Can you decide whether you should park here... in under 15 seconds?
If you did, congratulations (tell us via comment) ... but were you driving by this sign at 20Km/H, with three lanes of traffic backing up behind you, your kids yelling in the back seat on a day that a stadium event had been scheduled in the area?
On Monday night I was lucky enough to attend a short presentation by Dr Karel Van Der Waarde, Lector/Scholar at Avans Hogeschool in the Netherlands, at Magnation here in Melbourne. As a user experience consultant to the world's leading pharmaceutical brands, Dr Karel had some eye-opening stories to tell about his experiences. His main point however could not have been made more clearly:
"We don't consider the user early enough in the design life-cycle".
Perhaps if the designer of the sign above took in to account the traffic that would be around the driver at the time, or the screaming kids in the back seat, or even the fact that "THRU" at a quick glance (or even by someone who suffers from dyslexia) could be perceived as "THUR" - the sign could have been designed more clearly. I'm sure it made sense though when viewed on a computer screen having played with the fonts and layout for several days. This sort of thing doesn't just happen in the USA (the above is from Baltimore), it's everywhere, even here in Melbourne.
Dr Karel jokes that he "observes nurses in emergency departments of hospitals"... and although that sounds a little bit seedy, if he did not, how would he have the data that proves:
- 50% of the time, patients are initially given the wrong medication; because a nurse picks up a box that looks similar to another one (their perceptions of colours and layouts are somewhat skewed at 3am after working a 12 hour day)
- Every parent writes their own notes about the usage, frequency and dosage of medications for children; because the tiny instructions inside the medication boxes use incomprehendible language, no images and are impossible to read without a magnifying glass.
These are just 2 examples of what he discovered when actually sitting back and observing how people behave. There are many, many more.
This sort of insight simply cannot be gained by a round-table discussion between designer and commissioner. The closest thing one gets is an 'educated guess'. By having real data available to make educated and strategic decisions about design and usability you're almost guaranteed to get it right the first time. In the long run it will save you money and time and provide a positive experience for your most important person - the consumer.
A short thankyou to Design Victoria and AGDA for making the event possible.
Posted by Matt Shanks
