Apple Design vs. User Error

I've been thoroughly enjoying the use of my iPhone as regular readers of this blog will know from my previous posts. The importance placed on design at Apple and the design decisions made up until recently have been exemplary. Something appears to have changed however. I haven't used an iPhone 4 so can't really comment much on the problems with using the antennas as the actual bezel but it appears that it was an amazing industrial design masterpiece but a failure with users. If you haven't heard, there are pervasive reports of dropped phone calls when the iPhone 4 is held in certain ways particularly by left-handed users. Apple has essentially said that the problem is due to user error and that users should simply hold the phone differently or add a case. I'll leave the rest of that discussion to those who have first-hand experience with the device.

I do have first-hand experience with the new version of the operating system, iOS4, running on my iPhone 3GS. Since installing the new OS, my phone had been operating strangely: it would die even though it had a full battery charge, spontaneously reboot, and crash apps while I was using them. I was heart-broken that my wonderful iPhone had now developed some fatal flaw and the device that I could trust to always work now would be as unreliable as previous devices I'd used were.

A friend suggested I take it into an Apple store to have a Genius check it out. I did that. What I learned absolutely shocked me. The Genius ran a diagnostic program which reported a lack of available RAM. On further investigation it was determined that the lack of available RAM was due to multitasking. I haven't used multitasking much but was surprised to learn that many of the 100 or so apps I have on my iPhone were still running, albeit in suspended mode in most cases.  Turns out that I didn't have the appropriate user model for the way multitasking works on the iPhone. I wonder how many users share my confusion. Here's actually how Apple designed multitasking to work. Every app you launch until you reboot is running in multitasking mode - and taking up memory! Guess how you're expected to stop apps from multitasking and taking up memory? You have to get into delete mode and delete by press the minus sign on every app in the multitasking tray! (see the screen capture above) Apparently, Steve Jobs when announcing iOS4 said something to the effect of companies who's multitasking operating systems require a task manager (meaning Microsoft's Windows) has failed to do its job. Well then, Apple has failed to do its job because not only is the multitasking tray on the iPhone a task manager, it requires you to manually delete every app you want to stop running on your device! If I could disable multitasking I would. Now I have to spend time manually deleting apps or reboot regularly both of which are a waste of time. I sure hope that the maintenance release of iOS4 fixes this problem and the one that iPhone 4 users are experiencing.  

Apple is known for brilliant design but due to its intensely secretive culture, it doesn't do much user testing. It seems to me that the problems with the iPhone 4 and the problem I've identified here with the design of iOS4 may have been a casualty of this culture. I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have on this. 

Length of Podcast Episodes

I ask for feedback on my podcasts on a regular basis in order to further improve them. One recurring theme relates to the optimal length of individual episodes. I typically aim for a length of about 30 minutes in length for episodes that I'm doing by myself and normally about 45 minutes to an hour for episodes that involve a guest. Listeners have suggested having longer and shorter episodes and a number have also indicated that they're fine with the current length. Recently a listener wrote me to suggest that I do a quick poll on the topic to get the range and average preference from a representative number of listeners. I've done that before regarding things like the ideal frequency so decided to do it again regarding the length. I've created a poll using a new (to me) service called Wufoo. I've included a widget at the bottom of the right column of this website that you can use to complete the poll. Feel free to make any comments here too on the topic. Thanks!   

Going Digital for Free

Many aspects of our lives have been going digital over the past few years. A typical knee-jerk response to a question is to simply Google it.  I consider Google an appliance for my brain given how often I use it in this way. The majority of people now listen to music in the form of MP3s using an iPod, iPhone, or some other personal audio device. Many also watch digital movies on their computer screens or increasingly on their TV screens too. News is increasingly consumed in digital form via websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or podcasts. Books are now often read on dedicated devices such as a Kindle or directly on devices like iPhones and iPads and alternatively listened to as audio books in the way that music is listened to. 

I'm an early adopter of most things digital and have consumed content almost exclusively in digital form for the past few years. I've been paying for much of this digital content though whether through iTunes for music and movies, audible.com for audio books, and amazon.com for eBooks. I was reflecting the other day on the fact that I used to borrow books, music, and movies from the public library, the physical versions of these things. I thought it was an amazing tax-supported way of simply borrowing media for the time period you needed it. I remember checking periodically with the library to see if they were moving into the digital world and was routinely disappointed to learn that they weren't. In fact, I found it extremely frustrating that I couldn't even access the online catalog because all the computers were being used by people accessing their email!

