unpressable buttons

Foosball with Adjustable Goals

2012-02-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you play a game, you find that you're horribly mismatched against the your opponent - and the whole thing becomes no fun. (I'm looking at you, Josh Whitten, air-hockey ringer.) Well it turns out that a simple design feature can easily adjust each player's handicap. Perhaps the first good idea ever from the pages of Hammacher Schlemmer, The Handicapping Foosball Table has goals that can independently made wider or narrower. The same concept could be applied, with varying degrees of mechanical complexity, to almost any goal-based game or sport: billiards, basketball, mini golf - and of course, air hockey. Bring it on, Josh!
[via Gizmodo]

Invisible Magnetic Drawer Lock

2012-01-30T09:40:00.000-08:00

There's some truth to the notion that the most secure lock is the one you can't even find - if you don't even know where to start, picking it becomes practically impossible! That's why I like the "Covert" invisible magnetic drawer lock from Quirky - it's not just a clean minimalist design, it's even more effective than normal locks. The only problem with this kind of product is that it relies on its secret for its effectiveness - so if the product ever becomes too popular, it'll essentially stop working!
[via Gizmodo]

GymPact: Work out, or it'll cost ya...

2012-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

I love products that users inflict on themselves in order to change their behavior for the better (remember the cash-shredding alarm clock?), and this one definitely counts. GymPact is a system that pays you to go to the gym - and charges you when you don't. It's pretty simple: you commit to a certain workout schedule, pay money when you don't go, and that same money gets paid out to people who do keep their schedule. The app seems to have clever enforcement techniques, like making sure you check in to the gym by actually being at its location as determined by your phone. Hey, if it makes people work out more, I'm all for it!

Unpressable Hotel Light Switches

2012-01-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

I took these photos of two tabletop lamps in the same hotel room in Phoenix last week. (Don't ask about the Fiesta Bowl, by the way.) First, a quick word about usability design in hotel rooms: make everything obvious. The nature of a hotel room means that all users are novices; their stay is so transitory, there's no time to become an experienced user. So, are these two switches obvious? No; in fact, one must be twisted while the other must be pressed, and neither visually suggests the correct action. And putting two lamps with differently-operating but visually identical switches in the same room is a very bad move! What any hotel chain would be wise to do is opt for large, obvious buttons on every device: if it's a button, make it a big ol' mashable BUTTON. If it's a knob, make it something that would be at home on an old-school stereo. Don't make me spend extra brainpower figuring out a room I'll never stay in again anyway!

Does Form Make a Camera?

2012-01-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

This one comes from old pal Jonathan Jackson, and it's a little silly on the surface - but like a lot of silly products, it's packing some design commentary just underneath the surface. What you're looking at there is an iPhone case - and yep, it makes it look just like a somewhat old-fashioned camera. Besides the disguise, the Gizmon iCa adds some function: it lets you attach different lenses to the iPhone camera in the bottom left corner, and features a big tactile shutter button and optical viewfinder. But what's really apparent here is that smartphones have generally failed as a form factor for a camera. You can't find the shutter button (if a real one even exists); your finger often blocks the oddly-placed lens, and holding the phone only by its edges (to prevent touchscreen interaction) just begs for an accidental drop. Something like this silly case could actually improve the usability of the phone as a camera. Now if only it didn't look quite like that...
[via TechCrunch]

Usable Robot Interaction

2011-12-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Robots have always been comfortable in industrial settings, where the jobs they perform have to do with parts, assembly, and other inanimate objects. But when they have to function around people, it's a whole different ballgame: it's not just the accomplishment of tasks that matters, but also how robots interact with the people around them. That was the focus of a recent study at Palo Alto's Willow Garage, as reported by tech columnist Dan Lyons in Newsweek. What they found was that people need more than just the rote performance of tasks from robots; it helps to have little extra signals that communicate, in human terms, what's going on. My favorite example: "To figure out how to open a door, the robot will simply stand in front of the door, not moving, just scanning the surface with its cameras. To a human, the machine seems to be stuck in one place. But if engineers make the robot’s head move up, down, left, and right while it is scanning, humans understand that the robot is trying to figure out how it works. The movement is unnecessary, but it helps humans recognize what the robot is doing, a trick that animators call 'readability.'" In fact, more than just being unnecessary, that movement likely makes the engineering task even more difficult. But since it helps the robot function in its context around humans, it's beneficial to the overall design - it's precisely where human-centered design and task-focused engineering meet, and hopefully find a way to get along!

