Did you read the instructions? Well yeah. Of course I did. It said to put this piece over here and nail in that part there. Ok done. Oooh. Ahhh. You step back and marvel at your work. That's the best looking table I've ever seen. Possibly, but too bad it was supposed to be a chair.
During the .com era, it was about the Internet hype of javascript rollovers, oooh, ahhh, flying banners, tons of heavy imagery, and what we now call obsolete use of style elements. The good news is, after every trend comes refined processes and protocols.
The user interface is now riding shotgun while flashy, busy designs take a back seat. When I was in manufacturing, I remember an application which our customer service team used for order and customer management.
The application was a monster. Back track and drill down every order item from last year. Easy.
Ask it to do your laundry.
No problem.
The only catch was it took about twenty minutes to find anything. The user interface (UI) looked like a dashboard of a Boeing 747 aircraft. All I wanted to do was view an order, not fly an airplane. Similarly, existing and new applications online are following the trend of "design with the user in mind".
If you had a chance to voice out your suggestions to the manufactureres of your favorite gadgets or applications, what would you ask them to change? What would you suggest to make the gadget or app more user-friendly? Looking forward to your comments.
