First, a look at what activity based shopping should be. They don’t have a brick and morter market to visit, but simondelivers.com has the right idea. When you make your list, you think- “I’m going to make fajitas… I need, chicken, tortillas, cheese…” and add those to the list. Online shopping of course, lets you click “Fajitas” and then lets you tweak from there. Big time saver, especially if you just take what they give you. Simon takes it a bit further though. There are several different methods of choosing a meal, with most you can choose the main course, and add sides and dessert or others as you see fit:

• Healthy- this appears to not be available for me, but you can sign up to get a full weeks worth of healthy fresh meals that are rotated amongst 100 or so different meals and capped at a calorie limit
• One click meals- you click on pasta, and you get a handful of meals with all the items you would pick up in the store shown there. You can buy each one, or the whole meal at once. Ideal if you actually like to get a pot or two dirty
• Ready to heat- place in oven or microwave.
• Ready to cook -raw meats and veggie type meals. Steak and potato type meals
• A la carte-Parts of the above meals as near as I can figure
• Simon’s Diner- fresh prepared meals that are “ready to heat”

There are so many choices here, that I haven’t quite figured out the differences available between all those (Simon’s diner vs ready to heat?, one click versus ready to cook?). The cost is $6,delivered to my apartment in special containers to keep the colds cold. Beats the line and hassle of the local market.

Speaking of which, my local grocery store (Hy-Vee, Rochester MN) is doing its part. It allows you to build your order online and for 5 dollars, will have someone compile everything for you. You pull up to the store, someone rolls out a cart and loads you up. You don’t even need to get out of the car. There’s a little focus on the meal or “activity”, but the website is not nearly as easy to use as simondelivers. Hy-Vee goes one step further by allowing you to enter your grocery list as you would using say notepad or something,and it will search for matches… you type “yogurt” ‘and it will pull up all the yogurt there, and you add the one you want to your cart. Simon delivers will remember master shopping lists as a starting point, but I would welcome that function in the simon site.

Meal (activity) based shopping and all the ecommerce trimmings makes for an interesting discussion by itself, but there’s something I found just slightly more interesting about all this. Namely, it flies against everything I’ve thought about supermarket layouts and design; it’s no surprise that you have to walk completely across the store to get milk or eggs, or bread. It’s so that you get exposure to as much product as possible. You might impulse buy. The layout of the aisles is changed once you’ve memorized it for the same reasons. They seek the balance of convenience for the shopper and maximizing exposure (convenience for the store).

So what’s this online stuff? Where is the convenience for Hy-Vee (simon is different since they only exist online)? Is a pleasant customer experience really what’s driving this for them? The Hy-Vee site I use does not push any products at me. The closest it comes, is if I click “allow substitutions” they fill in with the store brand (I hope this is substituting if the original is not available, and not just on a whim to inflate store brand numbers). The simondelivers site has a main page of ads that focuses on both sale products and services offered.

Most importantly though, grocery shopping is finally supportive for the budget conscience (who isn’t?). Just like any other online app, you can see exactly what you are being charged as you go, and if you are over budget, you don’t have to run back to the other side of the store to put the frozen pizza’s back, you just remove it. Again- this is not news to anyone, just another step towards a nice UX. I’ve always wished markets had a “go back” self near the cash registers. I always go over budget and realize it as I’m heading to the register. I don’t want to burden the checker with the items I don’t want buy, and I certainly don’t want to return them to the shelves throughout the store. I see most people just shove them in crevices in and around the checkout stand. If there was an area nearby to place unwanted items, I would use it.. but I’m certain it doesn’t exist because a large enough number of people will just buy the unwanted items anyway.

I’m (pleasantly) surprised that these services exist. I’m curious what the motivations are for the stores to offer them. Is the 5 dollar charge worth the overhead? Is Customer satisfaction guiding all of this? How many people use these services? I hope they continue to grow and improve. Speaking of which, the web application Hy-Vee uses has some usability issues (simondelivers is very slick), but baby steps my friends, one thing at a time.

