Blackberry recently introduced the Storm (the phone in the middle in the top picture), its first touch-screen phone. Remarkable: a Blackberry without the distinctive feature of a Blackberry, that full-fledged querty keyboard. Earlier Samsung launched the Glyde (left in the top picture). So is the iPhone (right) getting some serious competition? Based on the following reviews I would think not.

NY Times' David Pogue: reviews the Storm and he's not that impressed with SurePress, which is BlackBerry's way of adding tactile feedback to the Storm's touch-screen. But most importantly he dislikes the overall experience of how Blackberry implemented the Touch-screen UI concept:

In short, trying to navigate this thing isn’t just an exercise in frustration — it’s a marathon of frustration. I haven’t found a soul who tried this machine who wasn’t appalled, baffled or both.

The Dutch technology/lifestyle blog and magazine 'Bright' did a comparison of the iPhone and the Blackberry-Storm. Because the movie's in Dutch, I'll give a brief summary here. The reviewers appreciate Blackberry's attempt at touch-screen innovation, but just like David Pogue in the New York Times, they're not really impressed by SurePress. On paper the Storm has better features and the e-mail application is (as we may expect from Blackberry) state of the art. However, the overall UI experience of the Storm is not convincing. For personal use they recommend an iPhone, business users should turn to a Blackberry with a keyboard, such as the Bold.

Finally, Business Week takes a stab at Samsung's Glyde in Sleek, But Don't Touch: Samsung's Glyde Disappoints:

The Glyde's screen is incredibly fickle. All too often during testing, I found myself poking on an icon three or four times, if not more, just to get my command to register—this despite the fact that I felt a small vibrational feedback in my fingertip, presumably confirming that my pokes had hit their mark. Even after I adjusted the screen settings for maximum touch sensitivity, I had to stub my finger with maddening regularity to get my commands to register.

What strikes me about the reviews is that they are all pretty disappointed about the level of sophistication of the touch-screen UI concept in these would-be iPhone competitors. The more new touch-screen phones are coming on the market, the more of an impression I get that Apple did an extremely good job on the iPhone interaction. Usability is not just determined by the concept, to a large extent it's about how you implement it. Seems like Apple's investment in that special iPhone touch-screen is paying off.

[thanx to Jeroen for the tip]

UPDATE
Wired is not to impressed by the Storm either: Looking for an iPhone Killer? Better keep looking.

More uselog posts about iPhone usability:
> iPhone usability studies
> More iPhone usability stuff
> iPhone usability test: how people really use the iPhone
> Hidden iPhone headset button: design minimalism gone too far
> Please fix the iPhone: free user feedback for Apple
> The iPhone: No Manual

So here I am, making (bake off) croissants. And thankfully, the packaging designer put some distinctive icons on the packaging (left picture) to help me to prepare them properly. So far so good, but here's the thing: the icons are a nice idea, but they don't contain the right information.
The icon on the left indicates I should put the croissants in the oven. I kind of figured that one out. Then there's the icon in the middle saying that the croissants should be in the oven for 4 minutes. Ok, that's helpful. And then there's the icon on the right to teach me that there's four croissants in the package. Seems a bit redundant considering the packaging is transparent and I can clearly see the four croissants lined up for me. And all those redundant icons would not be that much of an annoyance if they'd include that one other piece of information you really need to prepare the croissants: to what temperature should the oven be set? That's not in the icons. That's in the nearly illegible text somewhere else on the packaging (right picture). What a waste. Here's a packaging designer actually thinking about visualizing some of the information on the packaging, but then uses two out three icons for irrelevant information and leaves out one essential piece of information.

Blah-blah pasta
Here's another one. Pasta packaging. Similar to the previous example, the only information that you actually need - how long do I need to boil the pasta, and how much do I need per person - is hidden in the microscopic text on the right (click picture to enlarge). The largest font and the most prominent place on the packaging (upper left) is reserved for absolutely irrelevant marketing blahblah about the origins of pasta (which happens to be organic). Slightly interesting at best. But not for everyone, and definitely not information that you would want to read almost every time you use the pasta. Why not put the cooking time and portion size up there in a big font, in a separate text box, in a prominent place? Is it ignorance or intentional? Are they trying to lure us into reading that carefully crafted, copy-written message about only the best natural ingredients being used? The whole package is aimed at the customer, not at the user. Understandable from a marketing manager's perspective, nonsense from where I am standing.

