How might Nokia address interface design shortcomings?

Nokia is a company that makes great hardware but the focus now is on software and interface design. Symbian’s User Interface design simply appears below par. This has a lot to do with the fact that it is intended to be used with all manner of phones and interface designs, be they smartphones or regular “dumbphones”. On the other hand Android and iOS, for example are specifically designed for high-end touchscreen phones and this is reflected in the interface design. Nokia’s (and Intel’s) MeeGo OS doesn’t seem up to the task with the CEO admitting that “at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market”. Had Nokia woken up earlier it might have purchased Palm (which created underwhelming hardware) for it’s roundly praised webOS when the company was up for sale. Indications point to Nokia turning to Windows Phone 7, with its innovative ‘Tiles’ interface design. Makers of Android handsets have had a head start in developing for Android and often implement proprietary user interface designs onto the Android OS (HTC’s Sense UI, Motorola’s MotoBlur, Sony Ericsson’s Mediascape). Windows Phone 7 is not fragmented like Android and could be deployed by Nokia immediately. With a major announcement from Nokia expected at this year’s World Mobile Congress we shall soon find out.

The advantages of outsourcing

But what are the advantages of outsourcing and how can these be generated? The system is easy. If you as a company – (whether a small or big one) – would like to give previously performed in-house tasks to an external provider, you can simply give the contract to a third-party who you will pay to carry out the task on your behalf. The main advantages include cost savings, being able to focus on your core business, overall being able to improve the quality while increasing flexibility at the same time. Collaborating with external experts allows customers to calculate their business costs more precisely because the costs only occur for a certain period of time.
But how can you find such an external provider, and how do you know if the price you are paying is not too high and if the proposal is really the best you could get? One possibility is: Using global internet platforms which arrange services for you in order to meet your individual needs. One of the biggest in Germany is twago.

Team Work Across Global Offices – twago

twago is a Berlin based company which focuses on outsourcing and offshoring of online services. The overall goal is to achieve the best performance for the best price for the customer. The more precisely you know what specific task you would like to have done, e.g. programming, web design, user interface design, etc., the better it is. You simply post your project with a detailed description on the platform and receive proposals from all over the world from up to 20,000 providers. These service providers can be companies or freelancers. You can find a service provider who best fits to the individual project. Whether you are looking for a service provider from around the corner to meet up face to face or you prefer a freelancer from a specific country, twago offers the possibility to find the right service provider with suitable skills. You choose the one that best fits your needs and preferences. And the best of all: Using twago is easy. You just have to register, post your project and award it to your provider of choice. Should you need any help or special service the kind twago employees are ready to support you. You can try it out at: http://www.twago.com.

Of course, improvements do not a perfect version make, and complaints bubbling to the surface surrounding the MacBook Air include small and difficult keyboard keys and heating issues – user interface problems affecting the usability of the device. However, the most prominent complaint concerns the GUI design.  Many users are reporting that the interface display is prone to flickering, freezing, and kernel errors as the computer attempts to resurrect itself from sleep mode.  The causes behind these GUI difficulties are not quite clear, but what is clear is that each new generation of technology comes with its own set of new and unique issues that have to be remedied over the course of the first few months of release.  Thus, the new MacBook Air is definitely a worthwhile investment, but it might be prudent to wait to buy it until the newborn glitches are sorted out.

Users who install the Plane Finder app on their smartphone interface will be able to see:

•    How fast the plane is going
•    The plane’s point of origin
•    The plane’s destination
•    The plane’s elevation
•    The flight number
•    The distance between the phone and the plane

Ode to a Skinned Interface Design
I went to the link my friend sent me,
And I saw what I never had seen;
An ad banner was built in the midst,
Where I used to click on the screen.

With no choice but to scroll down I did frown,
My friend’s interface design was upside down,
Like a tourist with no clue I looked around lost in town,
‘Cause there were no breadcrumbs to be found.

A millisecond too long I located local navigation,
Thinking ‘they sure could use a wireframe tool for their creations’.
With findability resolved these usability problems would dissolve
And, in tow, his search engine ranking would evolve.

What is memorability?

Memorability, in the context of user interface design and usability, refers to the degree of an interface design’s ability to be re-used by users without them having to re-learn the system all over again. The learnability of an interface design refers to the ease of use of learning to use a system for the very first time. But will users remember how to complete tasks after a gap of days, weeks or even months? The time it takes to re-learn a system or correct mistakes from incorrect use directly diminishes productivity, not to speak of the user’s motivation. This is where an interface design has to be maximized for memorability to ensure that it is easy for users to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible.

