Software Product User Experience – Transparency

I think user experience goes beyond stuff like where your button is placed, is it going to be a menu or a side bar, how many taps are needed to get that thing done. It’s about how the user ‘feels being with’ your product. More and more, with the invasion of people’s time by mobile computers, if you may call them that, people talk more to software than even to the most intimate person in their life! 😉 So their feeling of goodness of being with the software is taking more priority than ever before!

Having said that, a key aspect, often overlooked in my opinion, is handling of the situation when things go wrong.

As a designer, we often rather think about, say, ‘How do I add a user?’ … a button click … a menu? … or a sub menu?, but we don’t spend as much time to think of ‘What could go wrong when attempting to add a user?’ Things can wrong owing to two possible disturbances (yes, ‘disturbances’) :

1. within the user

2. within the software

When something goes wrong with the software, we know it because we wrote that bug 😉

But what when something goes wrong with(in) the user? Say, he’s upset that some big deal was lost, or is simply in an urgency to get something done. What is common to both these scenarios is that the user is ‘under stress’, which means his tolerance is really low. If someone is stressed and you point fingers at them, you know they are gonna thrash you! This is a crucial design principle. When a user is stressed and he does something wrong with your software, don’t say

“You got it wrong!”

that is, some message like

“The number you entered is invalid”

Instead take the blame on yourself and say

“Am sorry! I don’t think I understand”

That is, in our example

“Sorry! Could not read it. Can you try that number again?”

Which subtly puts the blame on the software and makes the user more tolerant to try again.

Coming to the more crucial aspect of ‘transparency’ or the lack of it! Rarely do we realize that the lack of transparency stresses the user, especially when something doesn’t work.

This is as much true, as it is with the relationships in our lives.

While this seems a no-brainer, it has subtle yet crucial lessons that we often oversee. When an error is spit from the product, we don’t pay much attention to how we deal with it. How this error impacts the user is a complex thing ; it depends on a variety of other not-in-your-product details like

Has the user used a competitor’s product before?

Has he used any such software before?

What brand image does he have about your company?

Has he has any previous distasteful experiences with your company’s other products?

How old is he?

How has his day been so far?

… And so on

So you can instantly see that a user may be very tolerant and go past the error point very quickly depending on many other things than the error itself; or the user may get frustrated and close the App (or even the subscription!) at that point depending again on variety of complex factors underplaying in his mind. Yes, you know how many times your product lost a subscription owing to this!?!

Take, for example, this scenario handling by Google:

I was logged into Playstore Developer Console (this is where you submit new versions of Android Apps for release into Google Playstore) in one browser tab. Then in the other tab, I had gmail open. In this gmail tab, I signed out and signed into another Google ID. Now, I go back to the Playstore developer console tab, and tried to upload an icon image for the App. It threw error saying “upload error”.

It took me a while to get what happened. Definitely, in the inside code that executed, Google knew it was owing to the login ID being different than the one it expected. Now in this scenario, you can visualize the three points I discussed above on handling the situation.

1. Be Open : tell the user whatever you know. If the software can get more detailed information on the error, then tell the user about it.

For example, if you are unable to connect to the Internet, don’t just say “Could not connect”. Instead, say what information you have gotten from the network connectivity API (but in non-technical terms!) -> for example, “WiFi signal seems weak.”

2. Show Intention : show your true intention in helping the user get his thing done

In the above error message, we could instead say “WiFi signal seems weak. Can you move closer to the router or move elsewhere?” ; or we could even go a step further to offer to store it offline and sync later.

3. Assure Resolution : or atleast alternatives. Tell the user how he can get his stuff done, and not let this error get in his way.

Ending this argument, it’s essential to stress that error handling is a key aspect in product management, and should not be left solely to the developer. Atleast handling of the key and common error use cases should be discussed in detail by the product manager. This plays a key role in retaining users of the software and in giving them an increasingly feel-good factor that this software wouldn’t let them down!

