Usability 101 for DVD Designers
Category: Design...
Posted Monday, December 08, 2003 at 09:32 PM [GMT-6]

It's 5:00 p.m. You have an important dinner meeting at 6:30 p.m. You figure you have just enough time to jump on the treadmill for a quick stress-relieving workout, and you ought to be able to make your meeting with minutes to spare. You pop a DVD into the player to help pass the time...the movie is, say, "Die Another Day,"* with Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry.

You hit the Play button on the remote, then repeatedly stab the Skip button to jump through the seemingly endless sequence of trailers for upcoming movies (which by now are old and busted). Finally, an amazingly complex CG animation begins, which, although stunning in a useless sort of way, serves only to waste precious seconds. Then you come to this inexplicable frame: "Initiate Sequence." What does that mean? You hit Enter, only to be confronted with another series of 3D animations leading to...the setup screen. Well, that's good, because you need to activate English subtitles, so you can leave the system volume at a manageable level while still being able to follow the dialog. You try to find where the subtitle toggle switch is located. Is it in the section labeled "Q's Files"? How about "Agency Briefing"? And why can't you see the on-screen cursor? Wait...there it is: the lemon chiffon (#fffacd) dot set against the papaya whip (#ffefd5) background.

You finally manage to get the settings in place, step onto to the treadmill, and glance at the clock. It's 5:30 p.m.! Your workout has just been flushed down the toilet that doubles as pre-recorded DVD interface design. Again.

Does any of this sound familiar? I'm of the opinion that pre-recorded DVD user interface design is where website design was in, say, 1997. Sure, the blinking text and gratuitous animations and always-on MIDI background sound are better done, but they still have the same effect, relegating the essential purpose of a DVD as secondary to the whims of a clueless designer.

Do DVD designers ever watch movies on DVDs? I think not. Otherwise, they wouldn't go out of their way to camouflage basic navigation tools, or label content and setup sections with obscure titles that assume that you've not only memorized the script of the movie but have studied the original storyboard layouts created before filming began.

I'm sure DVD designers don't read blogs, but if any of them happen to stumble in here, I'm not letting them leave without providing them a few suggestions for future design. To wit...

• DVDs don't need splash screens. We don't need a button to press in order to take us to the next step in the intricate Dance of the Playing of the Movie.
• We also don't need to read the FBI/Interpol/CMP/Power Rangers warning against pirating the disk. If you feel you must include it, put it at the end of the movie. Those of us who are impressed by it will still be impressed.
• We don't appreciate your turning setup navigation into a puzzle or a game. Give us a simple list of clearly labeled options: play movie, audio setup, video setup if appropriate, languages, subtitles (a separate category, not a language sub-category), scene selection and additional content. We'll take it from there.
• Make the selection cursor obvious. Keep in mind that most of us don't have high-definition TVs, and some of us are even watching on 13" screens or smaller. Create a nice high-contrast rollover effect; if you're confused by that term, visit a couple of websites. I'll be happy to make some recommendations.
• Make the scene selection option more user-friendly. Label the scenes with text in addition to the thumbnail image.

These are all simple things, yet they greatly improve the usability of DVDs. As with website design, it's not rocket science. In fact, it's all about the content, which in this case is the movie. If the movie is terrible, your fancy interface won't help; if the movie is good, the interface is not needed, except to get us to the content more quickly.

And don't even get me started on DVD players!

*"Die Another Day" used as an example; not everything described herein applies specifically...but a lot of it does.