2nd
How Interrupting a Meeting Lead to a Bad User Experience
I was recently sitting in an important meeting, because all meetings are important :), where a phone that wasn’t silenced started to go off across the room. My colleague fumbled around to find the silencer, thinking it was a switch somewhere on the phone, only to find he had to hold down a number on the keypad to mute it. My colleague was unsuccessful in silencing his phone because he hit the 5 button instead of the 9 button since there were no indications otherwise. Getting pretty nervous as his phone was still ringing, he decided he would make a last ditch effort by turning the phone off. I saw a sigh of relief, and then a moment of shock, as the phone proceeded to play the shutdown chime right before turning off.
This is a horrible user experience.
Users should not have to think about using your product
- Buttons should be clear.
- Indications should be made to let the user know the product is still working, and working correctly.
- When a product doesn’t work, it should fail gracefully
- The user should expect every interaction, and the outcome of an interaction
Bottom line - your product should be so damn easy to use that the user can expect the unexpected. Think about it.
