Women are different creatures than men, from a usage point of view, as they possess: handbags. The mobile phone is usually kept in the handbag, whereas men stuff their mobile (very elegantly) into a pocket of their trousers. As a consequence, the vibration function that many phones offer is not really useful. Thankfully, phoneflasher offers a fashionable solution to this problem.

Technorati Tags: consumer product usability, consumer products, design example, social interaction, user interface design, user-centred design

Symmetric key for my bike lock (click image to enlarge)

You have to appreciate the small things in life that make it more pleasant. Meet one those small things. This key to my bike lock is symmetrical. Which means you can't put it into the lock in the wrong way. That may sound trivial, but bike locks are often operated in the dark and are mounted in places where they are hard to reach, and are not in clear sight. The details are not the details.

Anthropologists to beat gadget rage, was the heading for a 2004 article in New Scientist. The article explains that anthropologists offer deep insight into human behavior, which is necessary to make products that appeal to our real needs. And then it gives some examples of the results of the work of some anthropologists.

Harper has been working for Vodafone in the UK since 2003, where he has adapted kula-style gift-giving rules to encourage social bonding among groups of people in phone-texting networks. Under his guidance, Vodafone has launched its Postcard service. You send an MMS picture-and-text message to Vodafone, who will print it as a postcard and mail it to whomever you want. Like the islanders' gifts, Vodafone's postcards are permanent - unlike text messages. The idea is that the recipient will then want to send a postcard of their own, perhaps to a third party, and so draw more subscribers into the network. Exchanging more valuable artefacts, such as music or video files, may be next.

Right, that was a service that really took off, didn't it? I guess in-depth user research is still not a guarantee for a successful product or service.

Technorati Tags: business and usability, design research, user research, social interaction, usability, user-centred design

The TomTom 910 has a text to speech engine. This means that they can use more elaborate and precise instructions to guide you around town. But since they had the text-to-speech engine and a Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone, they decided to add another feature: the TomTom 910 can read your incoming text messages out loud. It seems a good idea, because it's hard to navigate your phone, read an sms, and drive 120 km/h at the same time. But... I'm just thinking of some of the text messages you can get (i.e. from your girlfriend who's in a jolly mood...), and I don't think I would like all my text messages to be read out loud. At least not when there's for example a colleague sitting next to me. Thankfully, it's just an option.

Technorati Tags: consumer electronics, consumer product usability, consumer products, social interaction, user interface design, wayfinding

In an article called objects of desire in Technology Review 'prominent' designers talk about their favorite products (the title reminds me of the Adrian Forty text book of the same title I had to study from at IDE). One of them discusses the first (1979) Sony Walkman.

"It has simplicity of use," says Logan. "You could give it to someone who's never used one before and they can use it. You can only get that with reduction of features."

I love the walkman too, and I think it was easy to use too; especially in comparison with current digital music players. And part of that simplicity of use was the basic functionality it offered. But it might also have had something to do with the fact that the device did not have a menu based user interface, it just offers your classic 'one function one button' interaction. And the music was on a physical medium instead of floating around in cyberspace, which made transfering music to the device a lot easier than shoving mp3s from your PC to your mp3 player. But hey, on the other hand, you don't need drawers full of cassettes anymore. So I don't think it's just a matter of reducing features.

From the wikipedia page about the Walkman we learn another interesting fact. Because the first walkman was really changing people's behavior - they had not listened to their own personal music on the go before - Sony built in some features to ensure that the device would fit the social context of use.

In the UK, it was with stereo playback and two mini headphone jacks, permitting two people to listen at the same time (though it came with only one pair of MDR-1 headphones). The Walkman had a "hotline" button which activated a small built-in microphone, partially overriding the sound from the cassette, and allowing one user to talk to the other over the music. The dual jacks and "hotline" button were phased out in the follow-up Walkman II model.

Apparently people really didn't need to share their music with others, and taking off your headphones was just as easy as using a hotline button...

(picture taken from Technology Review)

"What is that?"
- Oh, that's my PS2 controller"
"A controller? That's cute... My iBox doesn't need a controller."
- How do you play it?
"Play it?"

The iBox, gaming has never been this easy.

Technorati Tags: consumer electronics, consumer product usability, usability

Ran into this slightly gender-biased sign pointing towards a seminar room at the Annual Conference of the English Ergonomics Society, held at Nottingham University. I don't know what subjects were discussed in the room, but apparently, they were not suited for women. Gives you this nice ancient Greek Olympics kind of feeling.

With the risk of stating the obvious: the sign is actually composed of two signs. One pointing to the toilets for men and one pointing to a seminar room that is in the same corridor.

Technorati Tags: ergonomics, public design, usability, wayfinding

Wired contrasts a cry for simplicity with ads for the most advanced phones in the business (click image for screenshot of the whole website).

Something interesting is going on at Wired.com. Next to an article entitled Just Give Me a Simple Phone in which users complain about overly complex phones that providers and manufacturers are pushing, Wired's online advertising algorithm places ads for Windows Mobile and Blackberry. Two of the most, well, let's call it 'advanced' phones in the business. The Blackberry actually promotes itself saying it has GPS and Blackberry Maps. Thus beautifully illustrating the premise of the article: users don't want advanced features, companies want them.

But the wireless industry needs him to be comfortable with advanced features and actively use them. As the universe of people who want a cell phone and don't already have one gets smaller, wireless carriers are counting on advanced services to generate the bulk of new revenue in coming years.

And that's the key. Providers seem to think they make more money with advanced services that are used marginally, than with easy to use features that anyone can and wants to use. Self-installed push-e-mail versus sms. Go figure.

Technorati Tags: business and usability, consumer electronics, consumer product usability, consumer products, usability, user-centred design

Someone should give the writers of cookbooks some guidelines on how to write recipes. Especially on including some clear warnings about strange ingredients, weird tools and preparation time. Recognize this one? You see something you like, you buy all the ingredients, and with lots of time to spare, four hours before dinner should be ready you go into the kitchen, and the first thing you read in the recipe is:

"Pour the pesto over the feta and put it into the refrigerator for 24 hours."

Right. You can call me stupid, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one who experienced this. And there's no warning anywhere on the page that says "Watch out, this one takes 24 hours to make!" Ah well, the feta tasted nice without soaking it in pesto for 24 hours as well.

Technorati Tags: usability, user-centred design