One of the inspirations for me reading and writing a lot more about user interfaces (UI) was the increasing appreciation of how far intranet design has come.
As we spend hours upon hours looking at computer screens at work, we're sub-consciously weaving in and out of an interface that overlays complex system architectures, working from point to point as we complete tasks. Although actual Web sites and services are driving innovation in this field, the sophistication of intranet sites has also come on leaps and bounds.
When you look at other modern UIs, be it your computer's main operating system, your phone, even my TV has a Playstation 3 style "Home" interface with hundreds of options, we're navigating complex systems that have been designed so well that we can actually use them.
In many devices the UI is so advanced that it allows us to navigate and interact easily, either by buttons, touch, gesture, movement, voice - even brain pulses at the very far end of the spectrum.
As Alexander van Elsas writes in a great post, the UI on a product or service often means make or break for it. Van Elsas talks about another interface inspiration of mine - the iPhone.
The iPhone operating system was written from the ground up to be a touch operated interface. There is no keyboard, there's only three actual buttons (home, power, volume). It has to work, and it does. Very well, with an exeption. Van Elsas nicely describes its pros and cons:
The iPhone UI is definitely revolutionary. It is one of the best UI’s I have seen in any handheld computer. The touch screen and the simplicity and consistency of the design are incredible. But to give you an idea how incredibly complex UI design really is, I believe the UI of the iPhone also makes it one of the worst mobile phones I have ever used. Actually, I should have probably said MOBILE device.
The reason for my bold statement is that that very same interface everyone loves doesn’t function well when you are mobile!
Try making a phone call while you are walking around, literally. The touch screen provides no tactile feedback, the buttons displayed are way too small for selecting contacts, letters or numbers, and the amount of actions needed to select a contact and actually make the call are too much.
In my opinion, the design is optimized for an immobile user (meaning standing still). The touch screen forces the user to use his eyes as the main sense.
The UI sucks you and your attention into the device, and shuts off a number of other senses. All that is left is a tunnel vision. Try it, you’ll know what I mean. Walk, start trying to type an SMS, listen to your surrounding, try not to hit anything etc. It’s Impossible.
I have to agree here, to a point anyway. Discounting the iPhone 3GS's wonky voice control system (very hit and miss whenever I've tried it), it's impossible to operate the iPhone without looking at it. (As an aside, what's alarming is that being able to text while driving increasingly seems to be some sort of acid test for mobile device reviewers. Really, its not a good idea with any phone!)
I have managed to master two thumb texting on the iPhone (while looking at it), and can do it while walking around without bumping into too many people. Great. It is a minor thing in comparison to the overall leap that Apple made with the iPhone UI. Small annoyances that sit atop a mostly magnificent piece of software and UI design. It's a leap that many manufacturers are trying to copy, with limited success.
But aside from the lack of a physcial keyboard, Van Elsas does highlight another reason why the iPhone is not great for wandering around and using; the fact that it's a "handheld computer".
I don't know too many computers that you can operate without looking at them somehow. It's true, the iPhone is great, but flawed in that respect. Still, it's a flaw I can happily live with for the moment.
What's a bad example, where the interface really does ruin a device? Well there's one competitor that springs to mind immediately - the Nokia N97. While there's a host of flaws that reviewers haven't liked, the Symbian OS and interface, shoe-horned into the N97 and patched up to work with a touch-based interface, is probably the most common 'dislike' that's coming under fire.
