Question number 5 is am I making life difficult for my users? 1
What does that mean? 2
So you know when you go and buy a laptop you think about how much RAM is there in this laptop, how much 3
memory does it have. 4
Essentially you're looking at you know how many large programs can I run simultaneously and have my 5
laptop still working smoothly and not freezing on me. 6
That's essentially what that question is. 7
And this is also what you should ask when you're designing apps for your users. 8
As humans we also have a limited amount of RAM. 9
And as designers we should treat that RAM with respect. 10
We should try and minimize our toll on the user's brain. 11
So just as when we're programming we're trying to make our code as lightweight as efficient as possible, 12
when we're designing 13
we're trying to make the interface as clear and as least confusing as possible for our users. 14
So let me illustrate what I mean. 15
We've all seen these horrendous password rules when you're trying to sign up to some website and they 16
ask you to create a new password. 17
Now this particular one is pretty bad. 18
They have what eight rules. 19
So your password has to include uppercase, lowercase, number symbol, 8 to 13 characters long, 20
no dictionary words, no more than three adjacent or repeated keys. 21
So I probably could come up with a password that fits all of these rules but I will never have to remember 22
it. 23
And this is that product asking to put a huge toll on my brain. 24
Now, very often when I come across these types of account Sign-Up password rules, you know I think to 25
myself "I'm not signing up for a job at MI5. 26
I'm not signing up for the CIA. 27
You know why does it need to be so secure?" 28
Now of course security is really important and especially with payment details. 29
But at the same time if I'm signing up for something like a service that helps you find dogs nearby 30
to walk, do the password rules really need to be so stringent? And very often when you're designing product 31
you'll notice that when the password rules get too complicated and you overload a user's brain making 32
them think that this is way too much effort, 33
you'll see that you'll sign ups drop off. 34
And so there is a happy medium between keeping that password secure and encouraging your users to sign 35
on. 36
So I would urge you especially if you're making a product that doesn't require any payment details, any 37
personally identifiable information, then just try and make your password rules as tolerant as forgiving 38
as possible. 39
Now the app equivalent to this is huge 40
onboarding tutorials. Now in order to use this app you have to first get through nine screens of tutorials 41
each telling you how to use the app. 42
Now, firstly most users, you and I, included will probably just go skip skip skip until the end. 43
We wouldn't have learned anything and it would have annoyed us ever so slightly. 44
So you don't want to start off on the wrong foot with your users. 45
Instead, what you want to do is you want to give people tidbits of information as and when it's needed. 46
So make it contextual. 47
For example, when you download the to-do app, on the home page if they're on no tasks, then the first time 48
you open up this app it'll give you a slight hint saying hey if you press over here you can add a task. 49
And when you do that, it'll give you another pointer saying "If you tab here you can see more options." 50
Now these tips and hints are contextual. 51
They are relevant to the task at hand. 52
And for those people who are interested in accelerated learning or teaching methods, the most important 53
thing is showing somebody something just as and when they need it 54
and getting them to do it. 55
To repeat that task. 56
This is something that we embrace in our curriculum. 57
For example, we have tutorial apps that teach you how to code up a certain functionality. 58
You see me doing it, you seem explaining how it works 59
and then the next step is you have to do it yourself. 60
You have to solidify that knowledge by carrying out a task. 61
And this is how you want to teach users to use your app. 62
Don't overload their brain with loads of information at the beginning. 63
This is called front loading and it's a really bad and it's really bad for teaching people. 64
So tread gently on your uses brain. Try to minimize the effort that they need to put in in order to learn 65
how to use your app. 66
Now another way that you can overload a user's brain is with confusion tactics. 67
Now what do I mean by this? This is the ATM PIN pad of all Barclays ATMs across the UK. 68
Now the the thing that has changed over the last few years compared to previously is this button right 69
here. This button used to say "CLEAR" and that makes a whole lot of sense because when you when you type 70
in your PIN and you press this button, it's essentially the backspace. It delete your pin so that you 71
can enter it again. 72
And that button should be labeled clear 73
because that's what you're doing. You're clearing the pin so that the user can enter it again. 74
But recently they decided to change this to the word 'ERROR'. 75
I do not know why, but this is really confusing because I'm at an ATM where I'm already paranoid because 76
the machines telling me look behind your shoulders, see if somebody's stealing your PIN and then cover 77
your PIN and it's it's a very stressful situation actually. 78
And now I've entered the wrong pin because I'm stressed and I'm looking at those PIN pad and I can't see 79
a clear button or backspace sign and all I see is this 'ERROR'. And I'm so confused, I'm thinking you know 80
if I press this button, is the alarm bells going to ring? 81
What kind of error am I- 82
am I trying to report? 83
So, don't confuse your users. Try to make your wording as clear as possible. 84
And this is the app equivalent of that real life example. 85
Now all of us are used to this idea that when we pull and we release, we are releasing to refresh. 86
It's the same in Facebook, 87
it's the same in Twitter, it's the same in Instagram, 88
it is same everywhere. 89
This is a pattern that has become ingrained in all of our brains. 90
Now there was an app called Seed which decided that it was going to teach us a new trick and instead 91
of pulling to refresh they decided that you should pull and release to 92
add a reminder in the app and this was as confusing as hell. 93
Nobody really understood this. 94
And in the second version of this app they actually scrapped it entirely. 95
But the damage was already done. 96
They lost users based on this anti-pattern. 97
When something is so ingrained such as pull to refresh or pinch to zoom, you can't try and map that on 98
to something else. 99
It will cause a lot of confusion 100
and humans generally don't like being confused. 101
They'll associate negative feelings with your app and so try and avoid confusing users 102
if you can.