You can imagine my delight when I recently checked with my public library website and found that they now provide digital media and the ability to download and transfer it directly to your media device (an iPhone in my case). The media stays on your device for the loan period and automatically disappears after that leaving you extra space on your device. They offer music, movies, ebooks, and audio books. Since finding this new free resource about a couple of weeks ago, I've already listened to four audio books. I'd recommend that you check out your local public library website to see if yours has digital content for download as well.  

Optimizing Teamwork

Most of what we do at work and at play is done with other people. However, little attention is often paid to enhancing what we do with others in teams. There is certainly lots of attention on how to improve the performance of sports teams but that isn't the case for other teams in work and educational settings. A listener of my Life Habits podcast series sent me a question on this topic. She used to be an Olympic athlete in a non-team sport and was now retired from sports and needing to learn how to work effectively and optimally on teams at work. I gave that some thought and came up with a list of ten ideas to consider in enhancing and optimizing the workings of teams. I recorded a podcast episode on the topic which you can listen to via the Life Habits iTunes page or via the web at the Life Habits show notes site. I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on the episode and the ideas discussed in it. (the photograph on the right is courtesy of Ingorrr via Creative Commons license)  

Design Guidelines and Trade-offs

Design guidelines and design trade-offs are often hotly debated in design circles. However, very little is know about them in actual practice. Now a doctoral student, Steve Szigeti, is doing research on this very topic.  Steve is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Information (iSchool) at the University of Toronto, as well as a graduate fellow in the Knowledge Media Design collaborative program at the university. I'd like to share Steve's invitation for you to participate in his study here. Here are his words: 

I'm seeking your help in a research study which looks at the role of design guidelines and design trade-offs in the process of web interface design. I would be grateful if you could share your opinions and experiences in a web based questionnaire. The questionnaire takes roughly 15-20 minutes to complete. All of your responses will remain confidential. This study is part of doctoral research in the Faculty of Information (iSchool) at the University of Toronto. I am interested in the experiences you and other web interface designers have with aspects of the design process, such as the use of guidelines and your experiences (if any) with design trade-offs. In appreciation for your participation, aggregate results of the survey will be posted at http://www.szigeti.ca after September 1, 2010.  If you would like more information about this study, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Please contribute to Steve's study by taking this questionnaire. Thanks.

Apple's New iOS4

I just upgraded my iPhone to the new version of the operating system. Apple renamed what used to be the iPhone OS to the more generic iOS because it is the system that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The latest version, iOS4, comes with the new iPhone 4 but it is also being made available for free for previous iPhone models. I have an iPhone GS so the upgrade was a really nice surprise, especially for free!

The major enhancements that come with iOS4 include multitasking, folders, integrated and threaded mail, and camera zooming. Let's explore each of these in turn.

Multitasking is a welcomed addition to the iPhone. The method of switching between apps once you know that you have to double-press the button is pretty intuitive and convenient. What isn't so intuitive is what this control actually does. The tray of running apps is obvious enough but what is confusing is the fact that that tray just keeps filling up with apps even if you closed them down by single pressing the button. The only way to remove apps from the actively running tray appears to be to explicitly delete them, which is weird. Apparently, only a few apps are able to actually keep running whereas others simply suspend their state while not in focus. Any difference between these two types of apps in terms of their multitasking ability isn't apparent in the user interface itself.

Folders are not only a nice to have but a necessity if you have a reasonably large collection of apps. The user interface action in this case isn't intuitive but once you've done it once, it does feel natural. You have to simply drag one app icon onto another and a folder is created with the default name of the category of the apps. You can then add up to 12 apps per folder. Rather than having to scroll to the right and left through many pages of apps, the new folders allow you to simply tap on a folder which reveals all the apps within it without having to do any scrolling. I've found this a perfect way of cleaning up the apps on my iPhone and being able to access them in a much more efficient manner.

