Comments on: Evolution over Revolution http://nuthinking.com/blog/2007/01/10/evolution-over-revolution/ Is not just about Christian Giordano Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:50:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: christian http://nuthinking.com/blog/2007/01/10/evolution-over-revolution/#comment-4995 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:06:20 +0000 http://nuthinking.com/blog/2007/01/10/evolution-over-revolution/#comment-4995 Hi Jason, thanks for your consideration. As you may have noticed by this experimental blog, I'm definitely pro animations, or more precisely transitions, that definitely help the user to understand his journey increasing so the confidence. It's also proved that sounds and animations can improve the usability. It's also proved, see Emotional Design, that fancy things that make the experience more engaging improve thus the usability. But of course one thing is exploring a website or use sporadically a software and another thing is using the Operating System. After many years on Windows those animations looked incredibily annoying to me. Perception of course very different from someone that uses Mac Os X every day from many years. Said that, as the article pointed, in Information Architecture Mac OS X is way forward to Windows. I was talking also about those milliseconds of delay that you can experience for instance when you use a Flash application comparing to a desktop one (even a Director one). Developing high interactive interfaces is something I feel straight away. Hi Jason, thanks for your consideration. As you may have noticed by this experimental blog, I’m definitely pro animations, or more precisely transitions, that definitely help the user to understand his journey increasing so the confidence. It’s also proved that sounds and animations can improve the usability. It’s also proved, see Emotional Design, that fancy things that make the experience more engaging improve thus the usability.

But of course one thing is exploring a website or use sporadically a software and another thing is using the Operating System. After many years on Windows those animations looked incredibily annoying to me. Perception of course very different from someone that uses Mac Os X every day from many years. Said that, as the article pointed, in Information Architecture Mac OS X is way forward to Windows. I was talking also about those milliseconds of delay that you can experience for instance when you use a Flash application comparing to a desktop one (even a Director one). Developing high interactive interfaces is something I feel straight away.

]]> by: Jason Mesut http://nuthinking.com/blog/2007/01/10/evolution-over-revolution/#comment-4993 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:11:59 +0000 http://nuthinking.com/blog/2007/01/10/evolution-over-revolution/#comment-4993 I think that your posting seems to imply that the use of animations and effects seem to be implemented to wow people but unfortunatlely detract from the usability. I have to say that I actually believe in these sorts of animations, effects and transitions etc. can often be extremely important to increasing the usability and overall experience of using the product or software. Partially, the transitions, effects, sounds and animations assist the comprehension of things changing (rollovers, mode changes, context switching). Yes, they look cool but they often actually help. This is something we had to look into when designing a mobile version of the Map of Medicine last year. The other side is of course the wow and the slick factor. I think this is incredibly important and under-valued from a usability sense as I feel it can make the experience more enjoyable and the interface/product/software more lovable. An example of this is my experience of using a Mac through the OS7 - OS X transition. It all seemed very bubbly and cutesy (verging on saccharine, much like Windows XP) but I loved it, and I continue to love it. It brings a little smile to my face and as a result, I truly believe it increases my confidence in using it and I care much for my Mac than I do for any PC I have worked on. I believe (based on previous bits of research and my own experience) that improving the visual design of an interface (including sounds and animations) can improve the perception of usability. It makes you appreciate the interface more and get more pleasure out of it. The more pleasure you get, the more your briain can cope with apparent usability issues (like a mask). It's kind of like the iPod interface. It''s not intuitive (in the truest sense of the word), and it takes a little time to master, but why do you persevere? Because it's sexy, looks cool and because the core function is to give you access to loads of music on the move - all of this masks some of the dry usability problems in the interface. Anyway, 2c. I think that your posting seems to imply that the use of animations and effects seem to be implemented to wow people but unfortunatlely detract from the usability. I have to say that I actually believe in these sorts of animations, effects and transitions etc. can often be extremely important to increasing the usability and overall experience of using the product or software.

Partially, the transitions, effects, sounds and animations assist the comprehension of things changing (rollovers, mode changes, context switching). Yes, they look cool but they often actually help. This is something we had to look into when designing a mobile version of the Map of Medicine last year.

The other side is of course the wow and the slick factor. I think this is incredibly important and under-valued from a usability sense as I feel it can make the experience more enjoyable and the interface/product/software more lovable. An example of this is my experience of using a Mac through the OS7 - OS X transition. It all seemed very bubbly and cutesy (verging on saccharine, much like Windows XP) but I loved it, and I continue to love it. It brings a little smile to my face and as a result, I truly believe it increases my confidence in using it and I care much for my Mac than I do for any PC I have worked on.

I believe (based on previous bits of research and my own experience) that improving the visual design of an interface (including sounds and animations) can improve the perception of usability. It makes you appreciate the interface more and get more pleasure out of it. The more pleasure you get, the more your briain can cope with apparent usability issues (like a mask). It’s kind of like the iPod interface. It’’s not intuitive (in the truest sense of the word), and it takes a little time to master, but why do you persevere? Because it’s sexy, looks cool and because the core function is to give you access to loads of music on the move - all of this masks some of the dry usability problems in the interface.

Anyway, 2c.

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