Collaboration Revolution - Advancing Collaboration for the Future of Work - Blog & Research

The best interface is no interface | Cooper Journal

Written by Brandon Klein | Aug 9, 2011 9:51:00 PM

A shopper enters a store.

Orders a sandwich.
Takes his smartphone out of his pocket.
Turns his phone on.
Slides to unlock.
Enters his passcode into the phone.
Swipes through a sea of icons, trying to find the Google Wallet app.
Taps the desired app icon.
Waits for the app to load.
Looks at the app, and tries figure out (or remember) how it works.
Makes a best guess about which menu item to hit to to reveal his credit cards linked to Google Wallet. In this case, “payment types.”
Swipes to find the credit card his would like to use.
Taps that desired credit card.
Finds the NFC receiver near the cash register.
Taps his smartphone to the NFC receiver to pay.
Sits down and eats his sandwich.
If we eliminate the UI, we’re again left with only three, natural steps:

A shopper enters a store.
Orders a sandwich.
Sits down and eats his sandwich.