The Most Critical Aspect of User Experience

Last week I did something that really made me proud but that feeling didn't last.

Couple of years ago I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. It runs in my family so I guess it was my turn😐 I was very upset after hearing the diagnosis because it meant having to radically change my diet and being dependent on pills, probably until the end of my life.

I was extremely lucky and privileged to have a cardiologist, an internal medicine specialist, and a dietician to keep things under control. And they really did an amazing job to keep my health in check.

However, I was still nervous about my heart and concerned about my physical activity, so I bought a FitBit Charge 5 to measure things. I did this despite detesting health trackers. I am not comfortable with sharing my moment-by-moment vitals with any company in any jurisdiction, but fear won this time; I strapped one on my wrist.

And I actually liked it a lot. FitBit Charge had a great physical design, and the software was quite fun to use despite the small screen. It was the 5th iteration on their Charge device (now they are at 6th iteration, after they have been acquired by Google) and the thoughtfulness and polish definitely showed, both on the device and the FitBit app.

I was very happy with it until one day it broke. While I was swimming. While I was doing one of the activities that the device was supposedly designed to record.

The return process took over a year, which I will detail in another post about the importance of service design. I was not unhappy about the product and the experience, but I was dissatisfied with the brand. So instead of looking at alternatives from FitBit, I looked into cheaper options and bought an Amazfit Band 7.

Now Amazfit isn't FitBit :) The device is OK. The companion app (Zepp, but it gets renamed every few years) is clunky. You can't escape from the Chinese UX principles in the app: tiny text is great, fill every pixel with something, add useless new features in the main usage paths, hide useful collections in deep menus, send push notifications until you make the user throw their phone to the wall. However, it has accurate tracking, truly great battery life, very light on the wrist, costs about 1/8th of FitBit Charge for very similar functionality, so I was happy with it.

Back to last week. I was visiting my family in Mersin and I decided to push my limits a little. My family spends the summer in one of the bays next to Erdemli. It is fun to stroll along the shore in each bay and walk onto the next bay. It is a great evening exercise for all ages, mixed with nice long chats and occasional sand play for the kids.

But this time, instead of walking with them, I chose to swim to the next bay that was 1.5 km away.

Now, I am not a swimmer :) I don't have a pool membership, I am not trained for Ironman-like races, and I only do light gym exercises occassionaly. But I like swimming with palettes when I get a chance. So I put on my palettes and started swimming - against the current on that day! After about an hour, I met my family in the next bay.

I was proud! I didn't train up to this, I was on my summer diet (beer, chips, kebap, beer, watermelon, beer) and yet I was able to complete a long swim without having to stop or having to take multiple days off for recovery. And of course part of me wanted to look at my Amazfit to see how my heart did, what my pace was, and how many points I won for today's exercise!

Then I found out that it didn't record anything.

It was a moment of disappointment. A light one, as I didn't do this exercise to score virtual points but I was expecting to see some more details - details that I myself wouldn't be able to know or capture. Had I known about my heart rate, I might have some idea about my overall fitness. It could have given me a signal to check in with my doctor, or it could have been a warm pat on the back giving me hope about my health... Had I known about my pace, I could compare my swim with my family's walk and have a fun chat about it. And the score? It just highlighted how empty and meaningless gamification is. (There is a related article below, keep reading)

I am keeping my Amazfit for now. But when it breaks, I am not sure if I would want to buy a replacement from them.

Implications for Product Work

It should go without saying, but if your product isn't working properly, you don't need to invest in new features, shiny marketing campaigns or intricate retention schemes.

And yes, you have contributed to the problem. If you are in engineering/ops, you are directly responsible. If you are in any role that is causing work/rework for the engineering teams such as design, marketing, product, you are responsible. If you are in management, your inability to create space for reliable software created this problem.

• If the sign-up process doesn't work in your app, don't spend time optimizing the special offers section. It doesn't matter if it is not scheduled for sprints that could be centuries away - you are creating distraction from things that matter to the user experience while creating excuses for distancing yourselves away from the problem.
• If the main conversion path or the main use case in your application is getting errors, your work on the splash screen or that start-up popup is not adding any value to the experience.
• If the cute chatbot that was slapped onto your app in 2020 still sucks after switching to ChatGPT Extreme Pro XQ-NLX, maybe you should accept surrender and listen to your engineering department's request to remove it from the app.

Creating a good user experience takes many disciplines working in the same direction under sane conditions. When you are thinking about improvements, think about how you impact that team sanity and if you are doing a disservice to your fellow colleagues.

🍉Summer is almost over, but the genocide isn't... Try a balanced approach to pick where you are getting updates about it. I mix Al Jazeera, Haaretz and Middle East Eye with a selection of independent reporters on Instagram. Although, their numbers have been decreasing for obvious reasons in the last few month. If you haven't been paying attention, they are either leaving the region because no one cares about their reporting or they die as a result of Israeli attacks.

New Section: Questions

I am a big fan of Mike Monteiro's work. Recently I have been enjoying his newsletter where he answers a question from a reader in each post. His responses are super fun to read and I have learned quite a bit from his perspective on subjects outside of design.