PROJECTS
UI
UI
Remember, the TV remote is not the product (the
TV is), so while having direct access to all functions
may sound intuitive, it’s actually not if the user has
to spend time looking for the one they want. The real
objective is to help users spend more time watching
TV and less time trying to operate it.
Interfaces rarely come into the world being
convoluted but instead become so over time as more
‘features’ enter the space without much thought as
to how important said feature is in comparison to
ones that are already there. When was the last time
you changed the subtitle language? As humans, we
tend to think that new features are more important
than they actually are, either because they’re new,
we came up with them or implementing them sounds
like it’d be fun.
Reevaluating what the user really needs can be
hugely beneficial, not just because a little spring
cleaning makes interfaces look a wee bit more
refreshed but also because it offers opportunities
to add things that weren’t there before, things that
users who didn’t convert were looking for!
I did exactly this for my website recently. In this
article I’ll talk about what happened and the variousREDUCE COGNITIVE LOAD
Daniel Schwarzexplains how UI isn’t your product but instead a gateway
to it – and explores how you can clear the obstacles blocking a smooth UI
How many buttons on a television remote have
you never used or don’t know how to use? Ever
wondered why lesser-used functions aren’t hidden
behind the menu button?
Excessiveness can induce cognitive overload,
an unfortunate circumstance where the user
experiences stress, confusion and sometimes even
‘analysis paralysis’, where they freeze as a result of
too many options. Here are some of the reasons why
cognitive overload happens when using a TV remote:O Inconsistent language (eg ‘Input’ vs ‘AV’ vs
Source)
O Finding the right button is hard (because there
are so many)
O It’s difficult to work out what some buttons do
(ie the often-unlabelled green, red, blue and
yellow buttons)It all boils down to usability.WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
Firstly, we can trim, move or even remove aspects of
the UI.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIEL
SCHWARZ
w: https://uxtricks.design
t: @mrdanielschwarz
job: Creator of UX Tricks
areas of expertise:
Product design, UX, design
tools