Nimble Design

Tempus Fugit

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:21:00 -0600

In five minutes, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to never forget something important again.

GTD, OmniFocus, Things, Day Planners, etc, etc. They all have four fatal flaws.

They all require management
They all require that you spend time reviewing what’s there
They are all too slow
They all suffer from bloat

After trying just about everything under the sun (including the things mentioned above) for years, I finally found a system that works for most people (I’ve talked to quite a few people that do the same thing I do) and I’ve proven it for over 8 years.

I don’t have a fancy name for it. I haven’t written a book about it. I’m not a productivity “expert.” I’m just some guy who did trial and error until I found something that really works. And the system isn’t revolutionary or new. It’s just very simple and easy.

Here’s What I Do

I find out something has to be done. I open my phone and within 10 seconds, I schedule a time in the future that I think will be a good time for me to either do it or think about doing it. When I’m done typing, the event gets an automatic alarm set to a default time. I forget about it.

Later, I’m sitting down and my alarm goes off. I am reminded of what it was and either think through it and create another reminder for a better time or I just do it. Everything important stays off my mind and I’m still productive and relaxed.

Shortcut

Now, you can either read through my long-winded explanation/argument or skip to the bottom (Solutions) where I tell you how to set this up.

I’m going to be straight up with my readers and tell you that I’ve built an app for the iPhone that does all this (I’ll tell you about it at the end of the article), but you don’t need it to work this system. There’s a way you can do it for free with the phone you’ve got in your pocket right now.

The Criteria

There are 5 things that I’ve found have to be in place for this system to really work well.

It has to do your remembering and reminding for you
It has to go everywhere you do
You have to be able to get something into it in less than 10 seconds
Everything you enter must have a date and time
You have to be able to defer reminders

Ubiquity is Your Friend

So it’s probably already obvious that this system is dependent on a mobile phone. Mobile phones meet the first two criteria because they can remember things for you and they go almost everywhere you do. So I just assume that you can’t really use this system without a mobile phone. It doesn’t even have to be a smart phone.

10 Second Rule

This is not unlike the 5 second rule you learned as a kid. If you can pick up your candy quick enough it’s still good.

Here’s how this works: Several times a day, you’ll learn about something you need to do, either from your own brain or from an outside source (in my case usually my wife). You’ve got a short space of time to get that to-do item off your brain and into a system so that you can relax about it.

For example, just yesterday, my wife asked me to be at the house at a certain time for when my daughter’s bus came home from school. A trivial thing with disastrous consequences if I screwed it up.

I was extremely busy with work when she asked me and so I had a very small window of time (mentally) to get this thing off my brain and into my system. This is not atypical. All the other systems mentioned try to accommodate quick entering of items in one way or another, but I’ve found that any system that won’t allow for a 10 second or less window will never really work well.

This is why I bothered to do an iPhone app. The default calendar sucks for entering dates. It’s a tedious process that takes too much thinking and too much time.

Help Me Help You

Here’s where this system really diverges with the others. Those systems rely on review. You have to refer to them throughout the day as you do things. Some of them are time-based and have date-related features but still require you to go back to them to adjust the system, close things, etc. They require MANAGEMENT. Any system which requires you to remember and manage your stuff is inherently broken. The whole reason I want a system is to help me. AUTOPILOT BABY!

That’s why connecting your to-dos to a point in time with a reminder is so critical. The software can tell YOU when something is important. Even when you’ve forgotten all about it.

Solutions

People who use this method and had Palm Treos back in the day LOVED their Treos. That calendar was/is still the best one ever. We’re still trying to catch up to how great it was.

So first the free solution.

Get a Google Calendar account
Set up SMS integration with your phone in the Google Calendar settings
Set a default reminder time (15 min seems to be pretty good)
Create a new contact on your phone with the Google SMS number
Send text messages to the new contact that look like this: “Party tomorrow at 5pm”
Google SMS parses your real-world text into calendar dates

Second, the not-free solution.

