Self-service can work!

In the latest blog in our series relating to self service we look at a library kiosk.

One of the libraries we use has a self service kiosk called smartserve 400 (http://www.bibliotheca.com/1/index.php/our-products/self-service-kiosks/smartserve400)

It's a revelation!

• The on screen instructions are easy to read and follow and include clear and helpful graphics to illustrate them
• The space where you wave or swipe your books to borrow or return them is a breeze to use. There is no need to hold the book in any specific position or for a specific part of it to make contact with an element of the kiosk
• The machine provides helpful prompts to make sure you follow the right process and don't miss something out (a refreshing change from the machines in supermarkets that have flashing red beacons to tell you and everyone around you that you have done something wrong)

The user experience has clearly been the focus of the design of this self service kiosk. The result is an interface that puts the user at ease and guides them smoothly through the process instead of being a source of stress. 

We're not hear to promote one product over others but when you see something that works we want to learn from it.  We hope to see similar thinking going into self service for other environments soon.

The future of self-service & customer experience

There was news last month that some supermarkets are reviewing the use of self-service checkouts. Research has suggested that they do not save time for customers and that they maybe contributing to an increase in theft.

There had previously been an expectation that we would see increasing amounts of self-service in supermarkets because they save on staff costs and were expected to reduce queue lengths.

The initial feeling on customer experience is not positive. There seems to be plenty of room for improvement with many customers still finding them frustrating:

• they are unreliable (we are all too familiar with the phrase "unexpected item in the bagging area")
• they tend not to work as well for customers who want to use their own bags 
• they can make some customers feel like they are at fault when there is a problem (some even feature big red lights above their heads singling them out as incompetent)
• they usually lack somewhere for you to put down other shopping bags or belongings while you use them

It would be interesting to see if any retailers have identified the potential time savings that could be made from making the experience significantly more usable than it is at the moment.

Self-service also lacks the personality and the human contact that you get when served by a member of staff. This emotional aspect seems to be more important to people again as technology becomes more pervasive.

Some people also seem to resent that they are doing all the hard work when the price of products already accounts for the overhead of staff costs. This is not great for the reputation of supermarkets.

Can the checkout process be more integrated with the process of selecting products from shelves? If so could a service like "Quick Check" in Waitrose, the “360 Degree Scanner” in Asda, or the "Scan and Shop" in Tesco be developed further to enable us to pay as we go around the shop rather than require an additional step in the process at the end?

Would the experience be enhanced if rather than removing staff, self-service enabled them to be re-deployed in a different service role? Would we value a staff member dedicated to an aisle or section of goods that has a good knowledge of them, their value for money and the current discounts or offers available? Anyone got examples or retailers making this happen?

Whilst we have focused on retail self-service here, of course there is a similar move in other areas such as transport - check-in counters at airports have been disappearing for a while now.  London Underground have announced the removal of ticket offices in the future. We'll cover this off in our next blog on the subject of self-service.

Impact of digital mapping on wayfinding

An interesting article in the New Scientist recently highlighted some of the emerging trends in digital mapping and how our experience of navigating spaces and environments is changing. 

What does this mean for traditional methods of providing navigational information?

The way in which we find our way is changing.  The coverage of mapping information from Google, Apple, Bing and others is getting increasingly comprehensive.  The more recent move to mapping internal spaces is also growing – Google now has the annotated floor plans of over 10,000 buildings.

The real change with this mapping technology is that the way is accessed, usually via GPS and a smartphone, places you at the centre of the map and can often orientate the map to show you which way you are facing.

The question for traditional designers of wayfinding signage is whether this is a competing technology or a complementary approach to help us find our way.

Digital mapping offers many opportunities.  Augmented reality technology can be used to show the location of the destination (i.e. the entrance to a specific building) or points of interest along the way.  Other data can be drawn into show imminent weather or perhaps crime spots that should be avoided (with its own potentially negative impact).

However it is clear that there are a number of issues with an increasing reliance on digital mapping technology.  Research has shown that the limited view that we get on a screen narrows our field of view so whilst we can follow the directions we never effectively develop a mental model of where we are.  This increases our reliance on the technology as we don’t really learn the route – a problem when you leave your phone at home!

