Experience Design Vs. Interface Design
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Point of View: Bill Buxton
Experience Design vs.
Interface Design
Great experiences don’t happen by accident.
They are the result of deep thought and deliberation.
What is it that designers design? Most peo-
CitrusMate, shown in Figure 1. It
rather different. They use different tech-
ple would answer by naming some class of
worked, but I didn’t like it much.
nology (electronic vs. manual), and the
tangible objects, such as, “buildings”, “furni-
Especially compared to the manual one
‘interface’ through which you interact
ture”, “cars”, “jewelry”, or “graphics.” Those
that I had in the country, the Mighty OJ,
with each is quite different. But for me, the
with a bit more liberal sense of ‘design’
shown in Figure 2.
most significant difference was in the over-
might even say something like, “organiza-
While the juice that each produces
all experience. Simply stated, I hated the
tional structures”, “business plans” or
tastes the same, it is clear from looking at
noise that the electronic CitrusMate made,
“financial models.”While all of these answers
the photos that these two products are
especially first thing in the morning.
are as reasonable as they are predictable, I
think that they are wrong, and even if not
wrong, they at least miss the point.
Despite the technocratic and material-
istic bias of our culture, it is ultimately
experiences, not things that we are designing.
Yes, physical objects are often the most tan-
gible and visible outcomes of design, but
their primary function is to engage us in an
experience – an experience that is largely
shaped by the affordances and character
embedded in the product itself. Obviously,
aesthetics and functionality play an impor-
tant role in all of this since they attract and
deliver the capacity for that experience.
But experience is the ultimate – but too
often neglected – goal of the exercise.
If we just focus on aesthetics, at best we
end up with art, and at worst, decoration
that ultimately disappoints. And, if we just
focus on functionality, we end up not raising
our sights higher than utilitarian questions
such as usability and what I will call ‘inter-
face design’. Let me give you a concrete
example of the difference between ‘inter-
face’ and ‘experience’ design.
There are two things you need to know
about me: first, I split my time between a
house in Toronto and a cabin north of the
Bill Buxton
city; second, what gets me out of bed in the
morning is fresh squeezed orange juice.
Photo:
For years, in the city I had a conven-
Figure 1:The CitrusMate Electronic Juicer
tional electronic juice squeezer – the
The noise that it made jangled my nerves in the morning.
Rotman Magazine Winter 2005 • 47
11480 30-60 11/30/04 5:46 PM Page 48
After a couple years of listening to my
mistake one for the other. The juice tastes
complaints, my wife got the hint. For my
the same from each, and takes the same
55th birthday, she bought me a new
amount of time to prepare.
manual machine to replace the CitrusMate
Yet, from the perspective of experi-
– the OrangeX Manual Citrus Juicer
ence, there is no comparison between the
(Figure 3), designed by Smart Design
two. True, there was a night-and-day dif-
of New York.
ference between my old electronic juicer
If you look at the photos of the two
and my original Mighty OJ model. But
manual juicers, you will notice that they
there is almost as much difference
look very similar, and in essence, they have
between it and the OrangeX. It’s not that
the same user interface. You pull back the
the Mighty OJ is suddenly bad – it’s just
lever and place half of an orange face down
that the experience using the OrangeX is
in the machine’s ‘jaws’; then you pull the
so much better – and with that improvement
lever to squeeze the juice into the con-
comes a new standard of expectation or
tainer. If you can use one, you can use the
desire on my part.
other, and from a distance, you might even
While the OrangeX is significantly
heavier, the meaningful difference in expe-
Bill Buxton
rience has nothing to do with weight. It’s all
Photo:
about the feel of the action when pulling
Figure 4: Gear Mechanism of the Mighty OJ
the lever down: there is a cadence to it that
Rotary motion of the arm raises and lowers the
is almost musical.This is something that no
“jaws” of the juicer by means of a rack and pinion
drawing can capture. It has to do with feel,
gear. The gear ratio is constant.
and it takes place over time. And I just can’t
25
use it without a smile.
p
.
