So where has all our power gone? Though I was never an ally of the Voldemort style of IT management (substitute "my users" for "muggles" and you get the idea) I did have a direct Bat-Line to the CEO, CFO or any other "C" I wanted. Today I'm a step up from the cleaning crew, and that's on a good day. No longer the Chief Wizards of Hogwarts we've been relegated to the role of corporate auto-mechanics.
We do have a new kind of power though, one that isn't talked about much. Its the power to positively impact peoples lives on a day to day basis through the applications we deliver. Many of us are involved in developing or at least selecting the User Interfaces (UIs) that our fellow human beings spend a good part of their lives staring at. The tools for rapidly developing UI have placed that work in the hands of average IT personnel. The continued evolution of computers as primary work tools places a huge portion of our work force in front of a screen - 68% according to a recent NPR story. The confluence of these two trends means that people you never thought of as Uber-Geeks get to create environments for peoples minds.
There are a lot of smart people working at very high levels to better understand UI. They study how we look at screens and absorb and retain information. They want to make the latest greatest UI for you to work in. Those of us implementing their ideas do our best to worship at their alter of perfected UI. Unfortunately most of these people are not thinking about how to make Humane UI (HUI - and thats no Hooey!)
Thats not a phrase you ever hear: "Humane UI". It only takes a few weeks of staring at the same UI hour after hour, day after day to understand the real meaning of HUI. For those of us working in the trenches with actual human beings this is an important issue. Supporting a 70 year old user and a 20 something user in the same UI over several years makes HUI an inevitable part of ones development agenda.
HUI is concerned not only with efficiency for all users, but also with compassion for all users. An efficient UI is important, but one that is
maddeningly dull or aesthetically offensive can dramatically degrade your quality of life. There is a lot of intermittently engaged UI that doesn't need to be HUI. We use it so infrequently efficiency is the primary goal. HUI is concerned with UI that is the daily working environment for people - the stuff you will spend years of your lives staring at. This is the interface that appears in your dreams, its burned permanently into the back of your head. That should be a satisfying work environment, not a prison for your soul.
What if your job was to look at the same painting every day for a year?
What would you feel like at the end of that year if you stared at a Van Gough vs. a Warhol? How about a comic book page vs. Japanese calligraphy? UI is even more impactful than that. You have to interact with the painting. In fact your livelihood, ability to feed your family and provide them with health insurance depends on your ability to interact deeply with your UI. Time to get real cozy with your monitor - time to lose yourself in it. 
UI can sink deeply into our minds.Ultimately that which we use, winds up using us. The tools we work with shape how we relate to the world. That’s extraordinary power when you think about it. The metaphor of the painting-gazing job is a reality for hundreds of thousands of workers today. Many are forced to deal with the UI they're given, that’s their job. Some of these workers hate their UI not because of its inefficiency, but because of its ability to suck the life out of them. Who wants to spend the rest of their days in a black and white version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream"? Its up to us not to kill our workers souls if possible.
I have worked on both Mac's and PC's for many years. Before PC's started taking their cues from Apple UI developers, I would work on Mac's whenever possible, even with limited tools because PC's were typically cold, ugly, mind numbing environments to work in.
Lord Voldemorts loved PC's. You could do anything with them, so long as Lord Voldemort was there to fix them. Companies were lured in by the promise of infinite power, even though they only needed to do a few things. Their machines looked and felt just like the Dark Lord would want them to - that was the tradeoff: a bit of your humanity in exchange for a competitive edge. That gave Apple the room it needed to gobble up market share. A Mac didn't let you do everything in the universe, it just let you do what you wanted and needed to do. It was also the closest to feeling human a computer had come.Like Microsoft, those of us creating UI take pointers from Apple and other leaders in the field of UI. Typically however the UI's for Apple's applications are not designed to be the primary interface day in and out for workers. You organize your photos in iPhoto, work on your play list in iTunes then go out into the world to live your iLife. If you spent 40 hours a week working in iTunes or iPhoto you would be in iHell. The HUI level for Apple UI's is significant, but not enough to get you through the work week.
