Critical thinking on Progress Indicating Traffic Lights and a challenge to you

A few days ago The Red Dot Design Award Winners were announced. This is always such a great competition because the participants are so varied and different. The sky is the limit, its wonderful! This year there were 12,000 entries from 60 countries. Of the winners, one entry has gained some traction. The particular entry was progress indicating traffic lights.

Progress Indicator Lights

I like this design! Anyone who knows me, knows that “Wait UI” (ex.- Press and Hold) is the bane of my existence [constant source of irritation]. Making the user wait for any period of time is a bad experience. We should challenge designers to come up with things that are not Wait UI. On the other hand, there are examples like this, where waiting ISthe UI. The users have to wait, now its time to make it more intuitive. Let’s break this down into the psychology of the problem and the Mechanical part of the problem.

Occupied time feels shorter than unoccupied time or Queuing Psychology 101 (the UX)

“…a day full of waiting, of unsatisfied desire for change, will seem a small eternity.” —William James, 1891

MIT’s Engineering Systems Division has an ace in the hole, so to speak, when talking about Queuing Psychology. Dr. Larson or affectionately referred to as “Dr. Queue” has been studying the effects of queuing for more than twenty years. The team over at ESD came up with a few things that were very interesting and solved a few pain points for Disney and theme parks in general. If you have ever been to Disney and went on any of the rides, the lines are insane. The lines can be anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours per ride. The challenge was to find a way to make this necessary evil more fun. They had a few great ideas that involved a wonderful use for a “touch wall” and other short interactive games.

Short interactive games while waiting in line at Disney

Progress indicating lights have existed for 100 years (history)

When researching a design, we have to lean on what Bill Buxton always talks about in “new” designs. There rarely are any! They are just recirculations of old designs that we re-purpose for our current needs. This design is no exception. Marshalite Traffic Signals have been around in Australia since 1936 and still exist in a few places.

Marshalite - an analog version!

These lights already exist in the world, so what research can we gather? (current UX research)

So let’s look around and try to find some pain points for the current design. The progress indicator lights already exist in a few countries and obviously people are going to have some thoughts on them. In my very informal search and reading to look at what people think about them now, I found a few quotes.

They already have traffic lights and padestrian crossings in Manila with timers on them. As far as I can tell they don’t really help there.

… Delhi/Mumbai. … the last 5 seconds before the light turns green resemble the start of a NASCAR race. -both via Neatorama

So the reference here is that they also resemble Racing Trees and therefore will push the user to anticipate the light and may cause accidents. This is a problem that we should be aware of.

Racing Tree Lights

The first thing that comes to mind after seeing what we have seen so far, is that one solution will not solve all the problems. We are going to need a way for it to be configured at installation. We need to let the city engineers do the final stage of the design so they can customize it to fit their needs.

Why do we need to do this? (the greater design tenet with UX in mind)

The problem is that gasoline is getting more expensive and more scarce. If we continue how we are now, we will destroy the environment around us. We need to think green. You should always think low impact in your design solutions because it means they are less expensive in the long run. The more the design saves the company, the more apt they are at instituting it. So let’s look around at some of the current research on Hybrids and gasoline.

Question: Is it better to turn your car off for a 30 second stop or to leave it running?

Answer: Turn it off and it saves gas and its more wear and tear on your vehicle (starter, crank shaft, etc). Leave it on burns more gas and its easier on your vehicle.  –(1995) paraphrased from The Car Guys.

How does that compare to what the average is?

How long does the average American spend waiting at a red light?

Answer: 3min. and 18sec. via - WikiAnswers

There seems to be a gap. What about current technology with Hybrids?

Comparison of what Hybrids do

So it seems that all manners of Hybrids shut their engines off at stop lights.

Given all that we have learned, what changes would we make? (UX Design)

It seems that really, the only glaring thing we need to take into account is the final 10 seconds. When users would start to rev their engines and get ready for the green light. This revving would then eliminate any of the benefits of the engines being shut off in the first place. The other piece we need to keep in mind is have it configurable at time of installation. This would be very helpful for tuning and further refinement as the time of install progresses.

Here is the current design that won the competition.

Design Winner

and here is a blank slate for you to test out your designs.

Blank Traffic Light

You can download this Illustrator CS4 file here. If you happen to be using another type of program, I also uploaded the EPS file, and you can get it here. I created the outer circle in Live Paint, so all you need to do is grab the paint bucket tool and drop whatever color you want in there.

Let’s see your designs! Send me your concoctions and I’ll post them here. Also write a bit about your rationale and reasoning for designing it your way.

Gizmodo posts about Courier: Microsoft’s new tablet?

UPDATE: The story hit engadget as well, but the story isn’t quite as positive. The comments are though, here’s the story.

I saw an interesting article on Gizmodo, ( http://gizmodo.com/536.. ) discussing some apparently new top secret laptop/tablet at Microsoft called Courier. The funniest thing is they mentioned what team it is, E&D, who is developing it, and who the head of the team is. Quite specific I think. I doubt if even half of it is true, but I must tell you. It is beautiful, … from the pictures of course.

