Usability

  • Why does digital still suck for reading?

    Why does digital still suck for reading?

    I love to read. I read a lot of books, I love a good magazine, and I am really partial to the design of the Weekend Financial Times. It seems like print is still king when it comes to creative layouts that have impact and that are a pleasure to look at and read.

  • RSS

    I made a conscious decision to pretty much stay off twitter earlier this year. It is a terrible time-suck, it is a firehose of all kinds of things that will rob you of your sanity and faith in humankind. It also did not help my state of anxiety at the time.

  • The UX is in the bag

    The UX is in the bag

  • wtf gmail contacts?

    So this probably got implemented awhile ago, but how the blazes are you supposed to know that contacts are found by clicking on the Gmail word with the tiny arrow? This is an example of trying to minimise the interface at the cost of usability, with negative results.

  • Ready for liftoff?

    This washing machine looks like you need a degree in rocket science to start a wash cycle! Seriously, if you had to guess at which buttons and dials you needed to operate, in which sequence, and the logic behind some of the groupings is, how would you fare?

  • Coffee anyone?

    I know this is an established design, but I bet most people don’t understand the affordance in this lid for getting liquid out and into your cup.

  • Going down?

    This was in a shopping mall elevator in Turku, Finland. Can you figure out how the buttons relate to where you need to go?!

  • Marks and Spencer self checkout

    This one has bugged me for a while. Seems like a disconnect between the software and the planning of the self-checkout terminal. Here’s what happens: You scan in your items You choose to pay (by card) You are asked to insert your card, so you move to the card reader and gaze at it… Meanwhile,…