Bad Design

On the same note as my previous post, I thought it would be nice to have a comparison of something I feel is a bad design. Although the actual "interface" is designed fairly well, the implementation goes against the standard of what it should be. On that note, I present the following:

The first I present is the control. This faucet is located in my bathroom. It follows all the standards that apply to faucet technology as best is can:

• The hot is on the left, the cold is on the right.
• You can control temperature independent of amount/pressure.
• The handles pull towards you for on, away for off.
  

Of the three faucets in my apartment, this is the most conventional.

This faucet is located in my kitchen. It appears to follow the same standard as the previous faucet until you go to actually use it. Although it you can't tell in the picture (or even standing over it) the hot water is on the right and cold is on the left. After constantly scolding or freezing myself with dishes, I acquired some additional help for me to remember the switch.

This nifty gadget turns the water red when it is hot and blue when it is cold. The need for the addition clearly is evidence of a design flaw (most likely in the plumbing while the faucet just followed along).

As with the previous two examples, this design flaw is not immediately noticeable either. Unfortunately, the flaw affects me the most being that it is the shower where I spend more time than the other two faucets.

The problem here is not that the hot and cold are switched but that the knobs must be turned clockwise to get the water flowing. A minor inconvenience when turning on the shower, but a major pain when attempting to adjust the water with soap in your eyes. Reaching for the cold water knob and turning it counterclockwise expecting a nice transition to warmer waters only to get a big chill is great for that much needed wake-up shock but not very pleasant.

And there it is. Right in my own apartment. Not one, but two failures to conform to the standard of faucet design. Whether by choice or mistake, it is unbelievable to have three separate faucets with three different ways of controlling them, all under the same roof. Even if it is against the standard, it would have been a lot easier to just pick one and be consistent. At least then I wouldn't have to learn how to use three different faucets.

Good Design

At er reading through the book, The Design of Everyday Things, I have noticed many things that have both a good and bad design. Although the design that I have picked to be my favorite design I've known about for awhile, I still believe it is good.

Back in Akron, Ohio, in the mall, there is an interactive advertising system that I thought had a very good interface. It is made by a company called Reactrix, which I recently found out went bankrupt.

Their advertising was essentially a projector on the ceiling that displayed the images on the floor. You could interact with the projected images by moving over them. By using infrared cameras to track movement, there can be many people interacting at the same time. They made them fun to play with too. There were things such as popping balloons, racing games, shooting games, and anything else they could think of. It was a fun way to kill long periods of time, and I'm sure some businesses were trying to sell stuff too.

By making the advertisements interactive, more people would pay attention to them instead of just walking past without even looking. I believe it was a very novel idea, and they are certainly not the only company that has been using the technology, just not very good with their book keeping.

I can only imagine using this kind of technology to interact with a regular home computer. Being able to do things with just the wave of your hand. Of course it still needs a lot of improvement to compare to a keyboard and mouse but its a step in the right direction.

The (Mis)Design of Everyday Things

//Comments

Tony G

Brian S

Patrick S

I have recently finished reading an excellent book entitled The Design of Everyday Things (DOET). It was very interesting to read and can be very enlightening to the everyday use of the objects in the world around us or there misuse/poor design. The book uses several running examples, such as doors and telephone systems, to constantly convey the point that when we humans fail to use an object properly, it is, more often than not, a problem with the design of the object. He uses lots of straight forward real world examples to help explain this point. Although the book is becoming a bit dated, the principles can still be applied today. 

Why do designers fail to account for the end user in the design process? This can easily be explained in a simple phrase: "It probably won an award." The things needed most to help the end user actually use the product are not typically thought of during the design process. The designers only want to appeal to their immediate market audience, which is typically not the people actually using the product. Large corporations buy products based on price, not ease of use and the result is not very welcomed by the people that have to actually use what they are purchasing. They reduce the price by making the products smaller, with less controls but many features. This translates to an overly complex product with an even more complex way to use it. 

An excellent example of this poor design stated in the book is the British Telecom Telephone (pg 20). The phone seems simple enough to use. It has a standard telephone key pad as well as a single extra button conveniently labeled "R" which is used to access all of the advanced features of the phone. The first time user of this phone might have enough knowledge of the telephone system in general to make a phone call but to be able to do anything else requires much learning and extensive reading of the manual. 

After finishing this book, I started to see the world through different eyes. I started to realize, "It's not my fault that I can't open the door, the designer didn't do his job properly." It's very interesting to look around at everything that I use and understand why it is easy or hard to use.

I would recommend this book to any product designer or any person that is in the business of creating products that are directly used by many people.

Welcome to the Chaos

Welcome to my first blog. Here I will be discussing my thoughts on various topics discussed during my Computer Human Interaction class as well as additional thoughts about the chaotic world around us.