08.24.2009
Sogra Nishath /
Usability /
Web & Software
Thanks IE for inspiring this blog entry and no thanks to my frustration!
I recently upgraded to Internet Explorer 8. For the last 2 weeks, every time I clicked on the drop-down arrow in my address bar to access a link that I had visited nothing was happening. The drop-down was still open but the link that I had just clicked on wasn’t being loaded. When nothing happened I looked at the open drop-down to retry but the link wasn’t there anymore. This happened so quickly that I just shrugged it and moved on…
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08.21.2009
Miranda Capra /
Consumer Products /
Usability /
User Research
Last month I bought new shower curtain rings for my bathroom. Actually, not rings, I’m so tired of the plastic rings I’ve been using forever, so difficult to open and snap closed, and half the time one of them breaks when I open it. Instead I decided to buy elegant metal s-shaped shower curtain hooks from Target. What a mistake! Every time I opened or closed my shower curtain, several rings came off the pole, or the curtain came off the hooks, and a few times a hook fell off completely and hit me in the head. They looked so good, where did the design go wrong?
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08.19.2009
Andrew Wirtanen /
Usability /
User Research
When I go to user experience or human factors conferences, there are a lot of presentations on new methods to use when conducting studies with participants. But, what about the information that is already out there? People talk about their likes and dislikes about products every day on the Internet. At HumanCentric, we have a name for the process of collecting and conslidating all that information: web mining.
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08.17.2009
Sogra Nishath /
Usability /
Web & Software
My husband and I are expecting our first child. We are both “legal aliens” who work in the US. To us, creating a baby registry is not the norm. Usually friends and family give a present of their choosing. Sometimes this can be a good surprise and sometimes not…
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08.05.2009
Miranda Capra /
Human Factors /
Usability /
Usability Lab /
User Research
In a previous blog, I discussed the pros and cons of having a one-way mirror in your usability lab. A one-way mirror is glass that has been coated with a thin layer of metal so that it’s reflective, like a mirror. It’s called a one-way mirror because in one direction it’s a mirror, but in the other direction it’s a window. There’s some debate about the proper name – many people call it a two-way mirror because either side can be used as a mirror by changing which room is lit and which room is dark. They’re commonly used in usability labs and focus group rooms, but also in other locations like observation rooms in police stations and day care facilities. Once you’ve decided that you want a one-way mirror for your usability lab, what next? Here are some tips for designing your one-way mirror, based on our experiences building our lab (including consultation with a professional acoustician) and experiences that our moderators have had in other labs.
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07.20.2009
Jon Howarth /
Human Factors /
Usability /
User Research
As I was walking from my desk to the company break room, I noticed the variety of ways in which my colleagues and I have “annotated” computer equipment that we use. Here are a couple of examples:
- I put a piece of tape on one side of the USB dongle for my wireless mouse, so that I know which way to insert it into a USB port on my laptop. The dongle is symmetrical; without the tape, I would have to guess which side of the dongle should be facing up.
- One of my colleagues has drawn a red arrow on the lid to her laptop near the back hinge. The power port is on the back of her laptop and the arrow allows her to plug in her power supply without having to turn around the laptop.
- Another colleague uses a blue Velcro strip to wrap her computer power supply. The strip is permanently attached to the end of the power supply that plugs into an electrical power outlet, not the side that plugs into the computer. The strip helps her easily identify which plug is hers when she wants to unplug her laptop from a power strip that has other devices plugged into it.
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07.13.2009
Miranda Capra /
Human Factors /
Usability
I downloaded the game
Wolfenstein 3D for my iPod Touch the other day. This is one of the early first-person shooter games, where the perspective is as if you are looking out over your gun, and the world moves around you. The advantage of first-person perspective is that your own body, vehicle, robot, or whatever doesn’t block your view. The disadvantage is that they are well known for inducing motion sickness in many people that play these games. After about 5 minutes of playing Wolfenstein I gave up because I felt sick to my stomach, and I’m deleting the app from my iPod.
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07.08.2009
Christina Mendat - Former Staffer /
Ergonomics /
Human Factors /
Transportation /
Usability
Being vertically challenged can pose a number of obstacles in my life. For instance, I can’t reach the top or the next to the top shelf in my kitchen cabinets. I can’t turn the fan on in the living room or my porch. I don’t hang pictures at the “appropriate” height for the general population and the list goes on.
One thing that was very important to me when purchasing a car last year was to find one that fit my needs:
- acceptable height of seats for entering and existing the vehicle
- ease of putting children in and out of the vehicle
- ability to pull down hatch easily without “jumping” to reach the handle
All of the needs above were those I have never been able to find in a vehicle that was large enough to fit four family members and a good deal of luggage. Some of the various cars I test drove included:
- Honda CRV
- Honda Odyssey
- Toyota Sienna
- Mazda CX-9
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07.06.2009
Dan Mauney /
Usability
As a father of 2 young children (ages 8 and 5), I receive the constant requests for toys that are meant for older kids. I do my best to delay and avoid, but sometimes I am out-flanked. One such case was with the request of a zip-line. Having heard about the numerous broken arms and injuries, I was successfully delaying and avoiding installing one of these until the grandparents saw an opportunity to offload one in their yard as a Christmas present.
Somewhat reluctantly, I installed the zip-line in my backyard. The zip-line consisted of a handle bar that the kids hold onto as they “zip down the line.” Right after I installed it, I immediately recognized it failed the prime directive of children’s toys, in my mind: children’s toys must wear out the children more than the parents. Any toy that fails this test does not last long in my house. While my 5 year old was strong enough to hold on to that handle bar, I was nervous thinking that she could easily loose her grip, if not at first, then later after a series of rides. So, being the protective and dutiful father, I ran down the zip-line with her, holding my hands just beside her waist so in the event that she lost her grip I could catch her. After 10 minutes of this ridiculous task, I was in desperate need of another idea.
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06.24.2009
Miranda Capra /
Human Factors /
Usability /
Usability Lab /
User Research
When we moved into our new building in 2008, I was part of the team that designed our usability lab. One-way mirrors were an essential part of the design of the rooms. However, when our UK Partner, Amberlight, redesigned their usability lab in 2008, they didn’t use any mirrors, and our German partner, UID, also has a usability lab without mirrors. Do you need a one-way mirror?
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