Amazon's frustration-free packaging
For those of you who are truly annoyed by packaging stupidity Amazon recently opened a web-shop that only features products with frustration-free packaging (a term they actually trade-marked). Nice gesture, but I'm afraid that most of the times you don't select your LEGO, books or CDs based on the kind of packaging they come in. But that doesn't mean a blank cheque for manufacturers to keep producing packaging that requires a PhD in mechanical engineering and a torch to open them. In what seems to be an attempt to push the industry towards making more user friendly packaging Amazon is also inviting people to upload pictures and movies of their own most frustratingly packaged products, leading to what they call 'wrap rage'. Seems like Amazon is really trying to push manufacturers not to frustrate their customers. I'm sending them my croissants.

See Also
More uselog posts featuring packaging:
> The 'usable' milk carton
> Why don't microwaves have power-labels?
> The user-friendly paint bucket

UPDATE
Changed the title from 'consumer-centered...' to the more appropriate 'customer-centered versus user-centered packaging', thanks to a comment from Erik.

A comparison of the Comcast and Harmony remote control. And the reviewer's not that happy:

When I recently switched from TiVo to Comcast's DVR, I knew what I was getting myself into, because I've seen their remote controls. What I found on screen was a similar experience gap. Where TiVo's onscreen experience is elegant, simple and useful, Comcast seems intent on stopping development as soon as the bare minimum functionality is marginally working - regardless of whether or not anyone would be able to use it.

Half of the buyers of a computer, mobile phone or other electronic device does not get their newly acquired thingy to work without assistance. This was revealed by a study by the Pew Research Center, that surveyed more than twothousand Americans about their experiences with new technology.

A large portion of the participants also had to get help when devices suddenly stopped working. 40 percent called the helpdesk of the company that supplied the device involved, while 15 percent sought (and found) the help of friends and familiy. 15 percent just gave up.

Especially the Internet connections lead to a big number of complaints (oh no, really?). 44 percent of the people claims to have had trouble with that in the last 12 months. 39 percent reports trouble with their PC or laptop and 29 percent had problems with their mobile phone, and 15 percent mentioned a cumbersome MP3-player.

(Via: De Volkskrant - Technology that outruns the user (in Dutch))
(Photo: Acquila)

A richly illustrated presentation by Create With Context on a usability study on the iPhone.

More uselog posts about iPhone usability:
> iPhone usability studies
> More iPhone usability stuff
> Not every touch-screen phone is an iPhone
> Hidden iPhone headset button: design minimalism gone too far
> Please fix the iPhone: free user feedback for Apple
> The iPhone: No Manual

A commercial from the Netherlands about installing ADSL that sums it up pretty nicely for a lot of people. The voiceover is saying: "Installing ADSL doesn't go quite as easy for everyone. That's why we now offer an install service for 29,95."

See also this other usability-themed commercial from the same ISP entitled modern techniques.

A new 'patch' for the iPhone. Because they lack a thumb and index finger, the Etretouchy gloves let you - finally! - use the iPhone while wearing gloves. Imagine that: both warm hands and that warm fuzzy feeling of interacting with your iPhone. I do presume the gloves work on other mobile phones as well; on my previous phone, with a regular keyboard, sending an sms with your gloves on was pretty much impossible. And that you might look somewhat ridiculous while wearing them, ah, we'll take that for granted (remember, somehow Uggs became cool too!). And admittedly, they have a certain cute-factor: even despite all Etre's shameless self-promotion for this product on their blog (which is excellent by the way), we couldn't resist mentioning them.

UPDATE
Ah... there's competition: the freehands gloves (via CultofMac). (Don't know if they really are competition. Although they offer the same functionality, the freehands are somewhat more... eh... ugly)


UPDATE 2
Another competitor. The dots glove does not have cut-off fingertips like the etretouchy or the freedhands, but small added 'dots' on the fingertips, that allow you to operate the iPhone's touch-screen.

The NY Times reviews what's officially BMW's fourth version of the legendary iDrive UI concept. It was introduced because BMW's engineers (or designers or managers) thought modern car dashboards had become cluttered with buttons, and they decided to put all that functionality in a menu-based UI that could be operated with a single knob. That didn't bring the simplicity (or should we say usability) they were aiming for. Now the much criticized UI concept has been modified on a number of points. The latest version of iDrive is what Gizmodo calls a crossover between the UI of the iPod and the Xbox360. The NY Times describes it as follows:

The company has abandoned the compass menu for a traditional vertical list and branching-tree structure. The iDrive control knob still sits ahead of the center armrest, but it is surrounded by a cluster of seven buttons. The voice recognition system has been tweaked with a faster computer processor and 80 gigabyte hard drive that lets iDrive switch more quickly between functions and controls.

