Computer Couch: Cool, Convenient And Going Into Production

Three-in-one laptop sleeve/stand/cooling aid
The Computer Couch is a laptop accessory that is ergonomic, aids cooling and can be used as a sleeve as well. Bram de Zwart, Master’s student at IDE in Delft, conceived the accessory during a scholarship at the Politecnico di Milano, together with fellow exchange student Martin Fleckenstein. For the Concept Design Studio course under Scottsman Norman McNally they had to conceive a product, make thirty prototypes and sell these during a concluding fair annex presentation. They sold all thirty prototypes and got a 10 (maximum grade) for their design.

Inspiration from observation
The inspiration for their product came from observing students that were using all kinds of solutions to work outside with their laptops. “Often they'd put a book underneath it to be able to type more comfortably, and to cool the device better” (which in warmer cities like Milan is an issue).

In the shops by the end of 2008
The Dutch company BakkerElkhuizen Ergonomie, which has obtained the exclusive rights to develop and sell the product, is expecting to have the device in the shops by the end of 2008. Zwart made the original prototype from a bathroom mat, velcro, some string and elastic band. I wonder what BakkerElkhuizen will charge for that.

See also:
Design.nl: computer couch helps laptop users
English page, TU Delft university newspaper: bright idea

Design Strategies for Sustainable User Behaviour

User-Centred Design for Sustainable Behaviour
Time for a small celebration. A paper that Renee Wever (also from TU Delft), Casper Boks (NTNU Norway) and I wrote together has been accepted for the first issue of the new International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, published by Taylor and Francis. It is entitled 'User-centred Design for Sustainable Behaviour' and in it we explore the possibilities of using product design to nudge users towards more sustainable product use. Most 'traditiona'l eco-design approaches have focused on cleaner production, creating more efficient products (using less resources), and recycling issues, however, less attention has been paid at how to include the users in this picture.

Getting users to behave 'green'
Many modern cars prevent us from making mistakes that will cost us a lot of time and effort. For example, they make it impossible to lock the driver-seat door from the outside without using the key. This prevents you from leaving your keys inside the vehicle and locking yourself out. In other words: the car prevents you from producing unfavorable side-effects. In this paper we explore the possibility of influencing user-product interaction through the design of the product with the aim of improving the sustainability of product use.

Four design strategies
We provide a typology of four user-centered design strategies for inducing sustainable behavior.

• Functionality matching: adapt a product better to the actual use by consumers and thereby try to minimize negative side effects;
• Eco-feedback: the user is presented with specific information on the impact of his or her current behavior, and it is left to the user to relate this information to his or her own behaviour, and adapt this behaviour, or not;
• Scripting: creating obstacles for unsustainable use, or making sustainable behaviour so easy, it is performed almost without thinking about it;
• Forced functionality: making products adapt automatically to changing circumstances, or to design-in strong obstacles to prevent unsustainable behaviour.

The four strategies are supported with examples from packaging, automotive and consumer electronics.

Download
You can download a full (preprint) version of the paper from my research website. In time the final version will become available through the website of the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering.

Abstract
Traditional eco-design has a strong focus on the supply side. Even when focusing on the use phase of products, still impacts directly under the control of the manufacturer dominate. However, the way users interact with a product may strongly influence the environmental impact of a product. Designers can try to influence this behaviour through the products they design. Several strategies have been proposed in the literature, such as eco-feedback and scripting. Existing literature in this field has its limitations. Publications either focus on a single strategy, or do not take a design perspective, or lack empirical data.  This paper will present a typology of the different strategies available to designers. This typology will be illustrated with examples and experiments related to two sustainability problems, namely littering behaviour and energy using products. Furthermore a methodology will be presented for applying these strategies. This will be demonstrated in a case study on an energy meter.

Keywords: product design, user-centered design, sustainable behavior, sustainability, eco-feedback, scripting.

