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I
borrowed this quote from Daniel Barenboim’s talk on the Nature and Power of
Music. Most technological experiences, especially online, have been primarily
visual experiences. The web gives us a visual workout but few online
experiences stimulate our hearing to create fuller sensory experiences.
With the Microsoft Surface
interaction paradigm it’s time to prepare for an audio assault as sound is
getting the consideration it deserves. Interaction Designers are digging
deep in to their auditory and visual toolkit as sound gets crafted in to the
Surface experience. The ear is back in vogue.
OK,
so the gaming industry has been treating our senses to full immersive
experiences for some time but most other technological experiences have relied
heavily on visual alone.
Surface
doesn't just encourage but mandates a fuller sensory experience. But are
agencies ready to build auditory experiences and are clients ready to pay for
sound design?
If
you can communicate the return on investing in sound design to your clients
then they will pay for it. Sound is not there just to titillate the
senses. It is used to enhance a brand, stir emotion, create immersive
experiences and communicate information. When users manipulates digital
content, information is revealed through sound, visual feedback and movement.
Sound is not simply about providing a fuller sensory experience but acts as
another information layer.
I
recently met with Andrew Diey, Founder & CEO of Radium Audio,
a leading music and sound design company that have experience in designing
sound solutions for Surface experiences. Does
Andrew feel that clients are ready?
Andrew
doesn’t see such digital auditory experiences as a huge leap. Advertisers
know the importance of sound to enhance a brand. This is not about
introducing something new but transferring a proven art to a new
paradigm. Andrew believes clients are ready but it’s down to agencies to
communicate the value of sound. Andrew suggested agencies establish a manifesto
which defines the terms on which they approach immersive experience
design. The manifesto should outline principles, policy and action plans
for future work in immersive experiences. Most agencies have a design
manifesto but does it include sound? If you want your client to buy in to
sound design then you need to plan for it from the beginning. The task of
getting your client to understand the value depends on your belief and
recognition that sound is critical to the delivery of a full sensory
experience.
Are
agencies ready?
Yes. It hasn’t been about not having the sound design know-how but
more so about not having an environment where sound design is treated with the
same importance as visual design. Most agencies that specialise is online
solutions may not be experienced in sound but with experienced sound designers
such as Radium Audio there is no reason for agencies not to be ready. Sound is
part of an interaction designers domain to define audio feedback that
complements the interaction and visual design. The brief is then given to the sound
designer, internal or external, to weave their magic and create seamless
experiences between the audio and interaction.
At EMC Conchango we
have in-house sound design capabilities but we are not professional Sound
Designers. For superior production and bespoke sound design we look to work
with professional sound designers. We employ experienced Art Directors and
Creative Designers to achieve our creative vision. Our approach to audio
is the same. To craft an immersive auditory experience we need to work
with the best.
So
there is no reason why we should not be entering a new sensory era of
compelling and immersive experience that combine sight and sound. It’s now up to us
to be heard...
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A few months back I posted a collection of Microsoft Surface tips from the Twitter hashtag #Surfacetip. The 140 character limit is somewhat challenging so I'm planning to tackle these tips one-by-one in a tad more detail. I’ll start with a simple tip, but one that resonates with me from recent projects, and that is ensuring that everyone is on the same page when it comes down to a common understanding of what a Surface experience is. Tip #1 - Kick off every Microsoft Surface project with a half-day Play & Tell Workshop. A challenge of natural user interface design is that this is a new paradigm in interface design and development. Surface invites a different way of interacting and manipulating content. This is not a subtle change but a significant change in the way we interface with digital content. For many folk this is a significant paradigm shift so don't expect everyone to take to it so easily. Years of desktop and web applications means some people are understandably institutionalized and will take time to fully down their web way of thinking and enter this brave new world. Another point is that although multi-touch has been around for several decades we are only now seeing mainstream adoption. The iPhone has accelerated the interest in multi-touch and the mobile market has been busy satisfying consumer demand for multi-touch and gesture-based computing. Although many of us appear familiar with multi-touch, there is still an element of novelty to these gestural interfaces which can mean that other features get overlooked. And a Surface experience is much more than this. There are many new concepts to understand in Surface design such as multi-friends vs. multi-stranger experiences, collaboration, playful design, social interaction, object recognition, superrealism and 360-degree user interfaces. And this is where the risk lies. If the team (client and internal project team) don't kick-start the project with a common understanding of the Microsoft Surface philosophy then the risk is that downstream you'll find yourself delivering an application that is not optimised for the Surface computing paradigm. The purpose of the Play & Tell Workshop is to inform the team of this new interaction paradigm through play and discussion. It's a great activity to actually kick off the project as the Surface device plays to its strengths of encouraging social interaction. The objective is to ensure that you share the same vision of a Surface experience. This session is facilitated by a practitioner of multi-touch design. This should be a fun, exploratory session but the practitioner needs to articulate the features of the Surface experience. Some of the subtleties of good design need to be explained as these intuitive, natural and engaging experiences can mask the complexities and thought process that has gone in to them. Our clients pay us to give them what they want but also for our expertise to guide them and help them make informed decisions. The Play & Tell Workshop kick-starts the project with a common understanding of the principles of Surface computing. These principles must be kept in mind during the entire project to deliver an experience which is true to the spirit of Microsoft Surface. If anyone wants to suggest further tips then please use the hashtag #Surfacetip
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Last
week Hungry Hippo came to Microsoft
Surface. As a child I munched my way
through many a white plastic marble so I am fascinated to see how this classic
children’s board game takes to a digital makeover. A number of puzzles, board
games and arcade games have already been given the Surface treatment. Last
month the Microsoft
Surface Games Pack brought some classics to this interactive table, along with the
Tetris-like addiction of the all-new Tiles game. These games demonstrate some
of the amazing features of Microsoft Surface; multi-touch, multi-user, gestural
experiences which are playful, rich and immersive.
