I Love My Watch – Lessons in Usability
I absolutely love my watch. I know what your thinking… I don’t love it like I love my wife or kids but I really like it as a watch. It has some sentimental value. It also has some great features — it is solar powered, has a 30 page data-bank, 5 day counters, world time in 29 time zones, auto daylight savings time, stopwatch, 5 alarms — one with a snooze, it supports 16 languages (of which I speak one) and the list goes on and on. But the thing I like most about this watch is the usability.
Okay — now how usable does a watch really need to be you ask — you put it on and look at the time — switch features on occasion — set the alarm — done! Whats the big deal?
Well what if the watch anticipated your best use and geared a feature set that accommodated that best use. Here is an example — if I tilt my wrist to a certain degree and it is dark out, the back light automatically comes on so I can see. If I cycle through the features to the stop watch and then use that feature, when I am done using the stopwatch it brings me right back to the standard feature rather than having to cycle through the rest of the features. Another thoughtful feature includes being able to set the time forward as well as reverse — some watches make you cycle through 23 hours to set the time back one hour — whats with that? There are a number of other usability features packed into this little watch on my wrist and i really appreciate them!
“Well that’s great Andy, glad you are happy! What does this have to do with anything?” – Philip Kay (paraphrased)
Good question — I have been asking myself that recently. Why do I love this watch so much? The answer is “Usability” – It is so easy and intuitive to use! Every time I use the watch I feel good about the experience.
As a web developer I build a lot of user interfaces. This could mean simple navigation on a basic web site or complex feature sets in a web application. I am not sure about you but I know I have visited a few web sites that did not leave me feeling good about the experience. I have used web based applications that were anything but easy and intuitive to use. To be honest I have created some websites and applications that fit that description.
My watch has taught me a great lesson about usability — about considering how the user of the site or application may use the features and then programing them to be as easy to use as possible. It has taught me to anticipate the needs of the users — add the features that will make their experience a great one.
Well that is my big realization for today — I love my watch!
Originally posted on: Tyndale IT
Living Unbranded Said,
December 3, 2009 @ 9:36 am
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