A Superior Crosswalk Button

By devin | March 12, 2009
My favorite kind of crosswalk button

My favorite kind of crosswalk button

As I was crossing the street today, I remembered the crosswalk buttons on my street in Davis. I think they’re really great because they give you so much feedback. You can’t help but know what’s going on. When you press it, it kinda clicks. And it makes a beep. And the light flashes. And it continues to beep until you get a signal, at which time it tells you to cross (the ones in Davis actually spoke, telling you which street to cross). That’s tactile, aural, and visual feedback all in one device!

Contrast that with the pesky buttons at most crosswalks. The most common kind are mysterious buttons that you suspect weren’t connected to anything. I usually press these 5 or 6 times, just in case they really aren’t connected to anything.

More recently I’ve started seeing a button that has no button–you just touch it. This at least makes a beep for you, but just isn’t quite as good as my favorites.

Picture from Flickr’s acordova

Posted in In Public, Job Well Done | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cisco NAC Appliance (Cisco Clean Access)

By devin | March 11, 2009
The device causing my headache

The device causing my headache

Here at my university they use this network authentication system, Cisco Clean Access. It’s meant to be easy for everyone–the administrators and the users. And, if all you ever do is pull up Firefox and browse the web, it’s not that inconvenient.

The trouble is that as nearly as I can discover, there are only two ways to authenticate. The first is to install a Windows client application that automagically authenticates you. This is an unattractive solution for people like me who don’t like lots of random programs running all the time. It’s even less attractive if you’re using a Mac or, in my case, an iPhone.

So what we’re left with is the web interface. You open a browser and no matter where you try to go, you are redirected to the authentication page. No problem if you just opened Firefox and pointed it to Design Observer. But it leads to the silent death of many processes trying to access internet resources without ever opening a browser–like the email app on my iPhone. Or an SSH session in PuTTY.

I wish I could think of a better way, but I see the plight of the administrators. Who’s gonna solve this one for us?

Posted in Room for Improvement, Systems | Tagged , | Leave a comment

iPhone Brightness Settings

By devin | January 14, 2009
The brightness screen...what exactly is going on here?

The brightness screen...what exactly is going on here?

So my friends with iPhones keep asking why mine is so dark. Until today I had no explanation. Maybe the screen is defective? The backlight? As evidence that I hadn’t messed anything up, I opened the brightness control to show them that “Auto-Brightness” is turned on.

Apparently “Auto-Brightness” doesn’t mean that it’s fully automatic. Honestly, I still don’t know what it does. But the real problem was the slider above the “Auto-Brightness” button that I thought was being ignored when Auto was on. Hmm. That screen could use some work, I think.

Posted in Electronics, Room for Improvement | Tagged | Leave a comment

Idea While Ironing

By devin | December 18, 2008
Pressing doesn't do the work.

Pressing doesn't do the work. Click to see original instructions.

I had a thought while I was ironing the other day. You see, I always want to press harder on the iron to get wrinkles out. This must be a common instinct, because I’ve seen irons with warnings not to press too hard. This is because the pushing doesn’t do so much good as the heat and the steam.

So here’s a thought–why not build an iron that can change the heat and steam depending on the pressure applied? As you press harder you get more steam and heat. You could put buttons on it to choose a fabric, thereby choosing maximum heat & steam levels. That way your silk doesn’t scorch.

Now the real question. Has this been done? I haven’t seen such a thing. Leave a comment if you have!

Posted in Household, New Idea | Tagged , | Leave a comment

(Scooby-Doo) Where are you?

By devin | December 4, 2008

If the very nice GoingToRain.com can figure out what city I’m in, how come I have to tell Ikea.com and Volkswagen.com what country I’m in? They must have a lot of people in the US shopping for furniture in Kuwait. Yeah, that must be it.

GoingToRain.com knows what city I'm in.

GoingToRain.com knows what city I'm in

But Ikea can't even find the country

But Ikea can't figure out my country

Is this a trick? Am I supposed to pick Germany?

Is this a trick? Am I supposed to pick Germany?

Posted in Job Well Done, Room for Improvement, Web | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Paper Towel Dispensers

By devin | December 3, 2008

Apparently it’s a lot harder to make a paper towel dispenser than I would have thought. No matter what the format, it’s a pretty simple task: pull a paper towel. In my bathroom travels I’ve seen a lot of different dispensers, but none seem to be as simple as they ought.

Kimberly Clark substitutes signage for good design

Kimberly Clark substitutes signage for good design

But this one is worse than the rest. A lot worse. The concept is simple: pull a towel to get a towel. But it seems that one hand doesn’t always exert enough force to dispense the towel (I can confirm from personal experience).

