From the monthly archives:

April 2009

Danger at the Dining Hall!

by Anne McLaughlin

I eat at a dining hall about twice per week, and getting tea is nerve-wracking. The hot water nozzle is above my head and when using an opaque coffee cup or mug, you cannot see the level of the water.  I’m constantly checking to see how full it is so boiling water doesn’t overflow onto my hand.

I’ve examined the machine [...]

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Human Factors Potpourri (again)

by Richard Pak

Here are some more human factors-related items that have crossed my blog reader:

Twitter is hot!  Oprah recently twittered on her show and apparently fell victim to a usability problem:  the update button was non-obvious so she never posted her tweet (Touch usability)
Fellow HFE blog Real World Usability will be posting updates of the Ergonomics Society Conference via Twitter
A night at [...]

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HF/Design/Usability Potpourri from around the Web

by Richard Pak

Here are some links to interesting things from the past few weeks.

Wired reports on user complaints with the new Kindle ebook reader’s text rendering.
Touch Usability’s Kevin Arthur posted a neat behind-the-scenes of how Nokia phones get tested for durability
Smashing Magazine rounded up a list of well-designed tabbed navigation schemes from around the web.  Earlier they also evaluated/redesigned Craigslist [...]

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Human Factors & Medical Device Workshop

by Richard Pak

John Gosbee sends along this announcement of an upcoming workshop on medical human factors:
Those readers who want to know more about the practical and regulatory aspects of  human factors and device design might be interested in our workshop (or the approach we use). Our writings and this workshop continue a decades long effort to bring the HF and healthcare worlds [...]

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Dashboards meet the 21st century

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Dashboards meet the 21st century

Reader Darin Ellis sends along this news item from MSNBC about the future of car dashboards (hint: analog is out, glass screens are in).  There is a great quote in the article from the visualization designer of Chrysler:
A lot of usability studies need to be done. Designing these is not a no-brainer.
In addition to this article, here are some other [...]

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911! I’m Locked In My Car…Oh, Pull Lock? Thanks

by Richard Pak

There must be a human factors angle here somewhere in this story.  Perhaps the consequences of automation leading to out of the loop syndrome?  Click through to the story to hear the 911 call.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A woman locked in her car in Kissimmee called 911 on Tuesday.
“It’s getting very hot in here, and I’m not feeling well,” the caller [...]

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