UX lessons from Wayside School
Wayside School was accidentally built sideways.
It was supposed to be only one story high, with thirty classrooms all in a row. Instead it is thirty stories high, with one classroom on each story.
The builder said he was very sorry.
The Wayside School series by Louis Sachar was a childhood favourite of mine, with their perfect blend of silliness and surprising insight on how the world works. After revisiting these books on a whim and reflecting on my journey in UX, I found a few nuggets of wisdom that remain persistently relevant to our practices of today.
Bebe
Bebe Gunn is the “fastest draw” in class, able to draw pictures faster than anyone else. She can produce a picture of a cat in under 45 seconds, a dog in less than 30 seconds, and a flower in less than 8 seconds. In one art class, with the assistance of Calvin, she makes 378 works of art in one hour.
Mrs. Jewls tells her that the quality of art is more important than the quantity; in her words, if a single picture produced by a single person over the course of a lifetime is better than each of Bebe’s pictures, the person with only one picture has produced more art than Bebe. Distraught, Bebe subsequently goes home to begin a picture of a cat; she indicates that she probably will have barely begun by the next day. (Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Chapter 6)
Bebe varies between two extremes — action and forethought — from 378 works of art in an hour to a single cat in her lifetime. Too much of either can lead you astray.
So, fail fast and fail often, but with direction.
Map out the territory before you start building. Figuring out the problem space, user needs, and requirements from the start will provide you with the necessary creative constraints and a proper direction. Without guidance, you run the risk of unproductive iterating and second-guessing design decisions, leading to frustrated team members and project delays. Don’t be afraid to start more slowly at the beginning, especially when you have a lot of ambiguity to resolve, as it’ll make it easier to correct your course later.
Conversely, don’t fall into the trap of decision paralysis. It’s easy to debate endlessly over what element to use, to put it 10 pixels left or right, whether it should be forest or olive green, etc. At some point, follow Nike’s advice and Just Do It™. After all, this is the whole reason we have user testing (and a whole bunch of resources on guerilla research). Paper prototypes, Lean UX, whatever method you use, get your ideas out there fast to see what’s worth keeping and what’s not.
tl;dr Plan for a perfect cat, test 378 ideas in an hour.
Elevators
Elevators are installed in the school, but one can only go up and one can only go down. They work perfectly, but only once. (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, Chapter 20)
Wayside School could have learned a lot from the paternoster (pictured above), a pair of elevators that also only go up and only go down but in a continuous loop instead. Which brings us to our next point:
Anticipate use cases and consequences beyond the happy path. Humans are messy. As designers, we need to consider demographics, expertise, context, frequency of usage…the list goes on. While it might seem like an uphill battle, the more you can change unanticipated consequences into anticipated ones, the better.
For example, designing for attention has driven more clicks, more eyeballs, and more engagement in the short term. The consequences? Political polarization, mental health issues, and increased demand for media literacy. Or consider ride-sharing, which connects strangers together in a common goal, but at the risk of carjackings and abductions.
But don’t despair; take these consequences as design opportunities. The closer examination of social media and our relationships with technology have led to more focus and innovation for mindfulness and digital health, like Google Experiments’ Digital Wellbing collection. Uber and Lyft have also implemented stricter safety measures that balance privacy with security, as well as raising more awareness about women’s safety and the dangers of impaired driving. Willy Wonka saw that elevators didn’t need to be limited by something as simple as a roof, and so went with the “Up and Out” option.
Accessibility is another huge area of opportunity in this digital age. Designing for accessibility means designing for everyone; anticipating these types of needs will give you access to a larger (and happier) user base and less lawsuits. To lean on a common example, curb cuts (originally intended for wheelchair users) make things better for people with strollers or other wheeled devices and seniors. You can start by giving a damn about accessibility and learning about the basics.
tl;dr Understand what you intend your solution to do and who it’ll affect. Make sure your elevators can transport the people who need to go up, who need to go down, who need to go sideways, and with a bit of luck, more than once!
I hope you had a bit of fun (re)visiting Wayside School with me.
Stay safe, and stay curious.