Calvetica (www.calvetica.com, $2.99) integrates with your current iPhone calendar but makes entering dates and seeing things at a glance super fast. It was built to accommodate this system and even has the ability to “snooze” an alarm until you can do something about it. It also has its own notifications page so that the iPhone’s crummy notifications don’t get lost after they’ve passed.

Try this organization system for a week and see if it doesn’t make you more efficient, productive and stress-free than you’ve ever been.

Prototype Power

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:47:00 -0600

“Don’t think it through. Don’t talk about it. Don’t plan it. Dive in and start making it happen.” -SUPERBROTHERS

I absolutely have to share this. I’m not going to embellish much, because it’s such a fantastic article. But the point made in Less Talk More Rock perfectly illustrates the power of the prototype.

It’s a must read.

Killing the User-Accessible File System in Three Easy Steps

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:13:00 -0700

Just following up on my last article, these are three things that Apple did in order to be able to hide the file system in their new iPhone OS.

Step One

Flush the file browser and reinforce the convention of “the app and all its stuff.” Get rid of the idea of “files” as much as possible. Almost everything the user needs is connected to the app that created it. Rely on the Internet for file sharing where needed.

Step Two

Make some very simple, universally shared databases. Start with photos and videos and make them available to any app. Add a shared contacts database to enable folks to build apps that help people “do social media stuff‚” more easily. Make these good enough that they become the standards.

Step Three

Take a long-standing file convention and make it built-in. When “Family Tech Support Specialists” help someone, they often create a shortcut to an app and place it on the desktop to make it easier to find. So make one big hardware button that takes you to a “desktop‚” where you can tap on a “shortcut” to launch an app.

Foreign Countries and Their Military Implements

User-accessible file systems are the Swiss Army Knives of software. They allow people to do just about anything with any file. They empower tech-savvy folks to customize and optimize and monetize and capitalize and philosophize and ultimately bend files to their will. But just like hardly anyone needs one of these bad boys to carry around all the time, visible file systems have little value for the average Joe.

Regrets

This is slightly off-topic, but it just occurred to me. It’s really too bad I never patented the desktop icon method of launching an app. I could sue for intimidation and/or money.

/the/path/of/most/resistance

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:40:40 -0700

“The only intuitive interface is the nipple. After that, it’s all learned.” -Bruce Ediger

By releasing the iPhone OS, Apple is putting a bullet in the head of a long standing convention that most folks could do without. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Phrase “Blood is Thicker Than Water” is Creepy

A few years ago, I got tired of fielding support requests from family members and started making them an offer instead.

I began telling them that if they would buy a Mac, I would give them 24/7 tech support without complaint. Initially, they scoffed, but as the Mac became fashionable, I had more and more family members calling to let me know they had switched. Now, most of them are Mac users and the rate of support calls have dropped from several a month to several a year.

These days, tech support calls involve questions of how to do stuff these folks like to do. Because they can now actually use their computers instead of simply restarting them, I’m able to better see how they use them. And the one commonality I’ve seen is that no one knows how to use the file system.

Unfortunately for the average person, the file system is so complex that everything outside of the desktop and the documents folder appears to be a vast labyrinth which most likely hides booby traps and minotaurs.

Q & A

At the end of every year, the major search engines release their list of top search terms for the year.

In 2008, Ask.com was criticized for releasing their list with no Britney Spears or Obama to be found. And where was the sex? Some even went as far as accusing Ask.com of filtering their results. In reality, Ask.com was NOT filtering their results.

Here’s their 2008 top 10:

Dictionary
MySpace
Google
YouTube
Facebook
Coupons
Cars
Craigslist
Online degrees
Credit score

Anyone who watches this video will know exactly what’s going on here. The average non-techie folks don’t know what the address bar is and they simply don’t care. All the slashes and colons are just another labyrinth to them. It’s another place that developers have exposed the file system and made things more difficult. Instead, the Google search box provides a simple, reliable command line that gives them exactly what they want. Except when it doesn’t.

