|FEATURES$type=ticker$count=12$cols=4$cate=0

A case of superior interaction design

dropbox logo
Dropbox gives great interaction.
Dropbox is a free software app that provides a popular service: backing up and sharing files via the web.  It's not the only such service provider, but it does seem to be taking the web by storm.  I believe it's because it has a superior interaction design.

I've used several file-sharing systems in the past.  Each has their advantages and disadvantages.  Of all of them, two in particular stand out.

Google Docs obviously matters here.  However, it's notion of uploading and downloading is still web-centric: you have to select files to upload from popups and then wait for them to be converted.  This is a distraction, not because of the implied impatience one might think I experience, but because it's a cognitive disconnect.  The whole upload process distracts the user from the reason for uploading.  Sharing stuff in Google Docs can also be... "interesting." One is again tied to a web-based interface, where one must instruct Google on what to do each time you want to change permissions.

Of course, Google Docs isn't just about uploading and sharing.  Most users will forgive Google the inherently clumsy nature of the those bits, because Docs is after all a full-blown document preparation system that lives in the (googlesque) cloud.  And Google Docs lets multiple users simultaneously edit the same document.  So, in the land of Google Docs, you upload and share documents mostly because you want to be able to change them.

Dropbox, on the other hand, takes a different approach.  Instead of giving users a service to upload and share and edit online, they realized that (a) most people have local document editing software already (like OpenOffice or [insert ominous music here] MS Word), and (b) removing the requirement to edit online opens a wealth of possibilities for new user experiences on the uploading/sharing side of things.

Dropbox requires, in a somewhat retro twist, that you download some software to whatever computer you want Dropbox to be accessed from.  But that one little thing let's them do something very cool: sharing and uploading documents becomes entirely transparent to the user.

Dropbox sets up a folder on your computer, inside of which you can create private, shared, or public folders. You use that Dropbox folder as you would any other folder on your computer; you won't notice the difference at all.  Except that every file in that folder gets automatically synced with Dropbox's servers.

So, backups are automagical.

What's really cool is that when you set up Dropbox on multiple computers, all the computers maintain synced images of what's on the Dropbox servers.  So, for instance, I create a new document in my Dropbox folder at work.  I use whatever software I want to do that, software that's local to my computer and therefore independent of the Internet (faster, more robust, more powerful, etc).  Then I go home, and find I need to tweak the document.  I just go into my Dropbox folder on my home computer and there is the file I was working on at the office.  I tweak it and save it as I would do any local file on my home computer.  Next morning, the new version is waiting for me when I get to the office.

Dropbox growth as noted by Alexa
Dropbox has quickly surpassed its competitors.
If you think this is impressive, you're not alone.  To the left is a graphic I got from Alexa showing pageviews of four similar services.  Notice Dropbox's fairly steady climb.  (Sure, pageviews doesn't correspond to downloads, but it's a good indication that there's a lot of interest.)

Google Docs requires no "installation," whereas Dropbox does.  But installation happens only once, at the outset.  Operationally, however, Dropbox folds its user experience and interaction completely into whatever interaction you're already used to with your computer - which means it vanishes completely from the user's point of view.

One might argue that the files-and-folders approach to organizing things is neither efficient nor effective (indeed, I think Google's approach of labels and tags is far better), but it seems that Dropbox's goal was to make their system as transparent as possible - and that pretty much constrained them to live with whatever users already had on their computers.

That's a good thing.  Design must accommodate people - not the other way around.  Dropbox's developers clearly learnt this lesson well.  Beyond that, they've come up with the perhaps perfect interaction design - interactions that blend so well into the "background" that you can't even tell you're using it.

Because of this, I really think Dropbox has the best service of its kind (so far).