As such, I’ve experienced several versions and delivery methods of education from afar, here are two types that sum up nicely what I’ve seen:

• DVD: A Java course through Southern Methodist University. It was delivered via DVD, assigments and interaction was done through a standard webCT, blackboard forum type environment. (it’s a classroom based webapp)
• Streamed: A business (global marketing) course through Rensselear Polytechnic Institue (rpi.edu). It had the same online interaction (more or less), but the lecture was streamed to me on my PC.

I found I had a better all around experience with the SMU course even though the subject matter of the RPI courses was a more interesting (academically.. the Java was just a refresher). I did well in the SMU course, and not so well in the RPI ones.

It seems blatantly obvious after reading this article by Jakob Nielson. I’ve always wondered why that was; ok, well, not exactly- I probably could have told you why.. this article has always been in my mind, just never verbalized.

Whenever I started a stream, I would have my attention immediately start focusing on other things… my browser is open, so the world is at my finger tips. The lecture would mention a topic, and off I’d go to research it further. Computers are supposed to multitask, so why can’t I?

I have assumed it was an attention problem (personal) mixed with a distance (re: non engaging) problem, mixed with a mildly interesting subject. After this article, (and some affirmations), it’s nice to see that there is a distinction in the delivery methods being used. I’m not the only one who can’t watch video on the web without feeling like I need to be “driving”… it’s that antsy feeling that led me to believe it was just me, but I guess that’s just the nature of the medium as well.

I hope this is considered when designing online courses or lengthy training videos. The overhead for the shipping DVD (I would imagine) is greater than offering a streamed video. But if the user experience could be improved, is it worth it? My experience serves as more anecdotal evidence supporting the argument that TV is better for passively watching a lecture than the computer, especially when you sit on your couch with a beer in hand.

*SMU does stream, they just didn’t do it for this class when I took it. It’s probably been a couple of years (2003 or early 2004) I remember asking myself: “why the heck don’t they allow me to see this video streamed*?” -I think I commented that on my survey. Oh, so young, and so naive.

Stores- if the UX isn’t for you, you walk out and go somewhere else. Hardware and gadgets are also easy to vote on. If you don’t like it, you can return it. Software often has demos to try before you buy. If you are willing to spend the time and effort, you can eventually get the product and service that you want.

It’s a little different though when the experience you’ll be dealing with are second to the primary services. In most cases I’ve run into, these are month to month, service or subscription companies where you pay for a service and they give you the interface (software, hardware, etc…). You’re stuck with what they give you.

It’s a little muddy.. ok, let me drop some examples:

1. Online banking/Billpay. When you sign up for an account, you may have as a requirement “I need web billpay and banking with my checking accout” -as most banks allow this, it’s not hard to come by, but you are stuck with the web app for better or for worse. I could post entirely on my bank’s setup (USAA- a throwback to my military days)
2. Online billpay in general- you don’t have much choice of how your utilities co. builds their website, and unfortunately, your utility co. probably doesn’t care a great deal about usability
3. Cable company. When you get cable, you are most interested in what channels you’ll get, what the cost is, what is the hardware capable of. You don’t have any say in the channel guide UI, and so you are stuck with what they give you
4. Cell phone- This is a dead horse- your cell phone interface sucks. But you probably could have exchanged it for a better (designed) phone shortly after you bought it. Even more so, you had the opportunity to play with the phone in the store before you dropped any cash, so what are you complaining about? Well, first, there are no good cell phone interfaces (I hear Nokias are alright and have an emphasis on usability), second, I’m sure very few people are willing to go back to the store each week to go through the hassle of exchange (if they even can) and third, you just can only get a vague idea of how usable it is in the store.

There’s probably tons more, but these are what have upset me in the last day or two.