In Which Apple Gets All Japanese-y

In Japanese aesthetics, one of the most striking things is the focus on negative space. The Japanese concepts of “Ma” and “Wabi-sabi” put as much focus on what is omitted as what is added. The result is beautiful art and architecture that invoke a sense of peace and stillness.

Apple is doing something rather daring with their new iPhone OS. They are essentially omitting features that people once took for granted in a typical computer. And one of the biggest things they’ve omitted is the visual file system. Instead, in the iPhone OS, the concept of the file is essentially gone. It’s been replaced by “apps and their stuff.”

The end result is that regular folks are happier with their computers and that geeks are pissed that Apple has “dumbed down” the computer. Geeks bemoan the lack of the file system in the iPad. When they criticize it for not being a real computer, this is what they’re talking about. Well, so be it.

I’m hoping that devices like the iPad and iPhone contribute to the demise of the visual file system. I think its death in consumer devices will lower the bar for folks who just want to do stuff and get the computer out of the way.

Mystery Solved

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:25:00 -0700

And just like that, the Donut Phenomenon is no longer a mystery. Thanks to a tip from a reader, the source turns out to be Horizon Snack Foods.

I drove by the place just to verify and two Horizon employees were walking out. When I asked them if the factory was the source of the “donut” smell in Salt Lake, they flashed huge knowing smiles and a hearty “yep.” They also informed me that the smell comes from fruit pies, not donuts.

Thanks Internet.

The Donut Phenomenon

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:05:00 -0700

This is not a post about design, business or user experience.

This is a post about a mystery.

There’s something strange happening in downtown Salt Lake City Utah. On certain days, and in the grid of streets around North Temple, there is a distinctive smell of donuts in the air.

But there are no bakeries that I’m aware of and no other food establishments that would obviously produce this smell. As I ride through this part of town, the scent also shifts dramatically, never localizing in any particular point.

Yesterday, I could smell it all the way up in the avenues.

A few days before that, it had moved northwest (against the wind) and was right next to the Sealy mattress plant.

I don’t have any specific affinity for donuts (except for the ones produced by a certain bakery in Lehi, Utah), but this mystery must be solved.

Anyone with information, please contact me. Any theories welcome.

Seductive Branding

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:07:00 -0700

Yesterday, Sam, Pete and I visited Tami of Dough Girl. While sampling her newest creation (a key lime cookie), she told us about how she got started.

The whole thing began when her competitive nature got the best of her. She described it as a competition with all the other Mormon moms she knew. It was an unspoken cage match to see who could rock the kitchen and Tami was absolutely sure she could put these poor suckers to shame with her confectionary prowess.

She got started with a humble but not completely typical chocolate cookie (she added cinnamon to the dough) and got more daring as time went on. Eventually she parlayed this daring into her new business.

All this drive came from her competitive nature and passion for all things sweet. In fact, in our conversation she said, “I once went on a diet and all I lost were two good weeks.”

But drive and passion is not enough on its own.

Flirting With Success

One of the most fascinating things about the Dough Girl story has been the sheer amount of buzz around this small, upstart business.

Dough Girl was one of only two times I’ve ever solicited work from a potential client. On visiting the shop, I was totally enamored by the whole vibe I got. From the quirky pinups and cookie names to the retro vibe and attitude, there was clearly something special about this place.

The best part was that I wasn’t the only person who called. Tami has been approached by photographers, printers, restaurants and a whole host of other local folks who have offered their services at a discount and often for free, just to be part of what she’s doing. It’s inspiring to watch.

While it certainly played a part, it wasn’t Tami’s personality alone that did this. It was the passion that her brand inspired.

Even before she hired a designer, even before she did any marketing, she had a vision.

She didn’t do focus groups or market research. She just put a unique spin on what could have been a simple cookie shop. She made a clever, tongue-in-cheek play on the relationship between our two favorite passions: food and sex. And what’s more, she did it in a classy way that plays to her Utah audience perfectly. The notion of the interplay of the sweet and the seductive pervades everything she does. And people respond.

