We have bought a new car recently, a Renault Scenic, and we’ve been pretty impressed by it. And there are a couple of things that might give interaction designers pause to think. One of them is about the lights, and what happens if you forget to turn them off when you get out.
Its quite simple, actually, what happens is that the car turns the lights off for you.
“A no brainer!” … shout the usability gurus in unison … “that’s what we’d do, without doubt!”. Are you sure? Or would you do what my old car would do? My old car used to beep, loudly and horribly when I left the lights on and got out. It was as if it telling me “You daft sod … you left the lights on … what were you thinking, stupid?”
I like my new car. It forgives me. It just does the right thing without a fuss. It doesn’t shout when I get things a bit wrong, it’s happy not to nag. OK, usability gurus, which interaction style would you really have designed? “Without a fuss”, or “What were you thinking?”!
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