But the really mystifying part is that instead of adjusting the mechanism to reduce the force required to dispense a towell, Kimberly Clark decided to print big signs on the dispensers warning people that one hand would not be enough. It’s annoying. Really.

And, incidentally, in what situation is the failure of a paper towel to properly dispense classified as an emergency? ‘Cause I can’t think of any such situation.

Posted in In Public, Room for Improvement | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Advanced Search

By devin | December 2, 2008

Searching is one of the most important activites for users of any large website. I’m always glad to see a big, obvious search box on the first page I hit. Of course, sometimes you need to search for something a bit more specific. That’s where “Advanced Search” with all of their extra search options help out.

eBay confuses the searching

eBay confuses the searching

But the Advanced Searches of the web seem to get the short end of the design stick. A few days ago I spent 5 minutes trying to remember how to search for completed items on eBay (this option has moved around over the years).

You see, I mistook all the search options in the sidebar for the Advanced Search. It turns out that the real Advanced Search is on another page. At the very least, they could have put a link to the Advanced Search over in that sidebar where I kept looking for the completed items checkbox.


iStockPhoto's Beautiful Advanced Search

iStockPhoto makes Advanced Search easier

I really love the route that iStockPhoto has taken here. You have immediate access to most of the criteria you need right on the search bar (keyword, media choices, and sorting options). But if you still need more options, you don’t get whisked away to another page, they just use a little JavaScript goodness to make the search bar expand to show all the options. Brilliant!

Posted in Job Well Done, Room for Improvement, Web | Tagged | 1 Comment

Downloading previously purchased content

By devin | December 1, 2008

Why can’t I download this audiobook again? Nevermind that Audible’s website was poorly programmed and so I never actually downloaded it the first time. If I buy a book, I ought to be able to download it again, right? If I had gotten the file, I could have made a million copies, right?

Same problem with the MSDNAA system on campus. I get one download. I can look up my product key all I want, but no second downloads. So I have to get the ISO from a friend and use my key.

I’ve been trying to think of some good technical or legal reason for this practice, but I can’t think of one. Can someone smarter than me leave an explanation?

Posted in Room for Improvement, Web | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Shaving

By devin | December 1, 2008
The Philips with its bothersome button and the Remington without.

The Philips with its bothersome button and the Remington without.

Last year I bought a new electric shaver.  My old shaver was showing its age, and replacement blades weren’t much cheaper than buying the whole shaver. So I traded in my trusty Remington shaver for a new Philips one.

And the Philips one works fine. Mostly. But it’s got this little button on the front of it to open it for cleaning (see shaver on the left).

The problem is that of the six thousand times that button has been pressed, I only wanted to open the shaver a handful of times. I toss it in my bag to head out on a trip, and when I open the bag again it’s opened up and spilled its contents. I frequently bump it while I’m shaving, too. It makes a sort of confused noise and I have to snap it back together and continue the job.

The Remington (right side) had no such button. The top piece just snapped on. I can’t think of a single inadvertent opening. A job well done.

Bottom line: it may look cool, but the button stinks. Next time I’ll shop around for a shaver sans button.

Posted in Household, Job Well Done, Room for Improvement | Tagged | Leave a comment

Amazon.com Wishlist

By devin | November 24, 2008
I'd like to be able to choose and item's priority when I click the dropdown on Amazon's Wishlist Button.

Amazon's "Add to Wishlist" button

I’ve just recently discovered how handy the wishlists at Amazon can be. I’ve got a long list going now full of design and HCI books. For me, it’s a great way to remember what’s up next on my reading list.

I also really like that they allow you to assign a priority to the items. Since I can’t just buy every book I want, it helps me remember which ones deserve my attention first. So I’m a big fan of the wishlists.

But there are a few things that bug me. First, the “Add to Wishlist” button. It’s in a good place. It’s purpose is clear. But I can’t assign a priority without digging down to my list (which is not the next page, as you would expect, but is another link away). Wouldn’t it be great if the button’s dropdown let me pick a priority?

The dropdown could really be simplified, too. Since you can create a new list at the bottom, why have sections for lists that don’t exist? You could use the space you’d save to let me pick the priority!

Also, what if we worked a little Ajaxy magic with this button, so that I didn’t have to leave the page to add the item to my wishlist? For me it’s already a memorized gesture: click “Add to Wishlist” then click the back button.

One last thing. Wouldn’t it be great if this button were greyed out if the item is already on my list? I hate clicking through just to get an error because I already put an item on the list.

Posted in Room for Improvement, Web | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

  • What is this?

    UsingThings.com is a collection of the random design ideas and criticisms that seem to build up in my head. Many of these things are web-based things because I work on the web, but since I live in the real world, I will include some ideas from that world as well.

    Please leave your comments to join the conversation. It makes it more interesting when someone tells me I'm full of it!

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