Getting the Details Right

I keep fussing about details, because no matter how much wow factor your service has, missed details can erode your brand over time. Yesterday at the Mobile Device and User Experience, Scott Weiss (now of Human Factors International) talked about how the great transitions and visual design of the iPhone provided a "halo effect" that delayed users from noticing and becoming frustrated with the inconsistent back button placement, difficult text entry, the fact that the device never does learn anything about text input.

I just tried out the ABBYY Business Card Reader for S60 so I didn't have to bring all the cards home. I'll spend the money on the app, but I'm not sure why it consistently puts FIRSTNAME LASTNAME into the first name field, with nothing in last name. It seems a particularly easy bit of code, so what gives?

It's way too easy to pick on pretty much any device and any service on getting details right. Scott does a great job of pointing out iPhone issues (though my chief irritants have to do with browser behavior), but what about Nokia? Well, here are some issues I found irritating. When I swap out the SIM on my E71 and launch messages and try to view one ... nothing happens. I have to reboot it again. And then, there is the lack of keyboard shortcuts, especially on my QWERTY device. Not to mention, I learned that my device had predictive input at an industry conference, not having noticed it in the device.

By the way, XT9 is terrific! It learns words immediately. Love it so far.

Another example of missed details is the latest Gmail client. Two major problems for me:

• I keep getting cognitive dissonance when it announces that I have 6 messages in my Inbox but I can't find them; I must go Options > Refresh to actually see the new messages
• It doesn't realize I'm using a QWERTY device and thus my delete "shortcut" is # (two key presses) and there is no shortcut for archive

Why are these details wrong? It depends.

1. Not considering target audience and their goals, activities, needs, desires. The G1 is so developer-focused that small hands will actually cramp while typing.

2. Insufficient development & testing resources, and after all *something* had to give (think about the abrupt transition from Flash to Windows Mobile on many devices especially HTC)
3. Legacy code (I'm looking at you, Motorola and Nokia)
4. Insufficient knowledge of the domain (it's shocking how many companies approach us and do not have an approach for dealing with device diversity
5. Piecemeal design, like a rambling home added onto by many owners in many architectural styles, without a consistency of purpose (like parts of the iPhone UI and also like the location of my very first job, the Winchester Mystery House
6. Product management processes that rate bugs on a scale of 1 to 5, then get all of the severity 1 and 2 bugs and some of the severity 3 bugs done before launch. Oh, and typically the worst UI bug can be is a 3.

How do you fix it? It's hard. If you're designing a platform, try to make the presentation layer flexible, including screen and even functionality. This will allow a bit more time before things start getting clunky. Rethink your paradigms every once in a while; don't assume that a great user experience 8 years ago remains great. Features have been added, content has scaled, device capabilities have shifted, input mechanisms changed, and user expectations have evolved.

Set standards for user experience testing. Usability must score a certain level, perhaps benchmarked by the competition, before the product can launch; a bad task score must be launch gating. Don't just test high-frequency things. And don't just test usability: test learnability, speed to expert use, satisfaction by expert users. And definitely test the things that drive revenue and costs. Measure how well the experience matches with your brand goals. You do have brand goals, don't you? A story about what you provide?

Get a second opinion. Even if you can't invest in a lot of testing, get knowledgeable but outside resources to play with