Touch
is important as consumers ditch controls in favour of manipulating digital
content using natural gestures. It's early days for touch and there is
understandably a novelty element around gestural interfaces so
despite many of the games being relatively basic, they are still engaging the
users. As we become more familiar with multi touch we won't be so easily
satisfied and will demand more. Gestural interfaces are the future, and
wherever the future lies you'll always find gamers. Microsoft Surface is not
intended as a gaming device but emerging technologies such as Surface give
gamers a taste of where gaming can go.
Gamers are demanding types with an appetite for innovation so like many
of us they want to squeeze the most out of these technologies. And that takes
me to the point of this ramble. During demonstrations when I'm illustrating the
features of Microsoft Surface I am regularly asked why none of the games
utilize object recognition, why Microsoft Surface’s most compelling
feature, and the feature that sets Microsoft Surface apart from other touch
screen technologies is not used in any of the games so far?
Multi
touch devices recognize multiple simultaneous touch points. Natural user
interfaces enables users to interact in a far more natural and intuitive manner. Yet Microsoft Surface offers more than
this. It houses five cameras inside the
Surface unit which reads information from data (domino) tags and triggers events when physical
objects are placed on the surface. This is about
recognising the object, not just detecting the presence of an object. We have
seen object recognition used to good effect in many other Surface applications,
but not gaming. Surface has its limitations. It can't detect finger pressure
and it doesn’t provide haptic feedback. Surface needs to play to its strengths
and one of these is object recognition.
I'm
not advocating we implement frivolous object recognition as it needs to enhance
the experience. So whether it is as simple as an event occurring on the outcome of
a throw of a dice or a playing card being placed on the table the object
recognition must add to the experience. Take a look at Identity Mine’s Air
Hockey. This is a great illustration of
natural gestures and showcases the magic of blending physical and virtual
worlds, not to mention achieving complex events such as collisions and
acceleration. The success of this game is in its simplicity and naturalness,
but this is a game that clearly wouldn't benefit from object recognition.
Educational
games lend themselves well to Surface and we're already seeing some interesting
applications in this area. Object
recognition lends itself so well to child development as the technology can provide
a richer
sensory environment. For non-educational games we’re not seeing the same uptake.
The absence of object recognition is not a criticism of Microsoft Surface or
the talented designers out there but aren't we missing an opportunity to demonstrate the role of object recognition in interactions of the future. I know
that there are plenty of creative minds out there so this is a challenge to the
Surface community to conceive a gaming experience which benefits from object recognition.
If you have any
suggestions on games or gaming events that would benefit from object recognition please
comment on this post or post a tweet to #surfacegame.
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People learn in different ways. We are unique learners with our own learning style. Some learners have a dominant style whilst others display a mix of learning styles which they call upon in different situations.
It's important to know how we process information best and learn 'our way'. Traditional teaching methods often fail to support the learning style of kinesthetic learners, yet these learners make up somewhere between 5-15% of the population. They are doers that work best when they're hands on and engaged in motor activity. Unfortunately, some kinesthetic learners are mislabelled as ADHD. They are seen as hyperactive, difficult and even disruptive when in fact they just learn differently.
I'm no behavioural psychologist or education expert but am hopefully suitably informed to recognise the potential of technologies such as Microsoft Surface to offer immersive educational experiences which aid learning for tactile/kinesthetic learners. A typical classroom setting is not great for tactile/ kinesthetic learners. These multitouch, multiuser interactive learning devices offer a better match and it's only time before they realise their potential and go on to play an important role in education for people who are kinesthetic-oriented?
What do these Interactive Learning Devices offer for Kinesthetic Learners?
Learn by doing: Kinesthetic users can learn from first hand experiences.
Learn through touch: Surface computing is a touchy-feely technology. These natural user interfaces respond to natural gestures such as a tap, flick and pinch. Let the hands and fingers do the talking. The tactile nature of a Microsoft Surface experience is not limited to the surface display but extends to the touch of physical objects which are recognised when they are placed on the surface.
Learn through movement: These active learners have an environment which supports their need to be involved physically. Kinesthetics take in information best when they are moving. Surface devices don't follow the desk-and-chair paradigm so kinesthetic learners aren't tied to sitting down in one place while they interact.
Learn through engagement: These highly interactive devices incorporate imagery, video, and audio to provide immersive experiences where the learner can interact with and manipulate content.
Learn through participation: Kinesthetic learners participate in single user or multi user experiences through digital play.
Clearly Microsoft Surface, the SMART Table and X-Desk are devices that provide a learning environment to help kinesthetic learners succeed in a learning system where otherwise they may be left behind. Let the development begin...
