User Experience Design / Article 8. Sept. 2007, HCI Vistas Vol-III Author: Dr. Dinesh Katre

It is a pleasure to share with you, one of the most fascinating examples of user experience design. It is from the real world. We can design better quality of user experiences in the technology domain if we take some lessons from the real world, which is the source of it. This example offers some insights into how ‘the arousal of the feeling of trust’ is dependent on the design of features and overall user experience, for the business transaction to kick off. The learning can be particularly applied in the context of online business portals and websites.

Photo 1. Street-side Herbal Medicine Shop

Please observe photo 1 carefully. What do you see?

It is a street-side Herbal (Ayurvedic) Medicine shop cum clinic. The shop owner can be seen sitting on the right side of the photo. His hand, with colorful threads tied on the wrist, is majestically rested on the knee of his folded leg. The sitting posture of the shop owner is eloquent of his authority, territorial ownership (this small shop is his empire) and his inflated ego. He is basically a herbal medicine seller coming from some rural part of India. Usually, such herbal medicine sellers, like nomads, keep traveling from one place to the other. They set up their shop inside a tent.

Now let us observe the interior of this shop.

The first thing you notice is the overly decorated pillow lying on his thigh. Entire room is curtained with red velvety cloth. The tiny room is crammed with many things such as- a shelf with several bottles containing herbal medicines, a frame of Goddess Kaali Maa, scented sticks, religious books, a register for maintaining the record of business transactions, a tube light, a CD player, a locker for keeping the money, etc. The floor is nicely carpeted. What more you need in a street-side herbal shop? It is quite self sufficient. No wonder, the shop owner seems so proud of it. He seems to be feeling like a €˜seth€™, a rich trader. On the left side of this photograph, we can see a patient sitting next to the door.

Photo 2. External view of the shop

The second photograph shows us different details.

The red curtain hanging at the door is meant to offer privacy for the patient if required. The doorsteps are also covered with similar carpet as inside the shop. Due to space constraints, a chair is kept outside the shop, if the patient is accompanied by someone. The footwear is left outside for cleanliness. You can also notice a loudspeaker for playing pre-recorded audio advertisements. It helps in attracting the attention of prospective customers. The surface around the door is draped by large banners. The banners are carrying Hindi and English translations of text, which informs you about the ancient Indian Ayurvedic tradition. And don€™t forget to notice the Indian national flag in the top left corner!

Photo 3. The car converted into a shop!

Aren’t you surprised after watching the third photograph?

All of it, that we saw just now was happening inside a car!

The features of the shop that we were experiencing so far have actually grown out of a car! Simply unbelievable user experience isn€™t it? An uneducated street-side herbal medicine seller has crafted this wonderful user experience!

Why did he do it?

What were his constraints and motivations to convert a car so creatively into a shop? If the natural force of the situation has compelled him to craft this user experience then there must be something fundamental about it. If we can understand that fundamental thing, we can convince the business world, that user experience design is not cosmetics, it is not the choice of elite, it is not a gimmick but the basic need for any business transaction to happen.

Our dear friend, the herbal medicine seller has certain limitations if compared with established doctors and pharmaceutical shops. He has no option but to somehow overcome these limitations for the purpose of business. Let us try to appreciate his limitations and the efforts to overcome them as given below-

1. Permanent place €“ Not available

The herbal medicine seller does not own a permanent shop. He has to park his car on the street-side and sell the herbal medicines. Patients always want to get back to the doctor for feedback and in case of problem. Therefore, the herbal medicine seller has disguised the car and modifies its external appearance to give an impression of a permanent shop. It assures the patients that they can get back to him.

2. Proper infrastructure and shop like facilities - Not available

3. Suitable ambience for business - Not available

4. Clean and hygienic environment - Not available

5. Privacy for patients - Not available

Certain facilities are essential for the shop owner and the customers to feel comfortable. Therefore, the herbal medicine seller has modified the interior of the car and built the shop like features.

6. Authority - No university qualification / certification

7. Identity €“ No recognition

8. Known to potential customers €“ Anonymousness

The herbal medicine seller does not have a university qualification to prove his authority. He is not known in the city (as he travels from one place to the other). Therefore, he highlights the importance of ancient Indian Ayurvedic heritage and the traditional knowledge by writing about it on the banners. The loud speaker plays the pre-recorded advertisements and hammers the same message for attracting the attention of potential customers.

The herbal medicine seller knows very well that the eight points mentioned above are most essential for arousing the feeling of trust among the customers, without which business cannot happen.

Therefore, his natural instinct for survival has forced him to build the shop like features inside the car and craft the desired user experience.

Feature Design

What we can learn from this example is that the features are greatly responsible for crafting the user experience. You experienced the car as a shop due to shop like features.

Jesse James Garrett in his famous work, The Elements of User Experience Design (2000) seems to have missed out mentioning the most vital element, which is €˜Feature Design€™.

How do we distinguish a photo studio from a doctor’s clinic or a vegetable market from a bank or a railway station from a house or a kitchen from a toilet? Features! It is the features, which are highly experiential, help us in characterizing these places.

Feature design in software applications can be very metaphorical. Function and form can be totally different things. The fusion of ‘car’ and ‘herbal medicine shop’ is the proof of it.

Arousal of the feeling of trust

Any business transaction is first triggered at the psychological plane between the buyer and the seller. The arousal of the initial feeling of trust is dependent on different aspects of user experience such as-

• Visibility of business specific features
• Visible indications of the quality of service

If above mentioned aspects are visibly present then the user/customer is mentally prepared to do business with you. Users/customers can quickly sense (inputs from sensory design) and evaluate the product or the service or the business place. If the indications are favorable then the business transaction kicks off. This is most relevant for all online businesses and websites and portals.

The street-side UX designer teaches us another important lesson-

UX design is not so much about shaving the user interface clean!
It is more about making its business tick!

References:

Jesse James Garrett, The original diagram of The Elements of User Experience Design, 2000
http://jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf

Jesse James Garrett, The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web, New Riders Publishing, 2002

Dr. Dinesh Katre presently heads the National Multimedia Resource Centre of C-DAC, Pune, India. He is the principle designer of many software products that deal with digital library, cultural informatics, e-learning, multimedia authoring and computer game design. He has special interest in the cognitive study of technology users and behavioral design of products. Journal of HCI Vistas is his community building initiative. It is meant to promote research oriented, multi-disciplinary thinking in the field of Human-Computer Interaction in India. This e-publication is open for usability practitioners and UX designers to publish short articles.

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