Mail has been enhanced with the addition of an integrated inbox and threaded conversations. I'm not crazy about the integrated inbox because I personally don't want my work and personal email in a single inbox. I find it jarring. However, others may think it is a great feature. As for the threaded conversations, I can't find them. I don't know if you have to somehow turn this feature on through another hidden user interface action but I don't see any threading in my inboxes. I'm assuming that the feature is essentially the approach that Google introduced into its GMail system where all replies to an initial email are nested together. I use that all the time in GMail and in Lotus Notes but I don't see it in my iPhone inboxes. When I find it, I'll report back here what I think of it.

Camera zooming is an incredibly important addition to the iPhone. I take pretty well all my pictures with the iPhone and the other day I was taking pictures of my daughter and her friends at a pre-prom party we hosted at our house. For some of the pictures, we had the group of friends all line up on the other side of the swimming pool from the parents taking pictures. The parents with actual cameras were able to zoom in to capture the group of friends across the pool but I wasn't able to zoom at all and, as a result, missed some of the detail. I now can with the updates made to the camera which allows you to move a slider on the camera view to set the right level of zoom. Pretty sweet!

While my very early experiences with the enhancements made to iOS4 weren't unqualifiedly positive, I am still very pleased with the update and especially so given the price - free. 

iPad - Design without Affordance

I've now had a lot more experience with the iPad. I continue to thoroughly enjoy using it. However, I'm going through a similar experience that I went through (and blogged about here) with my iPhone initially. The experience is one of thinking that certain things just don't work only to learn later that there was a hidden user interface feature to carry out some action that the user had no way of knowing about. I had concluded that certain websites were simply not enabled for the iPad and I thought it weird that they hadn't done anything about the problems given the popularity of the iPad. For example, several parts of Facebook simply didn't work such as the list of friends. The problem was scrolling the list of friends. When I tried to swipe down on the list, the way you scroll down everywhere else on the device, the page would move slightly but the pop-up layer would move with it but the list of friends would stay put. Regular users of MacBooks would have a clue as to what to try to get this type of list to scroll but everyone else is left in the dark. I asked a number of other people about this and nobody that I found knew a way of scrolling lists like the ones on Facebook and we just assumed the site was not appropriately enabled for the iPad.

It was colleague of mine that finally clued me into the solution - the two finger swipe. I just tried it tonight and it worked! While I'm glad that I now know how to do something that is pretty basic on the iPad, it got me thinking about Apple's overall strategy of designing without affordances. The overall assumption is that the various touch actions are intuitive and, as a result, it is so much more efficient to not clutter screens with affordances like scroll bars. To Apple's credit, most of the touch actions are intuitive. However, the problem is the set of touch actions that are not intuitive and how users are supposed to find out about them. I admire Apple's commitment to its design principles for virtually all other aspects of the design of this device but that purity of adherence to the principles does have its costs and this is one of them.   

iPad - A New Paradigm in Computing

I was tempted to write a post shortly after I got my iPad but thought better of it.  I wanted to use the iPad everyday for several weeks before summarizing my experience.  My overall conclusion is that the iPad truly represents a new paradigm in computing.  It's a game changer.  I've written on this blog for years that advances in operating systems that were touted by others as being significant, like Windows 7 and OSX Snow Leopard, were really tweaks on a decades old system.  The iPad is a true departure from this operating system heritage.  It's a resetting of the dial.  It's what's called "clean-sheet" design in the industry - not worrying about backward compatibility and consistency with prior systems.  

I believe that Apple had a vision for the iPad when they designed the iPod Touch and the iPhone. By the way, I don't think they planned the evolution of the non-touch iPods as carefully since the information architecture broke several times throughout that product family transition.  It was different with the touch line of products.  I think they were planned as a transition.  Introducing a phone with touch capability was revolutionary but it also set the stage for the later introduction of the iPad so that everyone was already comfortable interacting with a touch device.  You can use the iPad the moment you turn it on partly because you've experienced an iPhone or iPod Touch before (or any of the other manufacturer's products that have copied the interaction design).  Interestingly, though, the iPad feels quite natural to those who haven't had experience with a touch device previously.  The actions are generally so natural and obvious that it leads truly to a walk up and use experience.

Here are the things that I think are key to the new computing paradigm that the iPad is introducing.

