The Three Seashells applied to UI Design

I frequently refer to "the three seashells" approach in user interaction design.  Here's a video clip for the origin of the term.  Watch the person with the headset mock the unknowing Sylvester Stallone.  Have you ever opened a high-tech gadget and didn't know how to make it work?  Were you mocked by others who had (eventually) figured it out?

Software artisans' can build UI's that look incredibly cool, but it's vitally important to remember how they make the user feel.  When I view usability videos or users working with the software I create, I focus on their face and body language. They tell me if the software helping them, or confusing them.

When designing UI, remember that users are always trying to accomplish some task.  Rarely do users just open up an application just to look around, or keep it open to watch numbers change and progress bars advance.

Our designs must always be task-oriented and help the user achieve their goal.  Management will always say, "Make it simple and easy to use." This is obvious, of course. Yet, too frequently these directives result in products that are far less functional than they should be and overly simplistic. I've seen user interfaces that interpret "simple" as "understandable by toddler." Users instinctively know when they are being talked down to and the user will feel patronized and resent the software – even if they were able to accomplish the task.

Let's instead define "simple" to mean "quick to figure out". Similarly "easy" should mean, "I got the results I wanted quickly."

Obviously how a product makes the user feel isn't limited to digital user interfaces. An example for me was back in 2006 when copies of Windows Vista were given those of us on the product team. They arrived in our offices and we all tried opening the package with few successful results.   There was a red tab sticking out on top of the box.  Obviously, you had to pull on the red tab, right?  Nevertheless, the package wouldn't open despite forceful tugging of the tab.  We all thought we were going to break the packaging.

The package literally made people feel like idiots because it was difficult to open while presenting itself as the latest and greatest.

Once you figured out how to open it, then you could mock show someone else. It was so bad, that there was a help article written about it and the design was dropped in the next boxed version.

Software often makes users feel like idiots by not working in ways they expect it to.  Always ensure you understand the user's expectations and then craft products that meet those expectations.