What drones teach us about user experience
It is so easy to fall into the trap of looking at user experience from the perspective of a designer. We are get lost in Interface Designs, flashy animation and motions, captivating uses of Typography and Symbols. We must ask ourselves is this really what User Experience is about?
The short answer is no… getting caught up in the newest Instagram designer, and Dribble posts, has nothing really to do with User Experience.
Drones are unique in the fact that they merge various technologies together and achieve such a wide range of tasks. You can use a drone to take amazing photos, or even take amazing photos of your drone. As the technology is pushed by public popularity and enthusiasts, the precision to complete a task grows. Quad copters (the most popular of small drones) are being applied to not only hobby uses, but are showing up in the commercial space. From racing, package delivery, search and rescue, film and production, fire fighting, wildlife and conservation tracking, anti poaching, and even human flight. Small to mid size drones are taking the world by storm. How is something so seemingly basic yet exciting taking such a hold on so many industries. Yes, part of it is due to the fact we all long to live in the future. A future we have dreamed would have amazing flying tools and smart drones to make our lives better.
Experiences are shaped by how we interact with a specific system, person, event, or location. Whatever the setting, our takeaway from the process, and the outcome, shape how we view the experience. In the early days of small drones and UAVs (Unmanned Arial Vehicles) operating the UAV was not simple, the controller was full of a variety of complex systems that need to be navigated with precision and a sound understating of flight. This lead to a small amount of people being able to be successful and little expansion of the enthusiasm for the products.
Technology was created to combat this, and now we have drones that can literally fly on a path you draw on your tablet or phone. Experiences have been shaped by looking at the problem of not being able to use the tool at hand, thus not being able to take advantage of the many uses they have. This problem has been taken on and tacked from many angles, but through the acute use of technology systems, drones are simple to fly.
Drones being simple to fly, self stabilizing, and having GPS systems to fly from ever increasing distances using on board cameras, are all items that have helped to address the issues at hand.
We as innovators saw what uses that could be, and the shortcomings that prevented the technology from being implemented. The issues where taken on systematically and through understating the user first. Unlike many products that place the user as a part of the process or product, drones have been designed around various levels of users.
If you go to purchase a drone, the process will be simple, it will be comprehensive and will set and expectation for what you will find. Many websites even have the drones organized by difficulty of flight, implementation and features. You will not find a car salesmen ask how much you enjoy driving or the problems you see on the road prior to showing you a car. Instead, the salesmen will show you a car they fell you think you need. They will presume a budget, style and ask basic questions like “what do you like” or “do you have a car in mind”. Now I’m not here to compare or ague the tactics of sales between drones and cars, rather, I wanted to point out the approach we take in many areas is more focused around what we think we want. Drones however, have little space, and must make use of the technology in the most applicable format possible. This leads us to ask questions like, “what do you need” and ”what can you live without”, it even pushes us to rely on someone else to help define the balance between wants and needs.
By admitting that we are not experts we are open to the idea that we can receive help in finding the answer. I’m not sure if it’s due the fact drones are somewhat foreign or fascinating, maybe they are still mystical to us, but we are very quick to seek advice on making a purchase selection. You may not ask for help from someone but through tailored marketing, product alignment and the way the systems are presented we can quickly identify the most common use of the system, as well as the users.
So next time you are looking at a solution, pause a moment and remember drones. Then ask yourself “does this do what the users needs, or just what they think they want”.
Should we all put user personas in our branding? No, I don’t think we should. Nor am I suggesting the over simplification of a product to help better identify the user, the use, and the prerequisites for using said product. So what am I saying? I though you would ask.
There are a few takeaways that we can learn from the expansion and applications of drones, the success of the technology, the emerging market and how we approach the problem of drones.
- Don’t be afraid to prompt change 100% based on the user for example, redesigning your drone to be self stabilizing to allow users to actually fly the drone.
- Take a risk, don’t limit yourself by perceived limitations of users. Rather work to solve them and build a better way to push past limitations.
- Focus on understanding your users prior to making any choices. Just like drones have very specific uses, users, markets, and technology / control systems for each. It is important to take a step back at each decision and ask “is this reaching my users, and providing what they need”.
- Don’t get lost on what users want, focus on what they need! This is the most important point we have learned from drones. We don’t always know what we want, we know what we need. It is our job as User Experience practitioners to help and define what that is/looks like.
At the end of the day, we all intuitively seek to make products better for users because we empathize with their needs. It isn’t every day we get a product that so vividly places the users needs in front of the creative marketing and helps to bring a consistent experience. Consistency and expectations after all are key. If a user has a horrible experience, is disappointed, or has false expectations, that reflects more on user experience than a wonderful interface on an amazing new drone a user can’t get off the ground (or worse can’t land).
So next time you are looking at a solution, pause a moment and remember drones. Then ask yourself “does this do what the users needs, or just what they think they want”.
Thanks for reading!
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