A Plug for the Road Less Obvious

Recently, I watched a TED talk by Daniele Quercia titled “Happy Maps“, in which he encouraged all of us to take a chance sometimes and take the road less travelled, rather than the most efficient. As he put it, you can likely have a more enjoyable experience by eschewing the world that is “fabricated for efficiency” and look for something that is perhaps, quieter, greener, and more beautiful.

designing user experiences, we can often fall into the routine of designing for the shortest distance between two points; the most efficient. It is, after all, our goal to create access to content (be it virtual or real) in order to enable and/or inform user objectives.

However, in doing so, we may overlook other things that the user may care about that may well fly in the face of efficiency. Ottawa University has a great example in their online campus maps. Given that Canada does get very cold in the winters (I should know, I’ve lived here for 30 years), the shortest distance between two buildings in minus 30 degree (that’s celcius) weather may in fact be the least desirable. Especially if you’ve left your coat in a locker clear across campus, or live in residence. The designers of the Ottawa University site have taken this into account. When looking for directions on campus, you can either take the shortest route, or the warmest.

As we design user experiences, we need to go beyond the obvious and idealized ways in which we map user journeys. Personas that are built as a tool to inform our assumptions about users often try to generalize the user for the sake of efficiency, which leads us to the obvious. However, if we enrich these personas with information that is contextual to different states of mind or responses to different environmental factors at play while the user interacts with a system, we can perhaps design systems that are more responsive to user needs based on context at the time of use.

Another example is the fact that doors to the outside in public buildings are designed to open outwards. In case of an emergency, people may pile up at the door, making it impossible to open as a result of the building pressure from behind as more and more people arrive to try to get out to safety. A standard persona may not capture this type of information, and therefore opportunities may be missed.

Obvious is easy and quick, but when we look beyond the world that is “fabricated for efficiency” we can find opportunity.