Highly Predictable Interactions
By @edent
· culture society ux · 7 comments · 650 words · read ~362 times.
I remember the first time as an adult I ordered a takeaway. I picked up the phone, menu in hand, and prepared to do battle. The person on the other end of the phone didn't speak English, my menu was out of date, they couldn't understand my address, and I didn't have the right money when they finally delivered.
Stressful, annoying, and - until relatively recently - commonplace.
When services like Just-Eat and Deliveroo came in, I suddenly was a lot happier ordering from local restaurants. Online ordering offers a highly predictable interaction.
I can take everything at my own pace. I can see the total cost as I go. I can be confident that my address has been understood. My card is automatically charged.
It is bliss.
Many interactions are unpredictable. For example, ringing up for a doctor's appointment (will I get through? Will the receptionist laugh at me?) or buying clothes (do they have my size? Will the shop be open late?).
Thankfully, it seems that the world is slowly drifting towards an embrace of predictability.
Yesterday, I needed to book a boiler service. I looked at half-a-dozen local companies and picked the one with an online calendar. Normally I'd ring up an engineer (with their arms halfway up a flue) and try to negotiate a mutually agreeable date and time. Then spend the day worrying about whether they'd accept card payments. Instead, I flicked through their calendar, selected a slot, and paid online.
The engineer doesn't waste time looking through a diary. I don't have to spell out my address over the phone. We each gain a little bit of calm.
The journalist Marie Le Conte has a different perspective:
… humans need friction. Convenience is alluring but it is dangerous, because getting used to it means forgetting that being alive isn’t meant to always be easy. We should run our errands in person and queue at the Post Office and eat in restaurants because it is good to remember that sometimes we have to wait around, or go to several shops because the first one didn’t have what we needed. Resilience is one of the most important traits a person can and should develop, and it works like a muscle. Glide effortlessly through life and, when something bad does happen, because it always will, you won’t know how to react.
And, surprisingly, I agree! There's nothing quite like wandering through a new city, peering into the restaurants, and going on a culinary adventure. But imagine if you went into a restaurant and they told you they only take payment in obsolete Deutsche Mark. Not predictable and not fun!
I don't think a desire for predictability is about being antisocial. Nor is it about dividing people from each other (I have an unfounded theory that many of the people who bemoan having to place a restaurant order by app are generally those who made wait-staffs' lives hell). But it is a recognition that complexity and unpredictability are delightful in context.
We should have unpredictable experiences. But our lives are greatly enhanced when interactions are highly predictable.
Of course, not everyone is the same. For some people, unpredictability is an enrichment activity. People with relatively simple and predictable lives seem to derive benefit from uncertainty. They enjoy the complex interactions, ill-defined challenges, and uncertain outcomes.
That's great for them! I'm happy for them to call for restaurants and plumbers. They can spend all day wandering around hoping they get to their destination.
But, for lots of us, unpredictability is pain.
Taking the road less travelled is only exciting when you choose to take it. Otherwise, you're just lost.
Mike says:
High predictability is why my boiler is serviced by ${largeCompany} as part of a maintenance plan. I give them some money every month and once a year they remind me it’s time for the service and I select a date and time window from those available on their website. This probably costs me more than arranging ad-hoc servicing, but I don’t want to think about who do I get to service my boiler this year, or who do I call when it stops working. Similarly I expect it costs you more to order from your local takeaway via Just Eat or Deliveroo than to deal with them direct. Perhaps the percentage of interactions people have which are highly predictable are to some extent a function of economic status.
@Edent
I remember watching "The Net" where Sandra Bullock's character ordered a pizza online and wondering if it would ever happen here. Now I only order deliveries online. Welcome to the future!
Rob says:
There's a (Douglas Adams?) book I read years ago, with an American living in London, who would phone Pizza restaurants trying to order a delivery, and failing as it was unheard of here..
@Edent I normally do Doctor's appointments online; (It's a case of pressing a button almost exactly at 8am to get a chance but then not being able to choose when it happens). But I think your point about new cities is interesting; it's about choosing *when* you want that friction, and knowing that you have fallbacks to relax. It's kind of like a rollercoaster; you chose to exercise the bits that get scared of heights and speed, but don't want to be scared when travelling to town.
Paul Kelly says:
Your example of delivered food is a case where the balance of extra cost and unpredictability avoided can vary significantly. If I want fish and chips I can walk to the shop in less than ten minutes, or drive in even less time, or I can order through Deliveroo. If I order online I pay 50% more, and the shop receives less than half of what I have paid. That sounds like a bad deal for everyone that matters, so I only do it during a Covid lockdown.
@edent says:
Do I want to walk down and find that it is closed? Is it full of drunks having an argument? Is the owner an arse? If he forgets my mushy-peas how easy is it to get a refund? These are all things I can cope with - but perhaps not after an exhausting day. Hence why lots of people will just one-click it.
If you're paying 50% more and the owner is receiving less than half means... that means the owner is getting close to the full whack. You're paying for predictability and the owner is paying to get a customer who might go elsewhere. That seems like a reasonable trade-off for both parties.
There's also the time-budgeting aspect. I know it will take me two minutes to order dinner on Deliveroo or book a doctor's appointment in the NHS app, but if I have to ring someone, numerous factors could affect how long that takes — lots of calls at once, not enough call-answering staff, they need more security on the phone because I'm not just magically logged in, I have to spell out my name/address/postcode twice, etc. There's no way to tell for sure how much time such an unpredictable interaction might take, so it's more difficult to set aside time to do it during a busy day.
More comments on Mastodon.