What’s a conceptual model in UX? A story of a business class passenger
Onboarding — A promising start
You met a girl at this party. Love at first sight that doesn’t test your System 2 at all. You walk up to her, speak with her, and with her sitting next to you now, you are about to have a glass of champagne or two, and then hold her hands. After a few minutes of exchanging “Hellos!” and asking for each other’s name and what not, you realize — she can’t speak more English than that.
She’s one from another planet, who doesn’t speak the same language as yours. This is too bad. But sadly, the only thing you can do is to… walk away from her.
Nothing ruins your party more than over-expectations that can never be met. Pricey bubbles, lovely guests, perfect background music and ambience… Those miraculous moments rarely exist in reality, especially in the world of UX design, unfortunately. I mean, unless the designer dares to execute some user research in order to understand the user’s mental model.
Take-off — A broken moment-of-truth
Let me talk a little bit about this broken moment of truth in design, from my episode of a transpacific flight. The moment of truth with this DreamSuite started when I got onboard an AirPacifc aircraft that flew from Tokyo to San Francisco back in 2019. Their DreamSuite is a lavish bed seat with this smart reclining feature, all the way down to 180 degrees, and it is beautifully fitted into a spacious 100-inch individual cubicle in a business class cabin of the aircraft.
The tagline of the DeamSuite ad campaign goes (cost some $1.5 million for the airline company) — Fulfill the vacation that you’ve always dreamed of in a wide, spacious and liberating personal space! It all sounded good, so I got super excited to board the plane.
Oh my cognitive load!
Gosh, this “DreamSuite” idea turned out to be a nightmare. True, no exaggeration about the 180 degree bed and spacious and liberating personal space. The nightmare part was the remote control design that a passenger is supposed to use to maneuver this state-of-the-art business couch. And here’s my little analysis about the DreamSuite experience, from the UX design perspective.
Conceptual Model
A conceptual model is a representation of a system, made out of a bunch of concepts which are used to help people understand and simulate a subject the model represents. Don Norman defined conceptual models as “mental simulations of devices that enable users to judge the means of operation and possible uses”. It is a high level description of how a system/design works and is organized.
When a user enters the scene of an interaction — which is the aircraft and then the business cabin in this episode — he/she will do so with a certain image of the space and design affordances from the environment of the flight. With this image of the flight in mind, the user will carry out his/her mental analysis of the constraints and opportunities and start plotting his/her actions around the design.
Sounds a bit complicated? OK, let’s put it simply. Here, in my mind, the DreamSuite design works on a few concepts. When I stepped into the business cabin, I had had a few images already in my mind about what a cabin seat would look like and how it would work — say a large reclining seat that works on a system of leverage, or a design that works like a massage bed or even a barber chair.
Designer’s model
However for the designer, this image of how a design works (leverage, a massage bed or a barber chair) is not exactly the image that the designer would want the user to see. In the designer’s mind, the DreamSuite should be such an exceptional experience that is similar to what the person would feel when resting on his/her home bed, or what he/she would have felt like in Granny’s rocking chair as a kid.
Getting back to the DreamSuite… It was such a design of illusion, created by a mediocre designer who completely failed to understand the conceptual models of the user at all. Here’s a summary of the pain points that I discovered through the DreamSuite experience.
Visibility
Then here it goes, the questions about visibility. Where’s the remote control for the seat? Is it hidden somewhere in the compartment storage? OK, I finally discovered the remote control which was buried away in the partition wall. But now, my perception gets fuzzy with dozens of buttons on the control panel — gosh, the buttons come in more than 5 shapes, in various angles and positions!
Affordances
The remote control buttons are apparently there… but I have no idea about their possible uses/functionality. What is this top oval control for? I also wonder how the wave icon button works. What does this D-N-D at the bottom mean at all? Is it for making an emergency call or something else? (Oh I see… Do-Not-Disturb, maybe?)
Constraints
If I am primarily left-handed — what should I do if I want to lower the left armrest while using a laptop to type on the keyboard? Will I struggle in order to keep the rest of the seat unmoved while trying to adjust the height/angle of the armrest only.
When repeating this action to adjust and then re-adjust I would feel a sense of desperation — because every time I try to adjust a component of its body, the entire seat moves along and it ends up altering the position of the entire seat again and again.
Mappings
After a few attempts at re-adjusting its parts and body, I realize… I still can’t figure out how the seat works, can/should be controlled, and how those green, blue, red and yellow remote control buttons can inform the user about how to maneuver the bed.
Landing…or Farewell
Well, I am giving up on this home-away-from-home, 180-degree-DreamSuite experience. Through the earlier part of my flight, I already realized that the gap between my expectation about the DreamSuite and its actual design is an insurmountable one, just like the distance between Tokyo and San Francisco!
We live with our own images, say conceptual models, borrowing the term of UX design. For UX designers — it is definitely our job to figure out what kind of conceptual models that the users live with. Then we should try to match those images of ours and users as closely as possible, so the user can understand what is possible and how they can maneuver the design.
Now… What am I going to do with this expectation gap? Maybe I should just ask a flight attendant for an instruction about how to control the DreamSuite or read a manual. On second thought, I realize this might not be a good idea, because no one wants to engage in such taxing activities as learning during a long haul flight.
DreamSuite! I was so sure that you will make a precious companion through my transpacific flight. I was about to make a toast with a glass of Dom Perignon (I actually did!). The first few onboarding moments with you was an entertaining one somehow.
However…
There was no feedback that I expected from you — you just kept on challenging my mental model, by forcing me with your design concepts. It was a dreamy suite… an illusion that was conjured up by a designer who neither understands or speaks the user’s language. The flight has touched down, and no more living in my dreams.
Good bye, my DreamSuite.
