For one of my classes this semester we have to keep a four week journal detailing the various and sundry Human-Computer Interfaces with which we come in contact and how they irritate or delight us and what principles or good or bad interface design they embody. Given that I blog, you wouldn't think this would be so hard.
However, I'm here to let you know that this particular assignment is rapidly becoming the bane of my existence. The problem is twofold:
1) I am perfectly at ease babbling randomly about various and sundry things with no expectation that there be academic merit behind them. However, when said expectation is required (in the form of a requirement that this "journal" actually be third person, academic/professional language tone -- in other words, no I/me/my/you/your, and very little babbling), babbling becomes much more painful and I can squeeze out about a page and a half an hour. More than three hours in a row of this and I also squeeze out a migraine.
2) (And this is really the larger of the two issues) - I don't spend my day critically analyzing user interfaces. I just don't. Sure, if I stop to think about it really hard there are things that annoy (or delight) me - but really? Most of the time I use something because that's the tool available to get a particular job done. Could it be better? Probably. Can I actually do anything to make it better? Not really. So why spin my wheels worrying about whether or not it applies good design principles? Just do what needs to be done and move on.
So I have been spinning my wheels on this "journal" for three of the four weeks now and I have exactly three entries. Two of which are seriously contrived. The only one I feel really good is the one I wrote about Gmail. Cause you know? I adore Gmail. They did some seriously cool things when they made it and it's so much better than any other email client. I wish that everyone would just switch to Gmail - I think we might just be two steps closer to world peace if we did.
My weekend? Yeah, it's going to be full of making up faux journal entries about HCI issues I don't really care about. Who says CS PhDs don't require creative writing?
4 days ago
I'll give you two to help you out : the computer interface voice mail system used by my electric company ... no matter what I do I can't talk to a human. Second thought, Northwest Airlines, who would not let me purchase a specific ticket without talking to an agent ... and then charging me $10 extra for the agent to issue the ticket. Have fun!!
ReplyDeleteI've tried thinking up some ideas to help, but I find that I don't spend much time thinking about these things. Like you said, I pretty much just try to figure out what I'm working with and go with it. Which goes a long way in explaining why I'm still using Internet Explorer and Blogger. ;-) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt is a mistake to exclude the firstperson from academic studies. Large companies have finally come around to realizing that it is no longer necessary to say, "The study was conducted" but simply to say "We studied. . . "
ReplyDeleteSecond thought: Read the book called "Don't make me think" (I forgot the author), it is a huge help in interface design. And don't forget Webpages that suck, another great site for this. (I have been doing web pages for a LONG time, can you tell?)
John C