And there seems to be some improvement. As the NY Times puts it:

Sitting behind the wheel of a preproduction 2009 335d, I immediately felt more comfortable with the new iDrive. The crisp 8.8-inch display still eschews a touch screen (the company doesn’t want drivers leaning forward to change settings) in favor of the control knob, but the knob works more consistently and simply with the on-screen menus. You spin the knob to go down a menu list, push it to select an item, or just shove it left to go back to the previous menu. (Now was that so hard?)

According to the germancarblog iDrive 4.0 is a rip off of Audi's MMI. I don't think that BMW owners will really care, as long as they can finally find the radio station they want to.

More uselog posts about iDrive
> BMW iDrive: Legendary Usability
> More iDrive Reviews: The Evolution of a Bad Idea

If you have to read a lot of scientific papers, you think printing them all is a waste of paper, reading them on-screen is annoying and an Iliad or Amazon Kindle are a bit out of your league, here's your answer: Miguel's budget e-book reader (see top picture). Take your laptop and turn it 90 degrees. Then again, if you use an Apple Powerbook to do that, it's not really a low-budget solution, but you get the idea.

William Lidwell, the author of Universal Principles of Design (a book I thoroughly enjoyed) is seeking your help. The aim of his new book 'Deconstructing Product Design' is to explore the meaning of “good design” as it pertains to consumer products. The book evaluates a large number of consumer products on form, function and usability.

The author would like to include feedback from designers, engineers and users in the book. You can make a contribution by going to www.deconstructingproductdesign.com and write a review about one of the products he listed. If your feedback is used in the book, you will be listed in the contributor section of the book and you'll get a free signed copy of the book.

I thought that would be some friday afternoon work you might enjoy.

AT&T introduces ConnecTech, a service that offers support for installing and configuring home cinema sets, home networks, and computers. Similarly, mobile phone provider Sprint recently launched a ReadyNow, a service to help you set up your smartphone. Great news, but not really new. In the Netherlands, mobile phone provider KPN was offering (optional) installation support more than three years ago, and last year created a breakthrough do-it-yourself ADSL installation package that led to a 30% decrease in customer service calls.

On the whole, it's a good thing that service providers are acknowledging that some steps in the life-cycle of a product are getting too complicated for your average user to perform. But on the other hand, it's pretty sad that they (and product development companies) have let it get this far.

(Via Unplggd)

Medical equipment of course is one of the product categories where the 'effectiveness' component of the ISO 9241-11 usability definition is the most dominant one. Resources expended in the interaction (efficiency), and how the staff feel while using it (satisfaction) are also important - and can be expected to influence the effectiveness - but the one variable that everyone looks at is effectiveness: how many people live.

Report: tens of deaths per year
A recent report from the Dutch Healthcare Inspection (english page) states that in The Netherlands every year tens of people die because doctors and nurses make mistakes with medical devices. They often do not use them as intended and don't practice with the devices. The study revealed that if devices are moved around the hospital and used in different places, this leads to significantly more deaths. One of the causes is that in these cases the devices are also operated by unqualified staff. On the radio, a spokesman of the Health Inspection said that: "We have seen large technological advancement in the field of medical equipment, but have not been conscious of the fact that these products have become ever more complex and harder to operate without proper training."

Examples of poor use of medical equipment
The report points out several examples of improper use of medial equipment. In two hospitals the cleaning machines for watch-tubes were not used in the right way, causing to the tubes to remain dirty, and thus exposing 900 patients to possible infection. In another hospital the connectors for breathing devices were not installed properly, and in yet another needle-guiders were not sufficiently heated, exposing 300 patients to possible contamination. And finally the report mentions this previously posted case of a diabetes pen, of which (by accident) the needles were not changed, possibly infecting 600 patients with hepatitis and HIV.

Proposed improvements
The Dutch Health Inspection recommends that in the future, hospitals will be required to test and train their staff, and the manufacturers of equipment are should create more readable manuals. Personally I would say the manufacturers should first of all create more usable products, and in addition improve their manuals.

(Source: NRC (in Dutch only))
(Slightly disturbing photo: keiththrn)

And once again it's a parking ticket machine that drives users nuts (see another one here). And this time to the extent that they've taken their fate into their own hands and added some 'customized' labels to the device. I think we can add parking ticket machines to the category of 'things that always suck', that also includes office telephones and presentation equipment in meeting rooms. I do hope that the designers saw the 'modification' that users made, because it shows them that really anyone can make a better design than they did...

(Photo by rdolishny)

More uselog posts on ticket vending machines
> Please do not hump the vending machine
> Good design: Dutch railways ticket vending machine
> Ticket machine update: the cost of learning something new
> Unclear labeling: parking ticket machine UI
> Possibilities of RFID daze designer of card-charge machine