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March 23, 2004
The Worst User Interfaces Ever
I'm pretty good at figuring out user interfaces and getting the hang of most things pretty quickly without reading documentation or making irreversible mistakes, but that doesn't mean I'm not critical of them. In fact, I'm extremely sensitive to user interfaces, as I suspect most people who read this blog are. What are some of the worst user interfaces you have ever come across? Here are just a few:
- I used to use a Motorola i1000 phone with Nextel which had, by far, the worst user interface I've ever experienced in a phone. To do any type of configuration, you had to enter some kind of code to get to the right screen rather than navigating through a menu system. Storing phone numbers in the address book was only a little easier than programming in C. Everyone in my office had to use the default configuration because nobody could figure out how to change anything. My i1000 is now a toy for my 2-year-old, and I'm using AT&T.
- Did anyone ever buy a domain name from Network Solutions about seven years ago? Remember the process? They used to email you forms that you had to email back in a specific formate with answers filled in, which I'm guessing were parsed by some Perl scripts on the other end. Fortunately, NSI has since ported their laborious and inefficient processes to laborious and inefficient web applications and internal procedures.
- ATM machines are generally very simple to use, but I hate the ones that have columns of buttons beside the screen which correspond to different dynamic options that never seem to exactly line up with the buttons. When you are dealing with your bank account, button ambiguity is not a good thing.
- Whenever I go to Giant, I almost always use their self-checkout system because I think it has one of the best user interfaces ever placed before the general public. Whoever wrote that software did an amazing job at taking a very involved process (not necessarily complex, but undeniably involved), and making it just about as foolproof as I think it could be. (The only thing I would change is that your receipt should come out from underneath where you sign the credit card pad rather than in the middle of the lane.) Home Depot's system, on the other hand, sends me running for any line manned by a human, regardless of how long. I've only tried to use their automated lanes twice, but both times, I had problems because the computer didn't believe I had put the item I just scanned in the bag when I actually had. Both times, the Home Depot referee watching over the "automated" systems had to intervene and override something to keep the transaction alive. I don't generally mind arguing a little bit with a computer, but it's embarrassing when there's a line of people behind you, and the computer is basically accusing you of trying to pull the wool over its eyes. I find the employees at Home Depot much easier to argue with.
- And then there's my microwave. For some reason, the most prominent button on the keypad is the "Time" button, which one might mistakenly assume prepares the machine to accept a cook duration, when in fact in it is used for resetting the microwave's clock. I guess their usability tests indicated that customers are more concerned with resetting the time on their microwaves than with heating up a cup of coffee or a piece of pizza. When I first moved into this house, I used to reset the time on my microwave about 10 times a day.
- The absolute worst user interface I've ever used in my life has to be the controls on my washer and drier. I still have no idea how either actually works. I just turn, push, and pull the dials until the machines seem to be doing the appropriate things, then come back later and see if I might need to turn, push or pull the dials some more. Sometimes the machines buzz and take breaks, but that doesn't seem to be an indication that they are actually finished doing anything. My drier has settings for "more dry" and "less dry," but more or less dry than what? Just dry my clothes! And what's with the little stars, and colored zones and seemingly arbitrary numbers placed around the dial like star maps? Maybe more modern washing machines are easier to use, but I think I would have more luck figuring out how to use a particle accelerator than doing a load a laundry.
What's your least favorite user interface? Any good stories to go along with them?
Posted by cantrell at March 23, 2004 12:00 PM | References
Comments
haaaa!
Posted by: Dominick at March 23, 2004 12:16 PM
Bad user interface? Version 1 & 2 of "Dylan65"!
Christian....Giant's self checkout UI is good, but Harris Teeter did them one better. They've got a nice "alphabetical tab" interface for paging through those pesky vegetable lists, similar to telephone keys with 3 letters on them. Click the letter of the veggie you want and you have clear NEXT/PREVIOUS arrows to peruse through all 4 pages of onion types.
Another bad UI: Verizon online signup. Just awful. I picked up the phone!
--
Trizue
Posted by: Alex Sherwood at March 23, 2004 01:39 PM
Time to upgrade your washer! My Fisher Paykel washer and dryer are wicked cool and make perfect sense.
http://usa.fisherpaykel.com/
Posted by: Erik at March 23, 2004 02:49 PM
you must be too young. The numbers on your dryer represent the time in miniutes that you want the dryer to run for. The 'less dry/very dry' are indicators of how far into the drying cycle it is (if you are using automatic drying).
Posted by: Phil at March 23, 2004 04:31 PM
Christian,
Particle accellorators are easy to operate. Washing clothes, however, is dangerous work. I got my dials set right (I think - smaller starmap on mine), but the amount os soap wrong... The stinking thing turned into a bubble machine and cleaned out my sink drain so well that all of the crud plugged up farther down the drain pipe and backed up my sink!
After about 4 days the sink drained and cleared itself.
Now I use less soap, but I'm not convinced that washing clothes is really safe.
Posted by: Scott Bohler at March 23, 2004 06:25 PM
Bad UI ?
Look no further than Macromedia.com, and all of their products.
Posted by: Ian Firth at March 23, 2004 10:15 PM
I guess I was setting myself up for that one. It was just a matter of time...
Posted by: Christian Cantrell at March 23, 2004 11:08 PM
RE: "Bad UI ? Look no further than Macromedia.com, and all of their products."
This is a little unfair. There *is* room for improvement in some areas of the StudioMX line, but I use Dreamweaver and Fireworks every day and they simply are the best tools money can buy (for web/CF development).
What tools as feature complete and mature as Dreamweaver has a better interface?
Posted by: Alex Sherwood at March 24, 2004 09:12 AM
It's funny when you look at Ian Firth comment and then take a look at his supposed website ( maybe that's the idea .. to drag us to his website .. clever reverse psicology or something ) and if we see the source code of it, we'll see a bunch of dreamweaver generated js...
the worst UI i've sseen, wss from a ATM machine i used last week here in Portugal, first off all the place to inserto my visa was strange like hell, i've must spent 5mins just to learn how the heck to insert it, then when i finnaly inserted it, and digited the PIN it didn't even asked to confirm it .. it just accepted it ... then asked me if i wansted a receipt, i said yes, but before i could d something it pitted out 20€ .. how the hell ? i didn't do anything ... maybe i went to ATM with experimental AI program ..
funy funny man
Posted by: Ivo D. Silva at March 24, 2004 10:56 AM
Bad UIs? Just about any stereo Receiver. My god there are some horror stories out there...and the remotes are usually even more poorly designed...
Posted by: Stacy Young at March 25, 2004 08:02 PM
Check out some really bad recent examples from the User Interface Hall Of Shame : http://www.userinterfacehallofshame.com .. Duncan.
Posted by: Duncan at June 5, 2005 07:20 PM