November 2008
18 posts
3 tags
TP Torque
Most of the toilet paper dispensers I encounter in public restrooms are the products of the Kimberly-Clark corporation. The model in my office is fairly standard. I’ve found it rather annoying that the toilet paper is always installed with the loose end hanging away from the toilet. In this picture, for instance, the toilet is to the left.
The rectangular opening has toothed edges on all three...
October 2008
23 posts
2 tags
Designer’s Toolbelt: FileMagnet
While I have downloaded a number of free applications for my iPhone, there are only a few I have purchased—not because I don’t think they are worth it or don’t have the need, but because I just haven’t taken the time to really think about what I need and analyze the options.
I recently learned of FileMagnet, from Magnetism Studios, when they were sponsoring Daring Fireball (effective...
2 tags
Data Table Designed by Brad Robertson
The first assignment in the course I teach about data visualization is to design a table. Everyone was required to find data relating to a social issue related to the state of West Virginia. Brad researched alternative fuel vehicles and found the count of such vehicles in use in each state. He juxtaposed this with the number of housing units, which gave him the percentage of households in each...
2 tags
Back to Basics: Errors
When an error occurs in software, the error message should be understandable by the intended audience. It should point out what caused the error, to the best of the system’s knowledge, and tell the user what they should do to correct the problem. If there is no action that the user can take, they should be directed to the person or service that can address the problem.
As for “user errors”, Dan...
3 tags
From the Mouths of Babes
A couple of weeks ago, we had unusually high winds resulting from the hurricane down south. The power flickered several times before staying off for six hours or so. Once power was restored, the kid’s iMac wouldn’t start up. I figured out that the hard drive was physically damaged (thanks DiskWarrior!) and had it replaced. I got all of the software and settings back in order, including the...
2 tags
Cloudy Forecast
I was ready to sit down and write today’s blog post, so I selected my bookmark to Ta-da List, which I use to record all of the ideas I have for posts. You see, I know I’m not going to be able to come up with a topic every night on the spot. So, as I read things, experience things, and observe things throughout the day, I enter them into Ta-da List so that they are there when I’m ready to write....
1 tag
Guts
Here’s a fun little tip. My church puts on a haunted house every year. I’m designing an “alien abduction” room in which I will be lying on an operating table with my torso cut open and my guts exposed. I was brainstorming ideas for how to pull this off and make it look as realistic as possible.
To create the guts, I got the idea of using Great Stuff, the expanding, adhesive, foam sealer. I...
2 tags
Why Designers Fail
Scott Berkun performed an interesting study in which he surveyed a wide range of designers and those they collaborate with about the reasons designers fail. The top 15 issues are an interesting mix of “designer’s fault” and “somebody else’s fault”.
In my own work, failure has been mostly due to the following reasons.
I wasn’t engaged early enough in the project. Important decisions were made...
5 tags
Everyone needs a rubber chicken with a pulley in...
Back in the day, I couldn’t get enough of LucasArts’ adventure games. I played Maniac Mansion and Zack McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders on my Commodore 64. The Secret of Monkey Island was the first game I got for my first Mac. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge was the second. I played Loom, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, The Dig, and others. The humor was...
2 tags
Sadistic Survey
I was filling out an online survey and came to a question in which it asked for the date of the last time I had participated in a particular activity. It had been quite awhile, and I selected June 1st as a reasonable approximation.
As you can see, they didn’t like my answer. This is a simple one. If the user is not allowed to select dates outside of a certain range, don’t include them in the...
3 tags
Blog of the Week: Chartjunk
Viveka Weiley, a user experience design consultant based in Sydney, Australia, has started a new blog titled Chartjunk after Tufte’s name for all of the unnecessary and distracting elements people tend to throw into data visualizations.
Viveka doesn’t just call attention to visualizations—he critiques them in detail, pointing out flaws that misrepresent the data. Many would stop right there. That...
