Chapter 49 Section 2 User Friendly

At Xerox in 1979, Jobs saw magical graphical user interface technologies such as mice and windows.From a historical perspective, that visit will undoubtedly influence the direction of IT technology in the next ten years.This is not only because Jobs "stole" the graphical user interface technology from Xerox, but also because Jobs not only saw a new technology that day, but also saw the "user-friendly" concept behind this technology. design thinking. Since then, Jobs' leading idea in product design has never deviated from the theme of "user-friendliness".When designers submit ideas to Jobs for review, Jobs acts more like an end user who is empowered to make decisions.Any design that users won't like or is awkward to use, no matter how advanced the technology is, will be shot to death by Qiao Gangzhu.

Jobs' emphasis on user-friendliness started with the packaging.Since the Apple II era, Jobs has attached great importance to the packaging of Apple computers.He believes that when users open the packing box, the first thing they see is the product packaging. This first impression, as well as the process of unpacking the package, is a very good opportunity to teach users how to use the product. Jobs once said to the Macintosh development team: "Well, if I am that product. What happens when the buyer tries to take me out of the box and start using it? Think about it, the first time you use it Macintosh users have never seen a mouse. Then, when the buyer unpacks the computer, can the way we package the mouse intuitively tell the user that the mouse should be held and used in this way? Similarly, when the user opens the Macintosh computer for the first time What needs to be displayed on the computer to guide users to use it? If there is no manual at all, can our product design be able to be used by users after opening the package?"

Former Apple vice president Jay Elliott recalled that while developing the Macintosh's graphical user interface, one day Jobs went to a restaurant called Ciao in San Francisco for dinner.As soon as the waiter brought up the menu, Jobs was attracted by the Picasso-style icons on the menu.This is the style!Jobs was so excited it was like taking LSD.Early on Monday morning, Jobs rushed to the company to show the designers the Ciao-style menu, and worked with the designers to determine the appropriateness of every icon, every font, every shape, and every color in the graphical user interface. design.The visual style of the first-generation Macintosh graphical user interface was thus determined.In Jobs' mind, the computer interface should be like an attractive menu, which is both good-looking and easy to use.

Throughout his life, there were very limited people who Jobs could truly admire.Edwin Land, who invented the Polaroid camera, and Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, were both honored to be part of this small group.The Polaroid camera was the easiest and most convenient camera to use at that time; and the Ford car was a classic of using technology to realize the civilianization of cars.Although Jobs pursued the perfection of product taste and image, in terms of user interaction, Jobs always emphasized that computer products should be as simple and easy to use as Polaroid cameras and Ford cars.

Jobs once talked about his basic ideas on product design in an interview with reporters: "Design is an interesting field. Some people think that design is what the product looks like. But in fact, if you think about it, you will find that design It’s really about how the product works. Designing a Mac is not just about how the computer looks, but how it works.” Jobs believed that the human hand is the most perfect creation of God.A designer who worked at Apple recalled that Jobs would often stare at his hands in a daze.Jobs said: "The hand is the most frequently used part of your body, and the hand can directly obey the brain." As long as the problem of interaction between the hand and the computer is solved, the product will naturally have the characteristics of "user-friendliness".Many of Apple's products, from the single-button mouse to the multi-touch glass screens of the iPhone and iPad to the multi-touch touchpads used in the latest Macs, are the product of serious thinking about the relationship between adversary and computer.

Jobs said: "Creativity is nothing more than the ability to connect something. If you ask a creative person how they 'created' something, they'll feel a bit wronged because they really aren't. In 'creating' something, they just saw something. Because, they were able to connect different experiences they had seen before and synthesize it into something new." Then, when users consider whether a product meets their needs and whether it is "user-friendly", what angles do they usually think from?Jobs gave reporters the example of his own family buying a washing machine.Jobs said:

"Design is not just about designing fun gadgets. My family just went through a big discussion about buying a washer dryer. We found out that the washer dryers made in the US had problems, and the ones made in Europe were better. European washers wash Clothes are finished with less detergent. Best of all, European washing machines are gentle on clothes, wash cleaner, use less detergent and less water, and use only a quarter of the water used by American washing machines. However, the price to pay for this is that European washing machines take longer to do the same amount of laundry. My family debated this for two weeks, and it was a dilemma. Should it take an hour to do the laundry, or Would it take an hour and a half to get cleaner without damaging the clothes and save more water? In the end, we chose a Miele washing machine from Germany. This washing machine is very expensive in the United States because few people buy it here. We are in The issues considered when buying a washing machine are actually issues that designers have to consider.”

Users of Apple computers—note, I’m obviously not talking about those “fake users” who bought Apple computers in Zhongguancun and installed Windows operating systems directly—know that the upper left corner of each window of the MacOS operating system has a red, The yellow and green buttons correspond to the three different functions of "Close Window", "Shrink to Tray" and "Enlarge Window".Everyone who sees these three colored buttons will think of traffic lights at intersections. However, in the early days of Macintosh design, the colors of these three buttons were all gray.During a meeting, Jobs carefully observed the design of these three small buttons, shaking his head while watching.

Jobs said: "No, no, these three buttons are not friendly at all. At a glance, I don't know what each button is for." Cordell Ratzlaff, the designer in charge of the user interface, thought for a while and said: "The purpose of designing them in gray is to not distract the user's attention. If you want to distinguish their functions more clearly, can you In this way, when the mouse moves over a button, a small animation is displayed to remind the user what the button does?" Jobs shook his head vigorously: "No, no, this is too complicated and not friendly at all."

Suddenly, Jobs had an idea and said to everyone: "Do you know traffic lights? Red, yellow, and green are the three colors that have the most expressive functions in people's intuition. Why can't we paint these three buttons with red, yellow, and green respectively?" What about yellow and green?" Retzlaff said afterwards: "When we first heard this crazy suggestion, we all felt that it was too weird to link traffic lights with the computer's graphical user interface. But it didn't take long for us to find out that Jobs was right. . Different colors of buttons visually imply three different functions without intruding the user like large icons or animations. In particular, we refer to 'close window' with a red button implying 'danger' so that the user It’s not easy to miss this button.”

"Steve always looked at every product in terms of what the user experience was going to be," Sculley said. User experience comes first, a standard that is embraced by almost every designer today.But in actual product design, very few can give priority to user experience.The author once discussed a simple question with several professional designers. It is not surprising that the iPhone released by Apple in 2007 is outstanding in terms of user experience. Experience or clearly ahead of the vast majority of smartphones on the market?Since all designers know that user experience priority is what Jobs and Apple did best, why can't most people even learn from it? Yes, even if most people understand this simple truth, they can only follow behind Apple's excellent design. The word "user-friendly" is not a method that can be learned casually. It is an innovative concept rooted deep in Jobs' brain.