trust issues

I used the ATM out in Southside. (GLC)

Trying to think about why I did each step the way I did it I noticed a bias playing out in my own head. I dont trust ATMs.

The ATM had a obvious place to swipe your ATM card and I was relieved that I did not have to insert it and risk never getting it back. I've had this happen to me before. I've also had an ATM pull the money I was withdrawing back into the machine before I could grab it, and i found myself holding my hand right next to the slot for it so i could grab the money before the ATM did anything funny with it.

The external design of the ATM I felt worked well enough, having a few buttons the function of which was always explained on the screen, and I cant recall ever having difficulties with an ATM that was functioning properly. The one thing about the ATM that did/does bother me is the fact that it can't give you anything but 20's which in many cases is a denomination too big to be convinient.

-Andrew

Walmart Self-Service Checkout

While this is not my own experience in the picture (I wasn't thinking about this project when going to Walmart and don't actually own my own camera), this is a great representation of walmart's commitment to customer satisfaction.

My own experiences with these machines is quite horrendous.  Frequently I will have to have a cashier come and fix an error of some sort, either having the scanned item not register as an item (only once), or having the item not register as being in the bagging area (or having an "extra object" there), which, after too many attempts at not bagging the item, will give an error that only the person who is (only sometimes) working behind the counter can fix.

It starts by asking which language you would like to check out in.  This is a simple press of an oversized button on the screen.  Next is a screen showing you how to scan and bag, and a couple of buttons that only matter to the cashier, mixed in with the PAY NOW button.

After scanning an item in, you are shown a new screen on how to place an item in the bag. The sensor in the bag area then waits to see if you placed the item in, sometimes not registering and forcing you to press the "skip bagging" button.  Apparently buying something and not wanting to bag it leaves room for people to try and steal stuff (as opposed to putting two items in the bag at once, which is easier to do and harder to catch).  After too many times of trying to not bag items (or having it not register) a person is sent to your terminal to put in a code and allow you to start again, only to have this happen every subsequent time it fails.

Of course, this is only when it registers on the scanner, which is just as tiresom and irritating, often not scanning and having many problems trying to even purchase the products.

Removing bags also causes errors, stating that there are foreign objects in the bagging area.

This, mixed with the fact that only half are ever open/operational, leads the user to want to use one of the empty 20 item or less checkers next to them.  Usually a good choice.

-Sean Lander

E-Jukebox Failure

So I'm not sure if everybody has heard about this, but there's a fancy new-fangled thing down in the Hive that they've been tooting their horns about this year; an Electronic Jukebox, which is hooked up to the internet so you can go and download any song you want when you want it, just in case it isn't already on the machine.

Also, it boasts a feature of changing the cost/value of each song according to how often it's played, meaning the more a song is requested the less it'll cost. This is all well and good, but these are features that supercede the functionality.

The controls were fairly intuitive; it was all by touchscreen, which is sort of cool. Before touching the screen, it would scroll with all sorts of advertisements or instructions on how to use the system, which was helpful to read. Basically, you were given a screen displaying 6-8 album covers, in alphabetical order. There was an A-Z list at the bottom, that you could jump to different letters with by touching that letter. If you just wanted to scroll through the actual artists of whichever letter you were on, there were arrows on each side of the middle section with the albums to let you scroll.

If you were wondering if they had a song/album, there was a Search function that would look things up real-time as you searched. I don't recall if the on-screen keyboard used to punch in the letters was a QWERTY keyboard or not, but it didn't strike me as confusing/difficult to use. They also had a "Hot Picks" (or something like that) option, which listed the top X amount of songs recently played. Sadly, there was only one song on the list (Wonderwall, by Oasis), so obviously this thing never gets used.

It's a pretty cool idea, and it's got a fairly good design, but it's just poor placement/execution by the school. For one, almost everything on this campus is driven by our ID cards, so I had assumed there would be a card-swipe for our Flex account, which I discovered was not true when I first approached the machine. I had to go back to my room, get 4 quarters, and then come back. The second issue is that it never tells you when it's appropriate to enter the money. I never got to listen to my song, because as I was browsing, I decided arbitrarily it might be a good idea to insert coins before I tried to play a song (much like you put coins into an arcade game before you can play), and apparently the machine didn't recognize them. Which means no music for me.

It's not a terrible interface, but there are a few key points that were missed in the design/placement/execution of this machine, and sadly, those points are somewhat fatal, as evidenced by the utter lack of use/my failure to get music out of a jukebox.

Cheers,

-Brad

Another RedBox

My first attempt at using the RedBox was actually a complete failure since the touch screen wasn't working. The next day it was working and I got to try it out.

I found it very intuitive to use, with a single very responsive (well calibrated too) touch screen and large buttons that clearly state their purpose. The exceptions were the next and back buttons, which weren't labeled as such and took a moment to find. I thought the way the system organized the movies was easy to use, having them grouped alphabetically, by genre, popularity, and release date. You just poke a thumbnail and it gives you a synopsis and renting options. I thought there was a reasonable selection, considering physical DVDs are vended. There is even an option to pick out your movie online and pick it up at the machine (for those who don't want to hold up the line). The checkout process was quick and painless.

My main frustrations were the impatience of the machine (asking you if you need more time before you have had a chance to read a synopsis) and the time it takes to receive and vend movies. It would be nice if the screen did something during that process.

~Andy

Self-checkout at Home Depot

My roommate and I needed to buy mousetraps for our apartment, so off we went to Home Depot. We selected the desired trap and went to check out. The lines were long, so we decided to use the self-checkout. First you have to choose a language on the touch-screen. This makes sense, because otherwise how will you understand the instructions? Then you start scanning items. Rather than allow the user to scan items at his own pace, the kiosk assumes someone who has never seen a check-out process before, and very slowly explains each step as it arises.

