The Red Bridge

Ismail Gul is a Technology Researcher at Enabled Gaming and a long-time, avid consumer of recreational and communication technology. Ismail (Izzy) is a neighbour and he shared his thoughts on computer accessibility with me over a Turkish coffee one recent afternoon.

Izzy is an optimistic, passionate proponent of the computer’s potential to connect and make people’s lives better. It’s a testament to his character that he remains a ‘technology optimist’ – especially since the makers of computers, operating systems, applications, games, mobile devices and music players treat him so badly, so often.

Izzy has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA ). “When the brain sends the signal for the muscle to move, the nerves don’t receive it. Over time, the muscles weaken from disuse,” he explains. Bottom-lip joysticks control his motorised wheelchair, and the mouse pointer on his desktop computer and smartphone.

For Izzy the best applications and websites use onscreen keyboards, selecting keys with a mouse pointer. Mouse control is better for games, though this is rare. He’s also had some luck with voice control (more later).

Accessibility is getting worse

I ask Izzy about his experiences accessing websites, applications and, his main love, games. He reckons, “accessibility is getting worse,” rather than better.

Izzy easily reels off several frustrating examples. He cites a recent update to the Facebook chat interface. He says prior to the change,

It was easier when I could open the chat interface in a separate window because I could position it wherever I want. Since the update, a chat window just pops up at the bottom and stays there. You cannot move it. When chatting with multiple people it’s even worse because then you have heaps of little chat windows popping up at the bottom.

“It’s the most used website in the world and with an upgrade that’s meant to make it better,” Izzy laments, chat has become harder.

Another example is a trick that’s become a trend: moused-over images expand and ‘come forward’. Looks really cool… except when your mouse pointer strays over an image sitting (usually) above the keyboard – the image sits over and in front of the keyboard preventing mouse cursor clicks on the keys it is masking.

These issues aren’t trivial or limited to outside Australia. According to ABS data there are 4 million Australians with a reported disability and just over half access the internet mostly for general browsing, email and chat .

The ideal user interface

Why don’t companies check before making these changes? “Money… it’s expensive and the cost is jacked up when you use the term disability,” Izzy says without rancour. “Ignorance of muscular disability issues as well,” he adds.

I ask Izzy what he does when he encounters these problems. He replies wryly, “I put up with it and find workarounds… sometimes people respond when I email them, usually they don’t.”

The best example of an accessible game is Guild Wars part I (he hasn’t played part II yet). Unlike most online games, Guild Wars I can be controlled with a mouse (apart from naming characters) and allows you to minimise, maximise or close all of its windows.

The few good experiences aside, Izzy says there are worrying trends driving resources and innovation away from accessible technology: more touch screen-based devices and a lack of open source solutions (“Linux is like a desert”) For Izzy. these trends are exacerbated by “everything moving to the web and streaming”.

One promising advance is voice-controlled software. Izzy’s tried Game Commander, Tazti and Voice Attack. Each has its pros and cons and are still works in progress.

To Izzy’s mind, there’s no single solution, “the ideal user interface is a combination of voice, mouse, onscreen keyboard and eye tracking.” After a pause he adds, “but this is expensive.”

An amazing world opened up

A mobile smartphone is a recent accessibility success story. Izzy researched smartphones for a year before settling on Google’s Nexus. I’d have loved to have been at the Broadmeadows phone shop when he arrived to test it and found himself instructing shop assistants on the finer points of its use.

The Google Nexus’ main advantage is that it doesn’t have hardware buttons like other Android phones. This means it connects to his wheelchair and can be mouse-controlled. Being able to keep up with family and friends while he’s out of the house has improved his quality of life. As Izzy puts it: “an amazing world opened up to me.”

This leads us to the topic of embedding accessibility into the design of software and online services. Izzy’s advice for designers is “Keep it Simple, Sweetheart”:

Designers need to have empathy for… be mindful of people in my situation… Take every scenario into account and test, test, test. Software development companies should include people with disabilities as part of their development teams when testing software.