Related reading: Digital Play as an Alternative to Drugs
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It’s
been a funny old week for Microsoft
Surface. A lesser known marketing
agency has been catapulted in to the spotlight after they published a post
describing their frustrations setting up the Surface device.
If
Laurel and Hardy had been tasked with setting up Surface then this would be
their perfect script.
"After 20 full
minutes of looking and reading (on how to turn the device on), the three of us,
each with a 4-year college degree, finally punted and called the help
desk"
They
later admitted their drama was embellished for comedy effect. So surely this humorous account of technical
ineptitude would be dismissed as one person’s struggle to conquer basic
tasks? No, instead the controversy that
this post ignited saw the mavens set to work.
“Our sleepy little
company blog could count on about 20 hits a day (thanks Mom!), and as of today
we’ve gotten over 20,000.”
Hundreds
of twitterers jumped on the bash-a-Microsoft-bandwagon and this sorry story of
one company’s failure to plug in the device spread like wildfire, with alarmist
headlines such as “Microsoft Surface
sucks a whole bunch to set up.”
Why
did this post create such a stir? Because where Microsoft is concerned, there
are always people looking to have a pop. This tweetsteria was quickly followed
by the same company’s naive quip asking why they ship a multi-touch device
with a keyboard! Again, the bash-a-Microsoft-bandwagon wheels started rollin'.
For
any reasonably intelligent individual, plugging the Surface device in shouldn't
be a challenge.
For
any practitioners in multi-touch design the reason for shipping a keyboard and
mouse is clear. Audio & visual cues don't compensate for tactile feedback.
Without haptic feedback, virtual keyboards don't quite cut it. Of course the
user mode is gesture-based but to administer a PC with a virtual keyboard! no
no no. It will happen but they’re just not there yet.
But
the tweets kept on coming with twitterers rejoicing at the revelation that
Microsoft Surface is shipped with a keyboard.
And
then came the twist...the marketing agency did a u-turn. They pulled their original post and replaced
it with a sort of apology
come more accurate view of the events.
Was this because they realised that their stab at humour had attempted
to undermine a landmark device that has brought natural user interfaces to the
mainstream?
But
this replacement post served to fuel a further wave of tweetsteria with
headlines such as “Microsoft contacts blogger and has it removed”.
STOP!
Aren't we missing the point?
Natural
user interfaces have been around for several decades but we are finally seeing
mainstream adoption. The iPhone has accelerated the interest in multi-touch, no
longer niche, but with Microsoft Surface natural user interfaces have truly
come of age.
Microsoft Surface incorporates
naturalness, encourages social interaction, and brings playfulness to the
party. We are living in interesting
times. Microsoft Surface offers a
different way of interacting and manipulating content. This is not a subtle change but a revolution
in the way we interface with digital content. I am glad to be involved in this
interaction revolution.
We
should be celebrating this new interaction paradigm and applauding the
technology giants we-love-to-hate. However, the past seven days for Microsoft
Surface has been all about the circus surrounding one team’s struggle to set up
the device! Any setup shortcomings pale in significance to this giant leap for
the next generation of user interactions.
Of course the Surface device is flawed and yes, there is
much to criticise. What device isn't?
Microsoft Surface is at the beginning of a long journey and I imagine
that by 2012 it will be a very different beast. But it’s presentations like Tap is the New Click that remind me we
are living in exciting times.
Fortunately this circus has a happy ending. The agency’s latest
post recognises that “the Surface
unit itself is a fantastic touch-screen computing experience ...” and “it is a great platform that will be exciting
to watch develop in the future...”
hear hear.
The
Marketing Company clearly understands the value of Microsoft Surface in evolving this
interaction paradigm. Had they envisaged
the “web-muck” that would follow their post it is unlikely they would have
posted their original comedy-take-on-events.
Not because they shouldn’t shout down Microsoft, but because this has
distracted everyone from the huge step that Microsoft Surface has taken in bringing
this new interaction paradigm to the masses.
Instead
of celebrating the shortcomings of Microsoft Surface, let the engaging experiences make the
headlines.
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The
usual #Surface suspects have been posting their Microsoft Surface tips on
Twitter. To avoid losing these design recommendations for this interaction paradigm in to the twittersphere I have collated the first 20 tips below.
If
anyone wants to suggest further tips then please use the hashtag #Surfacetip
and I'll continue to post them in batches of 20.
@wandster Microsoft Surface tip 1:
ensure the project team share the same vision of a Surface experience to
minimize risk of a paradigm face-off
@wandster Microsoft Surface tip 2: for
optimal experience keep features trim & create a focused experience which
contributes to a single purpose
@wandster Microsoft Surface tip 3: playfulness is a
must in the spirit of a Surface experience as this new breed of app has an
enjoyment factor
@stevedawson agreed, playfulness is
important for #Surface - the best experiences balance playfulness with
accessibility
@wandster Surface tip no.4: Don't do it just cos' you
can. Only use object recognition where it adds to the experience. Avoid
gimmickry...