As a Natural User Interface Designer working at Microsoft. I can tell you, this has piqued my interest. Things to note, they mention Multi-Touch and Stylus support.

I also particularly loved the comments. Quite surprising actually.

If this works exactly, and lives up to the video, as shown Ill buy it. and if they can beat Apple to the market, I’ll forget the iSlab (even as a mac user).

add mp3 capability, and why would i need a laptop at all?

I can see this being HUGE in schools. I know Drexel just replaced all their medical textbooks with iPod Touches (and I’m surprised to see nothing on Giz about it) but I’m sure if they knew this was on its way from Microsoft, they would have waited to see some prices.

Two Words, BAD ASS. I’ve been wanting to get a new laptop, but if this thing is truly on the horizon I’ll be saving up.

I love Apple and their products so much that I (Ed. pee)  apple juice, but this… this would have my money damn near instantly.

(All quotes taken from http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet)

Does anyone else have any comments they would love to share? Or how about a Feature Wish List? Thinks that you absolutely MUST have or you will die a slow and painful death. I know I have my list of things I would want in a product like this, but I would like to compare mine to yours. So, Asus if you are reading, here are a few tidbits for you. :)

Infographic : User Interface Technology Adoption

User Interface Technology Adoption

This is an interesting graphic from Gartner ( http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1089112 ). I also like the small excerpt.

Gesture recognition dominates the hype in human-computer interaction in 2009, as virtual worlds hit the Trough of Disillusionment. A wide range of emerging technologies are moving from the trigger toward the peak, indicating that innovation continues almost unabated during the current recession.

Terminology: the difference between a gesture and a manipulation

All over the web I see the word gesture used to describe every type of interaction on a natural user interface. Just because you use your finger or a stylus or an accelerometer, does not make it a “gesture.” Is this crucial? Not really to users, consumers, marketing, et al. But it is in being a good scholar and interaction designer to get your terminology straight. It also helps when speaking with other developers to have your vocabulary correct so they do not misinterpret your meaning or solutions. Let’s start with the classical, dictionary definitions:

Main Entry: ¹ges·ture
Pronunciation: \ˈjes-chər, ˈjesh-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin gestura mode of action, from Latin gestus, past participle of gerere
Date: 15th century

1 archaic : carriage, bearing
2 : a movement usually of the body or limbs that expresses or emphasizes an idea, sentiment, or attitude
3 : the use of motions of the limbs or body as a means of expression
4 : something said or done by way of formality or courtesy, as a symbol or token, or for its effect on the attitudes of others <a political gesture to draw popular support — V. L. Parrington>

Main Entry: ma·nip·u·late
Pronunciation: \mə-ˈni-pyə-ˌlāt\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): ma·nip·u·lat·ed; ma·nip·u·lat·ing
Etymology: back-formation from manipulation, from French, from manipuler to handle an apparatus in chemistry, ultimately from Latin manipulus
Date: 1834

1 : to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner
2 a : to manage or utilize skillfully b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage
3 : to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose : doctor

You can already start to see the differences for our purposes. One is emotional, symbolic, indirect. The other is direct or mechanical. There are 4 primary differences between the two and they are easily classified after you know them.

Manipulations

1. contextual – they only happen at specific location(s) or on specific object(s)
2. react immediately – there is a direct correlation in cause and effect between your interaction and the system (this does not include visual affordance)
3. can be single state, but are usually 3 or more states ( see Bill Buxton’s paper on Chunking and Phrasing )
4. direct (could possibly be considered indirect by way of augmenting your actual interactions with the reaction of the system) – your actions directly affect the system, object, or experience in some way

Gestures

1. not contextual – they can be anywhere in the system in location and time
2. the system waits for the series of events to complete to decide on how to react (again, this does not include visual affordance)
3. they contain at least 2 states
4. indirect – they do not affect the system directly according to your action. Your action is symbolic in some way that issues a command, statement, or state.

In Dan Saffer’s book, Designing Gestural Interfaces, (O’Reilly, 2009) on page 2 he states “for the purposes of this book, is any physical movement that a digital system can sense and respond to without the aid of traditional pointing devices such as a mouse or stylus.” That may be a simple way to define the types of interaction for his book, but generalizing them in that manner is incorrect. I think Professor Shneiderman’s seminal paper in 1983 was absolutely correct. Direct manipulation is just that, direct manipulation. When we start to discuss more complex chained movements that are commands, we need a new set of terminology. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_manipulation_interface)

Manipulations are the lowest common denominator and the “catch-all.” They are the most prevalent and the most widely patterned because they are easy to design for, easy to understand, and very intuitive with expected results. Gestures are more complex and is what all designers strive to achieve. When trying to decipher if something is a manipulation or a gesture, unless it passes all 4 tests for gesture, it is a manipulation. There are very few true gestures in systems currently.

These have also been called direct gestures (manipulations) and indirect gestures (gestures). Calling them this is confusing the terms and can lead to errors in design or implementation. I leave you with a graphical representation of gestures vs manipulations.

I’m eager to hear any dissenting opinions. Please comment or drop me an email. I’ll also send a copy of this to Dan as well.