Content chaos

Web content doesn’t escape Izzy’s laser-sharp analysis, either. If early websites looked crappy, at least they were simple. “I visit websites and there’s links everywhere,” Izzy rues, “I go to a news website and it’s just chaos,” he says.

I agree. Not for a return to the early days of the web, but as a reminder always to create simple usable sites for everyone. As someone said, “I’m not interested in the simplicity on this side of complexity. I’m only interested in simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

Sit down and just ask

How will making the web more accessible also make it usable for everyone? Developers and designers should start by asking questions. Izzy says,

Some developers might be afraid to ask questions… they should be afraid NOT to ask questions.

When Izzy says, “there’s no humanity in technology,” it’s not trite or abstract. It’s a commonsense reminder to design for inclusion.

I feel proud and a little despondent to report that after we spoke, Izzy emailed me: “I’ve never really had anyone sit down and just ask me what my problems with technology are 🙂 ”

 

**Thanks Izzy for your generosity both in answering my questions and reading over this post. Find out more about Izzy on SBS Insight episode: Breaking Point Tuesday, 4 Sep 12  (start at 26’30”).

• You know those articles you keep coming back to? This is one. In internet time it’s an oldy, but a goody. Writing in Smashing Magazine, user experience expert, Louis Rosenfeld explains why web projects fail and how to fix them. (Hint: manage visitor tasks.) Stop Redesigning And Start Tuning Your Site Instead

• A lot of what’s written about search engine optimisation (SEO) is blarney. Age journalist, George Wright, attempts to unblarney it. What drives people to your website isn’t tricks- rather a focus on structure, content and understanding the words your site visitors use. Taking the snake oil out of SEO

• Ouch. Damning usability assessment of Microsoft’s new operating system from user interface (UI) researcher, Jakob Nielsen. He writes: “Windows 8 encompasses two UI styles within one product. Windows 8 on mobile devices and tablets is akin to Dr. Jekyll: a tortured soul hoping for redemption. On a regular PC, Windows 8 is Mr. Hyde: a monster that terrorizes poor office workers and strangles their productivity.”  Windows 8 — Disappointing Usability for Both Novice and Power Users

 

He likes money, my 6 year old son Romy. Or, at least the potential for money to awesome-ise his life. He soon realised his parents weren’t just going to give it to him. Now he’s discovering his inner entrepreneur.

Romy’s first foray into the world of business is a plan for local home egg delivery. Helping him design his services got me wondering:

how does someone who’s never read a business book or had advice, go about designing their services?

It’s not every day you have such a novice subject. Before I reflect on his service design, let’s look at Romy’s business proposal.

Hatching a business

Romy’s idea is good one: home-grown eggs delivered directly to neighbours. The goal is extra pocket money. It’s achievable because the model is part of our core business as we have experience with chooks and, broody hens aside, production will be mostly trouble-free. Also, it has low overheads, consistent customers, and good personnel in the form of an energetic delivery boy.

Chicken feed

That’s the idea, the goal and the model. What should Romy do next?

• decide how many extra ‘layers’ he’ll need
• how much grain
• how and when to deliver the goods

These were Romy’s main concerns. His natural inclination was to solve production and service problems. In fact, he was ready to go out and buy some new chooks (ie. have me do it). Romy was interested in how it was going to work for him – which is valid but his first order hadn’t come in yet. He needed to get out and talk to some people.

Crack the egg

You may be thinking: “he’s only 6, he can’t be expected to think about anyone else, let alone potential customers.” Six year olds are narcissists I grant you. But his reaction tells us something about what’s at the top of our minds when we design services. Maybe many of us haven’t outgrown our inner 6 year old. The service design mindset begins by asking questions.

Romy and I started by brainstorming some questions:

• are you interested in getting an egg delivery?
• do you know anyone else who may be interested?
• how many eggs would you like – 6 to 12?
• how much would you spend per egg – 40c to 55c?
• when would you like eggs delivered – Friday or Saturday?

With the results of this survey Romy can start servicing his customers. In a sense, his business didn’t exist until he asks those questions. Although these questions get you into the right service design mindset, they’re really just basic marketing. The next step is to bake the souffle; to deliver better customer experiences.

