Does it have to be intuitive?
This article is part of Designing the New Web Browser publication, the previous post was The rebels and misfits of Web browsing, where I talked about current web browsers. A few words about browser wars and contemplating if people would like to use something else then Google Chrome these days. To make it short, the answer was yes and the alternative browsers which are mushrooming all over around are stating clear that the browser wars are not over.
Since the task for me is to build new browser and I am studying design, my solution has to be design-related. Dealing with a design task should start with defining it, setting expectations and then provide a solution. We've been analyzing browsing history in previous articles, we were taking look how browsers looked before and how they look today. Based on that, sources referred earlier and articles about the future of the Web I've digged through, I set up some imaginary target where we are heading. For now the focus is on desktop browsing, since this hasn't undergone major innovation for decades, but this can change.
Where we are heading
- Visual interface has to move out of the way in favor of content
- The browser needs to offer easy way how to access often used apps
- It will recommend suitable tools/apps to work with
- It should replace some of the desktop apps we use
- It will encourage discovering new content
- It will enable us to navigate with gestures or voice
Now the question is — how to make that happen? One of the first thoughts would be, that the UI has to be easy to use and intuitive, because we use our web browser so often. But let me tell you why that's not the case.
One though about intuitive UI
Now let me drop some of the articles which contain what I wanted to say anyway included already, and I will later write again a quick reflection.
The myth of intuitive design
A UX Designer’s quest to help everyone understand everything.
uxdesign.cc
Now, I always move nervously when someone is raising intuitiveness of UI to heaven and praise that it should be our ultimate goal. Intuitiveness in reality means, when we encounter new thing, we know how to use it. But that is mainly because of our previous experiences, which are personal and unrelated to the design of the product (so far, until we manage to understand it and it will become part of our arsenal for future experiences).
Intuitivenes doesnt say anything about good design. Good design has to be explained, marketed, advertised and explained again. Only then it can sustain until customers will put extra effort in learning it. Of course, once the barrier is gone, we are all in bliss from smartphones, Instagram stories, file sharing, Airbnb, smart home gadgets, AR and voice assistants (the last two will have to be explained for little longer for people to grasp them — and Apple is working on it rigorously).
This seems obvious from the historical point of view, because we know what proved to be good design, but the immediate collision when the change arrives is always accompanied with hateful coments, apocalyptic visions and journalists claiming that this was a bad step.
Get to the point!
What I am trying to say that the current state of the things doesn't mean the best solution. Can this be done better?
Media players
Hell yeah!
Although I slightly prefer this, when you move cursor out of the window and the UI completely disapperars.
Text processors
We all know this one:
But more often text processors look like this these days (for certain tasks of course)
Web browsers
This is not so long time ago:
Looks like this now:
Now, can this 👆 be done better? I think it can. I personally have one big problem with this ugly thing which is blocking my view whenever I am using some nice website:
Now there is a question. Will it lead to intuitive design removing something everyone is so used to? Definitely no. But is it good design to do so? I don't know, but it is worth trying. Was Microsoft Word 2003 intuitive? For anyone from my generation it was the starting point where we used to play with clipart, experiment, even did first posters in that. We spend dozens of hours exploring the interface. When we encounter something like this now, it is intuitive. But was it good design?
I will keep that thought for the next article ☺️.
