I am always fascinated by the design the Olympics. From the environmental graphics down to the tiny icons of each individual sport they all have a special relationship to every host city. The 2010 winter games in Vancouver do not disappoint. See the design process of the first sustainable Olympic medals made from electronic waste.
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
I dread going to the mall during the holiday season (Black Friday to Christmas Eve). But, this past Sunday night I was able to find a parking spot very easily. I went into a store to make an exchange and found that there was no wait. Then, I did a little browsing and went on my way. Surprisingly, my experience actually wasn’t that bad.
But, I think I know why it was so easy…
In our high technology world it is easy to forget one of the most tried and true tenets of product design: simplicty sells. Just in the kitchen there are and unbelievable amount of simple devices that we all use everyday: measuring cups, spoons, forks, cutlery, cups, plates, bowls – the list goes on and on. Now what would you say if I wanted to build a new kitchen device that would replace all of these devices with a single product? Your first question may be - how would it work? How big would it be? How could you sharpen the knives? Wouldn’t the built in bowl get in the way of the fork? Are you crazy?
One medical brand incorporating good design is Help Remedies. The simplicity is genius. The greatest feature of the medicine is no use of excessive fillers. What stands this product out even more is the packaging. Its main message is how it can heal me. What I like even more is that the packaging can go in the compost. Does your Advil do that?
In-Store Display
I am a relatively new user to the iPhone, having just purchased one this summer. I bought the iPhone primarily on the promise of 3rd party applications making my life easier. Switching to AT&T from Verizon was difficult because the network coverage of Verizon is so much better where I live and travel, but I was ready to make use of these 3rd party Internet-enabled applications to improve my life.
All-in-all, the iPhone has delivered on that promise. Nothing demonstrated that better than a recent trip to Paris. I have done a bit of international travel, but this was to be my first time to France. France is famous for not wanting to speak English to tourists and I don’t know a lick of French and I was traveling alone, so I did more than my usual preparations for this trip.
As a human factors practitioner, I completely and whole-heartedly support talking to users as an integral part of the product design process. I think it’s the best way to make sure a product is useful, usable, and desirable (the holy trinity, in my book).
However, I’m not living under a rock. I know these days companies have tighter budgets and even tighter timelines. The pressure is on more so than ever to produce products that will sell while spending the least amount of money developing them. Product teams are looking at their budgets and trying to trim off anything they can do without. Many times it’s easy and tempting for user research to be left out to save money and time in the development process…
I recently attended an open house at my daughter’s middle school. It was one of these events where you get to wander around the school campus and learn about the curriculum and school environment. We ended the evening in the media center. At first I was looking for a computer lab, only to learn that what I saw as the library is now considered a media center. It was there that the differences between my education experiences and that of my children will be worlds apart. But it didn’t start in the media center.
The typical reply to the question “are you on Twitter?” is always the same: I don’t care to know what people are watching on TV or eating for dinner. There is a widespread ignorance regarding the power of the social platform, which exploded in 2007 at SXSW, and joined the mainstream this year…
There are two big cellphone trends right now: touchscreen smartphones and dirt-cheap Earth-friendly cell phones. Both of these trends are great; one is pushing the limits of the mobile experience and the other is encouraging responsible manufacturing practices. Both are appealing, but generally the Earth-friendly phones do not have as many features and their user interfaces look like they were designed in the 90s.
My new iPhone 3GS was delivered to the office Friday (June 19th) around lunchtime. It’s shiny, has an internal compass, voice commands, video recording, and is very fast. But, it’s not perfect. After all, it doesn’t have a solar panel on the back of it like the Samsung Crest E1107. And, it isn’t 100% recyclable and made of recycled water bottles like the Motorola Renew W233.
That’s not to say that Apple is ignoring environmental issues. The iPhone 3GS has smaller packaging and doesn’t contain chemicals like mercury, arsenic, PVC, and BFR. The major environmental flaw of the iPhone is that the user cannot replace the battery. By not having a user-replaceable battery in iPhones or iPods, Apple is encouraging them to be thrown in the trash. In response to this concern, Apple started their iPod recycling program (which works with iPhones too).
It’s only a matter of time before recyclable smartphones made of recycled material hit the market. If the next iPhone has a solar panel, I’ll be first in line.
HumanCentric provides design solutions with.a focus on products, users and goals. Our process brings designers and researchers together to implement a customized approach for user and business needs. These are our thoughts on process, practice and life.
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