Don't Make Me Click

The following are my notes from Aza Raskin's session, "Don't Make Me Click", from Interaction08.

• Fundamental web tension between boring and amazing
• Need to aim for just right somewhere in between these two
• To the user, the interface is the product and they lose sight of the real focus of the product
• The best interface is NO interface
• Ironic: need to design the best interface so that there is no interface, interaction designers need to work on minimizing interaction
• What's better than a shovel? A hole.
• Can't give in to the seduction of interaction
• With Google you can track flights, track shipments, do calculations, etc. But this is all done from ONE search field
• Our job is to say no
• RIA (Rich Internet Application) = MIA (Materialistic Internet Application)
• Want to aim for ZIA (Zen Internet Application) - act w/o doing
• When interaction (clicks) increases, content decreases and this is not good
• Don't force users to ask for more content, just give it to them
• Most people click on result #10 than #9 so why paginate - Continuous Scroll, ie. Google Reader. Interaction decreases, content increases.
• Scroll tabs - add tabs to the bottom instead of to the right, show breaks in scroll bar
• Bret Victor - worrydream.com
• Interaction decreases does not equal boring
• www.flashearth.com
• Take what already exists and try to remove unnecessary interaction
• Songza.com - youtube for music
• Inappropriate forms - ex. Google Calendar. See 30boxes.com for how to do it better.
• Another Bret Victor project - drag-n-drop To and From buttons on a map
• Don't force me to ask for content, just give it to me