pragmati.st

I’ve had to switch the phone on my Verizon account a few times in the last couple of weeks. Verizon has an online tool that makes it pretty easy. You login to your account, click on “My Phone”, click “Activate a Phone” and then enter your ESN or MEID. The ESN or MEID is the unique identifier of the handset and is typically found in very small text underneath the battery.

All in all it is a very good experience and makes a fairly arcane task pretty easy. However, there is one bit of explanatory text (highlighted in red) that offers an opportunity for an improved user experience.

Since ESN or MEID is either in decimal or hexidecimal there never will be the letter O it will always be the number 0. However, my mother shouldn’t have to think about hexadecimal base numbers if she is changing her phone. A better solution would be to just treat the letter O as the number 0. Then the user doesn’t have to worry about it, and you can get rid of the explanatory text.

This reminds me of code smells. A code smell is a symptom that there may be deeper issues with the code. For instance, long methods are a code smell. They don’t mean that there is necessarily a problem with the code, but they do suggest that there is a good chance there is.

I think that long blocks of explanatory text are a User Experience smell. Sometimes there isn’t a better option, and you really need that text, but in most cases a little extra thought about the UI can eliminate the need for the explanatory text.

I think that the release last year of the iPhone represented the biggest jump in computing since the introduction of the personal computer in the 1980’s. The iPhone is not a “smartphone” in the sense of its predecessors. It is a handheld computer that happens to do voice well.

The designers clearly were willing to sacrifice to optimize for how mobile devices are actually used. The biggest complaint about the iPhone is the lack of a physical keyboard. The touch screen keyboard is cumbersome. It is sufficient for typing short messages, but is woefully inadequate for long passages of text. However, the decision to abandon a physical keyboard allows for a much larger screen. Without the large screen surfing the web, reading emails, and watching video would not work as well. A larger screen makes it much easier to recieve information. And that is the crux of the mobile experience. A mobile device is primarily used to pull information; to look up directions, check movie times, read an email. If you need to write more than 2 or 3 lines for an email it can probably wait until you get back to a full computer. The willingness to sacrifice the uncommon to make the common delightful is what makes the iPhone great.

This is not to say that I think the iPhone is the end all and be all of mobile interfaces. As much as I love it, it is not perfect. There have to be other interesting approaches to mobile computing. Unfortunately, all the existing phone producers have done is to produce cheap imitations. Just google for “iphone killer” to see a sad array of products without an original idea.

What the mobile space most needs is legitimate competition (If you think that Windows Mobile or RIM count, then I just don’t know what to tell you) Android could be very interesting, but I’m not sure if Google is going to be able to pull it off. Apple managed to produce the iPhone by completely controlling the hardware and software, and by pistol whipping one of the weaker carriers into allowing it. Google is trying to build a platform with multiple hardware manufacturers and networks. I don’t see how they’re going to be able to get them all on one page. I’m also not sure how one is supposed to effectively develop applications for the various phones with wildly different hardware.

That said, the first round of winners in the Android Developer Challenge include some very interesting applications. I’m particularly excited about Android Scan an application that lets you scan the barcode of a book, movie, or CD using the camera on your phone and instantly get reviews, samples and comparison shop online. I think that this is going to be really useful. Imagine being able to scan the barcode of a bottle of wine and instantly get reviews as well as finding out that it’s half price down the street. This is the future of shopping.

A lot of the other winners are underwhelming. There are a lot of location based social networks that will never get to a critical mass and a lot of emergency notification apps. Still there is a ton of potential, and an open mobile platform is really exciting. I love the idea of being able to replace the email client on my phone if I don’t like it. We’re in the infancy of designing for mobile devices, and the lower the barrier to entry the better. We need more people trying new things.

In the end I think that the iPhone is going to remain the pinnacle of mobile experience for some time. The seamless experience Apple has created is going to be hard to beat. If Android comes out before the iPhone becomes available on all carriers I think it will find a decent market. I would strongly consider an Android phone before switching away from Verizon’s network.

At least I am hopeful about the future of mobile devices, and that is something I’ve never been able to say be before.

Baggu sells reusable shopping bags. Their shop has a simple interface that makes it really easy to visualize what you’re purchasing.

Reusable shopping bags are a good way to cut down on our consumption. I bought the beautiful gray one from BagTheHabit for my girlfriend for Christmas.

