My LG dryer asks me to choose how dry I would like my clothes to be. Since when is dryness a scale? Something is either dry or it isn’t. “Damp” is not dry. Imagine a washer asking how clean you’d like your clothes to come out – “dirty clean” or “very clean”?

Netflix knew that there would be a nasty backlash, and has already taken the subscriber defection into account in its financial forecasts. It still figures it will come out ahead.

That’s nice. But in fact, it fits in with the logic behind Netflix’s decision to change its pricing structure:

Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering. Reflecting our confidence that DVDs by mail is a long-term business for us, we are also establishing a separate and distinct management team solely focused on DVDs by mail, led by Andy Rendich, our Chief Service and Operations Officer and an 11 year veteran of Netflix.

That’s a difficult paragraph to parse, but since I’m well versed in corporate-speak from working at a large corporation, I think I get it. It sounds like Netflix has decided to split its business into two units: online streaming and DVDs by mail. That is what they are explaining by saying that they “have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs”. It’s not that Netflix didn’t know this before; they just decided the demand was big enough to justify a new business unit. That’s where the new management team comes in.

The explanation seems to be: we now have two business units and each business unit will charge users independently in order to remain profitable. What Netflix avoids addressing, though, is how this decision affects the current user experience offered by the company.

Here is how we use Netflix at home: stream some older TV shows for casual TV watching, with an occasional movie now and then, and supplement the titles not available for streaming with DVDs. I bet there are lots of other customers who use it exactly the same way.

The key to the service, in other words, is the fact that you can stream and supplement with DVDs when something is not available for streaming. This is what makes Netflix. And this is where the new pricing structure breaks down. It fails to address this special combination that is not offered by anyone else in the business. Take away the DVDs and you’ve got Hulu and Amazon Prime. Take away the streaming and you’ve got Redbox. But put them together and you’ve got Netflix.

To a Netflix customer, streaming and DVDs are inseparable.

To Netflix, they are two separate business units.

It’s a classic case of implementation-model design. The pricing is based on Netflix’s implementation model: DVDs by mail are markedly different from streaming content from a business perspective.

Compare this to a cable company that offers TV, internet, and telephone services. They have separate business units for each, but they still offer bundle pricing if you subscribe to more than one service. Why isn’t Netflix offering the same? This is what doesn’t make sense from the perspective of their users. The service we are receiving doesn’t change, yet the price increases dramatically because of what? Because they decided to have a re-org?

I predict that by the time September 1st rolls around, Netflix will offer a bundle plan for around $12-13/month. In the meantime, customers like myself are left wondering: do I cancel streaming or DVDs by mail? And if I cancel either of those, why not go with the cheaper (or even free) offerings from companies like Hulu, Amazon, or Redbox?

On a final note, here is a hint to Netflix marketing and user experience folks: if the description of your new pricing plan reads like a math problem, you’re doing it wrong.

Your current $11.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray access) will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray), 1 out at-a-time (no streaming)
for $9.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $17.98 a month ($7.99 + $9.99).

Clearly identifying a bill’s due date when the user is scheduling a payment.

Citibank’s calendar widget clearly indicates when the next payment is due.

Bad Idea

Telling the user to remember a bill’s due date while scheduling a payment.

ECSI’s student loan bill pay options require you to know your bill’s due date. Note the two notes. Also note that the due date does not appear anywhere else on this form.

If I drive to work, on my way home I encounter 6 or 7 signs like the one above all in a one-mile stretch. To make matters worse, the signs alternate between “Must Turn Left” and “Must Turn Right.” Even though I’ve made the trip many times, I still get tripped up by these signs.

There are several design problems here. The signs are small, the text is almost identical between “Left” and “Right” signs, and the wrong word is emphasized. When I look at the sign, the first thing my eye is drawn to is the “MUST” in the center – not only is it slightly bigger than the other lettering, it’s also centered (both vertically and horizontally) and is the only word that gets its own line. However, the information I really need is which lane will be turning. In order to distinguish between a “Must Turn Left” and a “Must Turn Right” sign, you have to read it every time, which takes attention away from what you should be doing: driving.

There is a simple and common solution: use arrows.

Photo Credit: Right Turn Only by pwinn

There is no confusion here. You know which lane is turning just by glancing at the sign. And yet, the text-only signs are so prevalent in my area. Maybe there is a reason for this that I am unaware of? I’d hate to think it’s a never-ending case of “well, everyone else is doing it…”

I found there are four things you need to do in parallel: learn, stay current, practice, and evangelize. Sometimes you’ll focus on one more than others, but to be successful, you really need to juggle all four. (And it doesn’t stop after you’ve made the switch, you just have less to learn and more to stay current on.)

Learn

Although a lot of design is common sense, you still need to learn how to recognize what sense is “common” and what is not. To this end, I recommend attending conferences and seminars and reading books.

Depending on where you live, there may be a local SIGCHI, UPA, or IxDA chapter that organizes events and seminars – that would be the first thing to check out because local events are usually less expensive and more intimate than the big national conferences put on by these organizations. Regarding the bigger conferences, I can’t speak for UPA or Interaction, but CHI tends to be more academic, so it may not be the best use of funding (if you’re lucky enough to get it in this economy). I found UIE’s UI conference to be great for a beginner, with great speakers and day-long seminars that cover subjects like design strategy, intro to interaction design, paper prototyping, and many others in full detail.

