Great point, Bruno. The kind of thing that iTunes and iPhoto do (and the iPad is going to do) I would call abstraction – they keep the user away from information the user does not care about. Hurray for that.
The issue is when a UI misrepresents information that is essential to the user. That’s what I consider lying.
Finally, perhaps one of the greatest pitfalls we face as interaction designers is the risk of mistaking lying for abstraction. Wow, I sense another article coming on…
BTW, the users of the new system are initially unpleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the app. But then the happiness that can only come from software that doesn’t suck settles on them, and we become good friends.
Great point, Bruno. The kind of thing that iTunes and iPhoto do (and the iPad is going to do) I would call abstraction – they keep the user away from information the user does not care about. Hurray for that.
The issue is when a UI misrepresents information that is essential to the user. That’s what I consider lying.
Finally, perhaps one of the greatest pitfalls we face as interaction designers is the risk of mistaking lying for abstraction. Wow, I sense another article coming on…
BTW, the users of the new system are initially unpleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the app. But then the happiness that can only come from software that doesn’t suck settles on them, and we become good friends.
posted by Angel David Lindes on Thursday, Feb 04, 2010