Soft Performance: MessagingDimiter Simov, SAP

ISTA Sofia 27 Nov 2014

About

Dimiter Simov - Jimmy

Usability and user experience

Soft performance

Performance

a task or operation seen in terms of how successfully it is performed

pay increases are now being linked more closely to performance

the capabilities of a machine, product, or vehicle

the hardware is put through tests which assess the performance of the processor

Source: Google define

Recall ISTA 2013: performance has a soft side

text and formatting

Fitts’ law

layout and structure

user success and engagement

presentation of progress

aesthetics 1 x 1.618 – the golden ratio

Let me tell you a story

5

6

At SAP, we have this nice “social” tool

7

I participate in a few groups

I decided to start a new group

8

Here is the new-group form

9

1. I filled out all the necessary details.

2. I even decided to activate the group.

3. I clicked Create

What happened?

10

Error

The description you entered is too large. Please limit yourself to 255 characters.

OK

I clicked the only option

11

Gone: the message, the dialog, and all my input

Talk about messaging

Good, bad, or necessary evil

No recipe – be practical

Our goal today

I do not like to write messages

What’s in a message?

Sign

source of icons: http://www.iconarchive.com/show/soft-scraps-icons-by-hopstarter.html

0. Who shows the message

1. What happened (or did not happen)

2. Why it happened

3. What users can do about it

Text

Closing: Traditionally a button

Here is another story

I do not want them to upload the contacts from the address book on my phone, so I cleared the checkbox

Then on Sign In…

Install Twitter app on my mobile

… I get this

Now they speak of friends no idea what they mean!?!

And I do not know any of the 48 people they want me to follow

…from Twitter

Messages by type

21

when: Every time I start Windows

Warning

fix: Do not showOR Show more info so users know why it is important and what to do

When: Every time I start Windows

Critical

fix: Show option to remove from start-up listOR: Allow re-installing

Validation

fix: Parse the input and ignore spaces, dashes, dots…

Translation:

Your electronic signatureis valid and you can makemoney transfers online

Confirmation

fix: Hide the gibberish. Show a

normal message.

Informative

fix: State that the downtime will be at night and last only 1 hour and use my timezone

As you type

fix: Accept CyrillicOR: Add to the message that only Latin characters are OK

On Yes, the program starts On No, the program does not start

Guess what

fix: Do not show, just use the default locationOR: Ask users to select a library location

Glad I did not encounter the previous three

Numbered

fix: Say what happened, why, and what users need/can do

Another time

fix: Fix the site to work 24/7OR: Tell users to log in only during business hours

English: Access is blocked! Reason: #34!Please call the Eurobank officer who serves you.

Human: you are trying access outside business hours

Another place

fix: ?!?!OR: Link to a travel site so users can book a ticket to USA

what!?

Make me think a lot

fix: Simplify and state the acceptable range

Now I’m lost

Make me stop thinking

fix: No idea

Series of increasing severity

Unusual error… not enough storage

Unusual error… no scroll bars

Unusual error… catastrophic failure

fix: Fix the code

Not available… Not accessible… or Access denied?

Schizophrenic

fix: Explain in plain words; see the next slide for an example

Why not this instead of the previous message

You may have no permissions to

view the content of the folder, or it

may be located on a computer with

which you do not have a connection.

Check your connection and try again

or contact your administrator for

permissions.

Useless

fix: Show the list of external references or link to it

Unnecessary

fix: Do not show (no need to tell users in a browser that a page will be reloaded, unless the reloading will take 3 minutes)

In progress

fix: No fix needed

In progress

fix: Use a normal progress indicator - see how the others do it

Predictive

fix: No fix needed

Preventive

fix: No fix neededOR: Avoid the popup – see the next slide

2014: jetBlue “eliminated” the popup

…the message now obscures the input

fix: Make the message non-modalOR: Make the user input visible

CAPS LOCK IS ON

We sometimes need to type in all caps

Caps Lock is a mode, we often do not notice it is ON

The Caps Lock key is too easy to hit, next to Shift

When we type passwords, we don’t see what we type

CAPS LOCK

fix: I challenge you to design one or two fixes!

Do and don’t

Reconsider the limitations:

why limit the password length?!

Try to avoid messages

Parse the user input:

both 12/05/14 and 2014-05-12 mean 12 May 2014

Change the UI:

a calendar picker might work well for entering dates

Try to avoid messages: 2

Spare the technical details:

most users do not care how the program works

example: “We found search results but will not show them in this mode. Search again on another screen.

Try to avoid messages: 3

Show a modal message only if you:

have no idea what else to do

have no time to do a better thing

feel it makes business sense

know it will never show up to users

Use modal messages as a last resort

Any internal message

that is not supposed to be seen by users

finds a way to float to the surface and

shows up to users

Jimmy’s axiom on messages

Coordinate text and closing

We want to do work (have fun, find information) not read messages

Yet we do not want to guess what is going on

Keep messages short, yet complete

“You have only view permissions”

is better than

“You do not have edit permissions”

Frame messages positively

and before you write “oops“

Think twice before you try fun

Have a reviewer

Better a colleague to find your splling mistakes

Work with a writer

These people are trained to write words and sentences

Ask for help

Yes, you can user-test even messages and it pays off

Test with users

1. Avoid messages, especially modal onesDON’T WRITE MESSAGES, DESIGN INTERACTIONS

2. If you have to give a message, make sure it is obvious who shows it. State: what happened

why

what users can do about it

3. Be practical

Soft performance boosters to take home

Bonus

The best message ever

source: http://tangra.si.umich.edu/~radev/public/onlybg2/Only_In_Bulgaria_08.jpg

FISHING PERMITTED

CARP1 KG – 3 LV

Non-ambiguous

Language familiar to target users

No excessive info; just the necessary

Substantial information: price

Gives direction

Large font: can be read from a moving car

Unobtrusive

What makes this message good?

Dimiter Simov @ ISTA 2014

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