Kiosk: "Scan your first item."
Diane: *BOOP, wait for item to register*
Kiosk: "Place item in bagging area."
Diane: *bagged*
Kiosk: "Scan another item, or pay now?"
Diane: *pay now*
Kiosk: "Select method of payment."
Diane: *selects, waits*
Kiosk: "Please swipe your card now."
Diane: *swipes card, enters relevant information, waits*
Kiosk: "PLEASE TAKE YOUR RECEIPT. PLEASE TAKE YOUR RECEIPT. PLEASE TAKE YOUR RECEIPT."

The scanning of each item took at least three times as long as it would have had I gone to a real, live cashier. If I had wanted to buy an oversized item, I would have had to wait for a cashier to be free, come over to the kiosk, and enter in certain information about the item. At that point, why not just go to a register like normal? I was scared to pay with cash because the cash-taking interface looks like the kind used in vending machines. What if the kiosk eats my money? Again, I would have had to wait for a cashier. It was too much of a potential hassle to bother with. And then the machine had the gall to yell at me to take my receipt. Overall, I found the experience to be annoying, tedious, and a waste of my time, without even the hope of having a fun conversation with a cashier.

-Diane Panagiotopoulos

ATM is Simple Enough

Andrew Keenan Richardson's blog entry

I used the ATM in Wilson Commons, as the Red Box is far away and I do not drive. 

Fortunately, I found it to be really well designed.  In approach, it had one clear affordance: a well marked, obvious in function, credit card slot with a blinking light next to it in case you missed it.

It also has unlabeled buttons on it, which are a great user interface tool in my opinion.  After you put in your card and use the easily understood number pad (the only other affordance), the buttons get labels next to them, which is similar to how buttons work on my phone and some video game controllers (although I suspect the ATM predates them, but it is still a nice cultural similarity).

While the ATM had a clear UI path at each step (put in card -> input PIN -> use buttons), a Red Box I can see from pictures does not.

Kodak Photo Kiosk

Once upon a time, photo processing took hours--and you had to do it
yourself. Then came 1-hour processing, and now, photos can be printed
instantly. The Kodak Picture Kiosk prints photographs from various
digital sources on demand. My goal was to get a single 5x7 print from
a file on my USB thumb drive.

On approaching the kiosk, the screen displays a video of example
products that the kiosk produces. The only way to interact with the
system is by the touch screen; while the demo is showing, I'm
instructed to "touch the screen to begin". The main menu presents
numerous options, but they are clearly presented, and I had no trouble
finding the "Prints & Enlargements" button. Next, I had to insert my
digital media. The machine accepts ten different formats, in clearly
labeled slots.

When I inserted my flash drive, I ran into a problem: the long wait
times in loading my pictures. I had upwards of a thousand pictures on
the drive, and was treated to two, 4-minute loading screens. The
screens gave no indication of progress, and I was not able to cancel.
Once the pictures loaded, they were not sorted by the directory
structure on the drive, but in descending date order. When I realized
this, I had little trouble finding the correct photo, though I had to
work through several layers of menus to select the 5x7 sizes. The
interface used large, recognizable icons, such as a green check mark
for "OK" and arrows to rotate pictures, and buttons were clearly
labelled and logically arranged. The print was produced quickly and is
reasonably high quality. I would certainly use this machine again, as
it is more convenient than other photo processing options and is quite
easy to use.

-- Kevin Gessner

ATM near ITS

     The other day, I needed to get some money, so I went to the ATM.  Using this machine left no significant impression on me, which I guess is a success on the designer's part.  I didn't walk away thinking, "Hey, that was fun!  Why don't I withdraw money ALL the time?"  but I also wasn't wishing there was another way to get money.  It seemed pretty straightforward in that it gives you step by step instructions, usually accompanied by a picture.  The prompts matched up with the buttons in a consistent way, so you weren't accidentally trying to get money in Spanish.  My only complaint is that sometimes I don't know how sensitive the buttons are going to be, so when entering my PIN, I push a button too many times on accident, and I end up with the wrong code. I then have to redo that part, leaving the other people in line wondering what exactly I'm trying to do.  Or sometimes, I remember that I didn't push the button hard enough, and I end up slamming my finger into the buttons, once again leaving a poor impression upon the other people in line.  Overall, a decent machine, and it's relatively easy to use.  It tries its hardest to not let you forget your card or money.

-Ben Reback

Coinstar

Ok, I did actually interact with the Red Box... but I'm betting that one
will be done to death in class. Also, the movie selection was so poor
and so limited that I ended up just browsing menu screens and didn't
actually rent a movie. I guess you could say that one of my biases was
having a broader and deeper selection, like in a movie store.

Right next to the Red Box was a Coinstar machine, and I had brought a
boatload of change with me. I've never previously used a Coinstar, and
all I knew about them came from TV ads years ago that showed a fairy
putting a heavy bag of change into one and coming out with much lighter
paper money. Anyway, the machine was simple enough to use, with a touch
screen for selecting language, another for selecting a cash voucher or
putting the balance on a gift card and an on-screen prompt showing
operating instructions.

The on-screen directions should be more clear, because it took me a
little while to figure out what they actually meant. The feeder system
is a metal plate with a hinge on one side, such that you pour the change
onto the plate and raise up one end so the change slides down into the
sorting slot. The most confusing part was that the plate had
various-sized holes punched in it, roughly the size of coinage. Going
by the "sift change" instruction I thought at first the change was
sorted by going through the proper sized hole. Turns out the holes
aren't big enough for any coins to go through, but I could definitely
see an scenario where a user might try to force something through the
holes, or give up and go home.

When used properly, the Coinstar was pretty neat. It automatically
sorted my change, even though I fed it in one giant blob, and the screen
kept track of how the balance as it was sorted and processed. Afterward
it printed a voucher for the cash, much like a bottle return machine.

-Kevin E.

Why do I need to stand at the kiosk?