Disclaimer
This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form will be published in the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering. © 2008 Taylor & Francis; International Journal of Sustainable Engineering is available online at: http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/

Nokia's Take on Participatory Design: BetaLabs and OpenStudio

Business Week reports on two initiatives of Nokia to actively include users in product development and innovation. The OpenStudio project had Nokia designers travel all around the world to ask users to sketch their dream cell phones, which included the inhabitants of shantytowns in Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and Accra in Ghana. See some examples of the dream phone sketches here.
On the Nokia BetaLabs website users can download, try, and comment on a beta release of applications that Nokia developers are currently working on. The site seems to hit the mark. The SportsTacker application was wildly popular, users provided tons of suggestions, and gave the developers the insight that the device could be used way beyond it's original intention.

Eventually more than 1 million people downloaded the program and used it for sports the developers never dreamed of, such as paragliding, hot-air ballooning, and motorcycle riding. More importantly, the users avidly provided criticism that Nokia then used to make improvements

The BetaLabs site also features a blog to in turn respond to user feedback. Currently it's written by one person, Tommi Vilkamo, manager of Beta Labs. However, Vilkamo is planning to turn the blog over to software developers themselves, so they have direct contact with customers. "Before, there were too many middlemen between developers and users," he says. Hear, hear.

Read the full article at BusinessWeek: How Nokia Users Drive Innovation.
[via Core77]

Simplicity: Functionally and Visually

(Illustration: simplicity according to Soaphia.com

Simplicity is something to strive for apparently. Muji does it. Philips does it. Paris does it. It just might become the 'user-friendliness' of this decennium: an appealing, but somewhat vague notion of 'goodness' in interaction. We all agree: it should be there, but no-one is exactly sure what it is. Or is really sure, but everyone else disagrees. To some it means getting what you need, to others it means leaving out the frills.

So, time for some clarification. Or perhaps we should say diversification. In 'Simplicity, the Ultimate Sophistication' Joshua Porter brings a number of authors (gurus, blog-heads and indeed some actual designers) to the stage to speak their minds on simplicity, such as Don Norman, Mark Hurst, Scott Berkum and John Maeda. Porter himself adds some flavor to the subject by bringing out Barry Schwartz' paradox of choice and applying it to product design:

Users face a trade-off when they must make a choice between a simple product or a complex product with more features. If they choose the product with fewer features and eventually need some functionality that is missing, they've made a bad choice. However, when users choose the complex product with more features, they don't have to make this trade-off. The complex product is more likely to have the feature users may need in the future.

I usually call that the 'I-don't-know-what-that-feature-is-exactly-but-I-might-need-it-someday'-syndrome. Another worthwhile observation about simplicity can be found at GUUI.com, where Henrik Olsen points out the difference between avoiding visual complexity and providing true simplicity:

Usability is based on principles such as "Less is more" and "Keep it simple, stupid". But there is more to simplicity than meets the eye. By reducing visual complexity at the cost of structural simplicity, you will give your users a hard time understanding and navigating the content of a web site.

In other words: reducing the amount of buttons and adding a deep menu structure does not necessarily make a product easier to use. See also earlier uselog posts on expected usability. Meanwhile PresentationZen reviews John Maeda's book 'The Laws of Simplicity', and illustrates it (how appropriate) with some appealing visuals.

Boarding Pass Design Imitates Fix by Users

Left: boarding details circled by ground steward, right: preprinted circles on new boarding pass.

Pointing out what matters
When you check in for a flight the ground stewards circle the gate number and the boarding time (picture on the left), just to make sure that you and the flight crew are on the same page with regard to the take off time and place. Boarding passes are so poorly designed that it is hard to look up your boarding time, even if you're looking for it. On a recent flight I came across a new boarding pass design (right picture) on which the ground steward's circles were preprinted. The whole pass has a meticulous layout, and suddenly there are these two intentionally shaky red 'markings' that indicate your boarding time and gate.

Imitating a fix
It's good to see the airline has picked up on the fact that boarding time and gate are actually the most important pieces of information on the whole piece of paper, but simply adding the sketchy red circles to the ticket seems a somewhat strange approach. Why not design a boarding pass that points out the boarding time and gate more clearly from the start? On the other hand: whatever gets the job done. And the red circles definitely stand out, and the users are already familiar with their meaning. But what will the ground stewards do now? Add another circle to the pass, just to make sure that you really got the time and place right? The new design just might have robbed the ground stewards of an important way of bringing something to your attention.