Comparing the two manual juicers,
2001,
Bill Buxton
usability has nothing to do with their differ-
ica,
Photo:
ences. Rather, their difference is in the
Figure 2: My “Mighty OJ” Manual Juicer
quality of experience that comes from their
of Amer
My first manual juicer, loaded and ready to go.
tion
use. The important thing is that this differ-
ence did not come about by accident: it was
s Associa
the result of conscious design.
If we look more closely, (Figure 4),
Designer
we see that the Mighty OJ has a direct
ial
linkage between its lever and the jaws, by
Industr
way of the simple rack-and-pinion gear
mechanism seen in the figure. This gives
Photo:
the unit what is best described as ‘a con-
Figure 5: Two-Dimensional Study of OrangeX
Mechanical Linkage.
stant gear ratio’, where maximum force
Cutting the parts out of Perspex, and pinning
must be applied at the end, or bottom, of
them onto a board enabled quick testing of the
the stroke.
linkage, as well as marking “time lapse” ghost
images on the background
In contrast, the quality of the
OrangeX action is due to the subtle differ-
ence of its leverage mechanism. By the
closely at Figure 3, or in the mechanical
nature of the linkage between the arm and
study shown in Figure 5.
the ‘jaws’, there is a kind of camming
What is interesting about this study is
effect. This is what delivers the cadence
how economical it is. It is ‘just’ some
that I so love. The effect of the linkage
Perspex cut out and pinned together at the
design is to vary the gear ratio, so to speak,
points of articulation. Furthermore, as
so that at the end of the squeeze – where
seen in the figure, these were mounted on
Bill Buxton
with the Mighty OJ you have to push the
boards, which enabled the designers to
hardest – the pressure required is reduced,
trace key positions of the mechanism onto
Photo:
Figure 3:The “OrangeX” Manual Juicer
and you come to a gentle conclusion of the
the background, thereby achieving some-
My second manual juicer. Its feel was a revelation.
squeeze. This can be seen by looking
thing like the effect of a time-lapse
48 • Rotman Magazine Winter 2005
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photograph. It is, in fact, a 2D dynamic
achieve the dramatic experience that I have
from more complex products and services
exploratory ‘sketch’ of the mechanism.
described. The lesson to take away from
unless we acquire the appropriate skills
But this is only one of a number
this can be gained by contrasting these
and adopt deliberate, specialized processes
of studies that led to the final design.
orange juicers with the behavioural com-
for doing so?
A selected sample illustrating the process
plexities of other types of things that we
can be seen in Figure 6. By means of
might be asked to design.
working through such a series of render-
For 30 years, Bill Buxton has been involved in the design
This example makes clear that great
of technologies for creative endeavour, including music,
ings and studies, the team was able
design is no accident. It does not reliably
film and industrial design. The one-time chief scientist of
to achieve the dramatic experience
Alias Research and SGI Inc. is currently the principal of
result from some undisciplined ‘flash of
described above.
Buxton Design, a guest lecturer in the Department of
genius’. Which then begs the question: if
Industrial Design at the Ontario College of Art and
At this point, step back and remember
it takes this much effort to achieve a high
Design, and a visiting professor at the University of
that here we are speaking about orange
Toronto’s Knowledge Media Design Institute. This essay is
quality experience with a simple product
adapted from his forthcoming book, Design for the Wild:
juicers. Yet by means of these types of
such as a juicer, why would we ever
Sketching Experience. For more about Bill, visit www.bill-
dynamic ‘sketches’, the team was able to
expect to achieve quality experiences
buxton.com
t Design)
Smar
(Photos:
Figure 6: Selected Thumbnails of the Progress of the Design
Left-to-right, top-to-bottom, we see the evolution of the concept rendered in increasing detail, starting with exploratory 2D sketches of the mechanism, through
to 3D mechanical studies, then to physical 3D explorations of the form, and then to technical renderings that lead to manufacturing drawings.
Rotman Magazine Winter 2005 • 49
