Josh Sharp - web application development.

I've recently moved house, and last weekend I went for my second grocery shop at Safeway, my new local supermarket. This Safeway has recently installed a new set of 'self checkouts' which allow you to scan, bag, and pay for your own shopping, without a checkout operator involved.

This was the second time I'd used the system, and the first time had passed without incident — it was even a little bit novel, a tiny bit fun to scan my own items and bag them myself. But the second time was different.

This time, I had more than one bagful of items. As I finished filling the first bag, I went to take it off the scales — the bags are weighed to make sure you don't slip anything extra in — and the POS system beeped at me. "Please replace item such-and-such," it asked me.

So I put the bag back down. "Please replace the item," it asked me again, tonelessly. So I removed the bag and put just the item in question (a packet of biscuits) back onto the scales. But no luck, the system simply refused to allow me to proceed. It wouldn't recognise that I'd put the biscuits and/or bag back onto the scales, no matter what I did.

Growing increasingly frustrated, and with a growing line of people waiting too (installing self checkouts allows Safeway to cut down on the number of express checkouts open) I signalled to one of the brightly-vested 'experts' hovering nearby. I explained the situation, and he whipped out a PDA and tapped out a command to allow the POS system to continue.

"Out of curiosity," I asked him, "what did I do wrong? Just so I know for next time."

His voice was curt as he replied, "You can't remove a bag until the big dollar sign is flashing."

Obviously.

My experience with the system illustrates perfectly how not to design with usability in mind. Members of the public will be using the self checkouts without any training, and even as I used one I could see other people getting frustrated with their experience as well. If you are dealing with an untrained userbase, things should be as obvious as possible. There should be very little room for mis-interpretation.

Adding a flashing dollar sign (next to a button marked 'finish and pay', not what I wanted to do) is far from a simple and obvious way to tell users, "it's okay to start packing a new bag now".

You may have noticed I've been getting into the whole 'blogger' thing lately. Unfortunately, not by blogging much more, but the rest of it that goes with it — finding new blogs, networking, chatting in forums, etc. Part of this is the Entrecard widget you can see to the right. In addition to providing me with a tiny bit more traffic, it's a good way to browse for new blogs.

So what's that got to do with the title, you ask? Well the thing is, the majority of the Entrecard blogs are written by "the little guys" who are aspiring to be the big guys. Everyone wants to be John Chow or Darren Rowse (ProBlogger). And these bloggers definitely have passion, and persistence, and they're networking to make the most of their traffic. But they're not all designers, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

The problem with being a little guy is you're essentially a one man (or woman) operation, required to run all aspects of your blog. In addition to being the writer, you have to be the marketing guy, the designer, and the editor. It's a lot of work.

So I would like to extend my services to anyone who would like some tips on their blog design.

Most design flaws I see on blogs come down to poor contrast, very busy pages, or poorly organised pages. These are all easy things to fix!

So for a very reasonable fee I'll critique your site and give you some ideas on how to increase your readership and page stickiness without changing anything about your content, simply by making your blog easier to read. You might have the most interesting, unique posts in the world, but nobody is going to stick around to read them if they can't find them amidst the clutter of your text ads or many site badges.

To celebrate this tremendously momentous occasion, I'll critique two sites for free. If you think your site might benefit, simply contact me with all the details and we'll go from there.

Update: Well I guess nobody thinks they need usability or design consulting, even if it's for free. Oh well.

There are user interface elements that don't have a corresponding "interface" in real life — things like application windows, for example. On the other hand, elements like tabs have been pulled directly from real life counterparts that people are already familiar with and can instinctively pick up. Everyone's flipped through a filing cabinet or a set of manila folders.

But are all of these elements relevant any more?

The first thing that came to mind was our friend, the incredibly common magnifying glass.

Well, common within user interfaces, that is. I personally haven't seen a magnifying glass in real life since I was about nine. But it still persists as the most popular way to embody 'zoom' and 'search' actions.

That makes sense to us right now, but think about the link between 'searching' and a magnifying glass. Cartoon detectives hold an oversized magnifying glass to one eye when searching for clues — but that's about it. I've never had to opportunity to do the same in this life, sadly. So why is this element the most popular embodiment of searching? My opinion is, there's nothing better, and people are lazy :)

The other element that springs to mind is 'radio buttons'. This isn't an issue that's going to confuse users, really, because they'll call them whatever they want anyway. But think of the IT industry in ten years or so. Graduates fresh out of university will probably have no idea where the name comes from.

I guess none of this is a real problem, because the interface elements themselves are so pervasive that there's no need for a real life counterpart any more. But still, it's interesting to think that things which were made to mirror real life are now distinctive elements in their own right.

Can anyone think of any other elements which don't mirror real life counterparts any more?

Image credit: J Konig

One of the hardest things to do when it comes to web services is to get people to just try your site out. If you have a good, compelling service then once you've got a new user in, if they like what you do they're going to return. But getting those users to try your service in the first place is one of the more difficult parts of the process.

As I was out walking today I passed a little shop selling old furniture and knick-knacks. These sorts of shops probably don't get a great deal of purchases, but they do get a lot of people wandering in and browsing through their collections. But as I passed this particular shop I noticed a sign on the closed door saying "ring bell to enter", with an arrow pointing to the doorbell next to the door.

The problem with this is that it immediately makes the potential customer rethink their decision. People are lazy, and they don't like being pressured into buying things. So a large portion of casual, potential customers are going to keep on walking, because having to signify their intent by pressing the button is more than they want. These customers just want to browse, but pressing the doorbell to get in is like announcing, "Yes! I am a customer who would like to purchase from your store". They have a notion that it might be fun to have a look, but the effort and the formality of announcing they'd like to come in is just going to make them change their mind.

The lesson applies equally to web services. If you put barriers in the path of people who just want to look around, you're only going to get those users who don't mind announcing "I'm here — I'd like to see what you have". All of the passers-by are just going to keep on walking.

The answer to this, of course, is to allow free and open access to your service — to anyone. No signups, subscriptions, "we-just-need-an-email-address"es. Sure, you lose the ability to draw your potential users back by emailing them, but to think you need to is missing the point. If you need to ask people to come back, you haven't made your service irresistable.