Bridging the Uncanny UX Valley
Some of you may have heard of the Uncanny Valley as it relates to robotics, cgi, and artificial intelligence, but what most of us don’t realize is that the uncanny valley has been plaguing technology for as long as it’s existed. Using the axis of “familiarity” and “human-likeness” against everything we’ve done to human computer interaction since the early Turning days to iOS and beyond… many of us have suffered through early adoption and the trough of uncanny tech.
Sure, certain aspects of our lives have been much improved by technology advances all around us, but it hasn’t been without a certain degree of suffering:
Breaking Old Habits
Much of the frustration humans experience with technology are due to software interface /workflow decision making by business managers and engineers without full regard for users’ needs. This wasn’t a conscious decision — it’s more an artifact of industry-wide adoption of neophyte computing systems and organically growing from there. It wasn’t until the problem became so glaringly unbearable that businesses looked for an alternative approach.
In a 2006 Department of Defense SBIR solicitation it was stated that: “…a large percentage (64%) of the life cycle costs associated with software systems are due to changes required to improve the UCI due to unmet/unforeseen user requirements after the system has been deployed.” This is a huge problem that leaves vast untold numbers of users in a state of unmet, and in some cases fully obstructed, needs.
Revising the Uncanny Valley
The traditional uncanny valley graph shows a trend towards “creepiness” as robotics and CGI take on the appearance of “human” likeness. But this trend is happening in virtually every aspect of human computer interaction as it advances ever more increasingly into our daily lives affecting global populations of users along the way.
As agile / leanUX tightens the reaction-time between dropping users in the trough and pulling them out the other side, we’re still stuck with bridging the gap in what’s made a “mote” of sorts between people with needs and people whose needs are being met / exceeded by great user experience design in technology.
Here are some off-the-cuff examples of where people encounter the uncanny valley…
- If we use the UV axis (human-like/familiarity), but apply it to, for instance, “Skeuomorphism” popularized by early iOS versions, you’ll see that interface designs hit a wall where they could only take on the appearance of substance with texture and form, but were still limited to their 2 dimensionality and lack of interactive richness. This can explain the hotly debated flat vs skeuomorph debate which has moved us towards a flatter Material design.
- If you apply the same graph to Xbox Kinect.. you’ll see users yelling voice commands that very typically end up in several course corrections or even abandoning voice command altogether for the less natural, but more familiar joystick.
- Applying this to a more complex computing paradigm in enterprise systems you’ll see countless Sharepoint or “____insert enterprise system name here_____” installations where little to no accounting of end user ecosystems have been factored into the configuration and deployment. Poorly constructed intranets and business systems with roughly 10% of their full functional capacity being utilized. These issues are so common that we can practically predict what a customer is going to say when they mention the system name.
Bum-rushed by Tech
The point is, as we employ and design technology frameworks to support our lives, it’s not linear. The continuum is converging on users from every direction in virtually every aspect of their life, smart-home, automotive-tech, device-de-jour, wearables, you name it… this is why we’re talking about it as a multi-dimensional trough and not simply a linear valley.
So what’s missing? And how do you either outright avoid or at least pull through the trough?
Tech/Feature orgasm restraint
- Be judicious in deploying new tech
- Avoid TLAr (that looks alright to me) design
- Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
Sound user and stakeholder requirements gathering an analysis
- Conduct stakeholder workshops, understand their expectations and needs
- Conduct user research, understand their problems, needs, relationships, and language
- Evaluate systems — know their full capability and limitations
Story/Scenario based design and evaluations
- Design the experience around the end users for a natural fit
- Understand context of use, functional relevance and taxonomy
- After designing through a scenario, test it with actual users — early and often
In short, employing a user centered design approach in systems/tech research, definition, strategy, design and evaluation you’ll jump the uncanny trough to a greater user experience for your users.
Unavoidable Troughs
Technology that leads the way through the uncanny valley will always have their early adopters who forego “great” user experiences in favor or front-running ahead of the masses. Innovators rely on them for testing the waters. Whether it’s wearables, voice command interfaces, smart homes, or any burgeoning tech market sectors — this is where the eggs are broken, recipes are tested, and epic UX failures lead us into new technologies. As we move closer to AI driven interactions with NUI interfaces we’ll find our early adopters oddly gesturing in the streets or giving vocal commands to unseen AI’s in their augmented reality sensory devices. Go get your PokemonGO on!
Keep the conversation going… let me know where you’ve encountered an Uncanny UX Valley or how you avoided it!
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