Buddhist Musings : It’s not your eyes that see …

It’s not your eyes that see

… It is YOUR MIND

Thou art the beautiful woman …

On Man’s Mind … one’s best friend … one’s greatest enemy …

Thou art the beautiful woman

Thou art the handsome man

Thou art the blooming flower

Thou art the fiery fire

Thou art the every man’s desire

 

The more I try to get thee

… the more thee control me

 

Thou art so tiny

… that I cannot find you

Thou art so large

… that I can’t reach you

 

Thou art  so tight

… that I can’t relieve you

Thou art so fragile

… that I can’t catch you

 

I surrender to you

… Oh no! That’ll be chaos

You surrender to me

& I hear “Oh no! Never!”

 

Will this war ever die?

… or will death mean its end?

 

Oh Mind!

Thou art the closest

Yet the farthest

UI / UX Musings : Example – Bitbucket : Prompting the user

I loved this user message that Bitbucket displayed on creating a new empty project

Bitbucket could’ve simply displayed a message :

“No commits yet”

which also would mean the same. But they go one step further to emote the user’s reaction when there are no commits (i.e. when no source code is there). Finally, we are humans and we need that emotional connection to the work we do.

Love what you have done, Bitbucket! Kudos!

Inspirational Poster : No time for nonsense

I think life is too short, and we waste time in a lot of nonsense, which otherwise could be used productively. Here’s a poster to that, am planning to hang in our office.

Buddhist Musings : What color do you see?

I recently came across the news of Microsoft’s Hololens. The article said

“When you first see somebody who is using HoloLens, you’ll probably think something is wrong with them. They’ll walk around things you can’t see, make random click gestures in the air (“air-tapping” is what Microsoft calls that) and probably ooh and ahh a few times.”

How many times have we thought this of others in our own lives? “What’s wrong with this person? Why is (s)he behaving so crazily?”

The truth is everyone of us, whether we want it or not, is wearing a lens. That sometimes makes us see what is not there & react to it. And, at certain times, we fail to see what is truly there & obvious! In that sense, literally everything’s an illusion. What you know of Priya is an illusion & it varies significantly from person to person.

So, if everything is an illusion, isn’t life really easy? Because you create your own world then. That it is true and it’s not, are both true.

Why is that? I see what “I” see, but not necessarily what “you” want me to see. So now there is a “want” introduced. This is sub-conscious. It is not in our control. I believe it is largely shaped by one’s inherent attitude. Say you have an attitude that you wouldn’t trust your partner (or anyone around you who works closely with you). Then it doesn’t matter who your partner is ; you wouldn’t trust him/her. You would choose to remember scenarios where his/her trustworthiness could be proved to be low, most probably unintentionally. That those scenarios actually happened is external context. But that you choose to look at the scenario in a particular way is shaped by your attitude, which truly isn’t completely in one’s control. Here, you also choose (sub-consciously again) to dismiss all other scenarios where your partner proved that (s)he was trustworthy.

Then why speak of all this when it’s not in one’s control? Well, they key takeaway here is to be ‘aware‘ of what constitutes your lens of the world. This way, when you react to a situation, you know what part of the reaction stems because of the colored lens you are wearing. This will help you better understand others’ lenses & appreciate why they reacted in a certain way to the same situation. This will lead to better connection with others & thereby a happier, more meaningful life.

Buddhist Musings : Living with Oneself

Trust me, it’s one of the toughest things to do.

I’ve spent nights wide awake on questions like “did I handle that right?” handled something right, and whether I was productive enough that day, blah blah blah.

Weirdly, most of us find it easy to be happy & at peace when with others, than with ourselves. This is because you only know the sweet side of them, more often than not. But about yourself : you know all possible shit – you know your shortcomings, your darkest side, your inner motives and things you wish you didn’t know about yourself.

The mind is a restless beast. The trick is to trick the mind, I realize. But this ain’t easy! But this is key to peaceful living with one’s own self. And the good things is that this peace is contagious. It will lead to better relationships around you, stronger & more meaningful ones!

