UI Must Have Two Doors: Basic Mode & Advanced Mode: Request to Google.

From Google Maps and Smart TVs to Everyday Machines — Have We Forgotten the Ordinary Human Being?

Who Asked for a Thousand Buttons?

There is something deeply strange happening in the world of technology.

We are surrounded by machines that are becoming increasingly “smart” — smart phones, smart TVs, smart watches, smart homes, smart cars, smart doors and countless other smart devices.

But I have a simple question:

As technology becomes smarter, why is using it becoming harder for ordinary human beings?

Who asked for a thousand buttons?

Who asked for hundreds of menus, sub-menus, settings, permissions, notifications, icons, gestures and hidden functions?

And more importantly, who decided that every human being should understand all of them?

I am not against technology.

Quite the opposite.

I have enormous respect for science and technology. I have watched technology transform human life in ways that previous generations could hardly have imagined.

My objection is not to technological progress.

My objection is to unnecessary complexity.

Before I Criticise Google, Let Me Say This

Before I criticise Google, I want to make one thing absolutely clear.

I have enormous respect for Google.

In fact, I consider Google one of the greatest forces for linguistic inclusion the world has ever seen. I sometimes think of Google as a guardian of the world's languages.

Think about what Google has done.

It has given space to languages spoken by millions, languages spoken by thousands, and even languages that many people outside their own communities may never have heard of.

It has created tools that allow people speaking different languages to communicate, search, read, learn and translate across linguistic boundaries.

To me, Google is almost like a global university of languages, a place where the world's linguistic diversity is not merely tolerated, but made accessible to billions of people.

I genuinely admire that.

I have written articles appreciating Google's contribution to languages and communication, and I have great respect for the people who have made this possible.

I sometimes wonder whether even the most powerful and respected governments in the world could have accomplished something of this scale, across so many languages and so many countries, with the same speed and accessibility.

Google has done something extraordinary for humanity in this respect.

And that is precisely why I feel comfortable criticising Google.

My criticism does not come from contempt.

It comes from expectation.

When you deeply respect an institution, you are also entitled to ask it difficult questions.

So this article is not an attack on Google.

It is a friendly but firm challenge from someone who genuinely values what Google has given the world:

Please do not make the future of technology unnecessarily difficult for the very human beings you have worked so hard to connect.

That is a different matter altogether.

The Smart TV That Sometimes Makes Me Feel Stupid.

Take a modern Smart TV.

I want to switch it on and watch a programme.

That is all.

But the television may now offer hundreds of channels, streaming platforms, apps, voice controls, Bluetooth connections, network settings, picture modes, sound modes, parental controls, privacy settings, device connections and countless other options.

Somewhere inside this enormous technological universe is the simple function I actually wanted: Watch television.

Even technically comfortable young people may use only a fraction of the functions available on their television.

Then what happens to an elderly person?

What happens to someone who did not grow up with smartphones?

What happens to a person who has limited literacy or limited digital experience?

Should they feel that they are unintelligent simply because they cannot find the programme they want?

I don't think so.

The problem is not always the user. Sometimes the design is the problem.

Google Maps: A Map Is a Map, Until It Becomes Something Else. This brings me to Google. Google has created extraordinary products that billions of people use. Google Maps is one of them.

I use Maps to find places, understand routes, locate businesses and navigate from one place to another.

That is its basic mental model.

But over time, business-management functions have increasingly become part of the Maps experience.

Google retired its separate Google My Business mobile app and moved Business Profile management into Google Search and Google Maps.

I understand the logic.

A business exists at a physical location. Customers need to find it. Maps needs business information. Business owners need to update that information.

There is a genuine connection between the two.

But there is a fundamental difference between integration and confusion.

A customer opens Maps because he wants to find a place.

A business owner opens a business-management interface because he wants to manage his business.

These are two different jobs.

Why not make that distinction visually obvious?

Why not say:

MAPS

and then provide a clearly separated:

BUSINESS

section?

That would be like putting a proper wall between a living room and a bathroom.

Both can exist in the same house.

But we don't remove the wall and tell the family:

“Don't worry. The bathroom is somewhere inside the living room.”

A Wall Is Not a Bad Thing either.

We sometimes misunderstand the idea of simplicity.

When I say that technology needs a “wall”, I am not asking companies to remove advanced functions.

I am asking them to separate them.

Give me the things I need every day.

And then give the expert access to everything else.

Nothing needs to be removed.

Nothing needs to be made less powerful.

The complexity simply needs to be placed where it belongs.

This brings me to what I believe should become a basic principle of modern interface design.

UI Must Have Two Doors: Basic Mode & Advanced Mode.

One application.

One system.

One technology.

But two clearly defined doors.

BASIC MODE

For ordinary users.

Show me what I need.

Hide what I don't need.

Make the essential functions obvious.

Let me accomplish my task without making me study the machine.

ADVANCED MODE

For professional and technically experienced users. Give them every setting, every option, every sophisticated function they want.

Nothing is taken away from them.