In Which We Sum Up

A brand is not a logo. It’s not a slogan. It’s not a product.

A brand is the soul of who you are and what you’re doing and it pervades every aspect of your business from your attitude to your interactions with customers. A great brand inspires other people with its passion. But you knew that already.

The Best Client

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:51:36 -0700

“It’s a great design. Beautiful, classic, elegant and sleek. It hits everything on our wish list, can we add in some cheetah or leopard print?” -Client From Hell

Anyone who has worked as a freelance contractor in any visual design discipline knows the exasperating effect of a bad client. Spend just two minutes on this site and all the pain resurfaces.

Why are great clients so rare? Why are there so many bad ones? I think it has everything to do with two specific character traits.

last week, I had meetings with two great clients that embody the best qualities. One I’ll mention by name and the other I won’t.

The Training Guy

At my full-time job, I’m designing a new intranet for a department that does their own curriculum, IT, tech support, finance, etc. They also have their own training group of one. This training guy (I’ll call him Gary) has been producing training materials for a long time and many of them make their way to the intranet.

While working on the site, we soon realized we would need to make wholesale changes to the way training is done for this organization. It also meant we’d have to talk to Gary.

I wasn’t looking forward to this. Trying to change an entrenched process in a large organization is like coaxing a cat to fetch a stick. What’s more, I didn’t relish the notion of asking Gary to change how he does his job. But it was clear that the user experience would benefit.

Much to our delight, Gary turned out to be one of the best clients. He immediately embraced what we were sharing with him and its value to the end user as well as the business. Within days, he had examples of this new style of training and several improvements as well. With his expertise and flexibility, the new site will help people get the training and help they need.

DoughGirl

Tami Cromar is a rising star among local Salt Lake City entrepreneurs. She bootstrapped her boutique cookie shop with her own savings and has worked hard to make it a place people share with their friends. Her hard work and innovation has made her business grow quickly and almost entirely by word-of-mouth.

One of factors of her success is the strength of her brand. She created a unique tie-in between cookies and the fairer sex. Each of her delicious cookies is represented by a woman’s name and accompanying vintage pinup. It makes for a very uncommon experience and one that people remember.

When I first pitched the idea of working with her, I wondered what the working relationship would be like. It was clear Tami had great taste and brand savvy. She also seemed to have an uncompromising vision for her business.

My experience of working with exacting clients has often been difficult. They often refuse to compromise on anything and try to micro-manage the design process.

As it turns out, Tami is also one of the best clients. Working on this project has been some of the most fun I’ve had in years. Tami is uncompromising but only where it touches the broad vision for her business. She has opened the door for us both to collaborate on everything from logos, to signage, menus and everything in between. She often asks my opinion on pricing and other aspects of her business as well. And what’s best is that it’s a true collaborative effort. There is tremendous give and take and working together makes ALL of her design work better.

Two for the Show

In thinking about these two clients and the other great clients I’ve had over the years, I realized they all had two traits that made them fantastic to work with.

The first is a lack of hubris. You have to have a certain level of confidence and even an ounce or two of ego in order to start your own business. It’s essential. But a lot of business owners are unable to benefit from the experience of those around them because they think they can do it all themselves. Their over-inflated impression of their own ideas and skills blind them to all the benefits of learning from others. Working and learning with great people elevates the quality of ALL the work and makes it more enjoyable and fun.

The second trait is caring more about the experience than the money. Both of the people I mentioned above have this in spades. Of course Tami cares about finances and profit. But as I’ve observed, she spends the majority of her time making the experience of buying a cookie more than just about the exchange of money. She is constantly coming up with new ideas to make things more enjoyable. She also seems genuinely happy to meet with customers and get THEIR ideas. She solicits them in person as well as over Twitter and Facebook and wherever else she can get them.

Gary shows both of these traits as well. He recognized our involvement for what it was (trying to help the end user) and not as a bad client would have seen it (trying to do his job). He showed his maturity and self-confidence. He demonstrated his desire to make the experience better.

