Book notes: User Friendly by Cliff Kuang, Robert Fabricant

I am currently reading User Friendly by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant, and it's made me think a lot about user-friendly design, and how Planda can be improved in that area. This is the second book I've read on design, the first was The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. I really wonder why they don't teach us this stuff at school, since it's so prevalent in everything you build.

Designs have killed

I find it crazy and so horrific how many pilots were killed by pulling the wrong lever, because both were next to each other and looked similar.

User error

User error is design error. Designs must be built to account for human error. Every human error has it's own logic behind it. How can I detect common sources of human error? How can I encourage users to report when they make mistakes on Planda's usage?

Disconnect between user perception of what product does, and what the engineers built it to do

Users will use your product in ways you do not expect. Therefore, how can you give your users an accurate image/understanding of your product? I think Planda is pretty straight-forwards, at least as of now, so this isn't something I have to worry about yet. I also think I should be more honest with my users. Instead of making the toast appear after a user submits a form, I should wait until it is actually successfully added the to database before I show the completion toast.

Fun ways to teach

I love the example about a car company using a growing vine on your car dashboard to teach people how to drive hybrid cars in an efficient way. Not only did it teach people proper driving without any words, it was fun and simple. People also started posting their dashboards on social media, which I creates marketing too. What positive behaviour can I encourage with Planda? The first that comes to mind is habits. Dailies? Task completion goals? Also, is there anything on Planda that can make users proud enough to screenshot it?

Be polite and humans will reciprocate

Humans are more polite to computers they know. I'd bet the same holds for products they are familiar with. Also, when a program lavishes praises on the user, users are nicer to it.

How can I build a nicer panda? How can I make users feel a connection to the panda? I should be able to let the panda lavish praise onto the user, when they do something productive. The panda should give praises when a user has had a productive week. These dialogs can be added as easter eggs. My mascot MUST be polite. Rude machines are the worst.

Design is good and all, but too good can be bad too

The book told an story about how there was a beautiful movie theatre built, but no one was going. Instead, they were all going to the shabby one nearby. The movie theatre did things like lower prices, but nothing worked. A designer went to the shabby movie theatre to figure out why, and he overheard that the people were intimidated by the red carpets. After that, the designer went back and tore out all the carpets. Sure enough, people started trickling in soon after.

The lesson I got from this story is to put yourself in the shoes of the user, and to be willing to tear out fancy features if they cause harm rather than good. Also, fancy features aren't always good.

Right now, I believe all, or pretty much all Planda users are female. I can see why people might not like the cute design. Is there a way to make Planda more inclusive without changing its core?

Next steps

I need to know my users. It helps that I am a user, but the way I use Planda is different from how other people do. I need to add feedback forms, and talk to people who use Planda, and see how exactly they use it.