Apple-Samsung $1B Verdict Hurts Future of User Experience Design

Last Friday a jury awarded Apple a $1B verdict against Samsung for patient infringement. There are some great detailed descriptions of the Apple/Samsung case, but here is a summary:

• Samsung violated a series of Apple's patents related to the software and design of mobile devices.
• Apple's patents were valid.
• Apple did not violate any of Samsung's patents.

Need more proof? Check out this 132-page internal document written in 2010 by Samsung engineers directly comparing the iPhone against the Galaxy S and making recommendations about how the latter should be more like the former.

Don't get me wrong, Samsung clearly ripped of the product design of Apple's iPhone. Simply looking at the two products makes it clear that Samsung was at least "inspired" by Apple's product hardware and interface design.

My concern, however, is how certain modern user interface conventions were patented by Apple, and found to be infringed upon. For example, what would your mobile experience be like without the pinch-to-zoom gesture to magnify an image? Or the “bounce back” effect when a user scrolls to the end of a list on the iPhone and iPad? I'd argue that these are patentable conventions of the mobile experience as much as using a mouse was to interfacing with a GUI (graphic user interface) in the 80's, or clicking on underlined text in a web browser in the 90's. It would be silly to say that these are patentable; rather, they are simply how we all interface with these devices.

What's more, stating that these mobile experience conventions can't be replicated without licensing fees is harmful to the the future mobile experience.

Web designers, or more specifically user experience designers, rely on design conventions to create usable interfaces. Relying on interface conventions is an efficient way to ensure your interface will be quick to learn and easy to remember. If every website had it's own unique navigation, iconography, and interface controls, the commercial web wouldn't exist today. User experience designers need to design with conventions in order to ensure adoption of their products.

Consider the shopping cart analogy. Most eCommerce website replicate a shopping cart for the online check-out and purchase process. From the iconography (i.e., a shopping cart), to the 3-5 steps (e.g., billing, credit card information), to design of forms (i.e., nearly all check-out processes are identical). From a usability perspective, this is done mostly on purpose, too. An user experience designer understands the following key things about usability:

• quick to learn the first time
• easy to remember the next time
• fast to complete each time
• forgiving in errors each time
• pleasant to use each time

Imagine a future world in which how you interact with a device is patentable? What happens to innovation?

Perhaps Apple should watch this video — Everything is a Remix, and we should embrace it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1s_PybOuY0