Return of the Shutter Button!

2011-12-06T20:24:00.001-08:00

Apple has been on a crusade against buttons for quite a while, removing them from the faces of phones, tablets, and even their own store elevators. This means almost everything is done through the touchscreen - but recently, the tide has receded, and a few functions have regained physical, tactile buttons. The one I'm celebrating today is the camera shutter button, which is the new secondary function of iProducts' volume-up buttons. And folks, this makes sense! When you're taking a photo, you're focused on the world you're shooting: making sure the camera is aligned, everyone's smiling, and so on. You need to be able to feel the button, to press it and get that tactile feedback. It's pretty remarkable that we've gotten to the point where we applaud the re-introduction of old technologies as new design innovation. Incidentally, using the volume-up button enables some new useful tricks, like using a wireless headset as a photo remote. Welcome back, shutter button - it's good to see you again.

The Pillow Tie: Silly, serious commentary?

2011-11-30T14:41:00.001-08:00

Okay, so it doesn't quite fit with a "usability" theme - but there's something kind of deep in this ridiculous combo. The blurb puts it best: most functions that require a tie deserve to be slept through. So the subversive thing to do is enable the wearer to sleep - thereby committing a more egregious violation of norms than simply not wearing the required tie in the first place. It's a statement; first camouflaged, then bold, always ironic. And sorry, but completely unusable! Oh well...
[Thanks, Ruairi!]

Future Vision: Not just ubiquitous touchscreens...

2011-11-14T17:49:00.001-08:00

Microsoft recently made another one of those "vision of the future" concept videos, and designer Bret Victor tears it apart limb from limb. And the limb, in this case is the hand: Bret makes the case that touchscreens make pitifully insufficient use of the versatile and capable human hand. It's true: simply sliding around Pictures Under Glass (as he calls them) like in the top screengrabs from the video is such a limited interaction, when the hand can do so many things as shown in the bottom rows of photos. Let's hope the future isn't just the same iPad-style interaction model we have now, extended to every possible surface - that's just the present, mindlessly multiplied to aggravating infinity. Read Bret's rant, and demand something better!

iPhone Player Buttons: More Space, Please!

2011-11-10T09:14:00.001-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I love my new iPhone 4S. But it's not perfect, and some of its buttons are downright - yes - unpressable. Today, I'm picking on the quick audio controls that come up when the home button is double-clicked. They're a great idea; they're just spaced too darn close to each other. The times when I use the quick-access buttons, instead of fully unlocking the phone, are times when I can't give the phone my full attention - I just want to quickly pause the audio. But the buttons are spaced so close together that I frequently hit the Forward or Back button instead of Pause - and that risks losing my place in my podcast. Apple, why not give each button more space, like the quick Photoshop job on the right? It may not look as "clean" from a design perspective, but it's definitely more usable. They'd be more pressable buttons!

Dissolving Fruit Labels!

2011-11-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

There's really nothing not to like about this one: fruit labels which dissolve quickly in water, becoming "fruit soap" which helps wash away pesticides, dirt, and bacteria. It's a concept being pitched by Scott Amron, complete with the opportunity to invest. I hope it works out - but I hope it's executed better than the Photoshop job used to demonstrate it...
[via Inhabitat & Gizmodo]

It's (Not Really) Ready...

2011-11-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

This one comes from my lovely wife Jessica, whose eagle-eyes noticed some contradictory fine print in an ad for the new Toyota Camry. The tagline is "It's Ready. Are You?" The fine print? "Prototype shown." Sooo, is it ready or not...?
[Thanks Jess!]

The Binder Clip: Design for Versatility?

