User-friendly

User-Friendliness

• The term "user-friendly" was first used in the 1970s by Harlan Crowder, an engineer at IBM, to describe computer programs that were easy for non-technical users.
• The principles behind user-friendliness emerged from human factors research after WWII and cognitive psychology in the 1970s-80s.
• Apple, and especially the Macintosh computer in 1984, is credited with making "user-friendly" mainstream through its graphical user interface.

Confusion and Human Error

• The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 remains the worst nuclear disaster in US history.
• Don Norman, a cognitive psychologist, found critical human factors flaws in the control room design, including inconsistent control layouts, hidden indicators, contradictory alarms, and no overview displays.
• Norman's insights helped shape the fields of user experience design and human-computer interaction.

Industrial Design

• The field of industrial design emerged in the 1920s-30s as manufacturers competed to make products more desirable to consumers.
• Henry Dreyfuss, an early pioneer of industrial design, believed products should be based on the needs of users and designed products with an eye to usability and mass appeal.
• Dreyfuss' philosophy of designing based on empathy for users' needs set the stage for user-centered design.

Error and Human Factors

• During WWII, US planes had high crash rates despite no equipment failures or enemy fire, which was found to be caused by poorly designed controls.
• Army psychologists Alphonse Chapanis and Paul Fitts discovered that the accidents often resulted from poorly designed cockpit controls and displays that induced operator confusion and error.
• The discovery led to the birth of the fields of ergonomics, human factors, and engineering psychology.

Trust and Social Intelligence

• People relate to computers and technology in social ways, applying the same norms of politeness, cooperation, and etiquette as human-human interactions.
• Designers aim for "social intelligence" in autonomous systems for better trust, such as providing clear ways to indicate to the human when they are operating autonomously.

Metaphors

• Metaphors allow us to take something unfamiliar and make sense of it using concepts we already know from the physical world.
• Xerox PARC laid the groundwork for modern personal computing and came up with the desktop metaphor behind graphical user interfaces (GUI).
• Metaphors eventually become obsolete as technologies mature, requiring new metaphors to emerge.

Empathy and Design

• In the late 1950s, Stanford engineering professor John Arnold taught "creative engineering," using empathy to spur innovation.
• IDEO, founded by David Kelley, pioneered new user research methods like shadowing, behavioral mapping, and rapid prototyping to uncover user needs.
• Empathizing with users, especially extreme users or those with disabilities, can point to breakthrough products with mass appeal.

Humanity and Design

• Doug Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos" in 1968 showcased revolutionary concepts like the mouse, hypertext, and networked collaboration.
• Microsoft's inclusive design efforts focused on solving problems for people with disabilities, leading to innovations that help everyone.
• The most successful user-friendly future will retain a sense of humanity, supporting human agency and meaningful connections.

Personalization

• Disney spent $1 billion developing the MagicBand system to make the park experience seamless and personalized.

• John Padgett, creator of the MagicBand, quit Disney and developed the Ocean Medallion system for Carnival cruises.### The Dark Side of Personalization

• Disney's MagicBand, a wearable device that uses RFID technology to collect data on guests' activities, allows for personalized experiences, optimization, and targeted advertising.

• The MagicBand's success has inspired other companies, like Carnival Cruises, to develop similar technologies.

• However, designer Nick de la Mare has expressed concerns about the potential consequences of hyper-personalization, including the erosion of empathy and the creation of "filter bubbles" that reinforce existing beliefs and preferences.

The Psychology of Addiction

• B.F. Skinner's research in the 1930s showed that animals can be conditioned to perform tasks through carefully timed rewards delivered at random intervals.
• This technique, known as variable rewards, exploits the brain's dopamine system, driving compulsive behavior and contributing to addictiveness.
• In the early 2000s, B.J. Fogg adapted Skinner's techniques for the web, influencing the design of interfaces for Facebook, Instagram, and other companies.
• The Like button, introduced by Facebook in 2007, created a compulsive cycle of seeking social approval and validation.

The Unintended Consequences of User-Friendly Design

• The techniques used to make user-friendly design engaging, such as unpredictable rewards and dopamine-stimulating feedback loops, can also make it addictive and manipulative.
• The Facebook Like button, intended to enable easy positivity, had unintended consequences, including the spread of misinformation and the manipulation of users' psychological profiles.
• Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, improperly obtained personal data from millions of Facebook users without their consent, using it to target political advertising.

The Promise of User-Friendly Design

• A new generation of designers is using human-centered methods to reimagine bigger systems and institutions, from transportation to healthcare to sustainability.
• Examples of user-friendly design being used to solve real human problems include:
  • Khushi Baby, a startup that developed a digital necklace to track vaccination records in rural India.
  • Magic Bus Ticketing, a system that allows people to buy bus tickets in advance via SMS messages, reducing wait times and improving transportation in African cities.
  • The HIV self-testing kit project, which developed a user-friendly, private method for HIV testing, especially for the youth.
  • IFTTT, a startup that allows users to easily connect different digital services and products through simple recipes, bringing automation capabilities to the masses.