For books, I recommend Robert’s first book Designing the Obvious and Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. These are quick reads, but they manage to cover a lot of design basics – definitely enough to get you started. Books like About Face by Alan Cooper, while comprehensive and often recommended, are more useful as references when you need to look up how to solve a particular problem. It’s not something you’ll want to read cover-to-cover (unless you have a lot of time on your hands).

Stay Current

There is a bit of overlap between learning and staying current, but I think they deserve to be called out individually because the resources you use are different.

To get and stay current in the field, you should make Google Reader or another RSS feed aggregator your best friend. Blogs are by far the best way to stay in touch with the design community. Here are a few that I recommend:

• Signal vs. Noise
• UIE Brain Sparks
• Boxes and Arrows
• Seth Godin’s Blog

If you find an author you like, they probably have a blog – look it up. If you do some development, read developer blogs. Subscribe to Gizmodo if you have time to spare. Whatever you’re interested, subscribe to the feed and you’ll be on top of all the latest news, trends, and techniques.

Another fantastic resource for staying current is the SXSW Interactive conference. This will be the best investment you make, guaranteed. You’ll be surrounded by bright and creative people and all the emerging technologies. It’s a great motivator and a great way to meet all those internet ‘celebrities’ like Jared and Robert (not to mention Kathy Sierra, Jason Fried, Jeffrey Zeldman, and many others).

Practice

The only way to become a designer is to design. Even if it’s not in your job description, start incorporating design techniques you read or hear about.

Do some hallway usability tests, make a paper prototype, create some mock-ups before diving into the code. One of the first things I did was create a paper prototype and run some usability tests with people in the office. We got some great feedback this way that led to a much better design. It’s amazing how much a quick and dirty usability test can uncover.

Another thing you can do is start asking questions: Who are the users? Why do they need our tool? How do they currently accomplish their tasks? Why do we need features x, y, and z? What workflow are we trying to support? These are the types of things a designer needs to tackle for every project, so the sooner you start asking questions, the sooner you’ll figure out the right questions to ask. If you’re lucky, you may get to talk to some real users and observe them in their environment.

Find the low-hanging fruit for your project – something that would be easy to improve – and do it. It may not be the most visible thing or lead to impressive results, but at least you’ll get to practice your skills and it’ll give you something to talk about when you need to convince others of the value of design and usability. The more you do, the more people will start to see you as the “expert” in the field.

Evangelize

There’s no getting away from this one. You have to be passionate about great design and usability and you need to talk about it. Make it a point to know all the key decision makers in your company and meet with them on a regular basis. Even if it’s over coffee in the break room, you need to spread the idea that usability is a priority, not a “nice-to-have”. It’s usually not hard to convince people that usability is necessary, but it is hard to get them to act on that belief.

One of the things I did is establish a Usability Special Interest Group where we review our current products and mock-ups, read and discuss design-related books, and share other interesting information we learn at conferences or read online. We have a group of people interested in usability (developers, managers, interaction designers, and technical writers) who learn together and all now evangelize usability on the projects they’re involved with. In addition to being a support group for like-minded individuals, it’s also a great way to spread the influence.

What you do will depend on your organization and its culture. Just find the right people and talk, talk, talk. This is a great way to establish yourself as a usability expert and to start swaying the company culture in the direction of usability, where they will actually value your work.



Remember, it’s better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. The best way to make the switch to interaction designer is to start doing the work. As a developer, you are intimately involved in your products, so you have a great chance to influence them. Don’t wait for someone to ask you to design something or run a usability test – just do it and then present the results. Time may be a concern, but if you don’t find the time for design, no one else will either. Learn, stay current, practice, and evangelize and soon enough, people will see you as the designer you want to be.

Then order your new business cards.

I only have 28 years 11 months 17 days 13 hours and 3 minutes to complete my changes and check them in.

Apparently, the new T-Mobile G1 phone, hailed for being the first “Google phone” (meaning it uses Android as its operating system), doesn’t even have a headphone jack! The newer models are now shipping with an adapter so that people can actually listen to the music they put on the phone.

The T-Mobile website states:

With the included 1GB memory card that you can expand to 8GB, you can listen to your music with the built in music player or on any computer. That means you’re never without your favorite tunes, no matter where you go.

They should add “as long as you have an adapter.”

Come on, this is pretty simple stuff – if you have a portable music player, you should have a jack to plug in your headphones. I thought the iPhone was bad enough with its recessed headphone jack that only fits Apple headphones. But at least it has one.

I’d really like to know the justification for not including a headphone jack on the G1. It seems like such an obvious oversight.

This made me do a double-take. Why would it think this photo had anything to do with the BostonCHI meeting? Well, that’s because it was uploaded while the BostonCHI meeting was going on (and it was in my calendar).

I don’t know, doesn’t seem all that intelligent to me. Others disagree, though.

This is especially annoying in the mobile version, which only shows the last 15 posts by default. I end up having to scroll down to the bottom, click the “Load more posts” link, scroll all the way down again, rinse, and repeat depending on how many unread posts I have in my list.

A simple sort option would go a long way toward improving the user experience.

–
[Edit] Apparently there is a sorting option in the regular Google Reader interface. Unfortunately, it is hidden in a menu labeled “View Settings”. Calling it “Sort” would be a lot more intuitive and I’m sure they could find a better place for the “Set as start page” option.

I’ll probably write more about it later. Now, back to drawing!