Mediocrity for Fun and Profit

There’s a third class of client that I haven’t mentioned yet. I’ve had many clients over the years who were neither controlling nor caring. They had mostly successful businesses but never achieved the kind of customer loyalty and buzz that the other folks generate. They aren’t bad, per se, but they aren’t great either. Most of them kept their eye on the bottom line and tried to stay out of trouble.

Working with these folks wasn’t a fantastic experience. They looked at design as pushing pixels and making things pretty. Any suggestions further than that were met with ambivalence. Sometimes they even took suggestions but didn’t seem to really care. For them, the bottom line was about inventory or suppliers or some other metric. They didn’t see how design can be a powerful tool for transforming business into something great.

Denial Ain’t Just a River in Egypt

So how does a designer find the best clients? Not to be corny, but I think it starts with the designer. If you’re not the kind of person who is open to others’ ideas, you will likely never have this kind of client experience. Your own pride will get in the way of YOUR ability to listen and learn from your clients.

Secondly, there are things to look for with potential clients that will tell you whether they will be great or not. It works a bit like an interview.

Ask them questions about their customers. If they are don’t seem to understand their customers, it’s a red flag.
Ask them about how they see your role. If they only see you as a window dresser, they won’t be open to anything else.
Listen for the way they talk about their own role. A big warning for me has often been potential clients who promote their own “design” background in the first meetings. Often, this is them inviting themselves to micro-manage.

Finally, don’t be afraid to fire a client. This doesn’t have to be confrontational. But ultimately, you are in control of what kind of work you’re willing to do. The best clients lead to the some of the most enjoyable work you’ll have as a designer.

Nimble Design

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:27:33 -0700

This is my inaugural post in my new home. Have a seat and I’ll grab you a drink.

Stockholm Syndrome

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:42:00 -0700

Ok, so it’s circa 2002 and I’m watching a new detective show on TV about a guy with OCD. As I ponder how a person can possibly function with so many issues, my mom calls. ¹

“Hi, it’s your mom.”

“Hi Mom.”

“You busy?”

I glance earnestly toward the stream of electrons across the room. “Uh, I guess not.”

“Great, can you help me with a computer thing?”

“Oh, um, sure.”

“Well I just got ‘Word Perfect’ and used it to write a letter to your uncle Jim and now I can’t find it. I think my computer removed it.”

“Oh, well did you look in the recycle bin?”

“Where’s that?”

“It’s on your desktop.”

“On the computer?”

“Yeah. There’s an icon on the desktop called “Recycle Bin.”

“You mean the little picture of the trash can?”

“Yeah, the part of the computer that it sits on is called the ‘Desktop.’” Anyway, double click on the Recycle Bin.”

“Open it up?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok, it’s open.”

“Is anything in there?”

“Yeah, ‘The Internet’ and ‘Setup’ and two little pictures of paper.”

“Ok, does one of those pictures have the name that you gave the letter?”

“I don’t think my letter had a name. It was just a letter I was writing.”

“Mom, why aren’t you using the email I set up for you?”

“I don’t want to use it. It’s too complicated.”

“But I set up an ico… um, one of those little pictures on the desktop for you. All you have to do is open it and click ‘New Message like I showed you.’ I even set up all of your contacts for you. Uncle Jim is in there and everything.”

“I just want help finding the letter I wrote.”

Sigh “Ok, fine… Is ‘Word Perfect’ open now?”

“How do I know that?”

“Well, you know the bar at the bottom of the computer where the ‘Start’ button is?”

“Yeah.”

“Well to the right of it, is there another button on the bar with a picture of a blue circle with a pen in it?”

“No.”

“Is there a button there at all?”

“There’s a picture that looks like a speaker.”

“Huh? No, I mean on the left side of that bar, right next to the ‘Start’ button.”

“What about it?”

“Is there a big button there?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, what does it say?”

“Document one dash Microsoft dot dot dot.”

“Ok, try clicking on that.”

“Oh! There it is! Oh son, you’re so good at this stuff. Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

“Ok, goodb… Wait! One more thing. Could you tell me how to get a photo from my new camera into this letter?”