This lack of understanding where we are highlights one of the other main issues with the current technology…and that is trust.  The recent debacle for Apple has undermined the trust of many users.  When seen alongside the various tales of woe of people following their satnavs and getting into trouble.   It is clear that the technology still has some way to go!

We are also recognizing that the mapping technology is owned by large multinationals with their own agendas – for example, perhaps they are more likely to identify points of interest with whom they have a commercial interest than those of genuine interest to us.

Digital mapping will only increase and the technology will improve rapidly including how that information is provided.  Research has shown that people referring to their phones walk more slowly, actually walk longer distances and were worse at orientation than those using a paper map. So for success maybe the future is more integrated technology like Google Glass.  At the moment, it feels like reliance on mapping technology makes us less likely to absorb our surroundings, be less inquisitive and adventurous – a less interesting way of getting around.

But the need for us to consider the built environment independent of the technology will also not go away – the technology will always have shortcomings and we have to cater for those who can’t or don’t use the technology (inclusive design?). 

The challenge is how can we provide wayfinding using a range of methods and how can we harness all of these to help people get the mental model of how a space is laid out and how they can navigate without reliance on any one method.

The Hollywood passenger experience

The new Bradley West Terminal at LAX airport is seemingly doing passenger experience the Hollywood way.

Trying to bring an "LA feel" to the airport, the plans are using large displays integrated with mobile devices to allow the passenger to interact with the visual content.

Sounds like it is creating an interesting "experience" that could be entertaining while you wait.  But perhaps the experience is one of distraction rather than a better experience through improving the functionality of the airport?  Either way worth seeing!

Are the older generation getting tech-savvy?

Thought provoking article on the BBC website on the tech needs of older people: www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20529991

It stems from work done at the Cambridge Design Centre, part of Cambridge University, looking at products and how older people use them.  It's clearly an important topic with the demographic shift to an aging population.

The video really highlights the problems designers have in seeing the world through the eyes of others. What to many younger users would be an intuitive interaction - touch and swipe - are not to older people who have a totally different mental model and a more analogue paradigm of usage.

It also demonstrates the difficulties for designers to really understand some of the physical constraints older people have.  Being able to experience this with modified glasses or adaptive aids that constraint joint movement etc can be great - our recent work with Guide Dogs for the Blind went through similar efforts with our team going on blindfolded walks with guide dogs and we also discovered some augmented reality apps that show you a view of the world with various visual impairments.

All really interesting and important issues especially when you look at increasing adoption of technology by older users in order to take advantage of some of the opportunities for things like reducing loneliness.

Online passwords - failing to match human behaviour?

A great article in The Guardian on Saturday about online passwords, what a nightmare they have become for all of us and how our natural response is making the job of the hacker easier - http://gu.com/p/3aptz

The interesting point it makes is how the requirements placed on users to have more complex passwords (mix of cases, including non-alphanumerics, etc) means that most of us, in a desperate attempt to have something memorable, end up choosing something that is easier to crack.  Also the use of passwords as the primary security measure means most of us choose the same password for everything - so hack one site and ID fraud becomes much easier.

Once again, a great example of the impact of a lack of joined-up user centred thinking and a failure to understand how people really behave.  We can't remember these passwords - it is a natural constraint on human memory - so we take the easier path which works for us.  Clearly our reliance on passwords is a weak point in security systems - what technology will provide the solution?

The future of the work place

A viewpoint article on the BBC website, outlined some thinking on the future of the work place and how future technology will free us from the office.  Holograms, 3D avatars, smart surfaces...all will take us away from having to be in a location.

There is no doubt that work will change.  It has always evolved from large offices of resource intensive organisations to more mobile and connected companies of today.

However these articles with their inevitable focus on technology (written by someone from Virgin Media) always seem to ignore people.  All these technologies ignore the natural resistance to change - in fact part of the success of tablets seems to be in replicating the paper and pen experience of old.

But also work is and will probably remain about human interaction.  It is important in driving creativity and innovation - people need to share ideas and thoughts.  But also it serves a social purpose.  It's not clear why we feel technology will remove this need and we can all sit on our own talking to the wall.

