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Interfaces on the go - 19/05/2010
When I made a list of all interfaces I use on a daily basis, and more specifically the situations I'm in when I use them, I realized that some of these situations have one thing in common: I'm not able to look at the interfaces while using them.
Turning the music down on the car stereo while I'm driving, answering the mobile phone and putting it on speaker-phone while I'm at the wheel, skipping a song on the MP3 player while I'm riding my bike, or turning the MP3 player on while I'm rushing to catch the subway train are a few examples of situations in which we use interfaces without being able to look at them.
In these moments, we depend solely on our tactile senses to guide us within these interfaces and to perform the actions we wish to. We also rely on other senses such as our hearing in order to get feedback of our actions and to know if they had the desired result or not.
Those interfaces that depend too much on our sight become very hard to be used in those situations. These products often end up not being used simply because it's not possible to look at them at the exact moment when we need to use them. In other moments we are induced into errors or mistakes and cannot accomplish what we wished to.
For example, on my car stereo there is only one rotating button which serves the purposes of controlling the volume, the bass, the treble, balance etc. Right on the middle of that rotating button there is another button which I have to press in order to alternate between the different functions of the rotating button.
Without looking at the stereo, it's hard to put your fingers around the rotating button without hitting the press button in the middle. As a consequence, when I want to turn the volume down I always end up only turning the bass or the treble down.
In these situations, the non-visual interfaces really stand out. Those interfaces which do not depend on our sight to be used. Or the interfaces which were built around the premise that the user would not be able to look at them during the interaction.
Here's an example: I love to listen to music while I'm cycling. Who doesn't? I have been doing this for a long time, ever since the cassette tape Walkman era.
Back in those days, the whole interface was sight-independent. The buttons had a standard and intuitive positioning. I didn't have to look in order to open the Walkman and turn the cassette around to the other side (those who are 25 or older know what I'm talking about). My tactile sense alone would get the job done.
After that I had a great MP3 player, which had a small screen. Everything that was done on its interface was shown through that screen. In order to select a different song (or a different folder) it was necessary to read the information on the screen.
I now use an iPod Shuffle (an old 2008 model) which is extremely easy to use without having to look at. It's easy because all the controls are easily noticed and differentiated through the tactile sense only. Besides that, all controls (play, pause, skip forward, skip backwards, turning up and turning down) are located very close to one another.
When I first started using this iPod, my habit of listening to music while cycling changed radically. Now I listen to my favorite songs more frequently, I adjust the volume to the ideal level as often as I need and when there's a song I don't want to listen to at that moment I immediately skip it.
These things did not happen with the MP3 player I used before. I wouldn't go through the trouble of finding a song I really wanted to listen, I didn't skip unwanted songs and if the volume was too low at some point, I would normally just not be able to listen at all. This is all due to the fact that the controls were too hard to use without looking at them and depending on the situation it was even dangerous, because I would have to take my eyes off the road ahead of me to look at the interface.
It became very clear to me just how much the user experience depends on how adequate an interface is to the situation it is used in. This may sound obvious, but it's not confirmed by the many products that surround us in our everyday lives.
Fernando Oliveira
Usability consultant
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