“Oh crap! Mom, I totally forgot I have to go pick up a friend of mine at the airport! Let’s talk later.”

“Ok, well thanks again.”

“Bye.”

Hostage Crisis

At the end of my last article, Erik commented “We’re all suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.” I thought it was a perfect way to describe our relationship with computers.

Those us us who work in tech love our tools with all their complexity. We relish in the fact that we know all the keystrokes for doing every little task in our favorite apps. We are secure in our investment of so much time and energy and effort to learn all the tricks and nuances of our computers.

We fool ourselves by thinking traditional computing is easy.

It isn’t.

Disclaimer: My mother is a smart lady. She has a bachelors from a major university, she’s a leader in her community and now uses computers every day for her job. She’s pretty typical of most non-tech folks I know. And yes, she might read this at some point.

On iPads, Grandmas and Game-changing

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:25:00 -0700

The darndest thing happened in the last five days and I was fortunate to be privy to it. Apple has gotten people excited about computing.

But this time, it’s not nerds or geeks and certainly not IT industry analysts. It’s everyone else.

I had a curious set of three conversations this week. One with a grandma, one with a technophobe and the third with a self-proclaimed luddite.

Grandma

My mother-in-law walked in the door the day of the keynote and the first thing out of her mouth was “Did you see that new Apple iPad? That looks like it would work for me. Would that work for me?”

I was utterly flabbergasted. She NEVER talks about computers or technology. She tolerates them at best. Her attitude is typical of most baby boomers I’ve talked to regarding computers. She wants to benefit from them but is frustrated by the wall she must climb in order to do so. She’s learned how to use email and a couple of other things on the Internet and that’s about it.

Her bringing up the iPad was amazing for two reasons. First, someone in her office (she works with other ‘boomers) found out about it within hours of the keynote and shared it with her. That Apple news warranted attention from baby boomers at all is significant. That she then held her interest long enough to tell me at the end of the day is equally significant.

After learning a little more information about it, she has decided that she wants an iPad. It actually borders on technolust.

Technophobe

A good friend of mine is an attorney and reluctantly uses technology for his work. In age, he’s somewhere between my generation and the baby boomers. He recently lost his phone in the snow and then found out his company was moving to AT&T. He replaced his lost phone with a blackberry and when our group of friends caught wind of that, we informed him he could have gotten an iPhone. So on our recommendation, he decided to take the Blackberry back and give the iPhone a try.

I had never once seen him exhibit any excitement over technology but the next time I saw him, he could barely contain his enthusiasm for his new phone.

Fast forward to last Wednesday evening. I told him about the new iPad and his eyes grew wide. He blurted out “Wait, are you talking about an iPhone but with a bigger screen? A regular sized computer THIS easy to use? $15 a month for internet anywhere? When can I buy one?”

He had been won over completely by the user experience of the iPhone. It was amazing to watch and fascinating to see him project his good experience and excitement to the iPad.

Luddite

The third conversation came from a completely unexpected source. I have a good friend and neighbor who works remodeling houses and who reluctantly agreed to have me design a website for his company after being pressured by his family. I don’t know anyone else who hates computers more. He has refused to get an email address. He doesn’t use his mobile phone to do anything other than make a call. And he often mocks me anytime I even mention computers. I want to make it perfectly clear that I’m not exaggerating his attitude. At all.

He stopped by my house the day of the keynote to talk about his new website and when he walked in I happened to have some iPad photos open on my laptop. He asked me what they were about and I casually described the new Apple “tablet” that had just been released. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it considering his historical lack of interest in computers. He asked me a couple of questions and then we discussed his site.

Three days later, he called me and the following exchange ensued. “Dude, I think I want to get one of those Apple tablets for my business.” “Really?” I said. “Yeah, I went and looked at them and they seem really easy to use. I think it would work great for showing potential customers my work and for doing bids on.” I was completely speechless.

