| Wednesday, January 06, 2010 | by: Jasper |
A tremendous amount of effort must have been put into making the USB plug asymmetrical, but then in such a way that you don't quite notice it. Having to flip a USB plug is one of those small annoyances that happens so many times, you don't even notice it anymore. But just for fun: start counting the number of times you have to flip your USB drive before it fits, you'll be surprised.
It seems an unnecessary design fault. In 'design for assembly' class I was taught that components should either be completely symmetrical - so it won't matter which way round you assemble them - or very obviously asymmetrical - so people will know which way to put it. What you definitely do not want is something that looks symmetrical, but actually isn't, because that's when people start forcing stuff.
And obviously back when the USB plug was designed the computer industry was aware this principle. Remember the 3,5 inch (1.44mb) disk? It had a nice tapered corner which prevented it from being inserted the wrong way, and you could tell by it's shape which way to insert it. I know, I know, the USB port was never intended for 'human consumption'.
IBM's and Trek's introduction of the USB flash drive turned a infrequently used connector into something that became virtually a part of a computer's user interface. It took some time before computer companies got wind of this and started moving USB ports to the front (see photo on the right). Along with them came the headphone jack, which indeed makes sense to have in front as well.But even for its original purpose - connecting devices to your computer - the USB plug was ill-conceived: the plugs were on the back of your PC, which was usually utterly unreachable because the PC was on the floor with already a nightmare of cables hiding behind it. And then you had to feel which way the plug had to go. The USB plug's is one of these things where a good design would have cost nothing extra and prevented a lot of (small) annoyances.
4 reactions:
True! Would be good if a third generation USB would be designed assymetrical ánd backwards compatibe with USB1 and USB2..
I don't know if you have noticed, but the logo on the plug should point up...
@Christelle: Yes, I did notice the logo, but on most flash drives there is no such logo. And if you're trying to insert a usb plug into the back of you're computer and as a bonus the usb plug is rotated 90 degrees, the logo is not of much use... I think the usb logo is there to fix a problem that should not be there.
As well, the logo should point up, but which way is "up" when the USB slot is vertical rather than horizontal? I have systems with front-of-box slots which go each way; fortunately manufacturers tend to do just one way. (Oh, and the all-in-one Macs are that way, too.)
Worst one, though, is the cord that comes with the MyTouch Android phone. That one has a logo on that has to go down to fit. (I can't read the logo. Something with an X through it, might be a trash can to indicate "Don't throw this away", which would be pretty stupid. Who is going to look at the cord ends to notice a logo for that?)
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