Jason Fried's talk Reboot 2003, Copenhagen, Denmark 20JUN03 Impressionistic notes by Cory Doctorow doctorow@craphound.com -- [Ed: this was a great, punchy, funny, useful talk, refreshingly bullshit free and practical] A talk about design that won't win awards, but will please real people. 3 little things: * Context and perspective: how people relate to objects * Setting expectations (what's next): the biggest weakness of most interfaces * Contingency design Context and perspective: I went looking for the world's smallest camera. Checked out the Pentax ("The world's smallest camera"). Looked at pix on the Web. The pix didn't have a comparison to other objects. Some had measurements (n mm by o mm by p mm). Then I found a picture of the camera inside an Altoids tin and I knew exactly how big it was. That was my aha moment. [Ed: reminds me a little of Pringles can antennas] Cellphones-size and battery life really matter, but websites present pix of cellphones as all ebing the same size. They give measurements in mm. In the comparitors on the site, all cameras are presented side-by-side as being the same size. CNet does phone reviews next to packs of gum. I can relate to the size of the phone not by dimensions but by objects. Handspring launched the new Treo and all the bumpf removled around size, but the photos didn't show the size or the relative size. Kicksology.net: basketball shoe review site. Bball shoe buyers care abotu weight. It's usually presented in ozs. What does 19.2 ozs mean? On Kicksology, they compare the weight to cans of soda. -- Setting expectations: Now what? What if I do? What if I don't? Then what? My parents double-click everything: scrollbars, menus, etc. They're scared to try anything new. Buttons like "Pay Now" "Click to give" "Add to wedding registry" are common, but Amazon ads little text subtitles below buttons (Pay Now: Select your credit card) (Add to wedding registry: Don't have a wedding registry? We'll set one up for you). Gives people an idea of what comes next. It's ugly, but people don't care. Citysearch's search: Search "50 miles" "around" "Chicago" for: _______ (e.g. plumber, Thai restaurant, etc) (helps set user expectations). Wells Fargo spent millions building a home-loan system. People were bailing midway. The user-testing was inconclusive. They found that people didn't know what to expect. So they added 100 words that explained what happened, step by step, and increased completion by 25%. Not technology: instructions with bullet-points. -- Contingency design Design for when things go wrong. On the web, things go wrong all the time. There's never a web-day where nothing goes wrong. You need to make mistakes well. Crisis points (when users are most likely to abandon their session): * Error messages * Bad search results * Form mistakes * Pages not found * Confusing wording. Prevention and first-aid. -- Hall of shame: * Mag subscription site FAQ: What happens if you click order now twice? Our documentation tells you not to do this. It's your fault if you do. You'll get a duplicate order and it'll get charged long before you find out it happened. So you're screwed. You get a 25% refund. Maybe you could ask for for a two-year sub. (People make simple mistakes and shouldn't be treated this way) * C2it: Citibank's site. "You have no money waiting. You have been sent cash. To get the cash, click the boxes to get the cash to get." (A billion-dollar company didn't catch the mistake, they assume everyone has money in their accts) * NSI's Ask Jeeves: "How do I renew my domain name?" "Thanks for asking your question! Unfortunately we couldn't find any answer. Please try something else, like 'How do I renew my domain name?'" * CDNow: "Address exceeds maximum allowable length." No info about what is the max length, what format is preferred, etc. -- TicketMaster v. Victoria's Secret Ticketmaster: "You did not fill out form elements x y z correctly, click back to fix" Victoria's Secret: "Please enter the following missing info" UPS v. FedEx UPS: One or more of the #s you entered are not valid tracking numbers. Verify the numbers are valid. Make sure they're valid. (four systems throw the same error) FedEx: Invalid tracking number (it would be better to show where you can find tracking numbers) PayPal v. SprintPCS PayPal: "The message you've entered is too long, please enter a shorter message" (how short is short?) SprintPCS: A running counter of chars remaining Moviefone v IBM Moviefone: Plain 404 IBM: We apologize, maybe an offer expired, click here for current specials, help us find out what's broken, email or call us.