Nottingham City Centre: A tenuous user interface analogy
On my way into work this morning - which deviated from the usual cycle ride in favour of a lift in the car - I noticed some new car park signs just as we entered the Nottingham city centre boundary (they could have been there a while, but hey I'm a cyclist, what do I know?).
Ahem. Anyway, these electronic signs indicated the number of free spaces in a number of the main car parks within the city. Electronic signs like this did exist previously, but only when you were literally a turn away from a particular car park. Not very handy for planning a route to the nearest free space.
With the addition of these signs just as you're entering the city limits, it gives drivers the oppotunity to plan ahead and decide not only which car park would be least busy, but also which route to take to get there - rather than getting stuck in a jam only to find there aren't any spaces left.
It got me thinking about how this is an easy to implement - but oft overlooked - piece of user interface design. By making your users aware of potential hazards at an early point in their journey (based on data you are already aware of), it allows them to plan ahead, and not get irrate when they find their destination does not live up to expectation.
Take for example a recent Amazon "journey". We were buying a number of items, all neatly collected in our shopping basket, and proceeded to the checkout. Three or four steps - account login, shipping address, payment details etc. - and then we were told that one of our items could not be shipped to the chosen address. Heartache and confusion reigned as we tried to get back to change the address and resubmit the order.
In the end we angrily deleted the offending item altogether - but if we'd been informed at an earlier stage of the process, would it have been as much of a hassle? Probably not. We would have anticipated the problem well in advance, and prepared ourselves that we might not be able to get the item delivered.
Keeping users informed, and informing them early, reduces tears before bedtime and makes you look like a lovely human being. Well done you.