The Point

After Apple released the iPhone and when the serious rumors started about the “tablet” a year or so ago I had hoped that this was where Apple was going. I’ve long felt that computers were too hard to use, that the filesystem should NEVER be seen by the user. That human-computer interaction should favor the “human” side.

As the Apple guys stood on stage and described the iPad, I knew I was seeing computer history being made. This new approach to computing and experience is as much a game changer as the ORIGINAL Mac. Heck, it may even be more so.

But honestly, before having these three conversations, I figured Apple’s vision would be realized in ten to fifteen years. Now I’m thinking five or less.

One More Thing

When the date for the announcement was set, I started hoping that Apple would release something like iWork for the “tablet.” I doubted they would so soon but the hope was there. As I figured, if they did, they’d be sending a clear message that this was the future of computing, not just for gaming, watching videos and reading books.

Somehow that message has been lost on people (so many iWork comments end with “meh”), but I consider the release of mobile iWork to be the biggest sign of things to come and the strongest message Apple sent regarding their vision for the future.

It’s amazing to watch all of this unfold.

Accessibility to the Face

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:00:00 -0700

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” -Jack Handey

Pattern Recognition

Have you ever considered buying a new car and then started seeing that car everywhere you go? Or perhaps you learned a new word and it seems you started hearing it more than you ever did before?

Cognitive psychologists call this “apophenia.” It describes the way our brain makes connections in random data. It also explains how when we’re presented with any new concept, that concept becomes part of our mental pattern recognition system and begins showing up in our conscious mind.

I’ll get back to apophenia in a minute.

Now, let’s talk about accessibility from an academic perspective. Wikipedia defines the word thusly:

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e.g., device, service, environment) is accessible by as many people as possible.

If you work in IT, you may have first heard the concept from a marketing department in your company. In the mid 90’s, the concept was championed largely by corporations, who in their desire for lucrative government contracts, would attempt to adhere to “Section 508 Compliance.” A whole slew of consultants and articles came out of the woodwork, promoting the idea and informing the web development and design community all about this latest buzzword.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into Section 508 or the Rehabilitation Act or any of the rest of that stuff. It’s all about politics and has nothing to do with what I’m going to talk about.

Also, I don’t care about any of it.

A Day in the Life

The issues of accessibility are a daily reality for my family. For us, it’s not a political issue at all. Our oldest daughter, Ramona, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to get around.

Allow me to give you a glimpse of what this aspect of our life is like.

Last year, my wife and I took the kids to the Hogle Zoo here in Salt Lake. Before we left, my wife called the information desk to find out if the zoo train was an option for Ramona. Ramona loves to ride on trains.

Anna: “Is the train accessible to wheelchairs?”

The Girl: “Yes.”

Anna: “So how does that work? How do I actually get the wheelchair on the train?”

The Girl: “Well, you take the chair to the edge and then you would lift her out and into the train.”

Anna: “So it’s not wheelchair accessible.”

The Girl: “No, I guess not.”

The girl on the phone had never thought of a real situation. She just had a cursory knowledge of the concept. For her, accessibility was a policy.

A few months ago, Anna called ahead to an Italian restaurant we wanted to visit to find out if we could get inside easily with the wheelchair.

Anna: “Is your restaurant accessible?”

Host: “Yes.”

Anna: “So we won’t have any problem getting a wheelchair inside?”

Host: “Nope.”

So we arrived to the restaurant. I walked up a flight of steps and let the host know we had a wheelchair. He had us meet him at the back entrance where we walked through the kitchen and ran into a very tall step.

Host: “Oh, I guess there IS that one step. Sorry about that.”

Now, I’m a pretty big guy and after 11 years of lifting Ramona and her chair into all kinds of places, one step was not going to keep me from enjoying the evening. I eat steps like that for breakfast. That said, Ramona and her current (non-electric) wheelchair weigh about 170lbs. We’ve looked at electric (power) wheelchairs for her and the low-end from a weight perspective is about 150lbs. If she had a power chair, we would not have been eating baked ziti that night.

