Google Chrome

The Chrome browser is superb in terms of screen space utilization, and displays most frequent visited pages in home page whenever you visit. Very good history track and easy to find visited pages through simple search and much more.

I have observed many of my colleagues have started using Chrome from the day they installed in their PC and started loving it day by day by finding many useful features which are very useful. Here are some my views about Chrome.

Competitive Advantages
1) Title bar is totally eliminated the same place is being utilized for page tabs.
2) Frequently visited pages on home page
3) Visible bookmark links just next to home page thumbnails.
4) History search on home page and a separate history page where you see all visited pages.
5) Right click menu contains first option to open in new tab rather than on new page as in Firefox.





Above mentioned features are very much available with IE and Fire fox browser but they look sort of complicated not as simple as Chrome.

Improvements needed
1) Entering any words or site address will bring up Google search result page which may not be useful always. If user type the correct words say Nike the first option should not trigger search but NIKE.COM site.

Why Usability Test is important?

Let me explain my experience in a super market. I went to Trinetra super market recently where I noticed one of the staff members innocently obeying to the system‘s bad behavior. I was standing in queue to get my turn but he was taking more time than usual. So I went to see what’s wrong with him.

The barcode (RFID) device was not functioning; therefore he was manually entering all the items in his system to print the bill. The application was punishing him for not having the RFID devise working. He had a touch screen monitor so he was not feeling the pain with multiple touches he was doing with it, but as an Interaction Designer the bad behavior of the tool grabbed my attention.

He has to invoke the calculator (1 touch), enter the item number (10+ touches) then price and quantity (few touches) and submitting it to the list of items (final touch) then he could see it in item list. He has to repeat the same process from the beginning to the end for adding remaining items. Calculator window should ideally stay after adding an item to the list for allowing him to add another, but makers have thought that RFID device would fail to recognize items when the item is not stored in their database. In this context it is absolutely correct. But what if RFID device doesn’t function? This context maker might not have thought I guess, so user and customers has to scarify their valuable time. Therefore Usability Test is very crucial to find such missing gaps in the product. This is just one finding. We can arrive at many more interesting findings while conducting usability test in a real scenario by observing user performing their tasks.

What is “Cognitive Friction”?

The Cognitive friction word coined by Allan Cooper, as many of you from HCI, Product Design, Interaction design, usability engineering background people don’t need introduction about him. For those who just started their career and like to enter into Interaction Design field, I would highly recommend you to go through “Inmates are running asylum” wrote by Cooper.

Cognitive Friction, in simple word “uncomfortableness”, means that a user experiences with gadgets like mobile phones and computer applications. When a user feels that they are trapped or failed to succeed with their goal will obviously become frustrated or annoyed with the device. Cooper has termed this as Cognitive Friction. We get to see several such scenarios in our day-to-day life with all gadgets. But who should be blamed? User or the technology?

In industrial age, tools that engineers used to produce, has got very less or low cognitive friction. Take an example of a blade, scissor, hammer etc. its basic functionality is very clear by seeing it. Whatever the gadget you buy will come with silicon chip which is designed to solve problem what user faces in a day today life, but it ends up doing much more than what user would expect. Because adding extra feature is not big deal in computer era. If it impacts positively then there is no problem, user would welcome happy. If it impacts negatively, then user is left with no choice but to blame himself or feel stupid.

I use the word cognitive friction (CF) here on hoping that you all become comfortable now for at least those who were unaware. Some of you might have noticed what Remote car key problems are. These are the functions of a Remote Key.
1) Lock
2) Un-lock
3) Car Identifier
4) Intelligent Locking

All the functions are very close to manual except 3 and 4, they really gives you smile on your face when you know that you can identify in big parking slot and locked automatically when you forgot in hurry. Disadvantages with intelligent locking system is it won’t recognize weather the driver is inside or outside. Once I had bitter experience with my Car. I was taking reverse and I noticed that a scooter was parked right behind. I thought I will move the scooter to aside and then take the reverse. I stopped ignition and got out of the car leaving the key inside and closed the door. In less than 3 seconds the car got locked. And, this happened in a small village where no mechanic was available. I blamed the fate and myself for that situation for a moment and suddenly recollected conversion I had with a service engineer. If I had not discussed with service engineer earlier I would have been terribly distressed till I could escape from it. I did un-lock the car by inserting wooden scale in the gap between the window pane and body of the car where the lock was visible. That’s how I got escaped from that situation and the cognitive friction I had.





Why don’t manufactures consult human factors / interaction designers for taking inputs because they know better then sales or marketing person about the needs of the actual user?