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Years ago, before I ever got into Web design, I was a sign maker. For about 3 years, I studied this craft. At it’s best, the art of sign making is a demonstration of both the purity of information design and subtlety typography. At it’s worst, it’s the loud example of why these two disciplines are so important.

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I’m not one to think of products like soap or tube socks, as having a user interface, but in the practical sense, they do. We tend to lump product user interface design, into the parent category of product design. None-the-less, there is a distinction here. In some products, we can refer to the user interface as Ergonomics, such as the chair I’m seated in. In others, this doesn’t seem to be appropriate, such as a bag of cookies (or, in my case, a can of cookies).

Thursday night, after a nice meal at Yo Yo Sushi, we decided to stop in and pick up a few things at the drug store. While we were standing in line to check out, Lauren buckled at an impulse rack and purchased some cookies that were on sale 2 cans for $5.

I have to say, they didn’t look bad. They were described as Delicious Caramel Toffee Cookies, and two for five bucks. Okay, maybe the sake from the restaurant was helping this impulse, but the deal was sealed and we never looked back.

Fig. 1

That is, until the following morning when we were having a hankering for some delicious caramel toffee cookies. That’s where the bad cookie UI design comes in.

First, Lauren tried opening the can. She removed the strip of tape from around the lip of the lid and proceeded to try to pull the lid to the can off, with her fingers. Grunt, Moan, Whimper! Next, being a man (and feeling I should do something about that), I decided to step in and offer my manly strength. Grunt, Moan, Whimper! ( ego crushed ).

So indeed, serious problems call for serious solutions. Out comes my all-in-one, portable cookie tool ( pictured at the top ), which by the way was purchased from an impulse rack as well.

Bang, Crunch, Slice! ( see Fig 1.)

Ah, cookies at last (wipes sweat from brow). They were lousy by the way. But as I reached in for another, I noticed the cause of all my frustration, Poor UI Design!. Seriously. This wasn’t like a bag of potato chips you can’t open. That’s just poor manufacturing or wrong materials. This was a case of poor design. The lid, you see, did not fit over the top of the can, as you might expect, seeing as the lip was on the outside. It actually went inside the can and then curled over the top of the can to form a pinched lip. This is similar to how the top of a can of soup is sealed to the can. The difference being, they expect you to use a can opener to get to your soup, not to your cookies.

There is one common and fundamental key to good user experience, the user should never have to guess. This becomes even more important when you are asking the user to divulge personal information by creating a user account. A few months ago, I wrote an article on the importance of branding and design for registration forms. For an industry growing around web applications, user interaction has taken on a new role. Those points of interaction within a website, the programming and scientific elements have also taken a new role. In essence, this challenges the user. As a user interface designer, I want to reduce that challenge and make the experience as seamless and direct as possible.

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