I used to use the Red Box kiosk fairly regularly until we signed up for NetFlix.  There are several things that frustrated me about the Red Box design.  First, it isn't clear why I need to actually go up to the kiosk to interact with it.  If there is a line-up of people waiting to use it, I have no way of knowing what movies are available while I wait, or no way of really browsing through them and reading descriptions.  This is where a physical movie store easily beats out a kiosk movie rental system.  There should be simple mechanisms that enable me to find out more information while I stand in line (in addition to the poster board showing movie titles/boxes, which shows pretty limited information).  You could also imagine various ways of interacting with the kiosk at a distance.  Second, there are typically two kiosks next to each other, each with their own set of movies.  The sets don't match and you could easily be forced into using one of the kiosks (because of the line) and find out the movie you want to watch is not available, while the movie sits in the kiosk right next to you.   I also noticed interaction issues, like other people, in terms of difficulties touching the screen, navigating through the categories, etc.  I am also not sure how many times I have seen people spend at least 5 minutes trying to return a movie either upside-down, backwards, etc.  Configuring the case to return the movie is more complicated than it should be.  Red Box has essentially turned a highly parallel process of movie renting (many people renting movies at one time) into a queued activity that takes more time than it should.

- Carman

ATM

I used the HSBC ATM that is located in Wilson Commons. It looks and
functions like other ATMs with the screen in the middle and selection
buttons on the side. As the other post on ATMs mentioned, sometimes the
lines that go from the selection button to the selection on the screen
do not match up. The other issue I have only appears when you need to
process multiple transactions, such as making a deposit and a
withdrawal. In order to make a deposit and then a withdrawal you need
to re-insert your ATM card and re-enter your pin number for each
transaction, the machine does not give you the option to complete
another transaction. I assume that this is be design for security
reasons, but it is still frustrating.

-Gabe Schwartz

Red Box three

I also used the red box at Wegmans.  I liked the displays for the movies and the information that popped up when you select one.  It tells you the rating, the reason for the rating, the length of the movie, the plot summary, and gives some of the actors.  I also liked the display between the two computer screens that shows you what some of the choices are at a glance.  It gives you an idea of what you might want to see (or might not want to see) so that you don't have to navigate through all of the pages if you don't want to.  I thought it was a good idea that the directions for paying were displayed on the screen and the price and time restrictions were displayed often as you went along.  It was very clear how the billing worked from the beginning.  I thought the "empty case" option was a good idea, too. 

I was also disappointed with the selection of movies. They make it appear that there are more movies than there actually are by categorizing some movies under multiple headings (and some of the categorizations were debatable).  I also had trouble finding the "more titles" and "go back"  buttons on the screen due to them being identical to the "help", "start over", and "view cart" buttons.  The screen wasn't calibrated well and the little scroll bars were nearly impossible to use.  I resorted to highlighting text as I read to be able to finish reading the plot summaries.  I also agree that the arrow was unnecessary on this interface.  Perhaps the most frustrating thing of all was the "would you like more time?" screen that popped up if you stopped to read anything for more than 15 seconds.  I really got sick of that screen by the time I'd selected a movie.

Red box, too

I also used the Red Box - you know, since it's the focus of our project
and all.

I had one major gripe on which Emily didn't comment - the touch
screen. It (at least on the machine I used) requires a HARD poke to
register your input. The mouse cursor on screen is also quite far from
where you touch - so pressing a button near its edge doesn't work. I
have a particular problem with the "more titles" button - I tend to
press the top part of it a few times before I realize I have to tap
lower. Oh, and the mouse cursor is not useful on a device with only a
touchscreen for input.

I also was very disappointed with the selection. There was nothing I
really wanted to watch.

Bryan Jacobs

RedBox

I went to Wegmans this weekend to try out RedBox. I found RedBox pretty easy to use. It has a touch screen that prompts you whether you want to rent or return a movie. (There was a third choice, but I don't recall what it was.) After choosing to rent, you can browse the movies already on the screen, or you can choose to browse different categories (by genre, alphabetically by title, hits). This was all fairly intuitive. The only issue I had with the on-screen display was when trying to go to the "next page" of movie choices when there were multiple pages. Instead of their being a nice little arrow button (like the back/forward buttons on internet browsers), or a "next" button, RedBox has a button labeled "More Titles." It took me a bit to realize this was the button I was looking for, as it looks exactly like all the other buttons on the lower portion of the screen (Help, Start Over, View Cart, Go Back), and was not labeled as I expected it to be.

Not only does RedBox display the movies on-screen, it also has a large poster-like display right next to it for some of the available titles. My mother was with me, and she asked me to rent a movie she saw on this display. I think the large display is designed to catch people's eyes, and let them know about some of the movies they could rent, without requiring them to even interact with the on-screen display. Obviously this works.

My other issue with RedBox was its selection, which is small and consists of only what appeared to be newer films.

~Emily Vukman

ATM in an airport

When I passed through security last Thursday in the Rochester International Airport, I went directly to the ATM.  The first thing that I noticed was that it was thankfully clearly marked.  The problem was that it was the only ATM around and I had no choice but to use that one and pay a fee on my banking card. 

The ATM itself was not very difficult or unlike others I'd used before.  It used buttons rather than a touch screen.  It also wasn't entirely clear how to start the ATM (slide card or touch screen).  One of the biggest challenges was that the lines on the screen did not often line up with the buttons.  This made it so I had to choose the button above or below what my actual selection on the screen was.  After one or two choices I noticed that it was usually the button just slightly below the line on the screen.

The biggest headache about this machine was that it was the only choice in the airport.  This ATM was not from the bank I go to and therefore there was an almost $3 fee on my transaction.  This fee had also gone up since the last time I'd been in the airport.  The transaction was quick, but the time it took the ATM to produce my money and my receipt left something to be desired.