@stevedawson Yea, that is a tough one
- especially when object recognition is a core #Surface tenant and
differentiator vs. other multi-touch
@stevedawson Fortunately, I think
most experiences can benefit from object recognition - so it's not just about
the "magic"
@wandster it's about using it well to
add to the experience - the concierge app is a great #Surface app that doesn't
use obj recognition
@lhamilton objects should insinuate
user expectations of the exp & reinforce behavior & interactions; its a
huge differentiator for #Surface
@lhamilton OR is the power of #Surface,
it brings the analogue and digital together. Yes, some are butchering, but
that's why we have jobs!
@wandster MS Surface tip no.5: Engineer
the #Surface interface to 'encourage' social interaction.
@lhamilton Agreed, it should be the
catalyst
@stevedawson Tip No. 6: No, you
should NOT try and mount #Surface on a wall :) - we get the question all the
time.
@wandster am surprised no-one has youtube'd what does
happens you wall mount a Microsoft Surface unit!
@stevedawson I'm sure #surface on a
wall will happen eventually - the whole "gravity" thing wouldn't mesh
well with object recognition
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip no.7: the
best gestural interfaces need to be discoverable, except when they're used in a
point-of-sale process
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip no.8: If it
needs instruction, there's room for UI improvement; surprises are good but exp
should not be dependent on them
@wandster absolutely - #Surface
experiences should be immediately learnable. However, enterprise apps can
afford some cost of setup
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip no.9: its
not what's just on screen, the environment is key to user engagement and
attraction affordances
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip no.10: i
think @odannyboy said it best, the complexity of the gesture should match the
complexity of the task
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip no.11:
visual and auditory responses are key to reinforcing successful user
interactions and building trust w/ the user
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip 12:
vision-based systems measure both location of a touch & its direction;
utilize the user(s) orientation to enrich the XD
@lhamilton: MS #Surface Tip 13: Surface
unit's make great work-space heaters in the winter time, however they do not
make hot chocolate
@phenomblue so true!
@lhamilton MS #Surface Tip 14: avoid
putting vital features/info, like labels, below interface items that can be
touched, the user's hand could hide it
@swervinerv MS #Surface Tip 15: UI
orientation should be 360 degrees and/or easily interchangeable based on user
direction/interaction
@wandster Microsoft #Surface tip no.16:
Use audio to i) complement the interaction and visual design, and ii) to
enhance the users sensory experience
@joshblake #SurfaceTip #17 Both
#Surface and real life are continuous experiences. Design a continuous UX:
smoothly animate every visual change.
@wandster #Surfacetip No.18: Check the
room lighting before you install your #surface unit - light spill is your
enemy.
@joshblake
#SurfaceTip #19: When you think of a cool application idea, also consider:
"Would anyone actually pay money for it?"
@meekalbajaj:
#Surfacetip 20: Design for different interaction durations. Applications should
cater to interaction times of 2, 10 & 30 min
Keep 'em coming...
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I’m taking a respite from my recent glut of
multi-touch posts and jumping back in to the web paradigm with one of my
favorite ecommerce topics – the online checkout process.
An online retailer has asked me to solve the mystery
of why a high number of shoppers are going AWOL during their checkout process.
My concern is that I am expected to concentrate all my efforts on identifying
and rectifying problems in the checkout itself.
But the full story can only be understood by following the entire user
journey from start to finish and reviewing all the site evidence.
A high abandonment rate is an unnecessary evil.
For many online retailers the percentage of people that add an item to their
basket but drop out before completing the purchase sits somewhere between 50 and
70 percent. In simple terms over half the people who show intent to buy don't
submit their order. wow - it's easy to understand why the checkout gets
so much bad press if it's responsible for so many potential customers saying
adieu.
I find 50-70 percent high and expect to see
this below 50 percent so most retailers have some way to go before they can sit
easy when recounting their abandonment rate. It’s amazing when you think about
the large sums of money online retailers invest in driving visitors to the site
but then drive them out with an inexcusable checkout faux pas. Checkout problems are possibly the largest
cause of lost revenue for most ecommerce sites.
However...the checkout process is not always guilty, sometimes guilty of little more than being caught napping at the scene of the crime.
An analytics package will track where in the checkout
process customers are dropping out. The analytics show where potential
buyers exit but they can't tell you WHY with absolute confidence. And
this point is key. A guilty verdict must be beyond a reasonable
doubt. It is this doubt which should encourage us to explore other lines of
investigation.
So before you go and string up the architect of your
checkout process you need to take a holistic view of your online
proposition. The checkout process is present at the scene of the crime -
yes - but is it the main perpetrator? Maybe not...
The crime against conversion can stick out like a sore thumb but often the reason is far less obvious. Customers may exit when
their goodwill is exhausted. Customers will persevere but everyone has a
limit. For some customers this limit is reached far quicker than
others. Many potential buyers walk wounded as they battle on, with their
goodwill slowly being drained. In many cases the checkout process lands the fatal
blow but to truly address customer abandonment you need to identify and
eliminate the early blows.
Sites that can be proud of their abandonment rate
continuously improve their websites. These impressive conversion rates
don't come overnight, by implementing piecemeal enhancements to the checkout
process but a broader strategy and commitment to their customer’s
experience. Designing an effective checkout process begins outside of the
checkout process.
