Why not have the interface teach?
July 2nd, 2008 by Geoff 6 CommentsRecently Google Calendar changed the way you hide and show a calendar.
It used to work with check boxes. Checked is visible. Not checked is hidden.
The system worked well for me and I used that feature all the time to hide my civic association’s calendar, for instance.
Currently you click on the name of the calendar to hide or show it. The check boxes are gone.
The issue I have is that I was never informed that this change was made. I just figured the feature was removed. It confused me that it was gone, but I did not have the time to dig deeper at the moment. (For the record, I like the change.)
It occurs to me that Google could have used the interface to inform me of the change.
Imagine this scenario:
- You log-in to your calendar and the check boxes are still there.
-
You click on a check box and a little bubble of sorts pops up and says, “Hey, we have changed this feature. From now on, you can just click on the name to hide/show it.”
-
The check boxes then disappear.
How cool would that be?
And, it would be informing you of the change at the time you need to know.
If you did it this way, there would be no need for documentation to be created.
To all of our fellow interface designers out there, what do you think?
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I only see one potential problem with your idea. Oh, and for the record I love the idea.
The problem is time. Google is probably a bad example of this because they have a lot of resources at their disposal, but coming from the perspective of someone who is trying to run a company that develops software – there is only so much time in a day, week, month, etc. The amount that we can get done as a team is limited by our resources (number of people, generally). So we have to squeeze in only important things when we make changes, fix bugs, etc.
The idea that you’re asking for here would, essentially, take more time than simply making the change and letting the users just figure it out on their own (like you have).
If there was a way to have the interface teach, it’d be all in the usability. And I think Google struck the balance here.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I was thinking about the time issue and I do agree with you, as a general rule.
However, it occurred to me that if you are the type of company (like Google) that spends time on documentation, you could save time there.
Since we develop web applications, we certainly feel that time pain, but I was interested in opening the conversation.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I have noticed that Google tends to release small iterations on their products frequently, without really letting you know, other than noticing one day that something is different. I have found that, for the most part, they are better changes, but I agree that it would be nice to have a little more information.
I think we’re used to the 37s model where they have an announcement across the top of the Basecamp screen to introduce a new feature. I really like this method because I take a moment to test out the feature and become familiar with it.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I like the idea of the interface teaching, but I do have a problem with allowing someone to use an interface element “one last time” before it’s revised. It seems a bit like taunting.
For the record, I actually liked the checkbox version better. To me, a checkbox is an immediate read for an on/off toggle. The presence—or absence—of a background color is just style.
When they first changed this, I had a calendar off, and couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to turn it on. It took a good 15 to minutes for it to occur to me to just click on the link.
I like to take advantage of conventions when designing interfaces. Clicking a link typically takes a user to a different page, or at least a different portion of the same page. It breaks general expectation for the functionality to be different. It’s the difference between expected, inherent, and learned behaviors.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
i agree, there could/ should have been a little more “hey, this has changed!” but this one didn’t bother me, probably since i think i had a couple of my calendars already unchecked, so it was really pretty easy / intuitive to spot the difference right away when i saw it.
i think i like it because it’s just less stuff on the page, and google calendar is one page i could definitely use less stuff on.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
ps. geoff, i just noticed you had a calendar called “path to domination”?