~Marin

--
~MARIN KOBIN~
University of Rochester class of 2009

I love this thing :)

I think my "Hot Shot" is a wonderful design. There was no assembly required and I didn't need to read the instructions to understand how it worked. There are two protrusions near the top that indicate to the user that the lid can be lifted up. Inside there is a cup that is clearly for the water to be boiled. There are two buttons on the machine. The one on top sticks out and has grooves indicating where a finger should press. It is labeled "on" with the widely known power symbol. The button has an orange light that turns on when the button has been pressed and the water is heating up. The light turns off when the water is ready to be dispensed, which only takes about 45 seconds. The second button is a push-down tab labeled "dispense" with a small image of water dripping into a mug. The open area underneath is obviously where the cup or bowl will sit while the water is dispensing. The circle on the bottom platform indicates the area where the water can be expected to fall.

Travel-size sewing kit:

It seems like a good idea, but this particular design leaves the user frustrated. There are no marks indicating how to open the case nor –once the user discovers that the plastic sheath slides—is there any indication of which way is correct. It is convenient that the strings are already threaded through the needles, but the needles are difficult to remove from the case. I personally have broken a nail pulling one out and my mother has gotten them by using a pencil to pry them out. The safety pin and the buttons included in this kit are in very inconvenient locations. To remove a button the user would need to remove three needles, and to get the safety pin out would require taking out six needles. The other problem is once this kit has been opened for the first time, the plastic sheath doesn't lock into place when closing. It can easily slide open on its own.

Robin Miller

Bad Door Design X2

Do you push or pull this door? Judging by the handle, it could go either way. However, everyone I have seen use it for the first time do it wrong -- they push. What's more, there is a second set of doors with a a handle that does not actually open the door. In order to open it, you have to pop it open with a key. Unless, of course it didn't close completely the last time someone went through. In that case the vacuum caused by opening the outer door pulls it open, so if you take a little leap, you can catch it.

~Andy Wood

Remote Control

     Because nothing in my everyday experience has a great design, I'm going to settle for decent.  That's where my TV remote comes in.  I think my TV remote should win some sort of prize, because it is very hard to design TV remotes, and my remote doesn't suck.  It is quite usable.  As you can see from the picture, there are not a lot of buttons (by comparison). 
     There is a power button, located at the top and in the middle, and it is bigger than the buttons around it.  The text is bigger, it is the only button of that color, and it has an engraving-type thing on the button so it feels different.  There are "mode" buttons next to the power button, so it is easy to change the setting.  Then, there are a bunch of small kinda useless buttons that you don't really use that much, but need to be there anyways.  They are small and insignificant, just like the functions they represent.
     Then, there are the numbers.  The numbers are a different shape than other buttons, are labeled, and only go up as high as they need to.  To be honest, I don't know what the "-" key does, but the "fav" key probably goes to some sort of saved favorites screen.  The numbers are spaced wide enough that you won't hit another number by accident.
     Next come the channel and volume keys.  Both keys are similar, so you know which one it is.  There is a slight groove in the "minus" part of the key, so you know where you have to push to make it quieter (or go down a channel).  You can't really see it from the picture, but the channel button has a rubber dot on the top, so in the dark, you know which one changes the channel.  It's the one with the rubber dot.  In between the volume and channel buttons, there are more somewhat useful buttons, but don't get used that much.  They are close to a much-used part of the remote, so it is easy to get to them if the need arises.
     At the bottom, there are 4 directional arrow keys, and an enter key.  Pretty self explanatory.  I haven't really used those buttons, but they are used for navigating menus.
     Overall, I think my remote's success comes from the combination of it's simplicity and good mapping.  There aren't a lot of buttons because there aren't a lot of things you can do with my TV.  I'm ok with that, I don't need to do a significant amount of things with my TV.

-Ben Reback

Cell Phone

     My cell phone is terrible.  Let me specify.  First off, the number keys are much too small, at least for my hands, and I don't think of myself as large-handed.  Not only are the buttons themselves small, but they are very close together.  This presents a problem for texting, calling, and checking voicemail.  Basically, when I press a button, I mean to press that one and not several around it.  Instead of typing, "Hey what's up?" I get "Hey what's utptptptp."  However, I'm sure if I accidently send that text, people will understand what I'm trying to say.  My texts are never that important that I would seriously wreck something if I misspelled a word.  On the other hand, its very annoying when people think that I'm on drugs when texting them.  This same general problem happens with phone numbers, and voicemail.  I get numbers I don't want, and it creates an undesirable result.
    Another issue with the phone is with the "touch" keys directly below the screen.  While the call button is straightforward enough (a picture of a phone), the end/clear/exit button is some sort of c-shape that doesn't really mean anything to me.  Then, there are the 2 dash-like buttons above those, which doesn't really signify anything either.  Now that I think about it, I have no idea what those buttons are, nor have I ever used them on purpose, which brings me to my next point.  The speaker is at the top of the screen, so naturally, you hold it so that the speaker is close to your ear.  There is nothing wrong with that.  There is something wrong with the fact that, when I am talking on the phone, my face rubs up against the touch buttons, which all of a sudden become super-sensitive, and connect me to the internet or try to make a playlist out of music that doesn't exist on my phone.  That is very annoying, especially during an important call.
   Finally, my phone is of a poor design because of the side buttons (not visible in the picture).  The side buttons do things like exit whatever I am doing, take pictures, or turn on speaker phone.  Those are all useful functions.  The placement of those buttons is not useful.  How am I supposed to hold the phone during a call, if not by the sides?  I love how, in the middle of a phone conversation, I suddenly end the call.  It may have been after I told a joke.  There would be no response, and that would make me sad.  They thought my joke was so terrible that they hung up.
     There are many things I can say about my phone, but most of them are bad.  Don't get a phone like this unless you have small fingers and/or you like killer cliffhangers in jokes.