2011-10-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Lifehacker has a (very old) ode to the standard binder clip as an office omnitool, lauding its ability to adapt to an impressive number of uses. And that brings up an interesting design goal, which might be called "design for versatility." With this goal, it's not about optimizing a single use, but keeping the design so basic - that is, free from application-specific features - that its few general features can be used in many situations. An analogue would be the paper clip: it may be possible to improve the design of the traditional wire paperclip. But would it then lose the ability to be used as a general-purpose wire, a pin to eject stuck optical drives and iPhone SIM cards, and MacGyver's multitool. Sometimes it's better to design several "products" pretty well than a single product perfectly?

When User Experience is Down the List...

2011-10-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to the user experience - but user experience is hardly the only factor in product design. So what happens when it's a little farther down on the list of priorities? Mark Hurst posted this message from an anonymous employee of Blackberry maker RIM, sent to the heads of that company: "We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice -- the end user doesn't care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren't hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work." It's true - the user doesn't care about your strategic alignments, partnerships, or IT-friendliness. User experience trumps it all, and results in something even better than demand for your product - love for your product!

Concept: See What You Print

2011-10-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

Printing has always been a sketchy area of interaction design: for some reason, there's a deep chasm and a leap of faith between what you see on screen and what comes out of the printer. To bring printing, finally, to the 21st century, Artefact Group designed a concept called See What You Print. The printer has a display that matches the 8.5x11" paper, and shows exactly what to expect on the page after you print. It even "slides" the paper out of the display and into the tray as it's printed. It makes sense, and is something that's only recently become feasible with lower-cost LCDs. Now that the technology is there, it's time for design to catch up!

Butter, better?

2011-10-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

We've all used those little single-serving (or for me, single-slice-of-toast) butter pads, and designer Yeongkeun Jeong thinks he can one-up the existing packaging. The photo of his "Butter! Better!" design speaks for itself, showing how the lid doubles as a spreading knife. The question is, do we really need this? More plastic used for an (arguably) inferior usage experience? Making things convenient but disposable isn't always "better" - but for this one, I suppose each user can decide on his own...
[via Core77]

Sunlight Reflectors for No-Power Lighting

2011-09-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

The sun is a pretty formidable source of light - but we silly humans keep building buildings and using electricity to light the insides. "Daylight", an anonymous entry in the James Dyson Award competition, proposes a better way to get sunlight indoors, when simply enlarging windows or adding skylights won't do the trick. Reflectors shift their angles as the sun moves, directing the light indoors where it reflects off a white ceiling or wall - or even additional reflectors which take the place of light fixtures. The efficiency of using a little bit of electronic smarts plus low-power physical actuators to leverage a hugely powerful natural light source definitely appeals to the engineer (and greenie) in me - and hopefully will appeal to architects, too!
[via Core77]

Building a Better Clamshell

2011-09-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've ranted about difficult and wasteful packaging on this blog before - and the usual villian in the story is the clamshell package, designed to attractively show a product in a retail venue while making it (1) larger and (2) unopenable, both to prevent theft. Amazon came up with an excellent alternative in their frustration-free packaging - but this really only worked because they're free from the retail-venue constraints of attractiveness and theft-resistance. So, Proctor & Gamble took a shot at improving the clamshell - keeping the same advantages, but ditching the downsides. The result is an attractive package, made from renewable pulp materials and easier and safer to open. It won a DuPont Award for Packaging Innovation, in the Sustainability and Waste Reduction category - and it's something I hope we'll see more of on retail shelves!
[via Core77]

Coffee Table Rethink

2011-09-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Coffee tables have a tough job to do, because they really have so many jobs: work desk, storage area, dining table, ottoman, objet d'art. And yet, we keep thinking it just needs to be a flat surface with four legs. James Cornetet thought a little beyond the usual, and came up with this award-winning design for what he calls the Get Your Feet Off My Coffee Table! It makes the table decidedly unfriendly to feet, while adding a few other features: remotes rest on a lower plane than the top surface, which holds flat objects like laptops and books; meanwhile, glasses and mugs are prevented from tipping when resting between the ridges. It's elegant that such simple geometry accomplishes so many things - but sorry, James, I'll keep my own coffee table. I love putting my feet up!
[Thanks to Bill Lewis for sending this along!]

