Usability Does and Don'ts : all needles in the same direction

by Karel Thönissen

I do not know whether it is true, but 'si non e vero, e ben trovato'. They tell that when your BMW is cruising fine all needles on the dash are pointing upward. Without interpreting the readings of any single gauge, one can instantly see that speed, revs, oil temperature, oil pressure, and fuel are fine. (I assume that cruising fine with your brand new BMW with the needle of the speedometer in the 12 o'clock position means driving 140 km/h.)

Now compare this with your favourite software.

Take Microsoft Windows. Now Windows is an easy target, in a program that big, it is easy to find some flows. However, given the size of Microsoft, the accumulated IQ of the people working their (they can crush a rock by sheer thinking of it all at the same time), and their deep pockets, it is only fair to assume that they should have gotten this correct. But lo and behold, they did not.

In the view options of Windows Explorer you can find this beauty (I am sorry only to have a Dutch copy of XP, but hey, at least it is a legal copy):

In here are some of the most important settings for the security of your PC. Getting these things correct is very important. Did they learn from the BMW-dash? No.

In a user-friendly design, ticking any of the check boxes would mean making it either safe or not safe. But the important thing is that all options should carry the same meaning. So on a safe system either all check boxes should be ticked or none of them. Given the fact that the checks are green, there is only one reasonable choice: setting the tick must make the system safer. Not only did they fail in that respect, even options that are closely related have opposing meanings. Here are some problems:

• hiding protected files of the operating system (2nd option)
• showing contents of system folders (4th option)
• showing/not showing hidden files and folders (16th option; shown below)

These three questions all deal with showing or hiding certain categories of files and folders that have a relevance for the correct working of the system. Here alone we have a number of usability problems:

• the questions are not grouped together in the list of 17 questions
• the first and second use check boxes, the third uses radio buttons
• the first uses a check box to indicate hiding (safe option), the second uses a check box to indicate not hiding

There are options that require a check mark for being safe (questions 2 and 6) and those where the mark should not be placed in the check box to be safe (4 and 8). This is not all:

• resetting it to factory settings does not make it safe
• safety-related preferences are mixed with fun-factors, and finally
• nobody would search these security features here.

Fortunately, the automotive industry and the software industry are joining up and make a big inroad to bring the usability achievements from one industry to the other. O, by the way, BMW has given up the old-fashioned needle gauges for the state-of-the-art giga digital dash.