-Ben Reback

Tiny Bukkit

This bucket is a good design. What can you do with a bucket? Judging from its appearance, I'd say you can put stuff in it, especially a walrus (or "lolrus"). Also, it has a free-swinging handle which allows it to be carried.

-Emily Vukman

(Note: The dorm window is my other post.)

Dorm Window

This is my dorm window. How do you open it? It doesn't offer any instructions other than the (circled in red) piece labeled "pull out". However if you just pull at it, it doesn't budge and the rest of the window remains unmovable. Somehow in my frustration with the window, I figured out that you need to push/pull the window downward in order for the "pull out" mechanism to move.

Pointy End

This item has one important feature: the pointy end. It's for stabbing
people. The other end has a grip which fits really nicely in your
hand. You grab the gripping end and thrust with the other end. Very
simple and very well designed.

This is a fencing foil, in case you couldn't tell.

Bryan Jacobs

Bad Interface Design - Bryan Jacobs

Where are these doors' hinges?

Answer: right side of the first door, right side of the second door,
LEFT side of the first door.

Just yesterday when I was leaving my CSC282 class someone ran into the
rightmost door right in front of me. And I was there to laugh.

It's the little things in life that count.

Bryan Jacobs

The lamp

The control on this lamp though obvious is not necessarily intuitive.
Is the control a button or a knob, do you turn or push? There are
affordances for both. The control has a rough surface, ridges, that
suggest turning because they provide friction. However, the control
also allows enough movement which also suggests push. The correct
choice is that it is a knob and that turning it clock-wise turns on the
lamp.

-Gabe Schwartz

Printer Lights

This printer doesn't really need a lot of controls, as document
handling is controlled in software, but it still exhibits good design.
The printer presents its status with an elegant set of 4 lights. The
large blue light is simply a power indicator, represented with the
standard power icon (though it's not visible in the picture). It also
flashes when the printer is first turned on.

The other three lights present problems and other notices to the user.
Low toner causes just the toner light to illuminate, while an empty or
broken toner cartridge lights both the Toner and Error indicators.
Similarly, an aging drum illuminates the Drum light, and more serious
problems cause the Error light to turn on as well. Finally, general
errors, such as the access door being opened, result in just the Error
light. In this way, five error states are shown with only three
lights. The simple labels help with easy recognition of the type and
severity of the problem.

-- Kevin Gessner

Soap Dispenser

For a device with a simple purpose, the standard soap dispenser is not
well designed. The oval window in the center of the device appears to
be a button--it is raised and distinctly colored, and is placed in a
prominent location. However, it's not a button at all.

The actual soap-dispensing action is caused by the light-grey button
at the bottom of the device. While this button is conspicuous, its
proper use is not obvious. In general, buttons are pushed with the
tips of one or more fingers; in spite of that, this button must be
pushed with the heel of the hand. Due to the position of the nozzle
beneath this button, other actions will cause the soap to dispense on
to the floor. The required hand position is not obvious, and no help,
such as a graphic, is provided.

-- Kevin Gessner

Fan Controls

The controls on desk fans are easy to use. In the case of the fan
pictured there is a nob that can be turned to one of four numbers, 0
through 3. The affordances of this control interface are that we
associate higher numbers with faster speed so it is clear that setting 3
should be the fastest fan speed while 0 means that the fan is off. The
nob also has a bump on the end closest to the numbers signifying that
this end should be the one pointing to the numbers and a a result the
clock-wise motion to turn the fan on is understood.

-Gabe Schwartz

Can we do it? YES WE CAN!

So it took a little while for me to think of an example of good design(good design is hard to notice right?), but then it hit me... the modern aluminum can.  Cans are more durable than glass bottles and 100% of the material in an aluminum can is able to be recycled into another aluminum can of exactly the same dimensions.  This is not the case for plastic bottles, since most plastic requires fancy(and expensive!) chemistry magic in order to be recycled.  The end result is that a portion of the plastic used in a bottle is actually lost when the bottle is recycled.  Also, plastic is derived from petroleum products and therefore production of plastic bottles places demand on oil production, which raises gas prices and brings us closer to the downside of the oil peak and most of all makes Al Gore REEEEAALLY angry.

So, cans are durable and probably the best drink container for the environment, but what else makes an aluminum can such a great design?  Well, for starters the modern pop tab is very intuitive.  I doubt anyone in this class has ever had to tell somebody how to open a can.  Also, cans are made from the highest quality aluminum available, even higher grade than that used in fighter aircraft, this allows the can to be very very thin while still maintaining durability.  The super-thin can cuts down on manufacturing costs, since very little material is used in production.

Finally, cans protect their beverage better than any other drink container.  The caps on glass and plastic bottles do not seal perfectly, and over time any carbonation will diminish.  This is not the case with the pop tab on cans.  Also, alpha-acids, the characteristic chemical in hops - a key ingredient in beer, break down when exposed to sunlight.  This causes sulfur compounds to form as a by-product and causes a "skunky" taste.  Brown beer bottles are better than green ones at blocking sunlight but virtually no light is able to penetrate an aluminum can, thus preserving the beer better.

Canned beer has a very bad reputation in America, but it is possible to get high quality craft beers in cans from small breweries across the country.  Rochester's own Beers Of The World carries some from Colorado, and the aluminum cans the beer comes in ensures the product arrives as fresh as the day it was packaged.

Do yourself and mother earth a favor, and enjoy a tasty and refreshing canned beverage in the name of good design.


-Kevin E.

