What is the meaning of this sign?

Let me ask you again. What was the meaning that you first perceived? Did that meaning change soon after?

The chances are that you first saw a visual message 'STOP' and then, upon reflection, decoded the sign to mean 'GO'. Perhaps you might even see this image as a paradox that cannot be resolved.

Beyond the fun of this paradox, the image of the word 'GO' as set against the international symbol for 'STOP' suggests ways of understanding the difference between functional design and user experience design. They don’t have to be at odds with each other but they often are.

The potential conflict comes largely from a clash between two fundamentally different ways of finding meaning - i.e. through a subjective or through an objective point of view. Within the heart or within the mind. The contrasting ways that we perceive image versus word follows a similar boundary.

Is Functionality All You Need?

In the development of software applications it is a common practice to begin with the identification and implementation of the functional components. Sadly, user experience factors are often considered much later, or not at all. It’s hard to deny the power of an objectively functioning piece of code. There it is, sorting a list, scaling an image, racing through complex calculations or whatever the case may be. Furthermore it’s also hard to pretend that non-functioning code is useful in any way. Like Monty Python’s Dead Parrot, it has to be fixed and the sooner the better.

But the user’s perception of functionality is often directly linked to the quality of their experience. The more difficult it is to use an application, the less functionality it has in a real world context - the developers' efforts are for naught.

Can We Measure User Experience?

User behaviour can be measured to a degree through various 'objective' or scientific means but the quality of experience is not about numbers as much as it is a story of human emotions. (The owner of the dead parrot was essentially complaining about a bad user experience. The customer argues that the bird is functionally dead based on its behaviour (or lack of it). The shopkeeper attempts to argue that he experiences the bird as 'resting'.)

The scientific method is a means to establish an objective view of things through the elimination of 'noise factors' that stem from the individual (subjective) experience. Emotions and feelings are not considered a very reliable source of data in scientific research.

But I believe we forge our objective concepts from the raw materials of pure subjective feeling. We feel and then we think.

Neural structures within the brain and nervous system effectively perform their own 'scientific method' of analysis by filtering out the noise elements of the direct senses. In vision, for example, even the focused light beams that fall on the retina are meaningless to the higher levels of the brain. The processing of the 'noisy' light that hits the eye begins right in the retina itself. A lot of processing takes place at this level, even before the signals get to the optic nerve. And this continues through many more stages in the brain’s vision system. The image that we believe is 'reality' is not merely projected in to the brain but actually constructed within it. Somewhere, much further along, the connections are made to more abstract concepts such as language or cultural meaning.

Diagram of the Visual System

(based on illustration in 'The Astonishing Hypothesis' by Sir Francis Crick)

So our visual system grasps the meaning of the shape of the 'STOP' sign before we parse the conceptual meaning of the word 'GO'. In such a transitional flash of consciousness we are actually traveling the route from subjective (noisy) experience to objective (resolved) reason. In the case of our sign, the semantic intent (functionality) is 'GO' but the immediate response (user experience) is 'STOP'.

This is the aspect of human behaviour that we must pay close attention to in designing usable and ultimately functional software applications. Simply assembling all the functional components on a screen is not enough to form an overall functional system. In order for the user interface to function as a system, there must be ways to help user get a feel for the consequences of their actions and decisions. That predictably is the measure of the reality and the value of the application.

If the various functional components do not interrelate in a way that is supportive of the real needs of the user, the user will experience them as random 'noise'. Ambiguity can cause frustration and even harm. And this kind of dysfunction can put the project investment at great risk.

The image of the STOP/GO sign is a very simple illustration of how easily paradoxes can occur. In application design, there are countless ways that the reality of the user’s subjective experience of an application can contradict or undo the objectives of its functionality.

If you are in charge of a software production project, you can minimize the risk of such disasters by incorporating usability factors into the design and development process from the very start. Otherwise your project may come to a speedy stop.