Baking the ‘customer experience’ souffle

Service design’s purpose is to make your customers’ experiences better. How your customers perceive their every interaction with your services is their customer experience. Romy can’t rest on his laurels – he has to build ‘asking questions’ into his business and provide his (profitable) customers the information they want. Romy needs to ask them about their egg delivery problems and priorities.

For example, the next survey could rank their concerns and he could provide a newsletter to address the main ones, such as:

• report problems
• get recipes
• pay for eggs
• change the number of eggs delivered
• change the day eggs are delivered
• have a break from ordering
• give feedback
• return egg cartons

Now that Romy has taken the first step in designing his services he can start to improve those services incrementally by focusing on his customers’ experiences.

So wish him well for the ongoing success of his business endeavour… you never know, you may work for him one day.

 

Reach out, join in and show up! – Thomas Joiner (advice to men on making and maintaining friendships)

In his latest book Lonely at the Top: the High Cost of Men’s Success, US Psychologist Thomas Joiner charts men’s path to wealth and status… and loneliness.

Joiner’s is a convincing argument with plenty of evidence. It reminds me of my own experience with social media. More on that later.

The problem with men

Joiner’s thesis is that men, in general, seek wealth and influence at the expense of cultivating friendships.  The result is: as we get older, we get lonelier.

Friendships are like gardens. Plants may just  survive if you don’t maintain your garden… but will it flourish?

Traditionally, men rely on institutions such as school and work – familiar and structured – to maintain friends. But these ‘structured interactions’ can fall away when circumstances change. We retire, lose jobs, lose partners, move houses, etc. It stands to reason we can’t rely on the same faces being there just by dint of turning up every day.

And, as Joiner documents, being lonely and not having friends is not just sad – it can be harmful to your health.  Joiner gives numerous examples of the detrimental effects of loneliness – from a weaker memory to impaired heart function and increased rates of suicide.

Table tennis. Or why we act like friendship doesn’t matter

Last year I wanted to do something with male friends that was active and didn’t involve drinking (which I’d given up). I chose weekly table tennis. Okay so table tennis isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but the activity was accessible, lasted an hour, very social, within walking distance for most and very cheap. There was initial enthusiasm and I tried to bring in new men to make it interesting, texting them with news of times and locations.

After only a few weeks the sessions dwindled to a core of 4 or 5. I made some friends but it wasn’t the success for which I’d hoped. Excuses not to attend included: it’s too nice a day to play indoors (come every second week), I’ve got my own table (back to the drinking), one of the players isn’t a very good standard (who cares?), etc.

The trouble is men don’t put themselves out to maintain friends. If something doesn’t suit us 110% we don’t do it.

But friendship is very much about putting yourself out. It’s a messy form of negotiation and compromise.

Social media is one avenue for connecting with friends

Social media, however, can be counter-intuitive for some men. We’ve been enculturated to seek out status not maintain friends. Take my own experience of Facebook.

I didn’t get Facebook.

I’d seen the trivialities other people had posted and commented… surely my witty, erudite posts and comments would be more popular? Wrong.

No one was interested in what I had to say. This rude realisation genuinely puzzled me. Frustrated, I decided  Facebook and I weren’t compatible.

That changed when I started my own business. I needed to understand social media so I attended seminars, read articles and observed.

What I learnt about social media…

Participation isn’t just a way to bolster your status  (although that can be a by-product). 

Because I want  to participate then all I need to do  is “reach out, join in and show up” – exactly what Thomas Joiner advises in the quote at the beginning of this article. That is, maintain (Facebook) friendships.

Within obvious limits, just as when a friend says something you don’t agree with 110% you don’t always make a big deal about it, when you ‘like’ someone’s post it doesn’t mean you completely endorse what they have to say. You’re just showing you’ve read it and that validates the poster.

Like it or not, it’s a contemporary way of keeping up with people in between seeing them in person. As long as you’ve checked in a few times with your friends on Facebook, the next time you see them you can ask them about such and such that they posted.

It’s not lazy or trite – it’s just a contemporary way of maintaining friendships. So, what’s not to ‘like’?

 

PS. Thanks to Selena for making this post better.