Overlapping Contact Info

2011-09-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

So many technologies, so many ways to reach people - but as this business card points out, they have a curious way of overlapping each other. Creative technologist Boris Smus shows how all his contact methods are contained within his email address - a clever trick, assuming you've claimed the real estate of an identical website domain name and Twitter handle. Hey, to up the ante, try to snag matching Skype and IM names!

[via Gizmodo]

"Pioneers of Industrial Design" Postage Stamps

2011-09-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

One of the problems with good product design is that it frequently goes unnoticed - people love "the product", or the fact that it "just works", but that extra step to appreciate the thought, process, and logic behind the design often pushes the limit. Industrial design is a different matter, since it plays directly to your emotions - but these days, I'll take any appreciation of design as a good step forward. With that in mind, I'm a fan of the US Postal Service's series of stamps honoring the Pioneers of American Industrial Design. They're good-lookin' stamps with good-lookin' products - and maybe, just maybe, people will look beyond the form to discover equally beautiful function. Hey, it's a start!

[Thanks, Sohini!]

Elevator Buttons: Fubar!

2011-09-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Reader Nick Puglisi sent in this photo of the mind-boggling buttons in the elevator at his office. This particular elevator is already a little challenging, since it has both front and back doors - but whoever designed the button layout just used that as a starting point for an opus of confusion. I'll let Nick take it from here:

Two things involved in this picture.

1) The close (and open) symbols for front and rear are differentiated by a line in the middle of the close symbol, but it's not clear why that line means front.

2) The braille is exactly the same for both buttons, so I looked up the braille alphabet and the translation is "Close". But it again, doesn't indicate which door will be closed.

It's the same with the "Open" buttons. So, what happens when someone says "hold that door" (meaning the rear door) and a blind person in the elevator finds the button that says "open," only it's for the front. They would look like a jerk when the rear door closes on the person trying to catch the elevator.

I'm sure it's a pretty infrequent occurrence, and I would wager that blind people have to deal with that type of problem a lot. But still.

I think he's made as much sense of this "design" as is possible - and for everyone else in that building, you're on your own from here on out!
[Thanks, Nick!]

Treat Customers Well By Kicking Bad Ones Out

2011-08-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

I first saw the ad made by Austin Texas' Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (censored, but still kinda NSFW) because it's a pretty funny viral video. It's an actual voicemail left by a customer who was kicked out because she was texting during a movie - and she's ticked off and probably pretty drunk. But then Mark Hurst pointed out that kicking out bad customers is a great way to demonstrate how much a business cares about good customers. As a good customer, this evidence makes you feel special, even "VIP", and in turn makes you respect the business for valuing your experience over additional profit. It's a well-designed policy - which can make as much difference as a product, to the user.

Ford's Easy Fuel System - Goodbye, gascaps!

2011-08-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

Not being a Ford driver myself, this one has completely gone under my radar until now - but apparently, since 2008, Ford cars have had no gas cap! Their Easy Fuel System seems like it has all kinds of things going for it: the fueling process is quicker and easier with two fewer steps, there's no possibility of putting the cap on incorrectly (which makes the system environmentally better), and the system "rejects" incorrect diesel pumps. This is one of those cases where engineering rules, and the user experience comes in second - but Ford's found a way to make it better on all counts. I can only assume that other auto makers can't use this because it's patented like crazy - but in that case, Ford should be shouting from mountaintops about this unique feature! The fact that I haven't heard of a great design feature until now sounds like a bit of a marketing failure...

[via Core77]

Lunch It, Punch It - A personal reward system...

2011-08-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

As I've said before, good product design doesn't only apply to products you buy - they can be systems or rules that positively impact your behavior as a "user." And here's one that fits that bill: Lunch It, Punch It cards are printable rewards cards for yourself - that is, punch the card each time you pack a lunch, and then "earn" the reward of going out for lunch (or some other reward you may want). It uses marketing techniques developed by and for business, but for personal improvement: you'll save money, eat healthier, and get more done at work. It's amazing what you can do when you're willing to trick your brain into doing it!

[via Lifehacker]