February 2012

Mechanical exerciser interface from 1938

February 20, 2012
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File the above under funny, if inaccurate, information visualization.  The Bread-o-Meter shows how many slices of bread would be needed to fuel your mad bicycle ride! Click here for the original post and other neat antique exercise articles.  

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Bad Usability Causes Cranky Babies

February 17, 2012
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I peripherally heard about another Tylenol recall and assumed the recall was prompted by tainted medicine or something.  Anne just sent me a link to the story and it is apparently usability related.  The syringe-based dosing system, called SimpleMeasure, seems to be difficult to use.  Here is what NPR says: the “SimpleMeasure” dosing system that’s supposed to make it easier [...]

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A collection of beautiful and creative information visualizations

February 14, 2012
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Click here for a gallery of wonderful visualizations. My favorite is the Histomap (pictured above) from 1931. Someone update it, please!   Photo credit feeb @ Flickr

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Looking down the barrel of a gun

February 10, 2012
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Here is a design that requires disobedience of the fundamental rule in a sport: don’t point your gun at someone you don’t plan to shoot. Blogger Mark Shead posits it might be due to a lack of domain knowlege by the designer and extends the analogy to software design. Mistakes in software design aren’t always as easy to spot, but often it [...]

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Development of the ground proximity warning system for aviation

February 8, 2012

This article tells the story of inspiration for and creation of a ”ground proximity warning” system for pilots, as well as multiple other types of cockpit warnings. Don’t miss the video embedded as a picture in the article! It has the best details! Some choice excerpts: About 3.5 miles out from the snow-covered rock face, a red light flashed on the instrument [...]

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New automation will warn drivers of lane changes

February 7, 2012
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Ford is introducing a system that first warns of a lane change, then actually changes the direction of the car if the warning is ignored. From the USA Today article: When the system detects the car is approaching the edge of the lane without a turn signal activated, the lane marker in the icon turns yellow and the steering wheel [...]

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Fun with confusing medication names!

February 2, 2012
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Check out this post from The Consumerist about how unhappy the FDA is with Durezol and Durasal. A hint: It’s ok if you accidentally use Durezol when you wanted Durasal, but the penalty is high for using Durasal instead of Durezol!* This link contains an explanation of the names: When drugs are submitted to the FDA for approval, the Agency carefully screens [...]

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