As a user experience professional, I continuously focus on design trends and de-facto standards, so I can work with development and product teams to craft the most effective end-to-end experience I can. And a core attribute of such an experience is that it aligns with what customers expect and doesn’t “break” any of these standards and “rules”.
This approach is great at delivering a modern competitive set of features, but because it aligns to conventions (and is often risk-averse), it is often lacking bold innovative elements. That’s designing for today… Designing for tomorrow is different. When it comes to designing future experiences, standards haven’t been defined yet and the target is not so clear. How will people use technology in ten years’ time?
Microsoft (my former employer) has been thinking about future experiences for quite a while. Before I joined, they created a very interesting future vision video. Here it is:
While many ideas featured in the video are beyond the current capabilities of technology, it clearly showcased that product teams inside Microsoft about thinking about the future of productivity. And they are still thinking about it.
A leaked feature for an upcoming version of Outlook called Spaces is the latest example of this. According to this article, Spaces “brings together the best of Office into a simple space/board that makes it much easier to keep track of emails, files, deadlines, to-do lists, etc.”
Finally.
I think the Spaces idea is great, because it is about managing information not being managed BY it. And by simplifying the UI, it makes people more efficient. People want to use technology, not learn HOW to use it. They want to DO things.
While I had nothing to do with this idea, it is a concept I’ve considered for a while. Though my idea takes it a step further, beyond just one application (in this case Outlook). Every application has its own navigation and functionality, and having to learn each new interaction model takes cognitive effort. Also, operating systems have been application focused instead of information focused for the past 40 years. I think it’s time for that to change.
So, here’s my extension of the Spaces idea: How people can do more and achieve more by focusing on workspaces and tasks instead of apps and features.
Kill all apps
Why do users need to use three different applications (or more) to plan a project? Why do they need to save files and email them? Refactoring the operating system experience to be project- and task-focused instead of app and file-focused will profoundly affect how people work.
Keep the same features that users expect and need but “decouple” them from apps, accessible on demand based on the task at hand. Create what I call an “Intelligent Workspace” with a simple interface: A working area and function-loader (in the form of a simple search box). Here’s a couple of usage scenarios for this workspace…
Example #1: Planning a wedding. There’s a dozen things to do and organize, and that’s just for a small simple ceremony. The user creates a new workspace. A simple text box and submit button appears on top.
The bride-to-be types in “churches near me” and sees results in a new pane that appears… And the shortcut to this feature is pinned to the workspace. She can “save” a couple of locations, and they are also pinned to the workspace. Typing “add notes” loads a simple text area. They can look up caterers, order supplies, what-have-you. She can share the screen with anyone, in real time, anywhere. By typing “Call Joe” the VOIP functions loads and a teleconference begins. And so on.
Example #2: Creating a presentation. Say you are a student who has to do a presentation on space exploration. Simply ask the computer for images, history and references… And you build a working space filled with references. Instead of focusing on an app like PowerPoint, you can focus on the core important thing: Telling your story. The tools enable instead of get in the way.
Every aspect of the planning experience is loaded as and when needed, and the interface is as simple – or as cluttered – as the user likes. There is no multiple apps that users need to load and learn. There is only the work, in a UI that supports that work.
Use research to define core features
In my opinion there are probably less than 200 “tasks” that most people need to do on a computer or computing device. The details may vary, but the core tasks remain the same – and many of these tasks are generic enough they can be abstracted away from any specific business domain of superset of tasks. What are these tasks? I don’t know, but I know how to find out: User research and telemetry data. Leverage both approaches to identify the tasks that can be abstracted out of applications and served up through an Intelligent Workspace.
Another aspect of this approach is it can leverage the cloud in a unique way. Enterprises uses cloud services like Big Data and Machine Leaning to support their organizations… This takes that model down to the user. Instead of buying cloud storage, people can buy “advanced” features as needed based on the task at hand… While the base set of on-demand features (that cover 80% of the users’ needs) will always be available and integrated into the Intelligent Workspace.
Use AI to REALLY help users
Not trying to replicate Clippy, but proactive recommendations can help users learn and use this new Intelligent Workspace. Provide suggested features based on the work they are to doing, based on the collective anonymized usage patterns of other users doing the same thing. I wrote a patent proposal along similar lines a couple of years back, thought nothing came of it… as far as I know.
Again, the goal is to focus on the task at hand, and remove any features of functions that are superfluous to that. It’s the ultimate implementation of KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid).
Remember everything
Remember not only the user’s decisions, but also use cloud storage to continuously backup work. Allow users to “roll” forward and back, allowing for undo and redo. Allow for access across the workspace and the information across multiple devices. And save all “states” of the information that is used to let the user know when something important changes.
Make the Intelligent Workspace the OS
My final idea regarding this is the most “crazy”: Don’t try and evolve the existing UI conventions to be more “modern” or “fluid” – Take everything away, and have the default UI the Intelligent Workspace. Provide an “alternate” view for people to use if they prefer the old way of doing things, but be bold. Change the way people work to align more to what they want to do… instead of making them learn how to do things the way their parents did.
Closing
My ideas may be too radical to be implemented, but we should to be thinking in radical ways. The legacy conventions and UI patterns are long in the tooth, and we need to try to experiment. I’ve already written about what I consider the “Commoditization” of UI, and want something better for the next generation of users than the same old hamburger menus and control paradigms we’ve seen a dozen times before.