0 1 00:00:00,810 --> 00:00:03,880 Question number 4 is can I make it simpler? 1 2 00:00:03,900 --> 00:00:05,760 And the answer is usually yes. 2 3 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:12,630 Now this is an example of when bad user experience or bad design can kill. 3 4 00:00:12,630 --> 00:00:13,500 Now why is that? 4 5 00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:16,210 This is a piece of software called Power Shot. 5 6 00:00:16,470 --> 00:00:22,560 And in the UK it's used up and down the country by doctors, nurses and health professionals in order 6 7 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:24,970 to manage patients in hospital. 7 8 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:31,710 Now it allows you to do a number of things such as look at which investigations the patients had, what 8 9 00:00:31,710 --> 00:00:35,710 are the results, what diagnoses have they had better etc.. 9 10 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:39,900 Now it is such a horrendously complicated piece of software. 10 11 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:46,620 Just look up here at the three rows of buttons. You know even Microsoft doesn't do this anymore in their 11 12 00:00:46,620 --> 00:00:48,420 latest Office software. 12 13 00:00:48,450 --> 00:00:51,960 This is a horrendously designed piece of enterprise software. 13 14 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:58,320 Now the story goes that the nurses were being introduced to this new computer system and they were looking 14 15 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:00,660 after a little girl who was on chemotherapy. 15 16 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:06,840 And when you're on chemotherapy, you tend to need regular fluid flushes through your veins so that the 16 17 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,470 chemicals don't destroy your kidneys. 17 18 00:01:09,660 --> 00:01:15,810 And the nurses were so confused by this piece of software that they ended up forgetting about the little 18 19 00:01:15,810 --> 00:01:21,620 girl who needed the IV flushes and she almost went into kidney failure. 19 20 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:28,110 So even though we think that, you know, the job of a designer is just purely for vanity is all about appearance, 20 21 00:01:28,170 --> 00:01:33,690 but actually it's so much more than that and you should always keep in mind to keep things as simple 21 22 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:34,800 as possible. 22 23 00:01:34,860 --> 00:01:41,400 And this is one of the reasons why hardware and software from Apple is so delightful to use because 23 24 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,850 in most cases it's just very simple. 24 25 00:01:43,850 --> 00:01:48,120 It's something that you can give to your grandmother. So you should think always you know is your tech, 25 26 00:01:48,150 --> 00:01:50,870 is your app, is your website grandma proof. 26 27 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:56,550 You know if you took it to her, would she know how to use it or would she get confused by all the buttons? 27 28 00:01:56,990 --> 00:01:57,310 Now 28 29 00:01:57,330 --> 00:02:04,830 the app equivalent of this program is something like this where you have rows upon rows of buttons a 29 30 00:02:04,830 --> 00:02:06,830 million different colors, 30 31 00:02:07,140 --> 00:02:09,510 tightly packed user interface. 31 32 00:02:09,510 --> 00:02:15,150 I mean whenever you find yourself making two rows of buttons, then you should probably smack yourself 32 33 00:02:15,150 --> 00:02:18,270 on the wrist because this will never ever work 33 34 00:02:18,270 --> 00:02:24,840 well. Most of us have thumbs that are way too big to be able to differentiate between whether he pressed 34 35 00:02:24,930 --> 00:02:31,890 this button or whether if you press this button. And you will frustrate users to no end if you implement 35 36 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:35,280 two rows of buttons and they keep pressing on the wrong thing. 36 37 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:36,910 So think about simplicity. 37 38 00:02:36,930 --> 00:02:39,490 Always always try to make things simpler. 38 39 00:02:39,510 --> 00:02:44,040 Now this is an example of the onboarding screen of an app called Ness. 39 40 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:51,720 Now the core objective of this app is to allow users to discover dishes that are around them and things 40 41 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:52,940 that they might enjoy. 41 42 00:02:53,010 --> 00:02:59,970 But when you first download the app, they give you this long tutorial with things that should be pretty 42 43 00:02:59,970 --> 00:03:00,720 intuitive. 43 44 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:07,650 For example, most of us know that this symbol means probably something to do with changing the time or 44 45 00:03:07,650 --> 00:03:11,670 the symbol probably means something to do with changing the location. 45 46 00:03:11,700 --> 00:03:17,280 You don't have to explicitly tell people about it. And it can feel really condescending 46 47 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:21,030 as a user to be told what every little button does 47 48 00:03:21,060 --> 00:03:23,510 even though it seems quite intuitive. 48 49 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:30,210 Now this is an app called Food spotting and they have the same goal and objective as Ness. Essentially 49 50 00:03:30,210 --> 00:03:37,200 helps users discover good dishes near them and all it does is that as soon as you open up the app, it 50 51 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:42,620 tries to find your location and then immediately shows you the dishes that are close by. 51 52 00:03:42,870 --> 00:03:50,100 So remember when we said earlier that you have to identify the core objective of the users for using 52 53 00:03:50,100 --> 00:03:54,930 your app and then try to minimize the number of steps that it takes to achieve that, 53 54 00:03:54,930 --> 00:04:01,680 it cut down three or four taps to essentially zero because everything is loaded up automatically. 54 55 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:03,450 So Simplicity is key. 55 56 00:04:03,450 --> 00:04:05,670 You can always make things simpler. 56 57 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:12,180 Scrap everything until you're left with the very basic and then add features and add things onto it 57 58 00:04:12,300 --> 00:04:17,460 as and when users demand it because you can always keep things simpler.