The term user friendly originated in the days when computers became more widely available. Firstly in the 1960s across bigger businesses, then in the 1970s with the advent of the early personal computers. By the 1980s the concept of user friendly had matured and the desktop computer revolution was in full swing.
It was originally termed human computer interaction (HCI). That had a focus on user interface (UI) design. And it referred to systems or interfaces that are easy for users to understand and interact with.
Nowadays, if you check a dictionary you will find that user friendly is usually defined as an adjective that describes something (such as a product, a system, or an interface) that’s easy to use or to understand.
So user friendly is a term that describes products, interfaces, or systems which are designed with the user’s ease of use and convenience in mind. It’s supposed to signify that the item in question is intuitive, easy to understand and to navigate, and it enables users to accomplish tasks with minimal effort and frustration. Whilst the term came about due to the advent of computers, it can be applied to everything. Think of travelling by roller skate, or pogo stick, or bicycle. Consider boiling an egg by using a campfire, or a gas stove, or a microwave oven.
Back in 1994, after 30 years in the field of technology and human computer interaction, Jeffrey Rubin wrote an excellent book entitled “The Handbook of Usability Testing”.
http://www.wiley.com/go/usabilitytesting
As early as page 4 he says:
“When a product or service is truly usable, the user can do what he or she wants to do, the way he or she expects to be able to do it, without hindrance, hesitation, or questions.”
If your product or service . . .
• has too many hoops to jump through to even get started; or
• places obstacles in the way of the user; or
• has inadequate documentation; or
• has a bland customer support system which offers nothing but platitudes;
. . . then your users will vote with their feet and walk away.
I recently sold my one year old BMW because I didn’t like the gimmicky dashboard, especially the heater controls. Correspondence with BMW in Farnborough (UK) proved so bad that I wrote to the head office in Munich. Nobody was listening me, and the responses (even from Germany) made it clear that they didn’t care what their customers thought.
I do not want to take my eyes off the road in order to adjust the ventilation. Particularly in bad, wet weather! If I suddenly want maximum heat and fan directed at the front windscreen, I want to reach for familiar tactile controls which I can operate without looking at them. The BMW arrangement had me looking down repeatedly in bursts of 2 to 5 seconds at a time. On a motorway at 70mph there was no way I was going to take my eyes off the road for the 10 to 20 seconds it needed to fiddle with the touch controls.
I replaced the one year old BMW with a one year old Volkswagen, the last in a line of cars which had tactile controls for ventilation. As a bonus the VW does not have a stupid computer that keeps telling me how I should drive.
For example, I rarely use the radio. It’s always off on short trips. The BMW has an onboard computer that automatically turns the radio on, loudly, and interrupts me with every single travel bulletin. In London in the morning rush hour there are travel bulletins every 10 minutes! Frustratingly, disabling the many unwanted “safety features” has to be done every time the engine is started. There is no global setting that I could invoke once and for all. As I explained to BMW, I want to drive the car, I do not want the car to drive me.
In comparison, my new Volkswagen is a delight. The first time I bought a secondhand VW was in 1982, and I switched later when my wife and I wanted an automatic. In 1998 automatic BMW 3 series were plentiful on the secondhand market, and were cheaper than any automatic Golf. Twenty six years later, and after a succession of 6 BMWs during that time, I am back to buying Volkswagens.
The next time you have issues with something ask the vendor to consider the “no hindrance, no hesitation, no questions” approach to being user friendly. Point them to Jeffrey Rubin’s book.
See what they do. Just talk the talk, or actually walk the walk?
