UX Diary #2

Short Write-Ups

Good Example - Boba Checkout Kiosk

 

What is the User Goal?

 

To select their boba/tea order, proceed to the checkout, and complete their payment.

How does the design help users in achieving their goals?

 

The checkout kiosks are large touch screens that are easy to use and understand.

  1. Visibility of System Status is exemplified well through these kiosks as they have a clear checkout flow and respond to touch/tap directly and instantly with no delay.

  2. Consistency and Standards is another heuristic on full display as it follows common checkout systems (cart icon on top left, items and costs listed top to bottom) and is physically and functionally similar to other ordering kiosks, i.e., McDonald’s kiosks.

  3. The best UX principle displayed, however, is Aesthetic and Minimalist Design as the number of options is balanced, there is no visual clutter, and it is very organized and sleek. The menu is well organized between the different categories of drinks, which opens up another menu with specific drinks, but it is never overwhelming or overbearing. The number of available options is the right amount and is grouped well.

  4. The success of these kiosks can be seen by how widespread they are, as almost every boba shop, no matter how small, has at least one. Another piece of evidence for user understanding, while anecdotal, is how lines usually form for these kiosks, even if an employee is free or has a short line in front of her at the counter.

Bad Example - Apple Music Interface while Music is Playing

 

What is the User Goal?

 

To shuffle music, loop music or a song, and/or add similar songs to a queue.

How does the design hinder users in achieving their goals?

 

As someone who did not listen to much music on my phone, it took me a long time to figure out how to get to the buttons to be able to shuffle and loop songs on Apple Music when I started using it last year. Unlike Spotify which shows the shuffle and loop button on the current song screen, Apple has no such feature. There are three dots that open more options, but none of them are related to shuffling or looping the song. Instead, the user has to go to the playlist through the button on the bottom right and tap one of the traditional icons for shuffling or looping. However, there is also an infinity icon, which is apparently to autoplay songs that are not in the playlist (which is something I did not know until I looked it up today).

There are a few issues with Apple Music. The main one being Consistency and Standards. Apple Music violates this heuristic in two ways:

  1. The shuffle and loop button not being available on the song screen.

  2. The infinity icon is difficult to understand and does not correlate to other music listening platforms (also a recognition issue).

Not having the buttons available on the song screen additionally increases the motor and cognitive load for the user, as they have to do more to achieve what they normally can achieve on other platforms, i.e., Spotify.

Detailed Critique

The second post is from LinkedIn, depicting the date selector for a departure and for date of birth. This example shows that just because something exists, does not mean it should be used. In this case, just because a date selector does exist, does not mean that it should be used in everything related to date, date of birth in this example. Just being able to type one’s date of birth would more than likely be easier than this method for the user, as being able to type it would achieve the goal much quicker and with less button presses/physical activity. The comments on this post brought up the idea to potentially modify the date selector to start from year followed by month followed by day, or start from a “x” number of years ago. While these ideas are interesting, they may run into the same issue, and the original poster points out that the “year → month → day” design has been tested before with less than stellar results. The idea itself and the discussion surrounding it better help me understand when to use certain designs, if using certain designs is actually better than more straightforward and traditional approaches, and to be careful and do my research when generating and implementing less common and newer designs.