Posted Mon Apr 1, 2013 at 09:00 AM PDT by Brian Hoss
The idea is to mimic video game feature introductions as a way to save the typical user from being baffled by a Smart TV.
Somewhere between all the features that are marketed and all the features that are useful, there are features on mainstream products such as Smart TVs that the non-enthusiast user should be enjoying, but are lost in the deluge of the entire feature package. over at Fast Company, there is an article detailing User Interfaces on products like Smart TVs, receivers, cell phones etc. are failing to win over the majority of users to the tune of a 48% return rate (2002) due to product dissatisfaction.
According the article, the issue is that the design of most interactive products fail "to take people’s changing capacity and experience into account." The article then outlines how "learning how to use complex products is like learning a computer game."
With a specific example of involving the Samsung E8005 Smart TV, an alternative user interface is defined that rewards the user's ability to operate the TV by opening up more functions. "Based on this concept, the interface of the future television and remote control should match the appropriate level of challenge to the user’s skill level. In this future interface, the skill level of the user dictates which interactions are available. Turn on the TV, can you get 10 XP; chose 'Watch Television' and you get 10 more. At that point, only the least challenging interactions, such as volume and channel, are displayed."
The example goes on to detail how this kind of user dependant set of features would gently plod the user to tryout other unlearned features. This could be streamlined into something as simple as an 'advanced mode' that has everything unlocked alongside the proposed learning mode.
Ultimately, the idea involves recognizing the level of comfort that the user has with the feature set and trying to increase that comfort level.
Source: Fast Company via The Verge
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