There was outrageous and incredibly frightening turbulence on my Cathay Pacific flight back to JFK from Vancouver. When it was all over, my heart was pounding and I was just happy to be alive. I decided to turn on a movie to calm myself down even though there was less than two hours left in the flight.
When I chose a movie that was 105 minutes long, I got this lovely warning:
You may not be able to finish the selected programme before the Entertainment System is turned off for landing. Would you like to continue anyway?
Yes/No
There are many systems that would just play the movie and cut you off at the end with no warning. I loved that it did the math for me ahead of time and let me know what to expect, but also that I could play the movie anyway. I had chosen a movie I’d seen many, many times before and I really didn’t mind missing the end.
This is a great example of appropriately setting your users’ expectations and giving them the control they deserve. A system doesn’t have to be a genius and try to read people’s minds. Just do some simple math and put the choice in your users’ hands.
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About Whitney Hess
Whitney Hess is a coach and writer helping product teams and senior leaders make better decisions through the principles of user experience. She believes empathy builds empires.