What comes after touch?

Nice blog post on some thinking of what is next for interfaces - www.buzzfeed.com/tommywilhelm/what-comes-after-the-touchscreen

Gesture tracking, 3D mapping of gestures and movement, etc - the view seems to be that is where we are heading.

But what are we trying to do?  What tasks are we trying to conduct with these interfaces? What are the applications doing?  Presumably we are not writing documents or other similar day-to-day tasks.

Perhaps it is an interesting route for uses where you don't want or can't actually touch a screen - like the example of surgeons given in the blog.

People will figure out uses for these technologies.  Touch spent years doing little but spinning and zooming photographs but now with the hardware of smartphones and tablets we have found real value.  Gesture hasn't yet had much of an outing other than for game play which is a short, occasional task - not a day long job.

Conferences are coming...

Just a bit of news that CCD staff are presenting at four conferences in the next few months

First of all, Adam Parkes is presenting on our SAMMIE work at a seminar at IMechE titled "Human factors in 3D - humans in engineering design".  If you want to go, get your skates on as it is next week (2nd October).

Then David Watts will be talking about consolidation of control rooms at the IBC Control Room Design conference in London on 5-7 November.  If you want to go to this, we can offer a 20% discount by following this link

David Watts is also chairing a conference on High Performance HMI (human machine interfaces) in December 2012, again in London.  This will include topics around alarm management, human error, data visualisation and interfaces of the future.  If you would like a discount on attending follow this link.

And a bit further out, CCD will be out in force at the 4th International Rail Human Factors conference in London next March.

Minority Report at 10

Very few films have had such an influence on ideas and thinking around interaction design as Minority Report has.  In almost every discussion about the next steps in interfaces someone references the gestural interaction shown in the film along with many of the other technologies used in it.

There have been several articles published in the news and on blogs recently as this is the 10th anniversary of the film's release but this is one of the better ones we thought...have a read

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/21/minority-report-at-10-a-look-at-technology-from-today-to-2054/#continued

Sat-navs impair driving?

Interesting piece of research that has picked up lots of media coverage today.  Researchers at Lancaster Uni are suggesting that using sat-navs actually impairs driving performance, as well as sometimes taking us the wrong way.

As the directions get more complex, we are likely to speed up, swerve more and not detect pedestrians.

Seems to point to some good basic human factors guidance on ensuring that the directions remain simple.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18349499

Virtual store in Korea

Tesco have been trialling a virtual store in Korea which are an interesting reflection on how to fill potential time gaps in the customer's day and provide something closer to the experience of being in a supermarket and seeing the products you are buying.  Posters of stocked shelves are displayed and you scan the item you want with your smartphone, it is added to your order and delivered to your home.  They have trialled them in subway stations with the suggestion that the order is waiting for you at home.

Improved Passenger Experience with Smartphone Technology

Alongside improving the design of airports, providing simpler wayfinding, and making the security process less stressful, the ever present smartphone seems to be the battleground for providing better information to the passenger at a number of points on the journey.

This article from the Amor Group presents a good summary of the current applications and uses for smartphone technology.  Worth a quick read:

Smartphones as an Enabler for Improved Passenger Experience

Interaction design awards...and the Spotify Box

The winners of the 2012 Interaction Design Awards have been announced - http://awards.ixda.org/interactionawards2012

We really like the Out of the Box winner (http://awards.ixda.org/entry/2012/out-box).  Its become all to easy to assume that the modern smartphones are all so intuitive that we don't need help to use them.  Maybe they are for the younger generation (my kids have no problems at all!) but for older users the change in their mental model of how it works is more problematic.

But our winner goes to the Spotify Box (http://awards.ixda.org/entry/2012/spotify-box).  The concept is fantastic - a really simple way of listening to playlists without needing your laptop or mobile device; we loved such a fun way of getting back to the mix tapes of old!  It's also a nice cool piece of industrial design if you needed any other reason to love it.  Please someone put this into production!

Spotify box from Jordi Parra on Vimeo.

The end of menus?

Ever since the graphical interface evolved we have used drop down menus as a principal means to organisation and find commands we want to use.  But last week the developers of the Ubuntu OS announced that they are making the move away from menus to a "heads up" interface where typed commands or voice are used.

