Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2005-04-19 19:13:24 - Graham Ellis
Do you speak iconish? I don't, and it lead me into a bit of a problem yesterday. Checking in to the site I'm training on, I was directed to fill my details in on a touch screen. Clever system - I poked at the Union Jack and up came a page with a keyboard diaplayed and I was asked for my last name ... duly entered on the keyboard on the touch screen, and my full details and internal contact are displayed.
Great. But what next?
"Err - what do I do now" I ask across to the security guy. "Has it printed a badge for you?" he asks. No, it hadn't. And he goes to the manual system of hand writing a visitors badge ... he's about to call my contact when my contact arrives; it seems that the system has emailed him to say I've arrived - very clever but I would have appreciated that feedback!
So what's all this about Iconish? Same procedure this morning ... except that when I got stuck, an employee who I happened to know came over and suggested that I press a little picture which (in hindsight) looked rather like a badge. And - magically - the system advanced to a further screen that asked me to agree to a nondisclosure agreement. Duly done, and an "E" icon let me select to send myself a copy of that agreement. I'm starting to learn Iconish, I think.
For a location where the same visitors come back time and again, I've no doubt the system is great. For a first timer, it lacks instructional feedback; I usually think of myself as being reasonably bright but until one or two things were pointed out by a human I couldn't work it. A great objective lesson for designers, especially, of web sites where newcomers will simply walk away if they can't work out how to use the site.