Amazing 360 Degree Videos of Haiti

Check out these amazing videos that allow you to pan 360 degrees, look up and down, and play and pause.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/index.html

This interaction is delightful (other than the fact that you're looking at the devastating images of haiti). There is a straightforward prompt to click and drag to see where I'd like. Once I click and drag, I quickly learn how to pan in any direction. I can look up, down, behind me, and to both sides. If I see something that I'd like to look at more closely, I just pause the video and scroll around. The only thing it's lacking (interaction-wise) is the ability to zoom.

I think it does a great job of letting people see the current reality there. I would appreciate some commentary on what is going on in the places they drove through and recorded. I think this would help the user connect even more deeply with the current situation in Haiti and maybe even motivate them to action.

Understandability not Simplicity

Think about the last time you went to buy a product, like a cell phone, that could be made by several different brands. You go online and you look at the different features that each product has. Online shopping websites do this to us all the time. They provide what seems like a very helpful product comparison tool, which allows you to put products side-by-side and compare features. And many times people end up purchasing the product with more features. People want the more capable product.

People also often worship simplicity. Think about how often you hear simplicity equated to beauty and ease of use in product reviews. There is a discord here. More features and simplicity do not mesh well. Don Norman posits that: "We want devices that do a lot, but that do not confuse, do not lead to frustration. Ahah! This is not about simplicity: it is about frustration. The entire debate is being framed incorrectly. Features is not the same as capability. Simplicity is not the same as usability. Simplicity is not the answer."

So what is the answer? We want products that are understandable and do not frustrate. Confusion leads to frustration because we are not in control any more. When we loose power and control, it frustrates us. Products that are understandable don't frustrate us. We often mistakenly equate understandability with simplicity. We can, however, make devices with many features as long as the device is understandable.

Check out this video of a one year old baby playing with an iPhone


(Aside: Maybe the iPhone OS should be adapted for the One Laptop per Child program?)

Is it just learned behavior and nothing more? I would argue it isn't because the child comprehends the consequences of different actions. The interactions of the phone are so understandable and so intuitive that even a very young child can navigate the device. Does simplicity lead to understandability? Maybe, in some cases. But understandability is key and it can be accomplished with good mapping and feedback!

Mac Os X Quick Look

I love the Quick Look feature in Mac Os X. It allows me to quickly preview the contents of a document without fully opening the document in a program. I simply select the file I want to preview in the Finder and press the space bar to get a preview. Here is a screen shot showing the feature in action:


This feature has fundamentally shifted how I interact with files on my computer and is changing my mental model of what it means to manage files. I used to have to open each file by loading a program in order to view the contents. Now, I can even preview mp4 videos without having to wait for QuickTime or some other video player to start up.

Why do I love this feature so much? Here's a scenario from my daily life and how Quick Look has become such a useful tool: At any given time, I'm working on a variety of projects with students from different parts of the university. Different people have different operating systems and prefer to use different file formats. I often receive Powerpoint and Excel files from teammates. I don't have Microsoft Office for Mac so I normally couldn't view these files unless I took the 2-3 minutes to boot up Windows on my virtualization software, but Quick Look allows me to preview these documents simply by selecting the file and clicking the space bar. I can scroll through the entire document and quickly digest the content. I can even look through different tabs on Excel documents and resize the preview window if I want (including making it full screen). I just click the space bar when I'm done and the document disappears as quickly as it appears. If you look at the screen shot above, I'm previewing a Microsoft Word document.

How does Mac Os X preview these even when I don't own Microsoft Office? Does is really even matter? It could be magic for all I care, but I do appreciate Apple taking the time to understand the nuances of how people are using computers today and designing this beautiful interaction into their operating system. It's become a valuable tool and a daily affirmation that I made the right choice when picking an Apple computer. There are many of these little interactions that save me time and make the experience enjoyable and seamless, such as the dedicated play, pause, and skip keys on the keyboard so that I don't have to switch to my music player to pause a song if I want to play a video while on the web.

Here's another scenario: I just got back from a trip and would like to send a few pictures from my computer to my family by email. I write the email and then click on Attach a file. This brings up the select files window. From here, I can easily navigate to a folder with the pictures. Then I can use Quick Look to quickly preview different photos and select the ones that I want to attach. Without Quick Look, I would have to go through my photos, open them all up, then memorize the file names of the ones I wanted to attach. With Quick Look, the process is so much easier and faster.