From the category archives:

affordances

Exit Signs Across Cultures

by Anne McLaughlin
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Slate.com has a nice article on the difference between U.S. exit signs and the rest of the world, as well as a nice history of the evolution of the symbols.  Here is an excerpt to get you interested:
The text-based American exit sign has its origins in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, a blaze in a downtown Manhattan garment factory that [...]

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Dissecting the iPad’s User Interface

by Richard Pak
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This Flickr image set does a nice job of pointing out the unique UI elements of the iPad.  Much of the interface is adapted from Apple’s extensive work on the iPhone but there are several unique elements.
Say what you will about Apple (positive or negative) but their tight reign on software and hardware and extreme focus on details really shows.
On [...]

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This does not bode well for the on-device user experience…

by Richard Pak
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Gizmodo reviewed the Nook e-book reader from Barnes & Noble. Unfortunately (for B&N), the process of opening the package was so cumbersome, most of the review dwells on that aspect:
In other words, the Nook packaging actually necessitates these lengthy instructions, as ridiculous as they are in their own right. Somehow, Barnes & Noble invented a box that’s [...]

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Environmental Controls: Spotlight on Volvo

by Anne McLaughlin
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I rode in a colleague’s new Volvo the other day and I love the environmental controls. The button lights up when active, showing where the airflow is going. Notice how the fan speed control is integrated into air direction display so they each add information to the other.
Compare to the older Volvo buttons, which had a similar theme but not [...]

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Encouraging Sanitary Behavior at the Urinal

by Richard Pak
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From reader Scot M. comes this NPR story. To encourage proper “aiming” at urinals, some places are now placing images of bugs so that men have something to aim toward. I’ve seen these at Schiphol Airport as well as my local grocery store bathroom (and I live in a tiny town).
Keiboom in Amsterdam says the original fly idea [...]

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Dangers of Automatic Windows

by Anne McLaughlin
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Recently I posted on some potential human factors problems caused by Toyota’s design of their floor mats. For this post, I would like to compliment Toyota on their automatic power windows. The windows can be lowered fully and automatically by one quick press on the button. However, to be raised, the lever on the button must be continuously raised [...]

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911: Trying to fight slips via warnings

by Anne McLaughlin

I got a newsletter in the mail today from the City of Raleigh. Here are some excerpts centering on the problems with our area code:
RALEIGH/WAKE 911 CENTER WANTS YOU TO KNOW THAT HANG UPS HURT
What do a child playing with a telephone, an unprotected non flip cell phone and someone dialing a ten-digit phone number in the 919 area code [...]

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Electric Scooters and their Warnings: A Guest Post by Kim Wolfinbarger

by Anne McLaughlin
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Electric shopping carts are common in large grocery stores. Essential for users with mobility impairments, they are also helpful for pregnant women, elderly shoppers, and other who have trouble walking long distances.
A few months ago, my grandfather overturned such a cart in a parking lot and broke his hip. Interested in what might have caused the accident, I examined a [...]

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Invisible Lines and Laundry Detergent

by Anne McLaughlin

Consumer Reports tackled a pet peeve of mine: the invisible fill lines for laundry detergent. Most of you are probably using too much.. I finally took a sharpie to mine. Some excerpts from the Consumer Reports article:
“If the lines aren’t clear or are hard to see, it’s easy to overdose and use too much detergent,” says Pat Slaven, a program [...]

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Acoustic Information from Basketball Courts

by Anne McLaughlin

I came across an article on ANSI standards that had an interesting human factors anecdote. Thought I would share:
It seems that a critical part any basketball game is the wood flooring, something which the fans generally take for granted, but not so the players. Basketball floors are highly engineered surfaces, made of three-quarter inch thick tongue-and-groove northern hard maple, laid [...]

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Map Information Visualizations = HOT!

by Anne McLaughlin
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I‘ve noticed a trend in the newsworld/blogworld recently. Everyone wants to represent everything on a map. Some of these are genius, others make me wonder “why bother?” I collected some of each for this post… but I warn you, once you notice this pattern you’ll start seeing it multiple times per day.
Job loss from Slate.com: (Usability note: good luck mousing-over [...]

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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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Milk Jug Usability

by Richard Pak

A square milk jug has lots of benefits; because of its square shape, they stack more efficiently compared to existing milk jugs.  The shape makes it so that cartons of milk won’t require milk crates.  The net result is reduced transportation costs.
However, it seems they are not so easy to pour. According to the NYT article, training was required to [...]

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Rethinking the Hotel Closet

by Anne McLaughlin

Great picture from reader Kim Wolfinbarger, University of Oklahoma:

“Thought you might enjoy this example of an affordance gone wrong. I had never considered this use for a sprinkler head, but obviously some other hotel guests had.”

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