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So
often criticised for its crimes against usability, Visio has been a loyal
servant to me during the industrial years of the wireframe factory. Yet this tool of choice for the past decade is
now at risk of being retired as the shift from Web to Surface paradigm sees my
toolkit evolve. With the rich interactions of natural user interfaces the good
ole fashioned pencil and paper is back in vogue. Sketching is the visualization tool do jour in
this interaction paradigm.
Yet
pencil & paper has its challenges for the artistically challenged. Years of keyboard abuse has seen my
handwriting suffer and I never progressed beyond disproportioned stick men. My hand drawn sketches are no Picasso so I need
to discard those napkin sketches and find myself a tool that enables me to
quickly scamp up the designs whilst keeping that rawness of a work-in-progress.
I
am not advocating that we jump in to a design package and produce hi-fidelity
designs but that we use simple tools to quickly and efficiently mock up hand-drawn
line sketches such as this (below)
One of our User Experience Architects used Omnigraffle to create these digital sketches (above) for our Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search Application, using a stencil of shapes built from illustrations created by our design team. I have built my own sketching toolkit from collections of stencils such as Konigi
and Graffeltopia – great sources of free stencils for creating user interface specifications. But are these complex diagramming applications the most efficient tools for sketching designs? In
my pursuit of the killer tool for visualizing the behaviour of an
application I posted a tweet for designers to
come forth with their digital sketch tool of choice. I received responses from
the usual suspects in the #Surface community - @joshblake, @stevedawson and @lhamilton.
My question was timely as these chaps were individually considering developing a UI
prototyping tool for NUI’s.
Joshua
(@joshblake) posed a question back
to me - what features would I want from a UI prototyping tool?
I thought I’d open Joshua’s question up to a wider
audience... what would you want from a digital sketch tool for the early stages of
UI design? so please
step forward and suggest a feature wishlist so we can see what existing UI prototyping tools
(e.g. Denim, Balsamiq etc) meet our sketching
needs and if they fall short then we can possibly see what these clever chaps can
do about it.
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On
multi-touch devices like Microsoft
Surface and the SMART table
multiple users interact with digital content concurrently. These digital social experiences extend
beyond a poke
and a tweet as users
interact face-to-face. The success of
these multi-user social platforms depends on the familiarity of the users, a
cocktail of cultural and situational factors, and the interfaces ability to
encourage social participation.
The
way I see it is that the role of the Microsoft
Surface interface is akin to that of a compère of a public show, whose job
it is to engage the audience and keep the show moving. The success of the show depends on the
compère’s ability to not only entertain but to make the audience feel at ease. The
audience’s social confidence is drawn from their familiarity with the people
around them. Therefore the role the compère plays in encouraging social
interaction is significantly influenced by the audience’s degree of
familiarity. It is this role of as Master of Digital Ceremonies that forms an
important part of our Surface interface design strategy.
I
recently worked up two Microsoft Surface concepts which took very different
approaches to engaging the audience.
These approaches were influenced by the familiarity of the target
audience. The
first concept was a collaborative enterprise
search application. All the users
are from the same company so the audience has a degree of familiarity. The
second concept was a CRM application in a public space. The participants are in the main strangers
and do not know one another.
This
is what Microsoft refers to in their Surface User Experience Guidelines as multi-friends
and multi-stranger scenarios.
And
it is this distinction around participants’ degree of familiarity which requires
a different social design strategy. How your interface welcomes the users? How does the interface provide a way for
another user to join? How the interface rewards cooperation? Does the interface
make it clear to a user how to join in? etc
Poor
social engineering means the interface will fail in its role as host of a
cooperative social experience. We endeavoured to ensure the interface succeeded as host of the digital show and did not exlude or discourage social particpation.
Consider the following 'somewhat obvious' example: In the multi-friends scenario of the enterprise search application a busy screen showed no negative impact in encouraging new users to join the experience. User testing further showed that a 'cluttered' interface actually appeared to intrigue new users and encourage conversation and social participation. In the multi-stranger scenario of the CRM application new users showed reluctance to enter what they referred to as a ‘messy’ interface and this created a barrier to entry. In this scenario the Surface interface needs to work harder to encourage user participation and social activity. We achieved this by simply reducing content clutter, which had a significant improvement on social participation.
Detailed examples to follow in next post...
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Having read an article on how to increase
one's productivity it got me thinking whether there is something missing from
our design strategies. We want users to achieve their mental peak
when using an application but what are we doing to encourage this? Where is the Mental Strategy? Research shows that mental performance is
improved by standing, walking and even simply gesturing yet the average office set up
supports this trend of sedentary experiences, based more on comfort than
optimising a user’s thinking ability.
My point is that devices and applications
in a business context should be conducive to optimizing our performance. Unfortunately given half a chance many
workers would relish a zero-gravity reclined-seating workstation. In an inactive society where a device which
contributes towards our obese nation such as the remote control is celebrated
for helping satisfy our sedentary desires, would a device that bucks this
sedentary trend and shifts away from the desk-and-chair paradigm be well
received?
If research shows that physical activity
can rejuvenate a flagging brain, provide mental stimulation and help us think
then why is it not factored in to the design?
I have been heartened by the Wii (and not
forgetting Sony’s EyeToy) which has been instrumental in getting many couch
addicts up off their backsides. The Wii is a games console designed to create a
fun and immersive gaming experience and not to boost brain power but there is
much we can learn from the Wii.