Last week, I went to the doctor for a checkup for the first time since I was in High School. I could not believe how bad the user experience was. I’d like to be clear that I’m not blaming this particular doctor, as I have had pretty much the same experience at every doctor I have ever visited. I think the problems are endemic to the health care industry as a whole.

Making an Appointment

I called the doctor’s office at 3PM on a Thursday. They were closed (they only have morning hours on Thursday) so I had to call back on Friday. When I called back, the receptionist took my name, address, phone number, and email address and we scheduled an appointment.

Criticism: Not being able to make an appointment during business hours is pretty bad. Even banks stay open until 7pm now.

What I Want: I would like to be able to make appointments online at any time. I think you should be able to schedule appointments by phone hours at least until 7pm and preferably later. At the very minimum, I should be able to call and schedule an appointment from 9am-5pm Monday-Friday.

Office Design

This is a minor gripe, but going to the doctor is a stressful experience. I’ve always thought that a little bit of interior design work would go a long way to ease that stress. Kathy Sierra described it best when talking about her dentist’s office in Reducing Fear is the Killer App. Suffice it to say that this office (and every other doctor I’ve ever gone to) looked pretty much exactly like the black and white picture in Kathy’s article: receptionist behind a medical window, ugly chairs, sterile smell.

Criticism: The office was functional but it didn’t do anything to put me at ease or improve my experience and actually increased my stress.

What I Want: A desk for the receptionist instead of a glass window. Furniture that appears to have been designed in the two decades. Tasteful wall decorations instead of posters saying “Africa is fun. Typhoid fever is not.” Maybe a television showing sports or news (without volume) Preferably some option for beverages (coffee, tea, water, etc.)

Filling out Patient History

When I came in for my appointment they handed me a clipboard with several forms to fill out. The forms were an Insurance Form, a Medical History, and a Privacy Notice. On each of these three forms I had to fill out my name, address, phone number, and social security number. All in all filling out the forms took about 15 minutes.

Criticism: This was terrible. There is no reason I should have to fill out the same information on multiple forms.

What I Want: When I made my appointment they took my name, address, phone number, and email address. I would like to receive an email confirming the appointment, along with an iCal event so I can add the appointment to my calendar. Furthermore, I would like the email to include a link to electronic versions of the forms that I could complete at my convenience before my appointment (with the information the receptionist already took pre-filled)

When I got to the office they should have the completed forms waiting for my signature. If I did not fill the forms out in advance they should have copies of the forms pre-filled with the information they took over the phone.

How Things Got This Way

I think that the user experience at doctor’s offices is so bad because of the way that doctors in the United States get paid. Most doctors are paid primarily by insurance companies, not the patients themselves. Since prices are fixed by the insurance companies the doctors don’t have much incentive to providing a better experience. This isn’t to say that insurance is a bad thing, but rather that the health industry is a prime example of the mediocre product you get when the person who consumes a service isn’t the person who pays for the service. Enterprise software is another example of a terrible user experience that is the result of the users not being the ones who actually purchase the product.

Furthermore, since the cost of switching doctors is so high (in time, inconvenience, and stress) and the services provided are so similar doctors do not have to worry much about patients leaving.

Standard, open formats for electronic medical records could provide some hope by lowering the cost of switching doctors. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll see them any time soon.

Interesting Ideas

This doctor in Brooklyn seems to be trying some interesting things. He doesn’t have an office, makes house calls, and is available by cell phone, IM, email, and video chat. I think his model may be a bit extreme, but it does sound like it would serve healthy young people better than the existing setup.

The Electronic Medical Record System that he uses looks interesting, but doesn’t seem to have much focus on the patient themselves.

The truth is I don’t need much health care, but it would be extremely valuable to have someone to call when I have questions, or steer me in the direction of more affordable services when I do need care. (Instead of going to an emergency room to receive $20 a pill ibuprofen like I did when I dislocated my finger last year.)

The Future

I am hopeful for the future. My generation is the first to grow up with computers and the internet and my peers are just now finishing medical school. As a more tech savvy generation of doctors moves into private practice I may get to see some of the things I want actually implemented.

In the meantime, if anyone knows of a doctor in the DC area who seems genuinely concerned with the experience of their patients please let me know.

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