HUI is a daunting task because there is no final static goal, its just too personal. HUI is really an ongoing conversation with your fellow workers. It is an environment that is constantly changing with the times, influenced by culture but always reaching out to the individual, rather than the group. Here are some general guidelines and pitfalls to the process of engaging in HUI creation.
Mistakes that lead to Inhumane UI (IUI).
- Nothing is temporary. A short-term solution inevitably becomes the main UI for some poor worker. This happens ALL the time. In a business moving at breakneck speed, anything that works can quickly become indispensable. Before you know it that crappy UI you set up to handle one problem has spawned a department of workers who are now chained to their desks living in your Friday afternoon - can't wait for the margaritas to start flowing - solution. The Dark Lord is very pleased.
- Workers are not lab rats. You just got back from the first UI training your boss paid for. Exhilarated from your stay at the Business Class Hilton, driven by a desire to take many such paid vacations in the future you apply your newly learned techniques to an unsuspecting staff. The "OOOHhhs" and "AHHHAs" are palpable for the first few days. As the weeks and months roll by you find that the top down approach you applied didn't work. You forgot to include other human beings in the IUI conversation you were having with yourself that day. Dark Lord wins again!
- Don't impress the Art Babe. Designing UI for the cutest member of your staff will skew your design to a younger group. We all tend to discriminate - be aware of this in your design. Remember that worker who has to squint to read your 10 point font? They really don't care whether or not you're going out with the receptionist. That means no "Hello Kitty" interface JUST for her.
- There is no spoon. Recognize that quote? Some of you did - from the first Matrix Movie. Some of you did not. Don't lose your users in your idea of cool. HUI welcomes everyone in. It is unique without being exclusive.
Ideas for more HUI
- There is no goal. HUI is in fact an ongoing conversation. You don't want your UI to be static. Development processes will pause, perhaps for years, but this painting is never "done". Hey think of it as job security!
- Don't be a loner. Because this is a conversation you need to make user input a priority. Schedule informal drop-in meetings. Don't let users get stuck just on features. Ask them about the look and feel of the database. Do they find their minds wandering while they're working?
- Play. Yep - that's part of your job. Surprise your users, but not so much it interrupts their workflow. Play is by definition spontaneous. What if delight were one of your UI development goals?
- Aesthetics count. What we need is UI that doesn't look like it was built by computer geeks. What we need is Queer Eye for the HUI. Aesthetics are highly subjective and potentially a hornets nest. This makes them perfect for HUI. People get excited about aesthetics. It draws your users into a conversation about the work environment you're creating.
- Dabble in frivolity. I know it’s not in your nature, that’s why they hired you. Still, the latest sports stats as a pop-up can really make someone’s day. Its the little things you do that let your users know you care.
- Be willing to disappoint. You're going to get pressure from a lot of directions. Make room for failure. Know that if you're wily, you can turn that failure around at some point in the future.
- Be an advocate for your users. Most workers don't feel they have the right to ask for UI improvements. If they're going to agitate for something it will be health care or a raise. Complaining about the tools they're given puts workers in a very vulnerable position. They don't want to piss off their computer support that could really mess with their lives. You may have to take on their cause, not attributing issues to them at all. Time to get on that white steed.
UI development is still in its infancy. Even if devices didn't change, decades of cultural influence would continue to impact UI. Generations of workers raised on HD video games are about to join the workforce. It’s likely they'll be able to handle much more information than the current work force and demand much more from their UI. Similarly they have an even higher tolerance for spending time in front of a screen.
HUI will inevitably become a thread that gets introduced into this ongoing conversation. The workforce of tomorrow may end up spending the bulk of their adult working life staring at UI. HUI helps to ensure that the future is not a world the Dark Lord would thrive in.