It’s more as a by-product of the physical
form and the natural user interface that the latest multi-touch table devices
encourage physical activity. Whilst there is nothing to stop you pulling up
your favourite armchair alongside these interactive tables, this interaction
paradigm encourages users to stand, walk and gesture. If the research is accurate then these
devices should improve our thinking power. 
So along with the entertainment,
interactive and social plaudits heaped on these devices we can now add brain
boosting. Employees who remain deskbound
all the time have their productivity stifled so will this be the start of a new
generation of active and productive office computer users?
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Imagine a digital utopia where designers are free from grid-based design, and precision mouse control & clicks are replaced by gestural mechanisms. Where imagination is not exclusively for the mavericks to throw a curve ball at what’s achievable. Where we move away from the chair-and-desk paradigm and the frightening portrait WALL-E depicts of a human race whose only physical movement is to lift a straw to their lips. This is the new paradigm – a natural, active and social paradise where reality and virtual reality blend seamlessly with magical results.
Well, not quite. But there is plenty to savour from a paradigm that incorporates naturalness, encourages social interaction, and brings playfulness to the party. We are living in interesting times. Consider multi-touch, these devices offer a different way of interacting and manipulating content. This is not a subtle change but a revolution in the way we interface with digital content.
Many people are getting their first taste of natural user interfaces and there is an understandable buzz. The Web 2.0 movement harnessed collective intelligence built on a framework of creativity, collaboration, group thinking and sharing. This was a positive step forward for digital experiences. Web 2.0 made us feel good about ourselves for being more social while all the time we sat staring at a monitor, engaging in less and less face-to-face contact and developing a distorted view of social relationships. So how do we take another step closer to a digital utopia?
It was with several recent Microsoft Surface projects that I had a eureka moment and realised the possibilities of this new interaction paradigm. As the projects threw up questions, it was the subject of these that made me aware of the dramatic changes ahead: -
· Does the application work for single user, multi-friends and multi-stranger experiences?
· Do we have the correct balance of playfulness?
· Is it an exploratory experience?
· Does the application have a pulse?
· What is our social design strategy?
· and so on...
These were fascinating questions to be asking about any application, even more so an enterprise application.
Natural user interfaces have been around for several decades but we are finally seeing mainstream adoption. The rate at which multi-touch applications is forecasted to grow over the next 3 years means that what are currently a small percentage of designers working on multi-touch applications will increase rapidly as there will be an ever-growing appetite for multi-touch solutions. The iPhone has accelerated the interest in multi-touch, no longer niche, and with Windows 7 multi-touch will truly come of age. If you’re not working with multi-touch devices or NUI’s then does that matter? No! It's less about the technology driving our thinking but more about our thinking driving the experiences. The interaction revolution is as much about the evolution of the way we think about digital experiences. It’s exciting to ask these questions of the new breed of digital experiences. If somehow we can answer some of these questions then we’ll take a huge leap forward in creating compelling and enjoyable experiences.
Related reading - Playfulness in a Business Context
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Ouch! Received an email this morning stating that playful design has no place in a business context!
For the last 3 weeks a small team of us have been working on an Enterprise Search application and we finally have something to show for our hard endeavours. Our Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search demo rears it's pretty face at FastForward'09 this week.
Please don’t tell me this enterprise application is not playful!
Playful design has historically been monopolised by non-enterprise applications. We have focused our enterprise efforts on task-focused applications to increase efficiency and failed to acknowledge other success factors. Should playfulness be a measure of success? Playfulness itself is not a measure of success. For me, creating an experience that engages people and provides entertainment and enjoyment is. Playfulness is just one element of an engaging experience.
Our challenge over the past few weeks has been to build a Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search demo. Microsoft Surface is conducive to play - playfulness is a must in the spirit of a Surface experience. So I had a playful strategy in my back pocket, to help shape the design of an application that is social and playful, but ultimately functional and extremely useful.
Does playfulness in this Search application compromise efficiency? Possibly! But not much and the playfulness payoff more than compensates for a few lost seconds. We have an unhealthy obsession with getting things done quickly. The pace of our lives is about 10% faster now than it was a decade ago. Yes, our time is valuable in an increasingly rushed environment but our pace can mean that we fail to savour the better things in life. This is summed up in by William Henry Davies in his poem ‘Leisure’ where he is frustrated by his busy schedule as it stops him from enjoying the surrounding beauty. I know that feeling so well.
So the Surface search application may be beaten to the finishing line by a desktop application in the race to find some specific content. But for enjoyment there is no contest. What this application does is challenge the concept that playfulness sits awkwardly in enterprise applications and creates an engaging experience of discovery. And as the cliché goes, a happy worker is a productive worker. There is undoubtedly a payoff from being entertained.
Web 2.0 has seen a new breed of playful applications but it seems the fun stops there. Microsoft Office, daily fodder for many of us workers comes certified with a NO Fun policy (oh, let’s not mention Clippy). I don't derive any joy from the Microsoft Office products – satisfaction, yes, when it helps me complete my task – but there’s no warm fuzzy feeling of enjoyment. Microsoft Office is efficient (some may argue) and functional but there are no ooohs and aaahs as you build your Excel pie chart.
