Week One assignments:
1. Read pages 1-52 of The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
2A. Have you ever fallen in love with an everyday object?
2B. Also post to your blog an example of a frustrating user experience.
3. Order a Pizza through the facebook messenger app
One of the items that I use almost everyday is my skullcandy wireless headphones. While it’s not the most high tech item I use everyday, it’s the one that get the most enjoyment out of. I appreciate that while it doesn’t have a screen, the tactile interface is intuitive enough that it didn’t take much to figure it out. I’m able to easily switch between tracks, pause/start, and adjust the volume, all without touching my phone. That’s not to say that it’s without it’s problems, occasionally it’ll quit synching via bluetooth and I’ll have to “forget” it on my phone and re-add it. But overall, it’s an item that I enjoy using and re-purchase as needed.
A recent frustrating user experience I had was trying to print from my iPad using a wireless printer. Previously, I’d used the same printer with my macbook pro with no problems, and had expected a similar situation with the iPad. After trying to print from the Google Drive app, and having no luck with setting up Google Cloud Print, I opted to try AirPrint, also with little success. The experience of what should’ve been (in my mind at least) a quick, easy experience, turned into a frustrating one that I wasn’t able to work around in the end.
Attempting to order a Domino’s pizza through Facebook Messenger was the most frustrating user experience I’ve had to date. Not only was I not able to order a pizza (I ended up ordering Chinese food through seamless), but it would’ve been legitimately quicker and easier to grab my laptop and order the pizza from their website. I was constantly told to start over at various steps in the process, and the limited help options didn’t do much to ease my frustration. Something as simple as ordering a pizza became a such a bad experience, that it actually made me not want pizza at all. Overall, it feels like a gimmicky idea that is jumping on the chatbot bandwagon, rather than making the process any simpler, or convenient.