Are fewer interactions with a system better?
For a while now, an increasingly common soundbite has been taking root in product discussions: the fewer clicks something takes, the more easy and efficient it is to use. Let’s examine this further!
For simplicity’s sake let’s say by “clicks” we may mean taps, swipes, long-presses, really just about any singular interaction with a product’s interface.
By counting clicks we’re measuring physical effort, not necessarily cognitive effort. The relation between the two is not constant. Most people make somewhere between 5000–8000 clicks per day — some of them easy clicks, others tedious.
When more clicks can help
Onboarding
If it’s a completely new experience, people might need the extra time to build a mental model, discover what your product or service is all about and in this case, friction can be good. Not everyone processes information at the same pace or the same way. It’s not likely that all of our customers will be super tech-savvy with the relevant domain expertise. …
A few notes around my new portfolio page.
A little backstory
I built my old portfolio website with Vue.js, so I can learn more about the framework. After a while I got tired of maintaining dependencies, CLIs, builds and decided I would try out something new for my new website — I would throw out every bit of tech I didn’t need and use only the essentials.
Note: Vue.js is fantastic. There are just different tools for different jobs. The above is merely a reflection on the rather questionable choice I’ve made for my use case.
One document
What is the minimum? For my needs, it’s a page that hosts info about me and my work. Project pages could either link directly to the projects themselves or to articles here on Medium. …
Over the past years we have seen various gamification mechanisms being included into every odd platform, product or service out there, and rightfully so — if properly set, they do wonders to increase adoption, boost continuous user engagement as well as alleviate learning curves. Nonetheless, we must be especially weary while employing these techniques because however tempting they are to use, there’s a very real possibility they may backfire, leading users away from the actual purpose of your product.
Exhibit A:
A Conference App
Recently I had the opportunity to work on a scheduling app for a tech-conference, that was held here in Sofia. The goal of the app was to make it easy for people to browse the conference agenda, info about speakers & sessions and plan their conference day. We also had features that enabled you to engage with speakers and sessions by commenting and and liking different things. …
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