Stop Bleeding
The first step I practice (I should admit am not completely good at it yet) to be at peace with myself is to ask “Hey! What is that I did that is making me restless?” Say your answer is “I had an argument with my colleague yesterday”. But this appears as the answer to you. An argument with a colleague is too trivial to destroy days of peace. So you need to look deeper. Say the argument reminded you of the pattern of argument you used to have with your ex-lover. And hence reminded you of the discordant relationship you had with her & the eventual breakup.
So there is something happening at the conscious level. But that is correlating with something at your subconscious level, and hence the disturbance of your mind. So once you are aware of this, you can find ways to deal with it.

Start Comparing
Something truly unpleasant happens. Usually, you start regretting it, and hating the person who caused that. “He is the one who did this. He intentionally did it. He wants to see me fail. God, why does this happen to me?” you feel. This registers in the subconscious mind when you play this hate-story repeatedly in your mind over several days. When another event happens later which is similar to this, your subconscious thoughts are awakened, and it registers more deeply. Then, you hated that person and possibly broke your relationship with him. And now, you start hating this person the same way. The problem is much deeper. It is about not accepting the unpleasant occurrence in life.  It’s about resisting it. And the problem is with hating the person. None of these create happiness, either for you or for people around you. It’s better to learn to accept such events and strive to not develop the hatred. Who knows that person may come around & be nice to you later? If not, atleast, you haven’t caused yourself any unpleasantness. You’ve saved your subconscious from registering unpleasant events. This way you store only happy memories in your subconscious.
So, how do you accept something really unpleasant? It is tough. But again, trick your mind. Think about people who aren’t as blessed as you are. Suppose your mother did something that hurt you deeply, think about orphans, think about dependent mothers (where the mother is bed-ridden and the son is forced to support her each day), think about kids who lost their parents, say, in an accident. Comparison is good ; it is essential, when the intent is to develop better acceptance of what is happening in our life.

Was there something in life which bothered you so much to lose a night’s sleep? Share your thoughts here.

(If you want the original of the above picture, leave a comment & I’ll send it to you. I think it makes a wonderful poster to remind us of our blessings & help improve our acceptance of life & of ourself.)

Life Musings : Organic Education

‘Organic’ – the word that’s trending worldwide these days. Organic fruits, organic vegetables, organic pulses, organic toothpaste, organic soap, organic manure, organic education… Hey wait! What did I just say?!?

We want plants to grow naturally, because that’s when their potential is fully realized. If you don’t want even a plant to be forced upon, then how do we let millions of students every year to be forced into a syllabus all through the ripe years of their life?

Can you say that a child of age 14 will have the same intelligence & abilities like every other child of his age? If your answer is no, then how sane is it to insist that every child of the same age be put in the same class and be ‘forced upon’ to study the exact same books, that too, within the exact same time bound?

As Bertrand Russell rightly put it

It has been said that man is a rational animal.
All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

And is it a sin that a child is brilliant at English, but is really poor at Mathematics that he can’t even get a decent grade?

An education system is fruitful only when it truly brings out the unique abilities in each child. Whereas today, it’s mostly a herd-moulding system, where the input might be a child whose capabilities & talent don’t matter. But you can be rest assured that the output from the education system will almost be the same, every child taught the same things, and being able to think in the same way and do the same activities. Isn’t this wonderful? … like a batch processing machine in a manufacturing firm which produces the exact same output with 99.99966% accuracy!

Sounds to me more like the Miss World beauty contest. As you might know, every contestant is shaped carefully & meticulously by experts -> a dentist would make their teeth look the same, a maxillofacial surgeon would make their noses & lips looks the same, blah, blah, blah ; and after making them look the same, they would be judged on their looks and one person declared the winner! How more sane could it be ?!?

Not sure how to react at this StackExchange thread. This would resonate well with most of us, with our own thoughts during our school/college days! 😉

This is akin to asking “Can I slack off my money, efforts, time, … & life?

Arise! Awake!
It’s a cry of war … war against our conventional thoughts. Time to stop youth being tuned into herds of sheep!

No two mango trees grow the same way. No two human beings are the same. When we can let a plant be what it wants to be, why can’t a child just be?

