Good design: Apple’s Software Update, and listening to a Ford F150 truck
Good design accommodates the user. Any tool that “gets out of your way” or “becomes invisible” is simply accommodating your needs so that you remain focused on what you’re doing, and not on the tool.
Example: A Ford F150 truck tries not to nag you about your seatbelt. When you neglect to fasten your seatbelt before driving away, you see on the dashboard a small illuminated image of a figure in a seatbelt and you hear a soft bell chime six times. The bell goes silent after the six chimes, and after 20 seconds the illuminated image disappears too.
30 seconds later, if you still haven’t buckled up you hear another six chimes and the illuminated dashboard image reappears, first blinking, then steady. Then silence again.
But now the silence doesn’t last as long before the chimes return, this time with a quickened and irregular rhythm to catch your attention—still polite (”sorry to disturb you, but there’s something important to attend to”) but with just enough urgency that you notice, hey, I forgot to buckle my seatbelt.
The Ford F150 truck tries hard to accommodate you. If you’re only moving the truck a few yards down the driveway or a few houses down the street, there’s little need for a seatbelt so the truck refrains from nagging. It’s only when it’s become clear that you’re actually driving and you’ll need the seatbelt that the truck interrupts you firmly but calmly (unlike some cars).
Apple understands this design philosophy. Just look at how hard Software Update works to accommodate you:
| Apple’s Software Update | How others work |
|---|---|
| Checks when you tell it to, or never | Checks on fixed schedule |
| Downloads updates if you tell it to | Always downloads updates |
| Tells you about new updates without interrupting you | Interrupts you with a modal window announcing new updates |
| Shows you enough information about the new updates to let you decide whether to install or not | Shows you the name of the new updates, but not much detail, nor whether they require a restart |
| Updates modelessly in background | Updates modally in foreground |
| Stays in background when finished | Jumps to foreground when finished |
| Asks you whether you’d like to restart now, or keep working | Requires you to restart now, blocking all further work |
These design decisions respect you by working around your schedule with minimal interruption. They derive from a core focus on the user: How do we avoid interrupting the user’s flow? How do we respect the user’s time? What if the user doesn’t have the time right now to deal with this? What if the user doesn’t care about this?
You can tell when products are designed to answer questions like these to respect the user, even when it’s something as simple as buckling your seatbelt in your truck. Even if you can’t, it might be because you haven’t had to.
Good design is often invisible, remember?
The Apple Software Update is in general very good and your comparison does indicate a lot of the reasons why.
It’s only a minor blemish, but one tiny issue I have with Apple’s Software Update is that before the “Checking for new software” sheet appearing and between that sheet and the “Your Software is up to date” sheet appearing, you can see the “New Software is available for your computer” window behind them. That’s a tiny shortcut that Apple’s programming team took.
Great comparison. I know what I’d choose.
Good article. One comment: the behavior that you describe for the Ford F150’s seat belt reminder is very nagging, in my opinion. It crosses the line when it alerts you 30 seconds later, and then again with a new pattern of annoying chimes. I prefer foreign cars because they don’t nag; it seems to me as if American cars do more nannying.
Myth0s, “very nagging” seems strong to me. Aside from doing nothing, the minimum a car could do and still alert the driver is about what the Ford F150 does. A light on the dashboard alone would probably be too little, too easy to overlook, so adding a sound seems reasonable. And once you have light and a sound, it a matter of tuning. I can believe the Ford can be improved upon, but as far as cars go–at least American cars–the Ford isn’t so bad.
Which foreign cars are you referring to, and what do they do?