The Mac’s built-in noise cancellation suppresses keyboard clicks. It makes perfect sense, but there’s an annoying side effect. When you’re taking notes during a client call, it looks like you’re just reacting slowly or constantly zoning out. It’s hard to convince anyone you’re actually typing because they can’t hear a thing!
On the left is how Apple Watch displays a swim workout, on the right is how it could:
And below is what you can see in both cases, if your goggles are fogged up (Photoshop simulation).
Apple’s design is silly: what’s the point of using small type when you can use large type? But it’s especially silly that even if you enable enlarged fonts in the accessibility settings, it doesn’t apply to the workout screens anyway.
Check out a new large project: wayfinding for suppliers of Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer.
Wayfinding is not about drawing signs, but about streamlining the whole scenario of how people find something, and even how they understand what they need to look for. The project included signage, maps, printed instructions, a mobile website, an LED board, and a banner. And that’s all systematized for multiple warehouses.
Here’s a video of my February talk at the Transit Mapping Symposium in Abu Dhabi:
A new version of our Tashkent metro map is now an official map.
Check out our new Metro map for Tashkent, Uzbekistan:
Reversibility is a property of an interface input control, where the user can return the control to its initial state at any time. Or, more generally, where the user can freely switch between all available states. Irreversibility, consequently, is when the element has states to which it cannot be returned after some actions. Well-designed controls are reversible.
An example of an irreversible control is a group of radio buttons of which none are initially selected. Once one option is selected, there is no way to return the group to the initial blank state. This creates discomfort and frustration. In a proper radio group exactly one element is always selected, including in the initial state, so the group is reversible.
But what if picking an option is required to proceed to the next step? There is no point in unselecting all options! Why would the user want that? Well, the reversibility requirement stands even if the initial state is not “valid”. This has to do only with the mechanics of the interface control, not with its role in the interface external to it. It affects the sense of control. Consider this: a text input field does not resist having all characters erased from it, even if it is required. Any other element, if it has a blank state at all, should let you return to it. In the case of a radio group, remove the blank state altogether by providing a default option.
Here’s another example of irreversibility. Suppose you have a required text field, initially blank. The user clicks the field, then clicks another element, leaving the field blank (or fills it in, but then erases everything). The system now draws a red border around the field, hinting that the field cannot be left blank. Now it is impossible to return the field to its initial “clean” blank state. A solution would be to fade out the red border so that the field returns to the initial state after a second.
John Siracusa in the 446th episode of ATP talks about how kids become programmers and how it didn’t work with his kids, starting at 40:36:
With my kids, I had no success getting them to want to learn to program at any age. I didn’t really push it that hard, but I was putting it in front of them, see if they are into it, see if it would grab them. And it never got hooked. And we all — all three of us — know what it means to get hooked on programming. It’s one of those things that just happens, right? You can see when programming gets its claws into somebody. And you know, it’s not subtle. You’ll find yourself just sucked in and just constantly working on this program — we all experienced it. That’s how we became who we are. But when that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.
Duolingo used to be a great app. I opened in to practice almost every day. But then they changed the design:
The redesign rolled out gradually — apparently they were testing it. There was a period when the iPhone was already broken, but it was still possible to use it with an iPad or on the web. I chased the old design for a while, but soon after the final switch to the new one I lost interest in studying.
There was a lot of outrage online about the change, including in the comments under this video. But the design has not been rolled back, which means Duolingo’s numbers are good.
Before and after:
In the old design, as you went through the lessons, the next ones opened in bundles. In the example on the left, you could choose from: basics, phrases, animals, food, family. Sometimes I was in the mood to learn something new, so I tapped an untouched topic. Sometimes, on the contrary, I wanted additional practice in something I already had an idea of, so I went there. When I made a choice to learn something, as the owner of my choice, I was motivated to learn it. The interface was informative and engaging with a variety of topics. Sometimes it was fun to scroll up and be pleased with how much I already learned. Sometimes it was interesting to scroll down, to the lessons locked so far, to be inspired by what awaits next. Maybe the remaining required lesson isn’t very appealing, but look at what’s there to learn afterwards!
The new design has none of that. The endless wave of identical coins means nothing, you just have to tap the green one: you have already completed the previous ones, while the next ones are not available yet. If you scroll up or down, the endless wave of already completed or not yet available unsigned coins continues, and there will even be a button to scroll back to the green coin. The informativeness of this screen is literally zero, it gives you no choice, it exists only for you to tap the one single button! Even the iPad cat games are more interesting.
In the video, they tell us that was the intent:
We’ve redesigned the home screen to better guide you through lessons.
Translated from marketing speak, “now we decide what you learn”.
Follow a path crafted by our learning experts to help you better reach your goals.
It’s different for everyone, but for me, “reach your goals” is the weakest motivator in life. I want to effortlessly enjoy the process and then suddenly be thrilled to discover my own accomplishments. Duolingo doesn’t give me that anymore.
And don’t worry, we’ve kept all the progress you’ve made so far
What are you talking about? I no longer see the huge list of topics I’ve completed. From my point of view, all the progress I had, I’ve lost.
Anyway, it was a great app.