P.S. the Xbox 360 post was also mine, since there's two Kevins in the class I'll be signing as Kevin E. from now on

Plain and simple drawers

Depending on the type of drawer, they can be easy or difficult to understand their purpose.  The ones in the picture show off their purpose very well.  The affordances of these drawers would be the handle, and when the drawer is pulled out, the empty space.  The only logical use of this space is to put "stuff."  In order to get to the empty space it would seem that the handle would be the only choice.  Usually handles are something to be pulled.  Being that in the picture the drawers are in, pull is the obvious choice.  This set of drawers also has the added benefit of a flat top.  The top acts like a table and creates an extra surface to place objects upon.  Unlike the Microsoft Surface, this surface does not react to the things placed on it.  I believe this is the intended use of surfaces, or at least the one that we are conditioned to understand from birth.  Overall, drawers are a simple method of storage and support.  They are easy to operate and to understand, unless, they get stuck.  Then there is a whole new set of problems.

~Marin

Ever try to start a car?

I did.  This summer.  Yes, I spent a decent part of my summer taking driving lessons only to culminate in failing my road test.  And yes, I'm turning 21 in 2 weeks.  One thing I learned, through driving at least four different cars this summer is that no matter what anyone says, every car is VERY different.  The steering wheel, pedals, mirrors, signals, and many other things work the same or similarly.  The biggest problem I had was with the ignition.  To those of you who are better versed in cars than I am, I'm sorry if I botch names of things.  What I'm talking about is the spot in the car that the driver (or often in my case, the person starting the car) puts the key and turns it. 

I was led to believe before trying it myself that if I simply put the key in the ignition and turn it and voila, the car will start.  After trying, and trying, and trying, I still had no luck.  I was given many suggestions ranging from push the key in while you turn it to pull it out a little because otherwise something is locked.  Very few of these worked.  Often I had to try many of these suggestions in combination to get the key to turn even a little bit.  I then felt like a fool each time someone else would get in the car and start it without thinking twice. 

Looking at the ignition, or the area around the keyhole there are many words or abbreviations.  Sometimes something will also say push or turn.  Usually one of the words is lock or unlock.  The problem there is that if the key wont turn to that position, it usually won't unlock.  What the small words around the keyhole don't say are the tricks and often necessities to start a car.  Between the four cars I drove there were different methods to making the key actually turn and start the car.  In one car I needed to unlock the wheel or turn it slightly as I tried to turn my key.  In the driving school car I needed to have my foot on the break for the car to start.  Another car required me to press in the area surrounding the key with my fingers as I turned the key with my thumb.

It seems simple to have a hole with a key cut to fit in the hole.  As a small child I played with a toy like that.  I had different blocks to fit in different shaped holes.  The key going into the ignition isn't the problem though.  The problem is actually getting the ignition to do what its intended use is and start the car.  After many trials and tribulations, I managed to figure out the trick to each and every car I drove.  Sometimes I just wish there had been an instruction manual to starting a car.

~Marin

Strikingly Bad Design

Ok, I know the assignment said to try to stay away from PC-related examples but this was such a good illustration of bad design that I simply couldn't pass it up. Pictured above is the underside of an Xbox 360 motherboard. We've probably all heard about the massive recalls of these systems due to "hardware failure". I think that this affected enough people worldwide to warrant a mention on the bad design blog.

This summer I tried a little experiment. I purchased a "broken" xbox suffering from the hardware failure that caused Microsoft to recall the system. A little research into what the actual problem was showed that the hardware failure was related to CPU and GPUs overheating on the motherboard. A little more investigating revealed that those shiny metal X shaped clamps were the culprit. Those clamps are attached to four custom bolts that poke through from the other side of the board. The bolts are fastened to heat sinks, and it is supposed to be the job of those X clamps to hold the heat sinks onto the CPU and GPU securely and with even pressure, such that the heat sinks can conduct the heat away from the vital chips and fans can cool the heat sinks; basically those clamps are an essential part of the Xbox's cooling system. Unfortunately, Microsoft appears to have tried to cut a few corners to save manufacturing costs, and the cheap metal they used for the X clamps actually warps under normal operating temperature. A warped clamp no longer holds the heat sink flush against the chip which leads to overheating.

Perhaps the worst part of this design flaw is how easy it was to fix. By simply removing the custom bolts and X clamps, re-applying some thermal-conducting compound, and bolting the heat sinks down using $.97 worth of hardware from Lowes, I was able to securely fasten the heatsinks so that they can do their job. Apparantly, the hardware failure is related to the heatsinks and not the chips themselves, because the "broken" system that I bought for $75 off of ebay now works perfectly, and the repair took about an hour. I understand that the design of this system was supposed to ensure a nice tight fit between the heat sink and the processor chips, but bad production led to failure of a critical element in the system. This is a classic example of a needlessly complicated design that offers no benefits over a simpler solution and is more prone to failure to boot.

I'm sure this one cost Microsoft a whole bunch of money too.

-Kevin

I love my razor

I think my razor is pretty well designed. Razors don't really have many requirements: a place to hold the razor, and something sharp to cut your face with. However, electric razors have all sorts of fun settings - You need to be able to turn them on and off, for starters. The big blue thing in the center is a button where your thumb rests. The cool thing about it is the two halves both fold in to the middle, making it very easy to press with the side of your thumb (which is how you hold the razor according to the comfort-grip dots lining the sides), and the tray the button is on slides up when the button is down to cover the "off" symbol where the dot indicates naturally. I think leaving the "off" label to be covered by the tray is a very clever way to instruct you how the plate should slide up (because then "on" is where "off" should be) as well as point out that subtle little indicator dot. The head of the razor is silvery and you can just barely see the whir of machinery when its on, and it swivels - i think that's a pretty clear indicator that this end goes to your face, not the rounded end with an indicator light. (the head also swivels to match your face's curve, so the "fix" setting fixes the head in place). Sliding the plate up to the "trim" setting actually slides it up to the point where the trimmer pops out from the plate - it's actually really neat and a lot of fun to play with. There's also a nice status panel that has a battery icon showing battery life, last shave time, etc - all useful functions, but not an overwhelming amount of functionality either.  So affordabilities here are "clearly a button that is easy to press and slide with your thumb", "comfort grip", "sharp edges to cut face with", "LCD panel to show dynamic information".

