After the takeoff, it took like 5 minutes for the TV programs to start. I wanted to change the channel. The remote was very intuitive with only 6 buttons (see image). I pressed channel up, but nothing happened. So I pressed it like 5 more times. My neighbor looked at me and she looked pissed. I took my headphones off and she told me that I was changing the channels on her screen. I was so embarrassed.

But why did I make this error? If you see the image carefully you can see that there is another button next to the remote which pushes the seat back. For every passenger, the remote was on their left arm rest and the seat push button on their right. I used the seat push button first and soon made a connection in my mind that all my controls are to my right (since objects close to each other tend to form a group). So in my defense, it was not entirely my mistake that I used my neighbors remote.

So the role of a metaphor is to explain something to a user in a easy meaningful way. A way to which the users can relate to. But is this approach still used in recent web companies? Let’s take the example of Twitter. ‘Tweet’ is one of the worst metaphor ever. When I update my friends with some information, I never think of ‘making a sound like a small bird’. But would Twitter be as successful as it is today if it had just used the metaphor ‘Status Update’ or ‘Update’ like most networks out there? Maybe, or maybe not. But the metaphor ‘tweet’ did create a unique brand for Twitter, which clearly differentiated it from other social networks, and added to its success.

With so many startups emerging, especially in social web, and everyone trying to be different from others, the trend is more towards using hybrid metaphors. The role of a metaphor is no longer just to describe an action to a user but also to create an identity for the product.

Old Screen                                       New Screen

Here are my thoughts on why the old Lock screen was better than the new Lock screen:

1. Speed – ‘Slide to unlock’ is an action where  a user swipes his finger from left to right. On the old screen, users do not have to worry about missing the target. But on the new screen, there is a continuation from the first ‘slide to unlock’ object to second ‘Camera Icon’ object. To avoid misclick on Camera icon, users need to be cautious that they do not slide past the first object. This makes the unlock action much slower.

2. Error Prevention – This follows the first point. Users cannot make an error on old screen.

Bottom Line: Camera Icon on the Lock screen does add value, but placing it right of the unlock slider might be a bad idea.

Yes, the Information Architecture, Interaction design and Visual elements were all good, but it was the concept of story telling which made the complicated process look so easy and straightforward. It felt like the flow was broken down into different chapters, with a good introductory paragraph to each chapter. The language used on each page made the process very informal, but in a good way.

There is a guide at the bottom of every screen(see image on left), indicating the actions for different buttons for that particular screen. But the problem is with the visual presentation of the guide. The shape of the buttons on the interface(circles and triangles) does not match with the actual buttons on the right. A simple solution would be to change the interface (changing the physical button shape would be difficult).

So when I enter my User Name ‘umanka’, it suggests ‘unable’. And unless I explicitly click on the cross, the suggested word over writes the written word. People have all kind of User Names, so Login screen is the last place you want the Suggest Text feature enabled. It makes the Login process slower.

No, the above image is not a screen shot of an entire web page. It is the Footer of Zappos, which looks longer than most website’s landing pages.

This gigantic footer is unnecessary and there is no value add:

1. Majority of the links found here are redundant, which are already in the main page(under primary and sub navigation). If the user was unsuccessful to capture this information from the main page, then a.There is problem with the Information Architecture of the site and b.I don’t see why and how a user will find that information in the footer.

2. Information like quick links, blog link, feedback link, company information etc, which users expect to find in a footer, are lost because of the visual load.

Look at this navigation from premierleague.com, the official site of English Premier League:

When you hover over different tabs, the sub navigation is displayed on the white space below. When the cursor moves away from the tab, the corresponding sub navigation fades away in approximately 1 sec. But the problem is that the sub navigation is always left justified:

So the user has 1 sec to move the cursor from the tab to the sub navigation, before he loses it. And he has to make sure he does not hover over any other tabs or links on his way.

A better implementation: Keep the sub navigation below its parent tab.