The difference is simply that the complexity is no longer forced upon everyone.

This is not “dumbing down” technology.

It is intelligent design.

A professional photographer may want hundreds of controls on a camera.

I may simply want to take a photograph.

The camera should accommodate both of us.

It should not force me to understand photography before allowing me to take a picture.

Technology Should Hide Its Complexity

A good machine can be extraordinarily complicated inside and extraordinarily simple outside.

Think about an elevator. Inside that box is a tremendous amount of engineering.

But the user does not need to understand the motor, cables, control systems, sensors or safety mechanisms.

He presses a button. The elevator does the rest. That is intelligent technology.

The intelligence is hidden inside the machine instead of being placed on theo user's shoulders.

Unfortunately, many modern digital products seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Their complexity is increasingly being displayed to the user. The user is expected to learn the machine instead of the machine learning how to serve the user.

And Then There Are Elderly People

This issue becomes much more serious when we think about ageing.

All of us are young only once.

If we are fortunate, we grow older.

Our eyesight changes.

Our hearing changes.

Our fingers may become less precise.

Our memory may not be as quick as it once was.

Our patience with unnecessary complexity may decrease. And one day, the person who designed the complicated interface may himself become the person struggling to use it. That is why accessibility should not be treated as a special feature for a small group of people.

Ageing is something most of us will experience.

Designing for older people is, in a very real sense, designing for our future selves.

What About People Who Are Not Highly Educated?

There is another uncomfortable truth.

The world does not consist only of engineers, programmers, designers, graduates and technology enthusiasts.

Millions of ordinary people live in villages, towns and cities across the world.

They speak different languages.

They have different levels of education.

They have different experiences with technology.

Some may be brilliant at farming.

Some may be excellent mechanics.

Some may be wonderful teachers, shopkeepers, artists, drivers, cooks or craftsmen.

A person does not become unintelligent because he does not understand a complicated digital interface.

Human intelligence cannot be measured by the number of menus someone knows how to navigate.

The Arrogance of Modern Technology

Perhaps the biggest problem is not technology itself.

Perhaps it is the attitude behind some technology.

There can be a subtle arrogance in the assumption that:

“If we can build it, the user should learn how to use it.”

No.

The responsibility should often be reversed.

If we can build something complicated, we should also be capable of making its use simple.

A product containing 500 features is not automatically better than a product containing 50.

Sometimes the product with 50 features is better because the 50 useful functions are immediately understandable.

Technology should not be a demonstration of what engineers know.

It should be a demonstration of how well engineers understand human beings.

Google, This Is My Question

So, Google, I have one simple question.

You have some of the world's greatest technological resources.

You can build enormously sophisticated systems.

You can connect Maps, Search, Business Profiles, advertising, payments and countless other services.

But when you put all these things together, please remember one thing:

The human being looking at the screen has only two eyes, two hands and one brain.

He may not want to learn your entire ecosystem.

He may simply want to find a place.

Or manage his small business.

Or watch television.

Or open a door.

Or make a phone call.

Or pay a bill.

Please don't make him feel that he needs a computer science degree to do it.

Google Has the Power to Set an Example

And this is precisely why I expect more from a company like Google.

A company with Google's technological reach, global presence and enormous influence has the ability to do something that could benefit not just its own users, but the entire technology industry.

Why not create a genuinely simple Basic Mode and a clearly separated Advanced Mode, within the same application?

One application.

One ecosystem.

But with a clear wall between the two worlds.

Let the ordinary user enter the Basic Mode and see only what is necessary.

Let the advanced user open the door to Advanced Mode and access every sophisticated function he wants.

Nothing needs to be removed.

Nothing needs to be dumbed down.

The complexity simply needs to be placed where it belongs.

If Google were to adopt such a philosophy across its products, it could become an example for the rest of the technology industry.

Other companies might follow.

Smart TVs could follow.

Home appliances could follow.

Public machines could follow.

Banking applications could follow.

Cars could follow.

Medical and scientific equipment could follow. And gradually, we might build a technological world in which science becomes more accessible without becoming less powerful.

That, to me, would be genuine technological progress.

Because the real achievement of science is not merely to discover something extraordinarily complicated.

The real achievement is to take that extraordinary knowledge and make it usable by an ordinary human being.

Imagine a world where an elderly person can confidently use a smart device without fear.

Imagine a person with little formal education being able to use a sophisticated machine without feeling ashamed or dependent on someone else.

Imagine a child being able to understand the basic function of a device without being confronted by hundreds of unnecessary choices.

That is the kind of technological future I would like to see. And perhaps a company like Google  precisely because it has the reach and influence to do so, could lead that change.

Build the wall.

Keep the doors open.

Give the expert all the power he needs.

Give the ordinary human being all the simplicity he deserves.

And let both use the same technology.

That would not make technology less intelligent.

It would make technology more humane.

And perhaps that is the next great revolution we need:

Not smarter machines.

But machines that are smart enough to remain simple.

Not technology that shows us how clever it is. Technology that understands how human we are.

- Yozen Balki 💢