There are also a slew of places that are genuinely easy to get the wheelchair into but then the employees place obstacles like sales displays and other things right in the middle of the walkway. Some are worse than others and my wife has a phrase she uses a lot:

“Don’t even think about going antiquing if you’re in a wheelchair.” -Anna

Species Differentiation

I don’t tell these stories because I want sympathy. I don’t share them because I think it makes me a better, smarter, more compassionate person than you. These things are a fact of life for me and my family. And here’s the rub–examples like these and so many others are part of the life of anyone with a disability. In fact, this stuff happens so often that I forget about individual instances unless they’re really funny like the one at the zoo.

It’s not a sob story, but sometimes it really sucks. There are things that my daughter will never be able to do because it’s practically impossible for us to do them. There are rides at the local amusement park she will never be able to ride even though I know she would love them dearly.

Here’s my point–if your brother or sister had a disability, you would give a crap. But you don’t have to have a sibling in a wheelchair to genuinely care, even if it’s only in your work.

Empathy is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have an ability to imagine things the way that others see them and how it makes them feel. We don’t even have to have a disability ourselves.

And from my perspective, accessibility is about giving a crap.

Accessibility is NOT a checklist.

Accessibility is about usability.

Accessibility is a paradigm shift.

Accessibility is really a personal issue.

Why it Matters

The odds you’ll ever hear a direct complaint from someone with a disability regarding your work is low. So unless your boss has asked you to care (because your company is going after a government contract) or you have become interested for other professional reasons, you’ll likely never need to care.

You see, the people in the stories I shared are likely very nice, understanding and caring people. They didn’t INTEND to be ignorant about the issues of accessibility, because for them, the reality of the concept didn’t actually exist. It was just a word, a policy, an item on a checklist. And I know this because before I had a child with a disability, I was ignorant too. The whole world of disabilities had not opened to me. And here’s the funny thing–much of it is still closed to me.

Ramona’s disability is just one in a sea of disabilities and every one is different. A few days ago I sat down with a senior gentleman to walk through an application I had designed. As I watched him use the computer, I was starkly reminded of just how hard it is for some senior folks to use the mouse. He doesn’t have the same fine motor control he did when he was 20. Fortunately, I had once taught a course on basic internet skills to a group of seniors and knew how hard some of the things we take for granted can be for them. Because of my understanding, I had made the buttons on the screen fairly large. Because of that knowledge, the application was a success.

This gentleman didn’t have what we typically think of as a disability. Usually, we think about wheelchairs, blindness, missing limbs, etc. But live long enough and disabilities will affect you in one way or another too.

So how then, do we get to where we understand accessibility? How can we internalize it and have a real paradigm shift about what it really means?

My hope with this article is to make accessibility issues surrounding disabilities become real for the reader. The ideal response for me would be for people to think a little harder about the people using your product or experience and what it might be like for those who may not have all their faculties.

Mental Floss

Ok, so back to apophenia.

I’m going to propose an experiment.

For the next hour or so, I’d like you to imagine you don’t have any hands. All you have are elbows and forearms. How would you scroll down on this article? How would you close the window or switch applications? When you leave your desk and get to a door, what would you do? When you need to eat your lunch, how would you do it? If you get an itch, how would you scratch it? Would you scratch it?

Do a similar exercise next time you think about the experience or product you design.

It seems silly, but putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is liberating. Understanding people and their concerns, needs and wants is a core part of what we do as designers but also helps us to be better people.

And we all want to be better people, right?

Hi.

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0700

My name is Rob.

I like design. I like art. I like business theory.

I like writing about these things.

Except when I don’t.

I like writing about other things.

If I feel like it.

I’m wary and skeptical of the following things:

Man-made Processes.
Ideology.
Groupthink.
Decoration.
The unnecessary.
The superfluous.
The novel.
Noise.
Agendas.
Technology.

I like the following things:

Hand-made things.
Plain speaking.
Calm.
The proven.
Clarity.
The essential.
White space.
Conviction.
Flexibility.
Natural processes.

Subject to change.

Anytime.