Ad Barns – An Unexpected History Lesson

Over the holidays, my family and I traveled to Ohio to visit relatives. In the southern part of the state, I snapped this picture as we drove by.

I didn’t realize at the time that much has been researched and documented about the Mail Pouch barns, as they are referred to. I just thought it was a cool nostalgic image. In my quick search for more information on these barns, I discovered a book called Advertising Barns: Vanishing American Landmarks by William G. Simmonds. From this book, I learned that this campaign lasted 100 years and this ad has been painted approximately 50,000 times. (The words along the bottom of this barn used to say “Treat Yourself to the Best.” )

Growing up in Ohio, I can’t say I recall seeing these barn advertisements but I’m glad I had the chance to learn a little history about them. I hope they continue to stand the test of time.

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Reuse our Recycling Presentation on Prezi

Our friends over at Prezi just released a new feature – Reusable Prezis.  This new feature allows you to start with an existing presentation that was created by any member who chooses to share their work – you can keep the layout, keep the content, improve it, or just mix it up however you like.  We are excited to say that our presentation for the TriUPA Design Challenge is one of the featured Prezis selected for the initial feature rollout. We can’t wait to see how you use it – please share our work with the rest of the world as you see fit and be sure to let us know if you find it helpful for any of your upcoming presentations.

For those of you who don’t know already, Prezi is a fun and unique alternative to PowerPoint.  It does away with the concept of “slides” and has helped us find interesting ways to share the “big picture” during our presentations, especially when we are speaking in front of larger groups.  It is a relatively new tool for our team, but we have found that it gives us a little edge that helps to set our work apart. We hope it will do the same for you!

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Party Video Games: Design for New Users

Games are an interesting design challenge because if they’re too easy they’re no fun, and if they’re too hard they’re no fun, and “easy” and “hard” may be different for different people. Party games, or video games that you’d break out with a group of friends, are a special challenge because they need to be fun for the group, which may contain people with mixed skill levels or experience. Wii Sports is a great video game because the direct interaction style is fun. Want to swing the tennis racket? Just swing the controller! But it quickly became a party game, even for people that didn’t play video games. Why? Because it was intuitive, easy to learn. No need to memorize complex combinations of button presses used in many video games. Instead, people could pick up a controller and start playing immediately.

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Dan Mauney to speak at OERC’s January conference

Dan Mauney is an invited speaker at the next Office of Ergonomics Research Committee (OERC) conference scheduled for January 26 & 27 in San Ramon, CA.

Dan will present new results from an international gesture research project, a topic Dan recently presented at the HFES conference in San Antonio. The research collected data from hundreds of people in 9 countries to understand which touch gestures are considered to be common, expected, or universally accepted. Research participants simulated 28 common software actions such as selecting, moving, rotating, saving, and using a help system while study moderators categorized the type of gestures made. The work was sponsored by several companies participating in the International Usability Partners with the goal of better understanding gestures across cultures and openly sharing the research with interested parties. Dan is releasing regular blog posts about the study at http://www.humancentric.com/GestureResearch .

The OERC holds regular conferences that bring together member companies such as Apple Computer, Research in Motion, Steelcase and others that share common interests in ergonomics, software, and hardware design.

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Warning labels, should they make you laugh?

While in my neighbor’s garage last week, I happened to glance down at a stack of clear storage containers and noticed this sticker on the inside of each lid…

While I realize that silly warning labels have been well documented, seeing a new one always makes me laugh. Are there people out there that would store a live baby in a clear storage container? A toddler? Maybe there are and this company felt it was their responsibility to point out the obvious dangers of doing so.

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CES 2010: Zomm Remembers Your Phone

Note: This week we are reacting to CES 2010, which was last week in Las Vegas.

Zomm has created a keychain fob that’s a Bluetooth accessory for your phone. It pairs with your mobile phone, and then it beeps if it gets more than 50 yards away from your phone, to help you remember to take your phone with  you.  It also doubles as a personal alarm and way to talk to emergency personnel. The folks at CES also thought it was cool, they awarded it “The Best of Innovations” Award. This is a great example of design to avoid mistakes. For many of us it’s pretty difficult to leave home without keys because we have to lock the front door and start the car, but it’s much easier to forget your phone at home or on a table at a restaurant. With Zomm, as long as you have your keys, you’ll remember your phone.  If you keep your phone in your purse it can help you remember both, but if you forget your keys too you’re completely stuck.

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CES 2010: Remote controls are growing keyboards

Note: This week we are reacting to CES 2010, which was last week in Las Vegas.

The Internet is coming back in a big way to HDTVs. Since WebTV debuted in 1996, things have certainly changed. The biggest revelation is that we’ve realized we don’t want websites to look the same way that they do on our computers. The past two years of CES have introduced a large number of Internet-ready set-top boxes (STBs) and Internet-enabled TVs. Along with these changes, I’m afraid that something is being overlooked, something small but very necessary: the keyboard.

Source: Gizmodo

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Checklists for Usability Research Success

A checklist is one of the most useful tools during a usability study. It may seem trivial to check a box every time one starts or stops a video recording, but even the brightest researchers will forget at some point.

NPR’s Morning Edition did a great piece with surgeon and author Atul Gawande. Gawande discussed his own experience where doctors were hesitant to use checklists, probably because of perceptions that it was admitting weakness. After requiring a group of doctors to use checklists, 80% of them said they thought they were useful. When the same group was asked if they would want checklists used if they were having an operation, 94% said yes.

One of the most powerful statements in the interview:

I have not gotten through a week of surgery where the checklist has not caught a problem.

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Designing a better car seat

While on the phone with one of my friends who is expecting, I learned something that I found very interesting. It turns out that about 90% of car seats are improperly installed by new parents, even when they use the instructions! I was shocked and a little appalled. My first thought was, why is it so hard/confusing to use a car seat? This is a life-saving device and you would think that manufacturers would want to implement a fool proof way to secure the seat in the vehicle.

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