May 2007
27 posts
5 tags
Missed Opportunity #1
Around seven years ago, I was doing freelance work for Ericsson. I was helping them envision advanced phone concepts. One of the projects I worked on was software design for a smart phone. I visualized a graphical UI for managing and listening to voice mail. Upon seeing the screens, the woman I worked with stated that she didn’t think we could do that. Nothing ever came of the project, but...
April 2007
17 posts
3 tags
A Real Turn-Off
Aside from my day-job, I’m a part-time assistant professor at West Virginia University. Tonight I attended the annual senior Graphic Design student presentations. I knew I would find something in the experience worth writing about. While the presentations were good, and the projects interesting, this post was inspired by something that happened before the presentations actually started. As...
5 tags
The Truth Fairy
I envy my daughter. She was explaining to me today what she thinks the Easter Bunny looks like. As she tells it, he is about three feet tall with white fur and a pink nose. He walks around upright on his hind feet. She has no trouble at all believing that this is possible. While I was a student, I dreamed up a lot of creative user interfaces that relied on animation, transparency, three...
3 tags
Rub-A-Dub-Design
My brother warned me the first time I stayed at his house that the shower was a little tricky. He told me to let him know if I needed help. That seemed a little odd. Being an Interaction Designer, I consider myself reasonably capable when it comes to figuring out how things work. I can put myself in the mindset of the creator, consider their goals, their methods, their prior experience, and with...
2 tags
Tug-of-Words
A requirements document is supposed to make clear what a client wants and what a vendor is going to build. It is a contractual agreement. When it is well written, it is a useful reference throughout software development. But what happens when the requirements document comes first? While the client is an expert of their own domain, they don’t fully understand the capabilities or limitations...
2 tags
A Good Experience, 10 Years Later
I’m not sure I exactly qualify as an audiophile, but I do enjoy music, and I appreciate a high quality audio experience. Close to ten years ago, I purchased a Bose home theater system. It has been an outstanding investment from which I have received untold hours of enjoyment. Going on four years ago, I moved into a new home on top of a relatively high mountain. Since that time, I’ve...
1 tag
Standard Stupidity
Somewhat ironically, standards seem to get us into an awful lot of trouble. There was the Y2K bug—the result of ridiculous short-sightedness within an industry that should know better. And while you would think we would have learned from that mistake, more recently we had a similar issue with the change in Daylight Saving Time. Then there are the format wars, such as the infamous Beta vs. VHS, now...
3 tags
Getting Caught with My Windows Down
I don’t stop to look at the magazines on the rack in my grocery store. But one day, about seven years ago, a magazine cover about ripped my eyeballs out of their sockets, yanking my attention as I walked by. I don’t remember the name of the magazine, but it had a feature about the recent auto show, and the PT Cruiser concept car was on the cover. That was going to be my next car. I read...
3 tags
Rob Roy's Ghost
I took advantage of the (finally!) good Spring weather today by cutting in a new planting bed on the side of my house. Technically, it’s an enlargement of an existing bed, but considering that it is more than doubling in size and completely changing shape, it may as well be new. As I worked, I was haunted. While I was an undergraduate student in the Graphic Design program at West Virginia...
4 tags
Why I Have an Ugly Alarm Clock
A number of years ago, I got really fed up with my alarm clock. There are a lot of devices that have clocks in them: microwaves, stoves, VCRs, and so forth. A large number of these devices, watches and clocks included, make it extremely difficult to set the time. Here are some of the ludicrous design patterns I have observed.
One-way Spinner - There’s a button that you press to advance the time...
1 tag
Behavior Change
I’ve never watched a lot of television. I probably watch less now than I ever have since I was old enough to enjoy cartoons. But I have continued to watch TV on a regular basis… until now. There are many products that I enjoy using, that make my life easier, or mean a lot to me. But it is not very often that a new product actually changes my behavior. Several weeks ago, I got an Apple TV. Since...
3 tags
Back to Basics
I expect that form design is one of the most frequent of tasks performed by Interaction Designers. The web is riddled with them. Desktop applications are full of them, in fact are often nothing but forms. Forms are the prevailing method of entering data into a computer application. And so they are mundane. You might say that form design is the grunt work—the manual labor—of Interaction Design....
1 tag
Facial Hair Won’t Wait
I mentioned in a post a couple days ago that I shipped my Norelco shaver back to Philips for warranty replacement. Several years ago, I had to do the same thing with a Remington shaver. Remington sent me a new shaver, and I returned the old one in the box that the new one came in. Philips reversed this process, asking me to send them the faulty shaver first. They told me to expect the replacement...
5 tags
Only What’s Important
For a couple more months, I have a Treo 650. I’ve been a fan of Palm since I started using one in 1999. I was happy to merge my PDA and cell phone into one unit, bulky though it is. But someone on their product development team got their priorities mixed up… or at least got my priorities mixed up. Somebody decided that it is really important to know if the phone is connected to a network. There...
2 tags
Users First
I have a lot of respect for Philips. As a company, they show an above average understanding of the value of design. I was, therefore, surprised at the apparent lack of thought that went into the Norelco shaver I have been using for less than a year. It is a cordless, rechargeable shaver accompanied by a cleaning and charging base station. Recently, the shaver has only held a charge for about two...
2 tags
Why tumblr?
There are quite a few design-related blogs out there, so what’s the value of adding one more? What could I provide that isn’t already offered? I’ve subscribed to 16 design-related RSS feeds. They have become my primary means of keeping in touch with the current state of design. However, the authors are so prolific that I can’t find the time to read them all, let alone the...
1 tag
A New Endeavor
I turned 33 today. It’s not especially meaningful, but it caused me to think about what I have accomplished in my career. I am an Interaction Designer–an occupation I have been practicing over ten years. During the past year, I have observed many of my contemporaries contributing to the field’s knowledgebase through their blogs, podcasts, and forum posts. While I am an occasional...
