Waiting is part of our daily life, so present that we do not always see the point in noticing its importance.
However, time is a central and essential issue in the profession of designer. We had, moreover, begun to deal with the subject during the Flupa UX Days 2017, with the talk of Sébastien and Adrien around theUX-Time perception.
But anyway, how would you define waiting? We all have to deal with waiting in our personal city life, between transport, digital and going out. Everything is conditioned and governed by expectation. Unconsciously, we live this expectation by putting in place processes, ways and habits not to suffer it, but rather to live it pleasantly.
The wait begins when there is nothing more to wait for, nor even the end of the wait. Waiting ignores and destroys what it waits for. Waiting waits for nothing.
Maurice Blanchot, novelist (1907-2003)
Write a white paper is an adventure
We love it, we lead the charge, we take a step back… It was part of our daily lives for a short period. “ Making People Wait in the Digital Age ” is a book that Sylvie Nguyen and Gabriel Avédikian , UX/UI designers , and I co-authored . We are happy to share the fruits of our research with you. In this book, you will explore the different perspectives and lines of thought surrounding waiting . We present waiting as something that constantly plays a role in our daily lives.
From a human point of view up to Designer
But where would the expectation come in? We have to think about this experience, and how it is imposed so that it is pleasing to the user, even, at times, almost “invisible”. It's a great challenge, what do you think?
As interface and user experience designers, designing daily interfaces for the user in an intuitive and attractive way is one of our main missions. But the user-centric approach, which can enable innovation in many areas, leads us to push our thinking beyond our screens.
We formulate hypotheses, we observe and we exchange with end users to respond to a need based on their behaviors, their history and their habits.
At the same time, if we put ourselves on the digital side, this has often led us to study similar phases in the study of an application, an environment or the use of a connected object.
Project oneself in a non-digital environment
We wanted to get out of digital, to do a cultural, historical but also introspective study. Trying to quantify and identify phases of waiting allowed us to ask questions in different contexts but also to bring our reflection beyond our simple expertise as a designer.
Today, we live in a world where everything moves fast, thanks to technology and digital tools; everything is almost instantaneous. So at the slightest setback, the slightest delay – an impossible connection, for example – it's the end of the world!
In your opinion, why Google does he offer us an entertainment Lost connection?
We all had fun with this little dinosaur game on our screen while waiting for the internet connection to come back. However, we have rarely thought about the ins and outs of creating this interaction/animation. Because yes, she is not there by chance.
We have also projected ourselves into non-digitalized environments such as the hospital sector, this allowed us to study the application of digital solutions to this environment. Like any management of an environment that is populated by multiple interactions, the central point is obviously communication: with signage for example. We wonder about how to give the information in the right place and at the right time to our user, how not to get lost in a place, know where to go .etc. What actions do we need to take to reach our goal?
TAKE AWAY
Our thinking started with the frustration that we may have to wait, which depends not only on us, but also on the people around us, the environment and the potential factors that may intervene. Dealing with this kind of subject, beyond the digital, brings us back to essential phases that we encounter in our job as UX/UI designer, which are the exploration phases and the observation phases. Through this white paper, we expose our research and hypotheses while trying to connect the different opportunities that waiting offers us.
Wishing you a good read 🙂
Sylvia (@silbing), UI/UX-Designer @UX-Republic et Gabriel Avédikian, UX-Designer @dimtri_G