1. Instant On - while other computers need to boot up even if they're coming off a sleep state, the iPad comes on as fast as you can swipe your finger to unlock the screen.  It's amazingly fast - essentially instant. This is a game changer because the iPad becomes the device of choice when you want to quickly check your e-mail, an app, or a website.  
2. Convenient Portability - while notebook computers and netbooks are portable in that you can carry them around, you still have to use them like a computer; similarly, smartphones are portable too but are too small to do any number of activities that require a larger screen and keyboard. The iPad has the ideal form factor to conveniently access and interact with information.
3. Simplicity - while other operating systems make a user figure out a file system, the concept of an application that works with files in the file system, left and right mouse clicks, click and drag, and such esoteric things as drivers, settings, and the need to download, install, and configure applications, the iPad simply has apps which you can get by pressing a button called "Install App" and an interface that mostly works like you would expect it would if you were using an analogue version of the thing (flip the page in a book by placing your finger on the page and pushing it.)

The iPad at my house is used by anyone who needs quick access to content, for watching movies personally, and for using doing school projects.  I should point out that since I got the iPad in Canada before it was available in Canada, my access to the App Store has been problematic.  Initially, the App Store wouldn't load at all and it would after I created a US account but then I could only download free apps because I needed a US credit card in order to buy paid apps.  I now know about the latest fix to even be able to buy apps in the US store but haven't gone through the laborious steps to do that.  It has been frustrating working with the iPad given these conditions and it has also meant that I haven't been able to use higher-end productivity apps to further test the iPad experience.

There are some limitations that I've experienced.  The glare of the screen is problematic in bright light conditions but I use mine indoors mostly so this isn't a problem very often.  The lack of printing support may become a problem once I use higher-end apps.  The lack of a camera is a problem in trying to use the iPad for Skype calls but a recent Camera for the iPad app appears to have partially solved the camera problem.  I find the lack of multitasking a problem in only certain situations and I suspect the 4.0 version of the OS will address this issue. The major problem I've experienced thus far has actually been the inconsistency in the user interface design of the apps on the iPad.  Apple appears to have approved some of these apps too quickly in order to fill out the App Store for the launch and I hope they'll review apps more carefully in the future.

I'll provide another review in time when I get direct access to my country's App Store and then use more sophisticated apps.  All in all, my impression from a few weeks of using the iPad is that it represents the first in a new paradigm of computing.  

Is Web Media Ready for Prime Time?

I've been listening to podcasts for years and currently subscribe to a total of 32 podcast series.  As you know, I also create two podcasts myself.  I think that I'm hooked on this type of media.  As most people do, I prefer my podcasts in audio format because I'm usually doing something else with my eyes while listening to podcasts like driving, running, or doing the dishes.  I still subscribe to video podcasts but mostly listen to the audio track only.  I occasionally find that I need to turn on my iPhone to view the video when video is critical to the subject matter.  This usually happens on TED.com Talks and sometimes on GeekBrief.TV.  I listen to practically all of the podcasts on Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech (TWIT) podcast network but rarely even feel the need to watch the video.  I occasionally turn on the video to see what a new guest looks like but that's about it.  Leo is a real pioneer and tends to push the technology envelop and is usually successful with it.  He's one of only a few professional podcasters making good money in the field. His latest push is into streaming video and making video podcasts and YouTube replays available.  Others that have done this have adopted the a studio model and while still relatively informal, still making the video content look professional.  Leo, on the other hand, makes video available but up until the last week hasn't paid any attention to the professionalism of the video stream content.  Shown in the picture here is a regular guest on the flagship TWIT show.  Having a massive microphone dangling right in front of the guest's face isn't perhaps the best way to produce web-based video content.  Leo and his other guests also usually wear large headphones.  So, my vote thus far is that although it is technically possible to create video content on the web, those producing it aren't quite ready for prime time.  The last episode of the TWIT show did include a discussion of smaller microphones but there wasn't any mention of not having them cover the guest's face nor any discussion of getting rid of the headphones in favor of the discrete ear buds used on TV which I also use when I use video conferencing at work.  I should point out that there are video podcasts that have good production values and, thus, are ready for prime time.  However, the most popular tech podcast network doesn't yet appear to be.    