An enterprise application is task oriented – it’s all about finding the information. But what if the route that we take to get there is changed. We could take the shortcut or the picturesque route. On the picturesque route we have time to enjoy the surroundings and interact with people. We take slightly longer to achieve our goal but along the way we have built an emotional bond with people and the environment. Is this really a bad thing?
I will caveat this ramble that playfulness must be well-timed. There is an art to adding small elements of playfulness that do not interfere with the experience.
Playfulness can manifest itself in many forms, such as through copy or interaction design. Not to forget playfulness through interaction with other people. Many office woes are built around social scarcity, a chance meeting in the office or a stagnant office setup. Yet this Enterprise Search demo facilitates a social and playful experience.
There is still some way to go with this application but it has been exciting to take something that we generally see as a mundane and routine task and make it fresh and enjoyable. It’s good to hear the buzz, a laugh and the occasional ‘woooo’ as users work with this search application.
So in response to this morning’s email, playful design certainly has a place in a business context. Next challenge, to make our Timesheet application playful!!!
As a footnote – if you want to see Microsoft Surface in action in London, or elsewhere in the UK, talk to us.
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Have you ever wondered what goes on at an EMC Conchango Community Day?
If so, follow us on at Twitter using the hashtag #comday. We’ll be keeping both those at Community Day and those that aren’t in touch with what’s happening at Community Day by twittering throughout the day.
The next community day is this coming Friday, 6th Feb 2009 at Notcutt House, London. Community sessions kick off at 09:30 GMT and include User Experience, Cloud Community, Media & Entertainment Community, Agile Community, Collaborative Solutions Community … to name just a few.
For you Twitterers out there please add the hashtag #comday to any inline posts about Community sessions. This is not limited to those participating in Community Day as we welcome feedback, suggestions and general chat on any of our posts. Also, let us know what you want to hear about.
Experienced Twitterers can tune out now …
For those less familiar with hashtags, well, it helps related tweets get heard above the rest of the Twitter noise by creating a common interest group. They are tags that allow you to follow a conversation topic.
Get the Twitter feed from Community Day at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23comday
Alternatively, my preference is to set up a search query in TweetDeck.
What’s Twitter?
For those not familiar with Twitter itself then Google it as there’s no shortage of information out there.
Basically, Twitter is a social messaging utility and a valued player in the social media landscape. Also referred to as a micro-blogging service, and cynically known as the lazy bloggers service.
See you at Community Day.
Twitter: twitter.com/Wandster
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Before the festive holiday kicked in
I intended to design a Microsoft Surface Card Sorting application but time ran out
without me getting much further than a brief conversation over a cuppa with some
user experience colleagues and a few very rough and barely legible sketches of
the application interface. To make sure I don’t forget any
initial thinking here’s some wee thoughts on the surface card sorting software. Please add your comments or thoughts to these
rambles to help shape the software.
Card sorting is an effective
exercise for grouping information on a web site. Topics are written on index
cards and the participants then organise the index cards in to logical
groupings. It offers a valuable insight of the user’s mental models, revealing how
they organize information and think the site should be structured. There are two types of card sort -
open and closed sort. In an open card sort a users arranges the content
in to logical groupings and then gives the stack a category label. In a closed cart sort the user sorts the
content in to pre-defined categories. It
is common to follow an open card sort with a closed cart sort. Once the
categories have been defined a closed card sort allows us to see how users sort
content in to these groups. If you want to know more about Card
Sorting then for a detailed description read Card
sorting: a definitive guide
Card sorting sessions work well
enough for me without the need for a computer-based card sorting program. When the target audience is geographically wide spread then card sorting software can be used to conduct remote card sorts. So why am I suggesting more software
when there are already a number of card sorting programs and there hasn’t been great
adoption of these existing ones?
Card sorting exercises are extremely
effective but are costly because they are time consuming to set up, administer
and analyse the data. Card sorting software reduces costs but so far the actual
user experience is considerably less than that of a hands-on physical card
sort. This is where a Surface
application comes in. It offers the cost
saving without compromising the end user experience.
Before running a card sorting
exercise you recruit participants and create a content inventory. These activities happen irrespective of
whether it’s a real or virtual card sort. Next, you prepare the cards for the
session. There would be minimal cost
savings in the preparation although the software does make writing the cards
easier. With card sorting software the virtual index cards are generated from
the content inventory doc. This also ensures that all the cards are neat and
legible. Alternatively this could be
done using perforated index cards and mail merge, but not having to print out
the cards is a time saver, not to mention more environmentally sound.
The real cost saving Card Sorting software has over hands-on real card sorting exercises is in the data analysis. A computer program records the data so it can
be analyzed to provide meaningful results.
It is this data analysis where card sorting programs come in to their
own and save considerable time and money.
A physical card sorting exercise can be carried out and then the data
entered in to statistical software for analysis, but this data inputting is
time consuming.
My concern with existing software
is that it's not easy to use and this distracts the users focus away from the core task
of organising the content. A Microsoft Surface Card Sorting application offers an engaging and
immersive way for participants to interact and manipulate digital content through touch
and natural gestures. The actual physical
exercise of sorting index cards in to logical groupings work well for me and Microsoft Surface
offers a similar digital experience to physical card sorting.
