pic: Don Norman’s profile pic on Twitter.
There are some people in our profession who carry a certain gravitas. Don Norman is one of those thinkers and writers who’s ideas and writings have played an active part in the development and creation of many of the things around us, even if we don’t know it. Don Norman’s contributions have raised UX thinking to something closer to philosophy, expose the potential art in our trade, and for me as a technologist, offer insights that provide more meaning to what I do. Don Norman is mostly why I went to dConstruct 2011, to hear him speak on Emotional Design for the World of Objects.
No slides, no bullet points, Don Norman spoke from the stage, told some stories and asked some open questions. Here are a few points that stood out in my notes:
Google: “Google doesn’t understand people… you are the product, advertisers are their clients… are you happy to be their product?“
Lack of standards: Carrying the internet in your pocket. Nice for consumers, hard for developers. Startups and developers need to focus, there are a couple variations of iPhone, many more of Android, variation in tablets will come. More variation, and screens, and gestures and no standards.
On the origins of standards: The story of why we scroll windows the direction we do.Is scrolling about moving text, or about moving the window? Back in the day, Alan Kay and others were copying each other. No one takes responsibility for the decision. But important standards were set in the past, which are now being thrown out with touch interfaces. Established important standards like on the Moving Window for scrolling, Undo, and Interface Feedback. Today it is the norm that there is no discoverability, no Undo, no menus, no feedback.
“All of our things are going to change.”
No standards: it’s “a great challenge“
A continuous User Experience: Forget the old model where applications were independent silos. All devices are now interrelated, and users expect a common theme across platforms and environments. Desktop, mobile, car…
The Patent Wars: Currently it is “almost impossible to write code without violating someone’s patent”. 20 years ago Apple was patenting gestures. Microsoft’s bailout of Apple in the late 90s give them access to these patents.
Integrating into peoples’ loves With iTunes, Apple made it trivial to manage digital music collections. Before you had to be a nerd. Accessories and accessory makers followed the iPod. Amazon has done the same with books with the Kindle.
Systems are really important. Systems are where the future is. Think systems. We need to stop thinking about a sincle website or product.
Where do we as developers and designers fit in? We must create Usability, Pleasure, Beauty, Fun. Emotion and experience. Trying to design a great expience. The total experience
There is one thing that is more important than the experience: the memory. Memory lasts for years. You should design memories. Trinkets, souvenirs, photos.
Some things have no function, but are fun experiences. See the scolling bounce behaviour at the end of a page in Safari vs Firefox’s kadunk at the end of the page. [Is this a Lion thing? I get it in iOS Mobile Safari, but not on the Desktop. But I get the point, playful things are more fun to use]
Android doesn’t have the elegance that iPhone has. “Just more pleasurable.” But there is lots to consider when choosing which to develop for. The Business model, Apple vs android Closed vs open Controlled vs free. Follow customers, they make the choice.
We need to tell stories and build narratives. This doesn’t mean continual accurate success rates. What makes a movie wonderful and a good story is that the is a hero and a challenge, and a defeat, etc narrative curve. Greatest happiness comes after a negative.
The geatest thing we haven’t thought of is time, how it unfolds. Like games. Games can’t succeed continually. You need, as the user, to fail. Look at Angry birds. The physics. You fail but you feel you could have succeeded, if only. It’s addictive. To make something addictive, you need to make things temporal. Up and down.
Memory: “never precisely the same as it was”.
Co-creation is a key part of future design. 3d printers as service. Creating artefacts is accessible. Will become more accessible. Physical devices getting closer Web mobile 3d devices The manufacturing of physical devices is going to change.
Look at Auduino and Android construction kits. Nothing similar available in iOS, by design. Give people the power – that’s when things get interesting.
The rise of Social Networks, Sensors, Powerful Processors and Connectivity are leading to new possibilities in design.
There is real potential in simulation for eductation. The average professionally developed game take $10-$20mill to produce. No-one spends that on edicational systems.
Developing systems, leaving people with memories.
Development of stories going to take a change In games, time wasters are the most popular.
There is real potential to make mobiles exciting. Physical gestures, knobs and haptics. Physical embodiment is really important. We have lost that. It’s coming back.
Tilts, turns. But currently no standards.
Just at the start of the device story application revolution. Are you ready?
The intention economy. Exciting and frightening opportunity.
“Are you ready?“