The Rush to HTML5 Video

Anyone who ever questioned the market power of Apple and specifically, Steve Jobs, just has to have a look at large websites right now.  Most web-based video and audio used to be delivered with the use of Adobe's Flash player or some other Flash-based control.  However, Steve Jobs has never allowed Flash on the iPhone or the iPod Touch and, of course, it also doesn't appear on the iPad either.  In fact, Jobs recently confirmed that it will never appear on these devices.  What effect has this had?  The realization that they may be excluding this large and increasing market with their sites, has led most sites to implement alternatives.  The alternative is, in fact, to use the draft html5 standard.  What's interesting about this trend is that some sites that aren't quite there yet with their html5 implementation are essentially apologizing for it.  I just wanted to watch something on Ustream on my iPhone and was greeted with the message that "Currently this video is only viewable in Flash :(  We're working hard to make all content viewable on both the iPad and iPhone, please check back later!"  Now, that's market power.

Are iPad Apps too Expensive?

We used to pay hundreds of dollars for games and other consumer software. Apple changed all that with the introduction of apps in iTunes for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad. The typical price of an app was in fact free and paid apps had prices of $0.99 and apps going for $4.99 and $6.99 were considered expensive. I hear complaints now that iPad apps are way too expensive at $10 and this from people who make good money and think nothing of buying a coffee or a drink for that amount. Is this a case of Apple having been too successful at resetting our perception of price? With the announcement of iPhone OS 4.0 with its iAd platform, is Apple trying to reset the app price back to free and have app developers and Apple itself make money solely from advertising? Is everyone thinking that advertising is the only monetization strategy based on Google's success with it? Twitter even thinks so with their recent announcement, right? I prefer to buy my apps and think that I'm getting really good value if I get a really good game for $10.  Remember that games on any other platform cost several fold that amount at least.  What's your experience with this?  I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have on this.

The iPad that isn't - for me

Technology media is centered in the US. As a result, anyone reading the tech press or even the popular press who take the lead from the tech press would be of the impression that Apple released a new and exciting product on April 3rd and that users everywhere love it. There's one small detail missing from this picture and that is that the product, the iPad, has only been released in the US. When I tweeted about and discussed the iPad on Facebook, several of my American friends were surprised to learn that they were among the select few (if you can call 500 thousand few) in the world who were able to buy an iPad. I was at my local Apple store on April 3rd to buy replacement earbuds but was surprised to see many more than usual customers in the store. When I asked a staff member, he said that there had been lines out the door earlier of people who thought they could buy the much talked about iPad in Canada.

So, what's going on here? I fully understood that the iPhone had to be delayed worldwide because it involved special arrangements with cell/mobile phone companies in each country. However, that isn't the case with the iPad, at least not the WiFi version that is the only version that is available now in the US. While the user experience is amazingly superior to that of a computer, the basic componentry makes it no different than a computer for the purposes of worldwide release. I don't get it. And, I can't get it, an iPad that is, for another few weeks. There is no firm date nor price yet. Very frustrating for customers wanting to spend their money with a company that is so confident that they will that the company can disregard their worldwide market.

Frequency of Podcasts

I've been a podcaster for more than two years now, producing the UXDesignCast and Life Habits podcast series. I've often wondered at what frequency listeners would like to have the podcast delivered. My ideal frequency, and the frequency I like to receive the podcasts I listen to, is weekly. I listen to a lot of podcasts in a week and typically get through them all in the week. I get a fair bit of feedback from listeners, especially from those who listen to the Life Habits series. Of the feedback that concerns the frequency of episodes, listeners who write in generally ask for more frequent delivery of them. Of course, it could be the case that the people who write in are into the podcast the most and, as a result, want more episodes faster. Podcast download statistics aren't really much use in this regard because subscribers have the episodes delivered to them automatically as soon as they become available and it isn't possible to know when they actually listened to the episodes that were downloaded.  I therefore decided to put up a quick poll to ask the question, "How frequently would you like to have podcast episodes made available?" with the response alternatives of "weekly", "every two weeks", "monthly", and "other". The results indicate that 54% of respondents prefer weekly episodes, 33% every two weeks, and 13% monthly. So, the vast majority of 87% would like to have episodes within a two week period and the majority of those prefer them to appear weekly. This tells me that I should continue to try to deliver on a weekly basis but, if circumstances prevent that and an episode comes out in two weeks, it will still satisfy most listeners.  Of course, I do target putting out weekly episodes, particularly for my Life Habits podcast series.  I'll continue to do that then and will try to increase the frequency of the UXDesignCast ones as well. Of course, feel free to provide any additional feedback you may have on this via the comment feature of this site.