Some particular group of people set the syllabus as to, say, what are the things to be taught in the 8th grade, say. So, do those group of people really have taught to a good enough random sample of the population (in statistical terms) so they can say for sure that a boy in the 8th grade in one school could study the same books as another boy in another school in the 8th grade? For example, on particular year may have been very bad in a boy’s life, maybe due to unexpected deaths in the family & maybe lack of enough money. Or when a girl reaches puberty, she goes through a lot of struggle for a year or two. But our education system taxes the student without considering such normal human occurrences. One grade failed & the system would put a huge black mark in the boy/girl’s academic life!

Our education system today isn’t human-friendly. It’s machine-like.
Humans make mistakes. Machines don’t, or atleast aren’t supposed to!
Humans have emotions & mood swings & may not be at their best each day. But machines perform at the same level each day.
Humans succumb to distractions. Machines cannot be distracted.
Humans cannot be switched on/off. Machines are.
We throw a machine if it’s faulty. Would we do the same to a human? Are we doing it today? … time to think!

Secret to a productive team : Group Perfectionism

“Why can’t he do this simple thing well? How many times have I told him before” I mumbled after a discussion with one of my co-workers. Getting back to my desk, it slowly dawned on me that I knew already that he wasn’t good at that. He was a person who could do a new task quickly, but wouldn’t pay that much attention to detail. I knew already that that wasn’t his strong point. It was a simple attention to detail I had expected. But given that he is what he is, it’s my problem of ‘expecting’ him to be someone else, that which he is not!

“The problem seems to be with me, not with him!” it dawned on me “I expect everything from everyone!”.

It’s better to understand and accept that no one individual can be good at everything. Each person has their differences. This is exactly why we have a team! Since everyone cannot simply be good at everything.

In my team, I might be good at attention to detail. My one co-worker might be an expert in scheduling tasks. Another might be good in research, and yet another person excellent in getting things done. So, perfectionism is not achieved at an individual level, rather at a group level. No one person could have brought out the perfectionism (& thereby the awesomeness) in designing an iMac or a Macbook Air that we see today. It was a group of people working, aligning tasks so as to bring out their best to their work as a team. The trick to productivity is to accept the differences among teammates, align tasks so as to leverage each person’s strengths.
By this, we can achieve what we can call ‘Team Productivity’

Team productivity > Sum of [work of each individual in the team]

And, here’s where a leader’s role is paramount : bring the best of each person and molding that group perfectionism, to create an awesome product.

Nature vs Man

There seems to be an inherent tension between Man and Nature all the time. Somehow something doesn’t seem right in this relationship, and more so as time passes by. I got the answer to this question when I was immersed in the beauty of Mother Nature at the beach.

It occurred to me that Man is, by nature, restless. Unsatisfied with the past, worried about the present continuous (pun intended!) and anxious for the future. Never at rest. Never at peace. Never undisturbed. This will, alas, be more and more true as technology invades our lives deeper each day. A mobile phone might have made us shrink miles of distances, but has cursed us with restlessness. How many restless moments have you had checking back on your phone for the call back or message reply from your friend?

Nature, on the other hand, is serene. The serenity is so abundant, it’s flowing, and it’s irresistible. Walking through the lush greens of a tropical forest, you cannot but be peaceful. The Racket-tailed Drongos might be screeching aloud. The Lion-tailed Macaques might be signaling their partners. But you aren’t disturbed. The serenity pierces through you ; there ain’t any escape from the Mother’s divine peace.

Man, being restless, inherently ; and, Nature, being peaceful -> now, that explains why Man & Nature are unable to co-exist! Nature is ready to bestow peace on Man if he chooses to embrace her. But Man aims to spread his restlessness to Nature. If peace is forcibly killed … you know the rest.

I pray Mother Nature to shower her divine peace on us, and save mankind. This is my ode to Mother Nature:

Diamonds better than sparkling waters?

When, in the sun rays, it glitters!

Mother Nature! Where thee nurture such abundant serenity?

Beyond comprehension thy divinity

Oh Mother! Bestow us with some, for mankind’s prosperity!