-Zach Alexander

Washing machine in the wild

This is the dial for the washing machine in my apartment. As you can see, it's a little more complex than the washing machines in the dorms. The first annoying thing about this washing machine does not really come through in a picture, you have to be here to experience it yourself. There is a black dial in the middle of that large circle, and surrounding the dial is a plastic circle thing with a red line that
points at whatever setting you want it to. To set the machine, you have to rotate the plastic thing. Maybe this is just a consequence of the machine being old, but it took me about five loads of laundry before I could set the plastic thing in the right place on the first try... or move it at all, for that matter. You have to push it in, wiggle it around a bit, and press hard while turning - slowly, I might add,
because the plastic thing does not move backwards. If you pass your desired setting, around you go for another spin.

Once you have set the machine, you pull on the black dial to start filling the machine with water. At least, that's how it's supposed to happen. What usually happens to me is I start turning the plastic thing and the machine starts filling right away. This is easily fixed by turning the machine back off and setting it again, but does it need to happen at all? No. Again, maybe the machine is just old... but maybe the controls for the setting and starting should not be so intrinsically linked to each other.

The second annoying thing I did not notice until my roommate moved in a couple of weeks ago. He needed to do a load of laundry, but had to ask me five minutes of questions before feeling confident enough that he could work the machine on his own. There are labels of types of wash around the Big Circle, and obviously those correspond to the types of garments you desire to wash, but what of the numbers on the side? How does a 10 wash on Permanent Press differ from a 6 wash, or the unmarked line in between them? What about the long stretches of white on every quadrant of the Big Circle? And let us not mention the mysterious Super Wash 2 off on the bottom left, going against all conventions of numbering on the rest of the circle.

My roommate and I are each fairly intelligent people, high-quality students at a top-notch university... yet here we are, stumped by a washing machine. Or maybe that's not the way to look at it. Maybe the washing machine is simply setting us up for failure.

- Diane Panagiotopoulos

Bookbookbook

I'm sure everyone reading this has a book or two sitting around his room right now, if only a rarely-opened textbook that the bookstore will buy back at a pittance. Opening - let us think about that for a moment. Just by looking at a book, one can see that is meant to be opened.

(See picture 1.)
Three of its sides (the top, bottom, and spine) are covered in a sturdy material, while the other three sides remain uncovered so you can see the pages that the other sides hold together. Looking more closely at the pages, the top, and the bottom, you can see that they are attached to the spine of the book, suggesting that the spine is a sort of pivot point for all of the pages and cover. Holding the book by the spine will make it flop open on its own, and inside there are more clues for how to use the book.

(See picture 2.)
There are words inside, and as long as you know how to read, this tells you to orient the book so that the words are right-side up. In one corner on each page, there is a number, which indicates what page to turn over next - so that the numbers increase. When you reach the end of the book, all that is left to turn is the cover, which brings the book back to its original box-like shape, suggesting that you might open it again, if you wished.

Books are designed well, and are thus super easy to use, as evidenced by the fact that the children's section of a library always has books on the floor, tables, and chairs, left there by children who can read but do not yet grasp the Dewey Decimal System.

-Diane Panagiotopoulos

Yes, I chose a door-knob

This,my friends, is a simple and elegant design most used in leaving one room and entering another.  This is even simpler than the normal twisting style of handle, as it is operated via lever.  Either way you will turn it, either clockwise or counter, will open the door.  The hinges are also very apparent on the right side of the door, though it is not visible in this picture, so it is easy to assume it opens towards the operator.  Because of these easy to read signals as to the proper use of this object, it is a good AND elegant design all rolled into one.

-Sean Lander

A couple bad ideas

The main focus of this post is the design of the microwave faceplate.  The first obvious change from the norm is the 1 and 10 minute/second design.  True, it is easier to set your microwave for a minute if you just have to press one button, but trying to set it for 45 seconds takes 9 consecutive button pushes, as compared with a normal 0-9 digit microwave panel.  Setting the time is almost impossible to figure out because of this (hint, press 10 to change the 10's place, but you can't just keep adding 1's to get to 11, you need to hit 1 then 10, and changing from the base 12 setting requires you to hit 10 to get to 2, then add 1's, unless it's 10 or above, in which case you just hit 1's.  Also, I still have not figured out how to set it in PM, it only allows setting in AM).

Another charm of this microwave is that it has a convention oven setting which can be used in tandem with microwaving, as in microwaving at first then baking to finish, or something like that.  Figuring this out requires reading the instruction manual every time you want to do so, as there are no indications as to how to operate it on the faceplate.

Oh, and don't get me started on how to defrost a piece of chicken.  You can do it by weight or just by time, but it's a guess as to what you're actually defrosting, since all it gives you are the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

-Sean Lander

Berim-what?

Okay, so this is sort of a low-blow.

I wish I could somehow embed the three pictures above into the middle of the post, but I'll just refer back to them as I go. The object at hand here is a berimbau. It's an instrument with origins in West Africa, but predominantly coming from Brazil nowadays. Yes, it's a musical instrument. No, nobody ever guesses that. It's mainly used in a martial art/dance form known as Capoeira.

I just typed up the explanation of what it actually is, and because it's so frighteningly long, I'll let you create your own ideas of the instrument, first. I've already given away that it's a musical instrument, which is the first error most people make, based on affordances. I walk around campus with it sometimes, and I'm always mistaken for an archer. Yes, it's a bow. No, it's not for archery. The next segment is a set of questions I'd like to ask you to think about to yourself before you get to the stupidly-long explanation of what this is. What exactly are the parts? How does this fit together? How do you even make music? What crazy person designed this thing? How does one learn about this, or learn how to play it?

