All this talk of ubiquity reminded me of a book I read recently called Digital Korea, in this book the author described how technologically advanced South Korea was with super fast broadband, online gaming, mobile payments etc. Also mentioned was the ubiquitous dream hall (sounds odder than it really is) which is Korea’s example of a world of the future sponsored by Korean technology companies where technology is completely ubiquitous.
The problem is that they aren’t really keeping things as up to date as they should with the last update in April 2007, certain technologies in the dream house have begun to be replaced by newer versions. This got me thinking about usability and how technology can hinder rather than help.
I suppose we all know that, and have all experienced it first hand, but from a design view point it is always necessary to recognise the limitations of technology. To do this I usually employ a method I borrowed from Designing the Obvious where you approach a design problem from the point of view of aiding the user to complete a task. The user may not really care for your beloved app but what they really want to do is share their photos quickly and easily with family members, for example. So to create the best possible user experience you design the best way for them to do just that, it’s that simple. And what is best about this approach is that it’s not determined by the technology available.