2 tags
Deconstructing Product Design
Will Lidwell and Gerry Manacsa are writing a book called Deconstructing Product Design. As described on their website, “Its purpose is to explore the meaning of “good design” as it pertains to consumer products. Deconstruction here is an exploration of the form, function, and usability of these products by way of emotional response, objective analysis, and subjective commentary.” They selected a...
4 tags
Blog Action Day: Poverty
I just learned that today is Blog Action Day, and the topic this year is poverty. It just so happens that some of my students have been creating visualizations dealing with poverty, so I have something to say that fits the topic.
The entire semester has been themed to deal with social issues in the state of West Virginia. Every design class has been working on projects centered on this theme. The...
4 tags
No Buttons
Apple announced its new line of laptops today. I was struck once again by the way Apple’s design philosophy flows from one product to the next, unifying the experience. I’ve seen it before as the iTunes Smart Playlists became Smart Folders in OS X. Coverflow, also originating in iTunes, made its way onto the iPhone and the desktop. Details of the iPhone UI were retrofitted to the Apple TV.
Apple...
3 tags
Designer’s Toolbelt: What the Font?!
What the Font?! is a great little web application provided by MyFonts.com. You can upload an image file or point to one on the web by URL, and it will analyze the image looking for glyphs. It then renders multiple copies of the image, each with what it perceives to be a glyph highlighted. Beside each image is a field containing the glyph it recognizes in the image. You can make corrections to the...
2 tags
Updater Hater
Adobe Updater, the utility Adobe software uses to check for updates, runs once a week. It seems to run after I have launched an Adobe application. I’ll be working away in Photoshop, and I’ll here a system alert sound. I’ll then find this dialog hiding behind the window I’m working in.
Do I really need to be interrupted by a dialog telling me that there is nothing to report? That’s like a car...
1 tag
Choking Hazard
I found this on the back of a small item one of my daughters had left on the floor.
Now, that’s great advertising!
2 tags
Senz
If you’ve been following DesignAday for awhile, you know I’m a fan of any designer who grabs one of the everyday objects we take for granted and shows us what good design can accomplish. Jason Fried over at 37signals apparently feels the same way.
I don’t typically reblog items, but Jason featured the Senz aerodynamic umbrellas on their blog yesterday, and it was love at first sight. There are...
1 tag
Interaction ’09 Program
The program for Interaction ’09 was posted Monday. I’m sorry to say that I’m not on it, but given the fact that they had 160 submissions for 28 slots, I’m in good company. The line-up looks scrumptious—it will be tough deciding which sessions to attend.
Keynote speakers this year are John Thackara, Fiona Raby, Genevieve Bell, Dan Saffer, Marc Rettig, and Kim Goodwin. Jared Spool is hosting a...
3 tags
Blog of the Week: Engage!
David Malouf’s blog, Engage!, was one of the first design-related blogs I started reading on a regular basis. Of course, he was David Heller at the time. I can’t remember now if I found Dave’s blog before IxDA, or if IxDA lead me to it. Regardless, he was one of the organizers of the organization and its first Vice President.
Just this past Friday, Dave announced that he is leaving Motorola to...
2 tags
Stalled
Public restrooms can be an interesting design space. Matters of privacy, crowd control, cleanliness, accessibility, maintainability, and security must all be considered within a very limited space. This results in a lot of interesting products, such as touch-less flush urinals, motion-activated towel dispensers, the airblade, and self-cleaning restrooms, among many others.
I was recently in a...
3 tags
What a Picture is Worth
I was at my daughters’ school this evening for an open house. While walking through the halls, I noticed this display.
If I were John McCain, and I knew they were taking my picture for a life-size stand-up that would be displayed in schools and who knows where across the country, I would have made more of an effort to get a good photo. Think about it. If you were a child, which of these two men...
3 tags
Blog of the Week: Information Aesthetics
I’m teaching Information Design and Visualization again this semester—this time to seniors. They are working through a series of data visualization projects based on the types described by Tufte in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. It helps to provide the students with a wide array of examples for inspiration at the start of each project.
Information Aesthetics has been my best...