Rather than hunting through menus, users can type the command they think they want into a search box.  The system will suggest commands you might want and will use intelligence to look for commands you have used before.  This potentially eliminates the problem of when menu structures are changed and you have to re-find where all the commands you like to use now are - something most users of Microsoft Office 2010 will be very used to!

It certainly seems to be an interesting to change to a model that isn't broken but annoys most of us on a daily basis.  Whether this is because there is a better way than menus or because they aren't well designed is perhaps the question.  Does this fix a problem?  It certainly might deal better with the fundamental problem of menus which is whether the designed structure maps to your mental model of where commands should be.  Given that we probably all have slightly different models, for many of us the search can be frustrating.  Especially for infrequent users.

We wait to see the feedback in use once the OS is released...

iPhone and the female voice

On launch. much was made of the new iPhone 4S and the use of a female voice for its Siri technology...except in France and UK where the default is male (you change it for a female voice but only with a US or Australian accent!).  Some of the press here have reported studies that say a female voice is "more pleasing" (we've not done any research ourselves).  But why are we different in the UK (or France)?  There seem to be lots of theories about the choice of a male or female voice for different purposes but nothing to explain why we and the French seem to regard this different from the rest of the world (and Apple seem to be keeping quiet on the subject too!).  Any thoughts?

Perhaps the bigger question is whether Siri is any good or not.  We have iPhones as our company phones so have all had a play with it in the office.  It's certainly surprised us with being able to answer questions other than "what is the weather tomorrow?".  And find these answers is quicker than doing a web search.  But there's something strange about asking your phone questions in public!  Maybe for now, until we all get used to the technology as it grows (and maybe becomes the main way we interact), its seems to be something for occasional use when there is no-one around!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-computer-voices/index.html

Military touchscreen applications

We keep looking for applications of multi-touch that go beyond spinning photos around and zooming in and out. We came across this article about a product aimed at military commanders wanting to get that command and control over the battlefield: http://engt.co/rag6MG

We don't know if this product is any good but it might tap into the potential of multi-touch to deliver intuitive interfaces that don't require extensive training or place great demand on the operator to remember how to use it in stressful situations.

What will airports of the future look like - a passenger perspective

Following on from the last post is this video from the BBC on the airports of the future: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/fast_track/9443769.stm. 

The piece is based around the premise that in 20 years time passenger numbers will double to pass 12 billion so airports and cities will have to cope with more people using and working in them.  One suggestion has been the "aerotropolis" - a city with the airport at its centre rather than on its fringes as they are at present.

The video raises lots of interesting possibilities but for us we are most interested in the human side of how passengers will use these changing, growing airports.

One of the keys seems to be the notion of airports that are designed to be big rather than what we have at the moment which are airports that grow incrementally or remain too small for the passenger numbers.  An interesting challenge to keep an airport still feeling manageable and navigable.  Maybe you need will need to divide the space up into many more smaller terminals and keep the distance from your arriving transport to plane as small as possible.

Clearly technology will play its part.  One can envisage technologies like electronic paper providing a ticket or boarding card that is interactive and actually helps direct you from entry to gate.

New ways of providing transit for people across and around the airport will be required as the walking distances will be too big.  Again this might mean lots of different ways into the airport whilst providing an environment that isn't too confusing - not easy!

As the video pointed out if we think the hassle of security is bad now one can imagine that it won't get better without a step change in the technology.  New scanning technologies that can speed up the security process will emerge but need to well designed to be usable by staff so that the human interaction isn't something that slows it all down again.

So many uses for glass

Another look into the future...especially around multi-touch interfaces. Although our first reaction was "what a lot of finger prints"!



Although this is clear a promotion for the various uses of glass technology it did raise some interesting questions about do we want access to information and communications technology in so many parts of our lives?

Can we get back to something more tactile?

Access to digital media has transformed many areas of our lives. Yet in some ways it has removed something - see how iTunes looks to keep the artwork of album covers - and one of those is something interactive and tactile.

We came across this interesting concept from IDEO for a music player that gets some of this back again...


c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.