Getting Unstuck

We all experience it at some point - getting into a rut and not knowing how to get out of it. We may be working on a creative improvement in our careers, getting going with an exercise program, losing weight, increasing our expression of gratitude, improving our presentation skills, and so on.  No matter what the focus of our desired improvement is, actually getting going on it is often really challenging.  Of course, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it - and they're not typically. So how can you get yourself unstuck. I gave that some thought, found some inspirational quotes on the topic, put together a top 10 list of ideas, and put it all together in a Life Habits podcast episode. You can access it within iTunes, Zune, or at the show notes site.  Of course, you can also listen to it right here on this website using the Life Habits player in the right column. Please note that the picture on the right is a good example of a reminder that is discussed on the podcast that can be used as inspiration and motivation in this case for starting a running program. The photograph is a Creative Commons Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk called "A Brand New Day".    

Websites for SmartPhones

As I mentioned in a previous post, we're witnessing a dramatic increase in the use of SmartPhones in doing core daily tasks. Couple that with the increase in the use of the browser as the mechanism for accessing information, and we see the need for addressing the question of what default user interface should be shown when access a website using a SmartPhone. To determine what people prefer in this regard, I created a poll and asked followers of my Twitter accounts to respond to it.  The poll asked, "What should come up when you access a website with a SmartPhone?"  The responses were interesting. As shown in the pie chart on the right, 65 percent preferred "a version of the site optimized for a mobile browser", 25 percent wanted "the regular site and a button to access a mobile version", while only 8 percent wanted "the regular site - there's no need to for mobile versions".  A write-in comment preferred, "the mobile version with a button or option to access the regular version" so the opposite of option two above.  These results indicate a clear strong preference for some type of support for a mobile version of sites with 90 percent of respondents wanting a site tailored for SmartPhones. The vast majority of those respondents preferred a special mobile optimized version of a site to appear by default when a site is visited by a SmartPhone.  Interestingly, most websites don't do that today but will have to in the future to satisfy users' preferences.  The number of respondents to this poll is 48 thus far and I'd like to see a substantially bigger number given the importance of this question so if you'd like to contribute to the poll you still can and I'd really appreciate it if you would take the poll.

Optimizing Body and Mind

I just completed an interview with Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar for my Life Habits podcast series.  The topic was sleep, food, mood, and exercise.  It really got me thinking.  Marie-Josee's theme throughout the session is that all four of these elements work together in an integrated fashion and working on each of them will yield a multiplicative overall effect. She has some great advice regarding what to eat in order to optimize creativity.  She also stresses the importance of sleep and provides advice on getting good sleep. She describes ten recommendations each supported by research evidence. It is a worthwhile listen.  You can get the episode on iTunes, Zune, or at my podcast show notes site.  I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments you may have on it. 

Design Blogging

I recorded a UXDesignCast podcast episode on Friday with David Hill who is VP of Brand Management and Design at Lenovo.  The podcast 
is available on iTunes, Zune, and via the podcast show notes site. We discussed David's background, Lenovo's approach to design, the skills of the design staff, and a number of other topics.  The one thing that stood out for me was David's use of blogging to get design input from customers.  While a reluctant blogger at first, he now blogs regularly and uses blogging as a way of having conversations with a large number of customers at the same time to ask about design choices to be made, preferences, and the like.  Make sure to check out David's blog.  Designers at IBM also make good use of blogging for getting design input from customers.  Among the many who do, Mary Beth Raven is among the most avid design bloggers.  Have a look at Mary Beth's blog too.  I tend to use Twitter to ask questions and to point to quick polls to gather input on specific issues or topics.  

Of course, we balance the use of blogging and other social networking approaches with other design methods as well including user research site visits, surveys, asynchronous large sample user studies, in the lab usability studies, longitudinal design and evaluation collaborations with customers, and many more. However, it is important to point out the significant change that has happened in the augmentation of more traditional methods by using techniques like blogging.  It is a convenient, asynchronous method of having a design conversation with thousands of users to get rapid input in a relatively natural manner. 

