User Interface design and User Experience

Recently the story of the student who lost his seat in IIT due to inadvertently clicking the wrong link made headlines.

The story is sad and hopefully the Supreme Court will allow him to get a seat on humanitarian grounds. One of the assertions by IIT was that; withdrawal is a conscious two-step process. The student has to enter a reason for withdrawal. While I don't know the UI(User Interface) for IIT - I wonder could the experience have been made better so such an error could not have easily happened ?

If you approach the UI design thinking that ~90% of the students who get into IIT will not reject the seat, then perhaps the design could have been different.

Consider, instead of just asking for 'reason for withdrawal' - could additional UI elements have made the student realize what he was doing ?

• Red exclamation point ❗️/ stop sign 🚫
• Clearer message - 'You will lose your seat' !!! ( Certainly more meaningful that using the word 'freeze' as the articles suggest. )
• Simplification of language and double check - 'Are you sure ?' 🔴
• A waiting period before accepting the withdrawal ( this could pose issues to other candidates of course )
• A separate mail / call confirming the withdrawal

UI design and UX (User Experience) design are vast fields with the attendant deep knowledge and experience required for best results. This is not restricted to software alone either. Add in making design decisions which will help people with special needs, health issues, color blindness, deafness etc., it is a field that cannot be under-rated. And it begins with one question -

Who is the audience and what do we want to help them accomplish ?

There is never a perfect UI design that can ensure no errors but gentle nudges (not always gentle as the dark patterns in UI show) towards a desired outcome is  part of the design and UX. 

And what can be more desired than a seat in IIT to a JEE Aspirant ?

References : 

1. Nudge 
2. Dark Patterns in UI
3. Dark Patterns in ecommerce sites
4. Interfaces designed to trick you

 

Design and Usage ....

"Everything is designed. Few things are designed well" - Brian Reed

Designing is an ubiquitous activity. Yet in so many instances it almost seems like design is disconnected from usage. In the midst of following fads - the entire purpose of design gets lost !!

We went to a restaurant .... and it seemed like everything that could be wrong ... was wrong !!!!

1. The play area for children was in a dark dim corner ... ?? Could not see the children ... much less the playground artifacts ... what kind of child safe zone is this ?

2. The entire restaurant was mostly dark ... in this dim dark world -- there were pathways ... which had unexpected dips in levels with no visual demarcation .... plus the natural stones had plenty of unevenness to cause stubbing !! An invitation to people and children to fall on their face !!!

3. The low seating was atrocious ... I don't have back pain and yet I found it difficult to keep leaning forward at that angle to reach for my food !!!

4. Candle light dinner ..... aaah .... supposedly romantic .... it seems the designer forgot that candle light dinner does not mean ... we be unable to see the food or the menu !!! :) IMHO candle lit dinner should be just enough that it hides flaws and creates a glow instead .. with adequate dim lighting to ensure you can see what you eat and most importantly the expression on the other person's face ... after all this is why it is supposed to be romantic right ? More often than not this generally this means a smaller table ... most restaurants never get this balance right ... !!!!

And I can go on and on ...For a restaurant of that kind .. food is just one of the things that it is rated on !!! :) The entire design seemed to ignore the people who would come to the restaurant and be served !! :)

If design is intelligence made visible .. I definitely saw no sign of it .... And this is a hep & happening place here ... sometimes I wonder .... :)

We had an architect who was interested in designing our bathroom lighting with expensive lighting and extensive work details .... the point forgotten - the said design would make the bathroom dimly lit !!!

This same person refused to keep the kitchen platform at a comfort level for me ... said the height that was chosen was standard. But this so-called-standard would give me a pain the neck while cutting vegetables and a gas cylinder could not fit underneath it either !!!! What kind of standard was this ? Standards are there for a reason ... but if it does not help towards an easy usage of the object ...... what is the point ...  ??

Have you come across a website where what the company is about is buried under so much flash .... that it takes forever to get to the core [ we would rather go elsewhere thank you ]. I would think that if under 5 seconds you don't know what the website is about ... most people would just skip ....

Aesthetics are very important no doubt .. but while designing these aesthetics .... it is important to remember ...designing should always be connected to the purpose of its usage... otherwise after the novelty is gone... it may well find  itself out of favor too ....

After all - "Good design keeps the user happy, the manufacturer in the black and the aesthete unoffended" -  Raymond Loewy