#HumaneExperience | #humex | The precision trap

Small decisions make a big difference sometimes, when it comes to designing your product experience. Here is a simple yet profound example from the oft-used Clock app that almost everyone uses.

It says 'Alarm in 11 minutes'. Rather, how would it be if it says "Alarm in approx 10 mins". Humans are more tuned to easily remember numbers rounded off to zeros, than precise numbers. For example, I would more easily remember '2500', but I may have to make an effort to keep in mind the number '2514'. Human mind is tuned to approximate things, than precision. That's why we schedule meetings at rounded-off timings. No one schedules a meeting at 10.14am! Rather it would be at 10am or pushed to 10.30am.

The human mind is more tuned to approximation

That's one of the reasons why man invented machines ; for precision. So when we translate some information (like, in this example, in '11 mins') from the machine world to the human world, it might be better to 'ask' the human if he/she wants precision or approximation. Anything that requires the user to put in an additional effort to use your app means the #userexperience needs more work. Let's consider our example of the ubiquitous 'Clock' App today. A toggle option in Settings like 'Show me rounded-off/approximate values' would have made the #ux more humane.

Anything that requires the user to put in an additional effort in your app means the UX needs to be worked on much more

Just my two cents! Happy day and keep rocking!