Today simplicity, tomorrow convenience. Tomorrow convenience, the next day simplicity.

Jack of all trades, master of none. Certainly this is no new topic- combining gadgets and gizmos into one ubiquitous swiss army device that will allow us to always have the right tool at our finger tips. But when it comes to designing an interface, is this a catch-22 that will always swing like (as Donald implies) a pendulum?

I admit, if you’re going to start “converging” somewhere, the cell phone seems like the best place start. It has supplanted any need I have for a land line and it’s just as acceptable sitting on the desk of my office as it is at the gym or home or anywhere else I might be. What could be more admirable for us to create a better user experience than to reduce the amount of devices (DAP, phone, PIM, Pager) in to one single device? So the makers have long since begun shoehorning all this functionality into our phones under the lofty goal of convergence. Software afterthoughts under the guise of simplifying our lives.

If only our lives were more simple. In addition to telephony, we have PIM, voice recording, cameras, music player, web browsers, clocks, games, and email.. just to name a few. The UI to use these features is almost always an afterthought greatly hindering any desire to type out an email while waiting in line at the post office. Our lives are in fact more simple, but only because we do not use these features. My phone almost exclusively is for making phone calls, and unfortunately, all the other features manage to get in the way of even that basic task.

There are plenty of advancements that are helping us along: prediction software, and tiny QWERTY keyboards first come to mind, but in general, trying to get so many features into a single UI is decidedly a poor choice for the user experience if for no other reason than there may be too many or not enough buttons as you change the application of the device- the mapping is never the same from application to application.

Another convergence example that is (was) well intended, the fingerworks touchpad keyboard is a great idea. This is a flat keyboard (no keys, just a graphic) that you can either type on or mouse move (like a touchpad). I HATE moving back and forth between the keyboard and the mouse. A friend of mine paid the high price for one, and I couldn’t resist having a go at it. After one session, I realized how important the feedback of the keyboard click is and abondonded thoughts of selling my first born to acquire one.

So the current status quo for successful devices and products is: KISS and master your trade. The iPod is notorious for keeping a simple, uncluttered interface. There are tons of small details I think would make the iPod easier for me to use but realize that that it would probably require a button or two- or more digging through drill down menus. Overall, the iPod is successful because it has mastered its trade without trying to be all devices (the visceral aspects also help a great deal as well).

The pendulum continues to swing because it is heading towards two goals that aim to make our lives simple, but are divergent. Where will the future of interface design take us? Should we be thinking about ways to converge devices? Or is simply getting them all to talk (a bluetooth like world) be the best solution? What devices do you know of (like cell phones) that have the best compromise of features and simplicity?

A catch-22? Or can a future interface give us both sides of the pendulum?

I realized the other day that my wife alone has probably greatly (relative to my wallet) skewed the statistics that landsend.com just briefed to thier boss last week while she was looking around: “Well ma’am, we keep losing these 400 dollar sales and we can’t figure out why!”

I’ve come to the conclusion that my wife uses web applications like a grown up version of “playing house.” I can just see a room of Infinity auto website guys salivating over this 60K car that someone is building online and piling on the options while my wife is dreaming of that raise she’s hoping to get…and sure, I admit- I’ve visited the apple.com site and selected a machine beyond my means…who hasn’t?

More realistically though, my wife uses all e-commerce sites like amazon’s wish list. She will build it up for X-Mas shopping to get an idea of the total cost, but mainly to see the fruits of her 30 minutes of shopping excursion all together in one place. She’ll promptly print or take notes, then close the browser… sale lost?Why don’t more sites have a “wish-list” to embrace this behavior? It would be much more interesting for me to know that a my customers are sitting in front of their computers daydreaming about my products then to simply see an abandoned cart and make inferences.

How do companies handle this when it comes to metrics? How do we know if this user is frustrated that there is not a dealership in town, or the shipping prices wasn’t right…or if the customer was “just looking, thanks”