Consider how the $2 trillion F-35 project was recently reported as not only being unsafe to fly, but a boondoggle of conflicting priorities and competing goals. Yet decades later, we frequently ignore these experts and their advice. This paved the way for entire professions, including usability experts and user experience designers, that focus on making things so people can use them effectively. When trying to design safer aircraft during WWII, cognitive psychologists Paul Fitts and Richard Jones proved it was the design of cockpits-how different buttons and levers were shaped and positioned-that explained crashes far more than what pilots did or did not do. Nearly 80 years ago, we learned the hard way that when people make mistakes, it’s usually the fault of the technology itself, not the people using it. Making products that are well designed is not nearly as common as it needs to be. And the Robinhood trading app, designed to encourage users to trade often, misled a young man into erroneously believing he was more than $700,000 in debt, and in his despair he took his own life. Citibank lost $500 million because an internal tool for managing loans was too confusing for employees to use. The rollout of vaccines in America was hamstrung by confusing registration websites. Over the last year we’ve seen many shocking examples of tech failure by design. We blame ourselves for these problems despite the fact that the companies that sell these products are responsible. It’s likely you create important documents in the cloud but struggle to find them later. You probably feel overwhelmed by your email inbox, Slack messages, or phone notifications. If you’re like most people, you’ve accidentally left the mute button on, or off, in a video call.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |