The case against Zero UI
Ive read a very famous(archaic) analogy to explain what user experience means and its this:
“A user does not need to know how a switchboard works, she just needs to press the switch and a light comes on; another and the fan whirls and so on and so forth”. The user does not need to understand the concept of electricity or of wiring / soldering or, for that matter - common sense.
“Don’t make me think!” Steve Krug shouts from his famous book on usability.
Heres my bone of contention:
How does your user trust you that the switch she’s about to press isn’t going to shock her?
How do you design for users that are much more curious now? much more informed? much more clued in?
What if the user WANTS to think?!
And thats my core contention with Zero UI. The Amazon Alexa’s, Echodot’s, Nest’s, Google Home, Apple Home et al.
It seems to me as if they are trying to sprint before they can run.
Let me explain with a story:
Steve Jobs launched the first iphone in 2007. I dont need to tell you this but it changed the game, heralded a new industry spawning as many me-too’s.
The UI on that first iOS platform and subsequent platforms (until 2013) was primarily skeuomorphic. Gradients, drop shadows, real world elements that made you feel that your personal Moleskine had made a digital jump, a-la Tron Legacy (not a fan) into the latest iPad.
Ask yourself this:
Why did Stevie have to create digital content that mimicked the physical real world?
For a man with many path breaking ideas, this seemed to make the least sense. But it bloody well does, mimicking real world look and feel was needed when launching a product that was alien to users. They needed to be ‘comfortable’ with brand new products and not ‘wary’. A sense of familiarity was needed to bring acceptance to tapping instead of pressing keys — something that Nokia had trained people to do for a long time.
“But how will i make calls, dial numbers, text?!” asked initially bamboozled long timers. Yet, today that question seems absurd.
Familiarity — yet a completely new way of doing things: that was the USP of the new iPhone. It was - as i said before; a game changer.
But you didn't notice what happened in 2013, Jonny boy threw out Skeuomorphism to bring in flat design. It had none of the old world charm (in smartphone years), no drop shadows, no gradients; specifically, no leather bound sown tapestry on the calendar border. Content with almost monochrome steadfastness told you what you needed to know. Some design purists moaned, others celebrated.
What was clear was this: no one was confused. The transition was silent yet seamless (although, there were some fringe protests in the more upworldly mobile parts of Shoreditch with creative types taking to the pubs in hordes).
Everyone knew what to do, where to tap, where to search and how to make calls and send texts. Stevie boy had done his job of training us well. All the brain damage by years of pugging at buttons on a Nokia was undone.
We are today, exactly where we were when this silent experiential switchover happened. The difference between then and now is that this switchover is more audible than optical.
ZeroUI is bringing (or trying) a fundamental change in the way we interact with systems. This change is most welcome by early adopters but the early and late majority dwellers of the curve would beg to differ. They would, like me, silently complain in dimly lit corners about the lack of understanding / cognition / seamlessness of using these things.
ZeroUI is a movement that early adopters have coined and begun popularising. Its fashion: challenge the norm, coin a term and foghorn it to the world. The concept of ZeroUI is founded on the holy trifecta of Artificial Intelligence, , NLP (natural language processing), augmented / virtual reality, Bots and machine learning. These concepts, in themselves are evolving save a few industry pioneers who are trying hard to get them right.
Fundamentally, ZeroUI realised by technological breakthroughs has to be applied in a more human oriented context within potentially viable use cases.
And that statement while true in its overarching genericness, is still making the same damn cardinal mistake: good experience is not about the technology, it is about the experience. Technology is just the enabler. If people can just get this in their heads — life would be much simpler.
I ask myself this: Is ZeroUI the experience i want to give my people?
Fundamentally yes, but not literally. I do not want to take away the most important aspect of the interface. I want to enhance it. I want to augment it with gestures, voice, touch and taste / smell (really? yuck). I want cognitive behavioural analytics telling my machine/interface what Sulky Sandra means by gesturing to my machine with the middle finger; as well as Nice guy Nick with his turning an imaginary dial in air. I want my machine/interface to be intelligent enough to realise these things on the fly and enhance the users experience.
Unfortunately, the answer derived from school biology textbooks tells me that it isn't. Humans have been given 5 senses (a sixth exists but thats a debate for another day) and employ them in varied proportions and combinations to make sense of the world. Sight is one of the richest input that humans cogitate the world with. In its current implementation and form: ZeroUI wants to do away the sense of sight and favour sound. That is fundamentally flawed.
The right mix of sight, sound, touch is what ZeroUI should aspire towards. And lots of folks out there are doing it. The intent and flavour is definitely there. But in its current nomenclature and implementation — it works only partially.
In conclusion, i have two things to say:
- Calling it Zero UI is misleading. Even the Echo dots and Alexa’s need an app to set them up. There is a traditional intervention thats required for these things to setup and start running themselves (into the ground). If the essence of interaction is dependant on traditional user interfaces to intervene because technology hasn't evolved enough to do away wit them as well as for the sake of familiarity of end users (what i wrote about above): then calling this ZeroUI is a stretch. Ambition shouldn't obfuscate reality and that seems to be happening here.
- Trust issues abound. A recent case where an Alexa was on / present at a crime scene has made headlines. The authorities have confiscated the Alexa and asked Amazon to handover the recordings as evidence of crime. There is no information whether the Alexa was on/off/in listening mode. But one things is clear: these devices are listening to you. How would ZeroUI tell users familiar and comfortable with interfaces (and know what they can and cannot do) that their privacy invasion takes a whole new meaning when you cant see whats happening with your data.
So folks, let's all take a deep breath, calm down and not jump to the next big breakthrough even before it happens.
