Everything's automated!
Today's user interfaces are so eager to please that sometimes they're downright pushy. In this month's The cranky user, Peter calls for a little more tough love in UI design, and a little less overcompensation for user ignorance, confusion, and error.
Any seasoned computer or Web application user is familiar with the phenomenon of the overactive user interface -- the UI that notes that you're trying to read an article and proceeds to busily close all the other windows on your desktop, whether you want it to or not. It sends out a virtual flurry of unctuous confirmation messages, double-checking your every decision. It seamlessly corrects your spelling as you type, occasionally introducing whole new words into your vocabulary and more often rendering your syntax incomprehensible.
These are just a few variations on the theme of the overactive interface but most have the same basic motivation: to anticipate and correct user mishaps. While some so-called smart features actually are smart (such as inquiring whether the user really does want to empty the trash before it's done), too many features have an unexpected downside: they encourage more user errors, rather than less.
Take a look at several of these common examples of the overeager interface and its undesired, and often unpredictable, consequences.
Peter Seeback, Cranky User, IBM article ...
Any seasoned computer or Web application user is familiar with the phenomenon of the overactive user interface -- the UI that notes that you're trying to read an article and proceeds to busily close all the other windows on your desktop, whether you want it to or not. It sends out a virtual flurry of unctuous confirmation messages, double-checking your every decision. It seamlessly corrects your spelling as you type, occasionally introducing whole new words into your vocabulary and more often rendering your syntax incomprehensible.
These are just a few variations on the theme of the overactive interface but most have the same basic motivation: to anticipate and correct user mishaps. While some so-called smart features actually are smart (such as inquiring whether the user really does want to empty the trash before it's done), too many features have an unexpected downside: they encourage more user errors, rather than less.
Take a look at several of these common examples of the overeager interface and its undesired, and often unpredictable, consequences.
Peter Seeback, Cranky User, IBM article ...
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