One of the challenges of designing effective user
experiences is that we can get so many things right but one small oversight can
result in an annoyed, frustrated, or confused user. It might be one confusing label among many
well designed labels, but one that everyone has to get through during the initial
use of the system (e.g. hard to find button on a shopping
site, or a hard to figure out text box on a registration form). Just one confusing widget in the midst of
hundreds of well-designed widgets and the drop-out rate skyrockets.
So here is my example for today. My university just invested in the next
generation of enterprise-scale telephony.
It probably doesn’t compare to the high end phone systems that some
cutting edge tech companies have, but for a university it is quite an
advance. I can make video calls,
conference calls, forward calls, and there are a few features I haven’t
explored yet. Good UI so far.
But the plastic handset feels cheap and doesn’t fit snug to
my ear. The weight is unbalanced and the
earpiece is too small. I am pretty sure
that Cisco spent a lot more time on the technology UI and didn’t give the
handset much thought. After all, with
all of these cool features, who cares about some plastic? But the UX is ruined. I cringe at the thought of a long phone call
because I will have to hold that “thing” against my ear for an extended
time.