Why is memorability important in the context of user interface design?

As neuroscience does indeed improve, it is now known that not using certain brain functions can lead to parts of the brain that handle those functions atrophying. In other words if we don’t use the cells often enough we can loose them. So it is with the navigation of interface designs. Each interface design takes some time to get used to and operate productively. Every time a user has forgotten how to use an interface, time is wasted and/or errors occur. If your interface design has poor memorability then users may even stop using it once they return to it and find that they can’t use it expediently anymore.

What to consider when designing for memorability of an interface design

There could be an inordinate number of reasons why a user could use an interface design wrongly. The key here is that learning and memory function best when the basics of the system are intuitive. Users learn and remember an interface design based on intuition of how to use the tools given to them. Yet, intuitive interface designs can be challenging to create because, after all, people are different. What can be intuitive for one group of people may not be for another group! One has to consider the target user of an interface design to make proper decisions. Is it an interface design for a tool aimed at computer scientists who have high technical proficiency? Is it aimed at consumers without intricate IT know-how? Is it aimed at young teenagers? This is where industry conventions are your best friend. If every word processing tool uses copy paste by clicking on Ctrl + C then that should be a standard you stick with when creating an interface design for such a tool. Another crucial thing to ensure is that users of different proficiency levels can use an interface design. Systems need to be designed to keep the basics intuitive with room for more complex operations to be performed as users become more experienced.

According to Nielsen, the “critical failing of user interviews is that you’re asking people to either remember past use or speculate on future use of a system.” Interviews rely heavily on what people can remember (which is tied to the concept of memorability).  Thus, the main critical failings of users are:

•    Human memory is fallible: Humans can’t remember details about how they used a website and tend to make up stories to rationalize their loss of memory by either embellishing what they do remember or disclosing tentative or false information about what they don’t remember.
•    Users are pragmatic and concrete: Since users usually have no idea how to speculate about how they would use a system based on its description alone.  Users can use what is in front of them but not guess about how they would use an interface design that they have not been exposed to.

The main problem with interviews is that one cannot reliably collect concrete information about the specifics of a user interface design.

What interviews tell you and how you can use them

The main benefit of interview is, according to Nielsen, “exploring general attitudes”.  Interviews are a good way to understand the big picture related to an interface design, but not always the best way to measure details and specifics.  With that in mind, if you are going to use interviews as a method of collecting user experience feedback then use them in tandem with a usability testing method that is more precise or quantitative and allows you to get a better reading on the detail-based problems with your design.

What is findability?

Findability, in computer science, refers to a user’s ability to identify and then navigate the interface designs of websites or web-apps. It encompasses aspects of information architecture, user interface design, accessibility and search engine optimization. The term findability is credited to Peter Morville who remarked that “findability precedes usability. In the alphabet and on the Web. You can’t use what you can’t find.” In this vein findability is two-pronged, on one hand dealing with users finding a website. On the other hand it deals with how users find things that they are looking for, such as the help section or contact details etc., on a given website. According to Neilson Online currently there are more than 1,733,993,741 internet users generating and interacting with vast streams of data. Findability helps ensure your website doesn’t get lost in the mix and, when found, not to be deserted by frustrated users who in all likelihood won’t return, barring a thorough reworking of the interface design.
If you are developing a website with a new user interface and are interested in optimizing your website’s ability to be located by prospective users on the internet, then it is important to infuse your design process with adequate research about the above mentioned topics.

Issues affecting findability on a website
Findability concerns itself with the effort to make a user interface design easily navigable or usable and to ensure that the interface design process is fully integrated and effective. Key to findability is the organization and representation of a user interface design.  This refers to among others, the layout, the use of breadcrumbs and local navigation. Are users able to easily navigate a website and find the services they were looking for? If they found themselves in the middle of a website (which happens often as people share direct links) would they be able to figure out where in the hierarchy they were?  These issues can easily be revolved by adhering to web standards and through iterative usability testing of wireframe prototypes created with the use of wireframe tools such as pidoco. Another important issue affecting findability is the qualities of your web-site’s content and how it is geared towards search engine optimization.

Further changes to the Images interface include the way Google allows users to view selected pictures. Users can now click on the desired image and it will be blown up with the website of origin shown as faded in the background.  Google will also be phasing out text ads and replacing them with image ads to further improve the usability and clarity of its interface design.