A few years ago I bought a rain jacket for a cycling trip in Ireland. As people say there: "it doesn't rain all day, but it does rain every day". Although the jacket was alleged to be good quality, I was sorely disappointed. It leaked in even light rain and, to make matters worse, the dye in the jacket bled, ruining a jersey beneath.

When I got back to Canada I contacted the manufacturer to ask for a new jacket and replacement jersey. To my surprise, their response was not an apology and quick replacement. After a lot of back and forth they asked me to send the jacket for analysis, which I did. They eventually told me the jacket leaked because my backpack straps had worn it out. Well, is that so? The jacket was new and had never been worn with a backpack. Not once. After a good deal more back and forth they finally sent me a new jacket and a very cheap jersey. For my part, I vowed never to do business with that company again - a promise I've kept to this day.

I've been thinking about this story as I develop some corporate training for a client that wants to introduce user experience design to absolute beginners. I've been scouring my memory for stories to illustrate both good and not so good experience design. As I go over the stories, something that has stood out is that the quality of an experience isn't dependent on achieving a desired outcome. I got my jacket and jersey, but the experience was appalling. Just as important as outcome (or perhaps more important) is the amount of effort required to achieve the outcome.

I think this is an important observation because I've seen many instances where people think that simply posting correct information to their website is enough. Their attitude is that people just need to find it. They just need to read it. They just need to consult the glossary. They just need to download the instruction sheet. And so on; jumping through hoop after hoop.

Here's another story for contrast. I recently moved to a new city, where I bought a house. I had one trip to find a place, then negotiated from afar. I had to arrange a house inspection, an additional furnace inspection, and some other things. My realtor handled everything for me without being asked. She would just say: you need x done. I know someone. I'll call them for you if you like. She anticipated my needs, and I got everything I needed with virtually no effort. Part of what made it such a good experience was that I had to put in even less effort than seemed reasonable. She did things without being asked. She relieved me of the burden.

Giving your audience a good experience means doing the work for them. Design your system so that it relieves the user of as much effort as possible. If you don't the result will be frustration, even if they get what they're after in the end. Oh... and never buy cycling gear from... well, let's let bygones be bygones, shall we?

PS: I shared some of my observations with Richard Dalton, who is doing some interesting work on the essential characteristics of user experience. Check out his responses.

Posted in on August 6, 2009

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