Here's where the fun begins. Exhibit A:

We have a hollowed-out, dried-out, varnished gourd (cabaça), with a two holes drilled in the top, and some string tied through them. After that, we have a rock (yes, literally, a rock) (dobrão), and a stick (yes, literally just a stick. This one is actually part of a wooden dowel, but whatever) (baqueta). The other things you see in this picture are a small shaker, made of the cut-out part of the gourd, some wicker-or-other-reed-like-substance, and seeds or small rocks. It's called a "caixixi" (cuh-shee-shee). It's technically it's own separate instrument. And we can barely see part of the main body of this instrument, which is a big, flexible piece of wood (verga), and a steel wire (arame). The second picture shows the berimbau after being strung and the gourd attached, and the third picture is me actually playing said instrument. If you look closely at the third, you may realize that this instrument is held with one hand, controlling most of the weight with the pinky finger, controlling pitch with the stone, held by forefinger and thumb, and the other hand holding the shaker-thing, and the stick, with the actual notes being created by hitting the steel wire with the stick.

Yes, it's as painful as it looks, at least at first.

So, with all of that information you didn't care to read, we can now answer the questions. I just explained what the parts are, how they fit together, and how you make music. The instrument was designed hundreds of years ago, in tribal West Africa. I'd imagine the original design was slightly different (i.e. cat intestine as opposed to steel wire), but the design is the same. That may explain why the design is so poor. No affordances, no practicality, no way to know anything about it without someone telling you. They used whatever means/materials they could in order to make music. They didn't necessarily think about how visually appealing it may be, or how easy to play it may be. I sort of wish they had...

Really, if I handed these parts to any of you, I'd make a fair assumption nobody could actually put it together and play it correctly, even with said description. I've assembled it in front of people, and handed it to them, and they still failed to play correctly. The only way to learn is to have somebody teach you, and you spend a lot of time practicing.

I'm fairly certain this utter lack of sense/intuition, coupled with the utter lack of prior experience with said instrument, is a testament to the horrible design of this instrument.

Cheers,
-Brad

P.S- if you really want to know more, feel free to ask me/Wikipedia ^_^

Simplicity at its Finest

Gotta love my action-shot.

So, as you all should recognize, this is (one of) the elevator(s) in the CSB. I chose this because 1) elevators are easy, 2) this one is particularly well-designed. You can clearly tell what are buttons and what are not, and the buttons are clearly associated with a label. The ground floor has a cute little asterisk to denote it being more important than all the other floors, which makes it easy to find. The floor buttons are a (semi-)clear, plain (sorta) white color, so they can (try to) light up when you select whichever floor you desire (if you look really closely in this picture, the "2" button is slightly off color from the rest, because I just pushed it). 

The other function buttons are specially colored, so you don't mistakenly press them thinking it might be the special bell floor, or the magic opposite arrows floor. This brings me to another good point of design: symbols. Almost nothing on this control panel is written (aside from "stop" and "run"). So, for those that may not be the best at English, there's a simple, straight-forward, widely recognized symbology to elevator control, and it's implemented here.

Really, the only downside to the elevator design comes in its functionality as opposed to its appearance. I've seen many-a-newcomer enter the elevator, press a button, and wait, expecting the elevator to know enough to close the doors and proceed to whichever floor they've selected. Unfortunately, elevators in the CSB aren't that smart, and you have to tell them to close the doors.

One small flaw in operation, one giant win for design.

Cheers,

-Brad

P.S- I HOPE THIS WORKED RIGHT! o_o

I'm blaming design

This is my messenger bag.  I wasn't able to use this bag for two months because I couldn't figure out how the strap works. This picture is of the strap in its current position - extended all the way (I'm a tall dude!). When I got it, the strap was on the exact other side, which meant it was at the shortest position possible. There are two major problems with this strap. The first is that the plastic doohickey doesn't have a lip for your thumb to go under so you can brace your hand against the strap like any decent backpack has (the lip also tells you which way the strap is supposed to go). That's minor, though - the reason I couldn't wear this bag for two months was because I struggled with the doohickey to move it maybe a half inch towards the end of the strap it was closest to - and that didn't make the strap any longer. The strap is perfectly symmetrical, and most doohickeys don't slide all the way across the other end of the strap, so I assumed once I budged the doohickey over towards the end, that was all I could extend it by. Am I pretty dumb? Yes. Did I only manage to fix the strap because I was explaining this to a friend of a friend, and she didn't even look twice before sliding the strap all the way over to the other side, making it fit me perfectly? Yes. Did she continue to make fun of me for not understanding how a strap works? Absolutely, yes. Am I blaming design?

Yes.

-Zach Alexander

Good Design is Hard to Notice

Bad design is easy to notice.  Typically it is bad designs that annoy people and frustrate them so much that it is almost impossible to not notice them.  Good designs on the other hand are difficult to spot.  I have heard this saying before but it hit me right in the face when I was trying to come up with a posting for the blog.  I was trying to think of both bad and good designs and struggled immensely with coming up with a good design.  I spent the greater part of my random thoughts today trying to see if things I interacted with were good vs. bad designs, and, let me tell you, the bad stuck out far worse than the good.

I was looking through some photos of the last few months and I did manage to come across something that I think is a particularly good design.  The photo shows my son on a see-saw.  With little cultural knowledge about how people use them (having never seen people on one before), he was able to grasp the simple concept that he was supposed to sit on one end.  The seat naturally affords sitting as it is curved for the shape of a person.  Thus, one can extend their knowledge of chairs to the seat on the see-saw.  The handle bars with grips suggest one should grasp them.  Given that the other side of the see-saw looks identical, it is fairly clear that an equal action should be taken on the other side - this is perhaps the best part of the see-saw's design in my opinion.  The movement up and down is not entirely intuitive, but can quickly be discovered by anyone who is willing to sit down on the see-saw, even by oneself.  Though, in some ways, the mirroring of the see-saws ends could be used to predict this as could the metal bar in the middle with pivot point.  My son did not completely foresee this aspect though and it was only when he started moving that it was understood.

- Carman