So in prior posts I spent a lot of pixels describing and discussing the critical failures of the interaction design of the Circuit. The controls don’t make any sense. It is seriously one-sided. It doesn’t handle a user’s preferences. In this post we’re going to go over some of the issues involved in rethinking this design.

Circuit goals

As I express time and again in design projects—and teach in classes on interaction design—to design a system right you need to understand the goals of each actor. In a real-world project we might get more into it, but our “tuners” and “travelers” have some pretty simple goals to achieve in using The Circuit.

Goals of our users

• Find a compatible partner for satisfying sexytimes™
• Minimize social awkwardness
• Have an easy way to opt out of mismatches and, if they’re just tired of it, of the whole matchmaking process for the evening

For Jessica, social awkwardness entails not getting matched with an authority, since she’s a resistance fighter. Continue reading →