surface these mental models so that products can be better tuned to user expectations and easier to integrate into our lives.
There’s tremendous resistance against any significant shift in our understanding of how something works.
An illustrative example is the transition from a standard car to an electric vehicle, which can evoke unintended emotional consequences like "range anxiety"—a fear of being stranded by a dead battery. Designers are actively addressing this concern through improved dashboard visualizations and other forms of feedback.
In 1958, cognitive psychologist George Miller introduced the concept of cognitive load, known as Miller's law: people can hold around seven items in their working memory. Designers often "chunk" related options to reduce cognitive load and create a clearer mental model. This strategy, however, is not consistently applied to various confusing products, like remote controls with their complex array of buttons.
As a designer, it's crucial to unveil and align with users' mental models, ensuring seamless product integration into their lives. Design interfaces that minimize the cognitive load by grouping related options and establishing coherent mental models. Additionally, collaborating with diverse disciplines and learning from experts in various fields provides valuable insights into distinct problem-solving approaches.
7. Extend the Reach
“One of the principles our book highlights is that user-friendly products should build stronger connections with users over time. How do designers anticipate and plan ahead to create satisfying experiences across a product journey that could last years or decades, such as owning a car or managing an online collection of family photos?“
The oversight that many companies fall prey to is assuming that their users are engaged in singular tasks or activities. It's a fundamental error that user-friendly designs aim to rectify by bridging the gaps for customers, not just in the short term but also over the long haul. The user experience, according to the principles outlined in "User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way We Live, Work & Play," should be a companion throughout the entire user journey, extending beyond isolated moments or interactions.
Holistic design thinking should be interlinked through a series of feedback loops that propel you forward, while providing a consistent feeling of comfort, confidence, and ease.
Mapping out in detail all the various hoops that the average user must navigate is consistently an enlightening experience. These blind spots can pose significant barriers to achieving an effective and user-friendly experience.
Addressing when the user's journey truly starts and ends is a critical challenge for designers, and this is not always immediately obvious.
“These neglected spaces—before, between, or after direct product touch-points—are often the best design opportunities, as they can be strengthened with feedback to better connect the dots across the entire journey in unexpected and often delightful ways.”
One of the most insightful actions designers can take when working on long-term products or services is to tap into cultural insights that shape rituals and habits. A cultural fit can lead to sustained engagement and long-term adoption, especially in the context of broad social issues.
By exploring the origins and cultural relevance of products across various societies and historical periods, designers can identify unique patterns and rituals that have stood the test of time and are worth applying in a refreshed manner.
For instance, a designer working on a sustainable food delivery service could investigate ancient food delivery systems used in different civilizations and cultures. Drawing insights from historical practices, such as meal preparation and distribution, can help design services that align with users' traditional values and cultural preferences. Implementing these insights into the user journey can create a sense of familiarity and connection, enhancing the overall user experience and building stronger bonds between users and products.
In essence, designing with an eye on the extended user journey, incorporating feedback loops, and drawing inspiration from historical and cultural contexts are essential principles for creating truly user-friendly designs. These considerations ensure that the user experience is not confined to isolated moments but is a continuous, evolving, and satisfying journey.
8. Form Follows Emotion
“Designers are often surprised by how much user satisfaction is driven by the emotional rather than functional benefits of an experience. But the right emotional connection with a user can make up for many of the challenges I describe above, from poor feedback to a convoluted mental model.”
Our role as designers extends beyond simply enhancing functionality for users to carry on with their daily lives. We should also endeavor to surprise, delight, and cultivate a meaningful relationship over time. Take, for instance, the meticulous effort invested by companies like Starbucks in refining the aesthetic and emotional experience, even within the brief encounter each morning.
Robert Fabricant has underscored to engineers, product managers, and designers that mere functionality is no longer sufficient. Designers must now infuse emotion into the product. Fabricant goes even a step further. He occasionally encourages his design team to conceptualize the product journey as a romantic experience, complete with emotional highs and lows.
It's worth noting that user satisfaction is significantly influenced by the emotional aspects of an experience, not solely limited to functional considerations. Establishing a robust emotional connection with users can effectively compensate for various design challenges, including issues like poor feedback or complex mental models.
Designers can strategically incorporate elements that evoke specific emotions or responses to enhance the user experience, utilizing visuals, sounds, colors, or interactive elements that inspire joy, surprise, or comfort.
For example, an e-commerce website selling children's toys could use bright and playful visuals, delightful sound effects to evoke excitement and joy in children and parents alike.
By integrating elements that evoke specific emotions or responses, designers can craft experiences that resonate on a deeper level, making products or services more appealing and unforgettable. This not only deepens the emotional connection between users and products but also enhances the overall memorability and engagement of the experiences.
If you found this article intriguing or are interested in collaborating on design projects, connect with me on Twitter!