For an overview of how the Surface
application might work, consider the following scenario...
Louise, a User Experience
Consultant, places her admin card on the surface tabletop to unlock the card sorting
program. The admin card holds basic
information such as her name and email address. Several options to run the
program in admin or user mode are displayed around the admin
card. Louise taps to select the user mode.
The first participant, Simon,
arrives and Louise passes him his identification badge. This identifies his name, email address and
the project he’ll be doing the card sorting exercise for. Louise has set up multiple projects for card
sorting exercises but has assigned one project to Simon. Louise places her card back on the
table and selects the Open Card Sort
option. A set of virtual index cards are scattered on the desktop. Each card includes a topic. As the facilitator, Louise gives Simon a
brief introduction to card sorting and demonstrates how to group the content in
to stacks by sifting through the index cards and moving them in to high level
groups. Louise places her admin card back on
the table and taps the reset option to
re-scatter the index cards so Simon can start the exercise. Louise also enables
record audio, then lifts her card up
and leaves Simon to organize the cards. The participant is encouraged to
think aloud. The sound recorder captures
their thinking and gives us an insight in their rationale behind the groupings.
Simon sits down at the
high-resolution tabletop display and begins to group the content. The interactions are natural and
intuitive. Simon drags the card around the table tops. He can rotate them, flip them and arrange
them in to stacks. He is unsure about one of the topic
labels so flips the card over by tapping the reverse arrow in the cards top right
corner. Simon writes a note using a
tablet-style pen and then flips the card back over. An icon appears on the
virtual card to confirm that a note is attached to this card.
On the table is a virtual stack of blank category cards. Simon drags one of
these over to a stack he has created and gives the card a category label. Once the stack
has a label Simon can zoom in so that this stack takes over the tabletop display
and removes any surface clutter. Simon moves
some of the card around in this stack and then pans back out to a view of all
the stacks. Simon gets a little confused as to whether it matters how many stacks he
creates. Simon taps the Help card and this tells him all he
needs to know. He closes this card and
continues with the exercise. Simon creates the stacks and then
clicks done which sends a message
over to Louise who is working in the room outside the usability lab. Louise gets the message and walks over to the
table to wrap things up.
The next participant is ready to go
straight away as a new session starts without any need to tidy up the index
cards. After the day’s sessions are
complete Louise goes to the admin interface to analyse the data. She decides not to include some of the
sessions in the data analysis. Louise chooses
not to include two test sessions, and also excludes Frank who on further analysis
was not a good match for their personas. Louise first eyeballs the raw data,
then views the matrix of how often content was paired together. Finally, Louise
views the dendogram. This is when the magic happens and
the clustering algorithms set to work.
This is the bit that is going to involve all the head scratching –
developing the program to create the dendogram. We’re currently looking at different visual ways to
present the data in a meaningful way, so any ideas please add your comments.
That’s where my rambles end for the time being, although I’ll follow up this
post with some sketches and more detailed information on the interface and interactions
as we starting working this up from rambles in to hopefully a usable
cost-saving card sort application.
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Friday 28th November saw the first of the Virgin Atlantic VJAM
workshops to brainstorm ways to improve the travel experience for
customers. Conchango took the Microsoft Surface unit along and I
played guardian and host of this device for most of the day. The attendees included travel professionals,
experts in social media and others who have some connection to Virgin. The Surface unit seemed quite at home at a workshop
on thought leadership and some fascinating discussions took place around the
table during the day.
One conversation which got me thinking was
around the use of technology for cognitive behaviour therapy. Dr
Mark Jones specialises in using cognitive training to improve behaviour and has
developed an interactive learning tool, Animal
Agentz, to teach children coping skills. Animal Agentz was the result of his
research as a PhD student and tested at Great Ormond Street Hospital. I was particularly
interested in how behavioural treatment through digital play could help develop
problem solving strategies.
We discussed children with ADHD - I naively thought
that children with ADHD would be encouraged to spend less time playing computer
games but a carefully balanced media diet can improve a child’s social and
coping skills. Computers are playing an
increasingly important part for children with behavioural problems.
Animal Agentz plays out real scenarios and uses animal characters to educate a user on the
consequences of an action. This software has been proven to hold a child’s
attention by engaging them through rich content and interactions. If such software can help mood regulation and
self-control then can a natural user interface (yup,
Surface) advance this further?
A child with ADHD performs better when they
are engaged. A natural user interface
(NUI) puts the focus on the software and its content and not on how to interact with the content. Surface
computing provides intuitive usability and a more natural way to interact than
using a keyboard or mouse.
It is commonsense that technologies that
remove barriers by introducing natural gestures can only further engage and
keep their attention. Inattention is a
major factor in educating users with ADHD so a NUI such as Microsoft Surface offers an intuitive
experience that doesn't hinder their creative energy or expression and allows
them to focus their energy. Microsoft Surface changes the way
that people and technology interact.
Clearly Microsoft Surface has a place in Attention
Solutions.
Over the coming months I'll be looking at developing interactive learning tools for surface
computing so if you have any ideas on this or would like to get involved then please get in touch . Or if you want to see Surface in action in London, or elsewhere in the UK, talk to us.
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