When things run smoothly, when there are no issues, it is easy for experiences to recede into dim, dark corners of memory. Why remember them, when it went well?
Since jumping from observing and commenting on our quirky cultural tendencies in Anthropology to actually trying to design for them in Product Design, I've come to savor those moments when things do just work.
Designing the interactions that matter ties all my past experiences together: whether I am about to design a physical mechanism for a device, or help a company implement a more successful service, the question is: how can we pinpoint what will make a moment work for all sorts of different people?
Just as it's a good practice to articulate what you're grateful for in the day-to-day, I recently was asked to list my top user experiences. My top 3:
Samsung Tocco Lite showcased a fresh (or at the very least underutilized) approach to a New User Guide. Disguised as a book, Samsung takes someone on a step-by-step tour of where to insert what, and what to expect on the screen the first time you turn it on. This walk-through takes its time and still wouldn't take much longer than the time it takes to untangle the plastic thingies or wrestle pieces out of foam of traditional packaging. If you wanted to, you could simply flip through and assemble right away. But this is a successful invitation to "skim" the book for Samsung-specific offerings; much more tangible than the tiny little ride-along manual we get with our other electronic purchases.
Google recently updated its Android Mail app, and at first I was slightly perplexed by things, but it looked simple enough and I kept using it per usual. A day or so into the update, a little message popped up in an opaque box as an overlay on my first two messages, letting me know, "Hey, if you tap on the square next to the email title, it'll select it. You can select multiple emails." Either this was an automatically timed gimmick, or perhaps it noticed my continued efforts to select by tap and holding over a single email, and then deleting it. Each email, separately. Either way, the message felt un-intrusive and welcome. Kind of like when you go to a hotel and find, right next to the telephone, the instructions on how to set up that morning wake-up call. That "it's right where you need it" is a much trickier question when it comes to the mobile landscape.
USAA's strength in online banking services makes it a continued top choice for me, and with their new stab at their Android app, they now make it a pleasure. I'm sure there are other apps that use similar swipe and glide motions, but since I use this app a fair bit it has stuck with me.
The different action options are always readily available, and when choose one, there is a softness to the title/content switch that I may have seen on iOS apps, but not since switching to Android. The responsiveness to my touch (slight gradation changes, and an instant color change when I select a different type of bank account) was for some reason a delightful surprise to me.
