Chapter 14: Making Software Considerate

As we briefly discussed in Chapter 9, two Stanford sociologists, Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves, discovered that humans seem to have instincts that tell them how to behave around other sentient beings. As soon as any artifact exhibits sufficient levels of interactivity—such as that found in your average software application—these instincts are activated. Our reaction to software as sentient is both unconscious and unavoidable.

The implication of this research is profound: If we want users to like our software, we should design it to behave in the same manner as a likeable person. If we want users to be productive with our software, we should design it to behave like a supportive human colleague.

Designing Considerate Software

Nass and Reeves suggest that software should be polite, but the authors prefer the term considerate. Although politeness could be construed as a matter of protocol—saying please and thank you, but doing little else helpful—being truly considerate means putting the needs of others first. Considerate software has the goals and needs of its users as its primary concern beyond its basic functions.

If software is stingy with information, obscures its process, forces the user to hunt around for common functions, and is quick to blame the user for its own failings, the user will dislike the software and have an unpleasant experience. This will happen regardless of how cute, how representational, how visually metaphoric, how content-filled, or how anthropomorphic the software is.

On the other hand, if the interaction is respectful, generous, and helpful, the user will like the software and will have a pleasant experience. Again, this will happen regardless of the composition of the interface; a green-screen command-line interface will be well liked if it can deliver on these other points.

AXIOM 

Software should behave like a considerate human.