Over the years I have toyed with the idea of writing a book aimed at consumers. I would love to redefine what it means that something works and I would love to get to a stage where people can walk into a shop and return something simply because the people who designed it weren’t thinking hard enough.
“Hello, I’d like to return this radio.”
“I’m sorry to hear that madam, what seems to be the problem?”
“Whenever I want to programme a radio station I have to get the instructions out.”
“Dear oh dear, some manufacturers still don’t make use of the most basic psychology. Would you like to try this one, as you can see, it looks beautiful, it has a wipe clean surface so it is great for the kitchen and it relies much more on recognition rather than recall so it is much easier to use.”
(Maybe the recognition vs recall bit is a bit too fanciful.)
The furthest I have ever got is to come up with a bit of a mantra I like to share with people who I am teaching to use a computer for the first time.
Until I come up with a more catchy title, let’s call it Users Rule:
- The only way I can actually break my computer is if I pick it up and drop it or hit it with something very heavy.
- My computer is here to help me.
- My computer is my playground. It helps me do more things better.
- My computer should never get in my way.
- My computer does not have the right to make me feel stupid. Ever.
- I should never be afraid to try.
- If my computer speaks to me in a way that I do not understand it is being rude.
- As long as I know what I want to do I should be able to work out how to do it on my computer.
Is it OK to have mantras with only 8 points on them? Any more I should add? Is number 8 a summary of some of the others?
I would add something about the people your computer is connecting you to. I want my computer to be as good at helping me socialize with my friends as it is at doing their math homework. Maybe this means telling me what their up to with social software. Maybe it means making it easy for us to share music and pictures. Maybe it means telling me when we both have a game we can play together.
My vision is that, if we do this right, the computer can help us socialize so well that we’ll feel even more connected to people once a computer gets involved even when they’re in the same room.
It’s great to have you on the design team Ivanka. I’ll get you those draft dialogs I’m working on any day now 😉
Hi Scott – so sorry it has taken me this long to respond!
Socialising is vital. In the world of the above mantra, should it focus on socialising or privacy? Something like:
9. Respect how I like to communicate and with whom.
What do you think?
Happy to look at those drafts whenever you get a chance to send them over!
And, thank you. I am happy to be here 🙂
Sounds good 🙂