Creating Unfriendly Interfaces
Recently I worked on a project that included a personal profile as part of the UI on a certain view. Essential to this profile was, among other things, a headshot of the person profiled. The customer directed me to generally aim for an iOS 7-like interface to replace the existing non-mobile-friendly early and very outdated — almost default IE styling — user interface.
This seemed pretty straightforward. I styled things in a fashion similar to iOS 7, albeit with the aim to specifically avoid being too tied to that design, as the project was a Web app that would be used by people of all technological persuasions. When it came time to do the profile photo, I went along with the now ubiquitous circle design that nicely suited the flat (sic) design aesthetic that had been devised.
Overall, the app looked beautiful. I certainly expected some critical feedback during the first demo to the business owners and was prepared to both defend some decisions made as well as accept others, as is usual. However, I was more than a bit surprised by what the business owners almost unanimously felt was the primary problem with the design. It was not the colors, the white space, the flat aesthetic, or even the behaviors. And it was not the labels and other text that all too often clients get bogged down in when reviewing a design. No, their number one concern, one which they made clear had to be changed, was the circular profile photo.
It made the person in the photo appear too nice.
Yup, that’s right. The customer did not want people using this application to feel good about the person in the photo. On the contrary, they wanted a very neutral reaction from users, and were even willing to go with a negative reaction rather than one that in any way felt positive.
Why? Simple. The application was a tool to be used by federal officers and managers to search for and find out information about people who had been released from federal prison post-conviction and were still under some form of federal supervision because of the nature of their crimes.
Even though the business owners spoke of these ex-cons as “clients” in the course of their work, in truth the public is their client and these former offenders are viewed by the business owners and the application users as a possible threat to public safety. Consequently, they want their officers and others to always remember the threat these people pose. To that end, they have no desire for the application to in any way conflict with this by presenting the ex-cons in a positive light.
From where I sat, I hadn’t considered this. I was thinking about iOS 7-like design trends and making the whole thing look beautiful, as was my charge. I entirely forgot that this design aesthetic was created intentionally to elicit positive feelings generally. The use of its style on the ex-con photos did just that, which only goes to show how well Apple did in achieving its purpose to create a friendly OS.
For a few moments I sought to challenge the opinions openly expressed during the business owner meeting. My gut reaction was that they simply didn’t get what I was trying to accomplish, but the truth is that I didn’t get what they were trying to accomplish.
In the end, I listened and created a less appealing, but far more non-positive-feeling square profile photo. This pleased my customer.
The lessons learned here are classic ones for UX designers. First, listen to your customers. Second, not every element of a design works in all cases. Third, just because your customer cannot or does not know exactly what they want at first does not mean they don’t know it when they see it. And finally, UX is powerful. It is very powerful.
I was not upset in the end. In fact, I know that had they not seen a more friendly profile photo none of us would have realized how important it was to ensure that the photo did not impart a positive reaction in the users of the app.
I created a prototype. They reacted. I understood and responded. The client was happy. That’s how it should be.