New seat design
And then a side note on the subject of flying that should delight everyone who has every flown economy: new seat design provides a place to rest your head, and more leg-space.

(Left picture: the cranky flier, right picture: flyingismylife)

No More RAZRs and Chocolates: Mobile Phones Become 'User-Centered'

On his good experience blog Mark Hurst reflects on a good read in the New York Times about mobile phone development and design becoming more user-centered (partly as a result of the advent of the iPhone).

“Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president for product strategy and marketing. “We constantly have to be reminding ourselves that we tend to be geek types and our customers are not.”

At least that's one more person that has seen the designer-user gap. As a contrast to the iPhone Hurst mentions the Motorola Razr, that was hugely popular for a while and then seemed to vanish of the face of the earth. According to Hurst the Razr that was a fashion statement, and not a usable device. And, as he points out:

Fashion is a difficult, volatile business to be in. In contrast, a great user experience is a competitive advantage, and in the tech industry that means creating tools that people can delight in using, not just flashing like a piece of jewelry.

The NY times piece mentions that at LG participants with test-phones can call a toll-free number anytime to "share their emotions about the phone they are testing. And sometimes they are asked to draw pictures that represent their mood when they hold the phone."

Sounds to me as if someone is taking the Dr.Phil approach to user-centered product design. It's not magic, it's not emotions, it's still just about finding out how to improve the product. So a customer let's you know what mood he is in, and then what? What you really want to know is how you pissed them off, and how you can change your design to improve that. But I can imagine that LG wants to prevent another NYT headline like LG Chocolate can be a sticky mess. When it comes to being a fashion statement instead of usable, the LG Cholocate indeed came very close to the Razr.

[via UnpressableButtons]

30% Fewer Help-desk Calls Due to Installation-Kit Redesign

The frustrations of installing ADSL
Many of KPN Telecom's customers ran into trouble when trying to connect and setup the modem for a product called 'InternetPlusBellen' (ADSL Internet and voice over IP). One of the company's previous strategies was to offer consumers the option to have the adsl connection installed by a professional. However, it seems a bit strange to offer your customer a product, and then have them paying to get it installed, because it is so complicated.

Making improvements where you can
A reason for KPN to try and improve the setup experience. However, the company does not develop the modems, splitters, etc; these products are usually purchased 'as is'. That is why the company setup a project to improve the do-it-yourself installation process of ADSL by changing what it could change: the manual, the packaging and the cables. The new kit features a quick reference card that folds out when you open the box, and all cables have been given color indications, which are referred to on the card. There is also an extended handbook and an installation CD in the package.

Bottom line: 30% fewer help-desk calls
The cooperation between KPN product house, design office Flex, human-centered design consultants P5, and the 2D-design firm Do Company seems to have paid off. In a test comparing the redesign to its predecessor, the customer group owning the “new” kit makes 30% less calls and experiences 30% less problems than customers owning the “old” kit. Why KPN cares so much? Because of the cost reduction. Every call to the help-desk costs them money. In the press release that Flex issued (hidden somewhere on their non-linkable flash-based website), it is mentioned that the savings for KPN because of this kit might run into the millions of euros. How is that for an ROI on usability?

Customers complimenting new design
The fact that KPN beliefs in this setup speaks from the fact that the installation kits of nearly all KPN brands are currently being reworked, based on this design. In addition the kit got a Red Dot Award, but what struck me most is that according to the press release, customers are still complimenting KPN on the new kit. How often have you complemented any company on an installation? The old non-usability mantra "We'll fix that in the manual" is put in a whole new perspective if the 'manual' looks as good as this.

Similar: Microsoft ergonomic keyboard
The project bears some resemblance to the treatment Microsoft gave its ergonomic keyboard, to prevent people from trying to use it without installing the drivers first. Although, I must admit, they were fixing a problem they caused themselves. KPN is making up for what their hardware suppliers did not deliver.