COMMENTS

Name

academia,15,academic,2,activism,1,adaptation,1,additive manufacturing,1,admin,14,aesthetics,7,affect,1,ageing,2,AI,18,analogy,2,android,1,animation,1,anthropology,3,anticipation,1,app,1,architecture,51,art,2,arts,73,Asia,3,assistive technology,2,authority,1,automobile,1,award,1,balance,28,biology,5,biomimetics,17,book,8,branding,4,building,3,built environment,4,business,7,CAD,5,Canada,29,care,1,case,11,cfp,689,change revision,1,children,2,cinema,1,Circa,3,circular design,1,circular economy,4,codesign,3,cognition,12,collaboration,4,colonization,1,commercialization,3,commonplacing,1,communication,3,communication design,12,competition,5,complexity,5,computation,24,computer science,1,computing,18,concept map,4,conference,354,constructivism,1,conversation,1,conversational analysis,1,covid-19,4,craft,11,creative arts,1,creativity,15,crime,1,CSCW,1,culture,35,cybernetics,2,data science,1,decision-making,1,decolonization,1,degrowth,1,dementia,4,design,111,design science,1,design thinking,12,digital,3,digital media,5,digital reproduction,1,digital scholarship,1,disability,3,dissertation,1,drawing,7,economics,23,education,71,effectiveness,14,efficiency,12,emotion,1,engineering,45,entertainment,1,entrepreneurship,6,environment,28,ergonomics,3,ethics,51,ethnography,2,Evernote,1,evolution,4,exhibition,3,exoskeleton,1,experience,5,experimental studies,3,fail,1,fashion,15,featured,10,film,1,food,5,function modeling,1,futurism,16,gender,1,gender studies,3,geography,2,Germany,2,globalization,3,grantsmanship,1,graphic design,32,Greece,1,HCI,53,health,29,heritage,2,history,33,HMI,1,Hobonichi,1,housing,2,human factors,3,humanism,56,humanities,2,identity,1,illustration,2,image,4,inclusivity,2,industrial design,6,informatics,4,information,9,innovation,19,interaction,26,interdisciplinarity,4,interior design,9,internet of things,3,intervention,1,iphone,16,jobs,1,journal,194,journalism,1,justice,2,landscape,6,language,5,law,2,library,1,life,105,life cycle,3,lifehack,10,literature,1,literature review,1,logistics,2,luxury,1,maintenance,1,making,5,management,12,manufacturing,9,material culture,7,materials,6,mechanics,1,media,17,method,46,migration,1,mobile,2,mobility,1,motion design,2,movie,3,multimedia,3,music,1,nature,3,new product development,5,Nexus 6,1,olfaction,1,online,2,open design,2,organization,1,packaging,2,paper,19,participatory design,16,PBL,1,pengate,1,performance,1,PhD,34,philosophy,46,planning,5,play,1,policy,9,politics,52,postdoc,1,practice,26,predatory,3,preservation,2,printing,1,prison,1,proceedings,1,product,1,product lifetime,1,product longevity,1,productivity,106,project management,1,prototyping,4,public space,6,publishing,3,reading,1,Remember The Milk,1,repair,1,reproduction,1,research,117,research through design,2,resilience,1,resource-limited design,1,reuse,1,review,74,robust design,1,Samsung,3,scale,1,scholarship,54,science,48,science fiction,5,semiotics,5,senses,1,service design,12,simplicity,5,society,136,sociology,11,software,61,somatics,1,space,5,STEM,1,strategic design,6,student,8,sustainability,68,sustainable consumption,1,sustainable design,1,sustainable production,1,systems,67,tactile,1,tangibility,1,technology,25,textile,7,theatre,3,theory,7,Toodledo,2,Toronto,3,tourism,2,traffic,1,transhumanism,1,transnationalism,1,transportation,3,tv,3,typography,1,uncertainty,1,universal design,4,upcycling,2,urban,30,usa,9,usability,1,user experience,8,virtual reality,1,visualization,24,waste management,1,wearable,3,well-being,17,women,1,workshop,74,writing,2,
ltr
item
The Trouble with Normal...: A case of superior interaction design
A case of superior interaction design
http://filsalustri.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/dropbox.jpg?w=150
The Trouble with Normal...
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/2010/11/a-case-of-superior-interaction-design.html
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/
https://filsalustri.blogspot.com/2010/11/a-case-of-superior-interaction-design.html
true
389378225362699292
UTF-8
Loaded All Posts Not found any posts VIEW ALL Readmore Reply Cancel reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RECOMMENDED FOR YOU LABEL ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not found any post match with your request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec just now 1 minute ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 hour ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago more than 5 weeks ago Followers Follow THIS PREMIUM CONTENT IS LOCKED STEP 1: Share to a social network STEP 2: Click the link on your social network Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy