Its about the verbs, not the nouns
We have lived in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain for almost two and a half months now. There are many differences in the culture and society that I have observed, most of which I am giving time to think about before writing. One observation, however, I am ready to talk about is called "focusing on verbs instead of nouns"
The Setup
I am a systems person and so analogy is going to come from that arena, yet I will save you from too many technical points.
In object oriented programming, you organize what you want to have happen by creating objects. Examples of objects include Person, Bank, Bank Account, and Messages that get sent between them.
Here's an example: Bob(Person) tells Banco Santander (Bank) to transfer money from his checking account (Bank Account) to Jane's checking account (Bank Account).
Normally in designing a program the programmer will decide all the objects, then he/she decides what messages they will send. This has been the standard practice for decades and is how most programmers are taught to code.
Ironically, though, the first pioneers in object oriented programming emphasized something else. Instead of focusing on objects first, they focused on the messages, the action, the verbs, or interactions such as, request transfer, or move money, first.
When they understood what would happen to the objects (or characters, or nouns), the objects would naturally pop out, such as Client, Account, or Request.
Inevitably the objects and messages will be different within each approach. For example, designing from messages first moved towards a better system that was more maintainable, simpler, and easier to understand.
OMG what's the point already?
Thanks for sticking with me.
It is a very subtle point, indeed. What I have found living in Barcelona is this: they focus on the messages first and the effect on objects, (people), is huge.
First Example
I read a lease here a month ago and could understand it, even though Spanish is not my first language and I am far from fluent, I could understand the lease.
Contrast that with reading a lease in the United States where English is my first language. I even have degree obtained using English and yet I have never been able to understand 100% of a lease, more like 40-50%.
Why? Here the lease seems to be written with the goal of facilitating understanding and communication to those who are party to the lease rather than the goal of defending someone legally.
Second Example
Today we found ourselves needing to see a doctor at one of the local hospitals. No worries, it was a minor issue and everyone is fine.
We made an appointment online through our insurance provider's website, showed up, showed our insurance card to reception and signed a one page document.
After that we were told to wait about 20 minutes until they called our name to see a doctor. Seems simple and an obvious solution. But if you're in the United States, getting situated that quickly seems more like a pipe dream.
In the United States you would have to find a doctor around you, but not really because then you would have to go to your insurance provider's website to see if they were part of their network.
Most of the time, the website would be out of date and the doctor out of network. Likely So you'd have to find another doctor and do it all over again.
Once you found a doctor you would have to call the clinic/hospital and make an appointment, then transferred to the hospital staff to give them your insurance information.
You would then go to your appointment, but upon arrival, you would once again have to give your insurance card so they could confirm with the insurance provider you were covered.
You would also be given 4-5 pages to fill out and return to the reception area. After all of that, you would still wait a long time to see the doctor.
Whew, an entire paragraph to describe the US version, and one sentence for the Spain version. I did not really use liberties with the United States version as I have had to do it so many times in my life. I still simplified the process down quite a bit. Sometimes you'd find yourself filling out forms again or finding out at your appointment that the procedure would not be covered for some reason.
What's the count?
- Spain: 4 objects, 5 interactions
- United States: 7 objects, 12 interactions
Bear in mind, that's if everything goes well, and you know it never does. Usually interactions can be up to three to four times more complex and/or time consuming.
Why?
Why the difference? The systems here are designed from interactions first, and this makes it easier for all people (objects), in the system. When you are one of the objects,a person, trying to sign a lease or seek medical attention, it really makes all the difference.
In the US, user-centric design is not unknown. It is even implemented, sometimes. It is just never the first approach. It is usually "bolted on" at the end when it is done.
Am I just being a Señor Complainypants? I hope not. Again as a systems person, I naturally study systems in my life. I notice the objects (people) in the system and the interactions between them.
Conclusion
What I am saying is that instead of ranting about how this or that could be better if only this object or this person did this, there is another approach.
If when creating a system, instead of thinking about the nouns or actors and improving from there, what if we thought about who needs to say or know something and improve from that interaction?
We'd get a much better designed system. When the majority of your daily interactions have been thought through this way, they build on each other in amazing and fascinating ways.
And as a person interacting within the system, you tend not to feel like you are getting lost "in the machine" or "in a corporation's structure". You feel like a human talking to other humans. You feel heard, and this feeds the human-ness within us especially when we are signing an agreement or feeling sick.
P.S. Don't get me wrong I have been interacting with a coach for 6 weeks going through the process of getting a kid on a soccer team and at times it is frustrating, but I'd take 6 weeks of an interaction-first system than 15 seconds in a DMV.