Mobile Optimized Sites

I did a poll a while ago addressing the question of what devices people used during a typical day to do their e-mail.  The results were reported here and showed that 38.2 percent used their SmartPhones.  Given the dramatic increase in the use of SmartPhones, it becomes important to address the issue of website design.  Websites are normally designed to be accessed with a computer, a notebook, netbook, or desktop computer.  However, SmartPhones now have browsers that are capable of rendering full websites albeit in a rather reduced space.  It is pretty easy using touch gestures to increase the size of a part of the site that you're interested in and, in fact, you can also use a double-tap on the screen to resize a particular column for better viewing.  I normally do the latter on multi-column sites so that I can read the substantive column.

The issue arises then of whether developers of websites should provide mobile optimized versions of their sites and, if so, should the mobile version come up automatically when the site is accessed by a mobile device or should the user be given a choice by bringing up the normal site and including a button for accessing the mobile version?  I've changed my mind several times myself as to which of these I prefer.  If you're accessing this site with a mobile device, you'll know that I've already implemented the automatic launching of a mobile optimized version of the site.  

Please let me know whether you prefer sites to automatically launch a mobile version of the site, whether they should launch the normal site and give the user the option via a button of launching the mobile optimized version, or do you think sites are fine as they are and don't need mobile optimized versions?  I'd greatly appreciate it if you would leave a comment describing your preferences.

Moved Site to SquareSpace

My site has been on Blogger since October 17, 2006 and I've been really pleased with it as a blogging platform. I hear people snickering when Blogger is mentioned much like they do when people mention Hotmail, Razr, or MS-Bob. These products work perfectly well but they're not fashionable.

I pride myself in seeing the value in products and not necessarily simply moving with the fashion for its own sake. However, I do move when I see value in a new product. I've just done that with my blog. Although I was happy enough with Blogger, the added features and design of SquareSpace won me over.

I'm writing this post using the SquareSpace iPhone app. It's really slick! I also like the fact that I can design and build an entire site not just a blog using SquareSpace. I've heard the commercials on many of the podcasts I listen to and I also recently recommended it to my son.

I have more to do on the site and more to learn but I've been really pleased with SquareSpace thus far. The only aspect of SquareSpace that is inferior to Blogger, other than the price of course, is the image handling in the editor. I'd love for that feature to be on parity.

I must also apologize for the use of Flash in the podcast player used on the site.  It is the only player currently available from the hosting service I use for my podcasts.  As soon as I find a non-Flash version, I'll make the change.  My goal is to be 100 percent Flash free on the site.

I'd appreciate any thoughts and feedback you may have on the new site.

Should Product Design Solve Problems?

I regularly hear and read people say that what companies need to do in order to be successful is to understand the problems people are having and solve those problems with their products. This becomes solving the business problem in a commercial setting and solving the customer's problem in the consumer space. The solution is problem solving.

It seems to me that this is like saying that health is all about getting rid of illness and that psychological health is all about not having psychological disorders. We learned many years ago in medicine and in psychology that the goal is not to get rid of the negative but rather to optimize the positive and thereby prevent the negative. We now know that if you exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet, and get enough sleep you'll be quite healthy and will likely go a long way to preventing health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. Similarly, we now know that if you internalize and practice the essence of positive psychology that you'll be psychologically healthy and will be more likely to avoid getting psychological disorders related to depression and anxiety.

So, why is product design so different? I'd suggest that it isn't, that it is just now coming of age and starting to become enlightened. Like a small group of others, I was into running and super health at a time when the medical professional didn't have a clue about it and was only focused on illness prevention. Similarly, my early work in psychology focused on how well-adjusted people dealt with their world and how this compared with those who suffered from psychological illnesses. My early work on design looked for ways of optimizing for delight and not just eliminating user problems. Of course, I wasn't alone initially. There was a small group of people agitating for change in each of these areas. I don't believe it was necessarily our efforts but rather a paradigm shift or change in zeitgeist that led to the change in focus.

In each of these paradigm shifts, it necessitated the core disciplines to take an entirely different perspective. Medical doctors having graduated from a pre-med science curriculum were predisposed to solving problems. Clinical Psychologists similarly within Psychology programs. Modern product development is often highly technical and that is the purview of engineers. What did engineers learn in school? How to solve problems. It took Sports Medicine and Positive Psychology practitioners to drive the change in medicine and psychology, respectively. I'd like to suggest that it is the design disciplines of industrial design, visual design, and interaction design that are leading the transformation of product design from the exclusive focus on problem solving to also designing for user delight.

As usual, I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts you may have on this by using the comment facility of this blog. Thanks.