Comments on: Humane Interface Ask Aza Raskin Anything!

By: The Street People

The Street People — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:37:00 +0000

Can you comment on the Dyson vacuum? It is an industrial engineering wonder, in my opinion. Can you share, though, exactly how it is so good? What are some principles it satisfies well? How would you improve it?

By: Googler

Googler — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:21:08 +0000

The Google search box is simple, clean, and intuitive. BUT, the search results, from what customers tell us is confusing and messy as hell. How do you suggest we clean up the natural search and the paid search results? Is there a more intuitive way of doing it?

By: Marcus

Marcus — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:50:57 +0000

A lot of the Humane Interface principles are very Toyota-esque. Was your dad influenced by Toyota? Toyota has been doing Humane Interface Designe for decades.

A Toyota concept is single-piece flow. Instead of “batchy” processes, where large batches of inventory are processed, Toyota takes the one-piece approach of “Take one, Put one.” One-piece flow is critical to velocity in a system, throughput, and overall flow.

Large batch manufacturing, on the other hand, can be visually seen by queues of inventory sitting in front of an operator waiting to be served.

What are some Humane Interface approaches similar to one-piece flow? It seems that many software interfaces and processes have many steps, require much mental thought and “memory-burden” (another Toyota concept), and large batches of features. Ideas?

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:44:49 +0000

Can you define Mode more precisely with examples in interfaces and other products? Why do they suck so bad?

By: Alvarez

Alvarez — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:34:45 +0000

A simple and effective concept from Toyota is Poke-Yoke, or mistake-proofing. Products and Interfaces are context-sensitive — that is, products and interface features have a particular pupose, but I’m curious if you can share any generic context-agnostic approaches to mistake-proofing, or Poke-Yoke? Principles of Poke-Yoke you can apply to anything; to any product or interface?

By: psabilla

psabilla — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:58:33 +0000

Smooth flow; Memory Simple; Motion Simple — clearly Toyota concepts that are popularized by Industrial Engineering and Design.

How can software companies better align themselves to that model?

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 01:03:26 +0000

We lean fans spend a lot of time explaining how great Toyota is. And great they are. See what I mean? We can’t help ourselves. Anyhow, I am interested in your thoughts related to the way Toyota deals with interfaces, etc. I personally have two Toyota vehicles in my driveway and love them. But I was recently in my brother in laws new Camry and noticed they made some rather big changes to the way things looked and felt inside. I dare say things looked a little un-Toyota-like.

By: UnclutterBug

UnclutterBug — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:59:32 +0000

One of the problems I observe frequently is that web sites with otherwise intelligent product managers and designers seem to have a cumulative UI habit tending toward clutter, user confusion and stress. In other words, each great new feature added to a site requires its own breathing room and consumes space; so other elements are rearranged and shrunken down to make room for the new tenant on the page or, in an even worse accommodation, a new tab or completely separate offshoot is created in the site navigation structure to accommodate the new feature. It seems to me that a much smarter approach would be to acknowledge the value of simplicity and focus and decide that something must be removed when a new something is added (kind of like some moms who tell their children each Christmas that they need to give away some of their toys to make room for the new ones) — but how do you build a culture of continual reduction and focus rather than continual expansion and bloat in building an ever-evolving web UI?

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:25:36 +0000

Aza,

I work as a product manager for a technology company in the valley. In large companies like mine, the department of Product Management, Software Engineering, and Customer Experience work together, but in a clunky way, to build a product. What is the best way, in your opinion, to infuse the Humane Design Principles in a hot political environment?

For example, the classic problems of: product will define a feature based on market research and define the personas. Engineering feels like we define something and “throw it over the fence” to them to develop. At the same time, Customer Experience is bothered that Product Management didn’t involve them, etc.

My question is turning out to be more of a human resources question than about design, but wanted your thoughts.

Maybe you should start an “Ask Aza” column, like a Dr. Phil segment, or something.

By: Can't Wait for the iPhone

Can't Wait for the iPhone — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:36:44 +0000

Steve Jobs argues that the problem with all smart phones is the bottom 40%: the keyboard is there whether you need it or not. I would love your thoughts on the iPhone interface and features such as “pinching” of images, the lock feature, etc. Could the iPhone be committing featuritis? Is the iPhone humane?

By: Astute Observer

Astute Observer — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:31:00 +0000

Aza, the following picture was taken by a friend. It is an ATM at an airport. I know the image is difficult to see, but would love your thoughts on the interface of this ATM machine.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1227/581888502_af8c1b3f0f_m.jpg

By: Cees de Groot

Cees de Groot — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:41:45 +0000

Hear, hear.

One of the books I think that everyone who works with user interfaces should read is “The Design of Everyday Things”. Raskin’s book has, alas, been lingering for too long on my todo list, although I did check up on some of the stuff that’s available on-line, like The Humane Editor (http://sourceforge.net/projects/humane) which certainly is worth a look.