The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of everyday product design

Poor error message design in a car

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This morning I get in the good ol’ red Renault Clio, put it in reverse and start backing out, when the car emits a persistent beep. I stop and scan the dashboard, and there I see a message on the alphanumeric display: Select Park. I do put the gear in Park, and everything is back … Read more

Let’s add Interrupt capability to customer support systems

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I’m sure this happened to you: you call the support number of your bank/phone company/whatever, go patiently through all the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus, get shunted to an “all agents are currently busy” music, waste long minutes listening, and finally get a human to talk to. You explain your request, and the agent politely … Read more

A solution to the energy crisis?

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A solution to the energy crisis? 5

A few days ago I saw this interesting setup on the wall in a medical center. Obviously, this is the solution to the world’s energy needs. No more greenhouse emissions, no need for nuclear power plants, no oil shortages… just a clean, compact, self-contained electrical version of the classic Perpetuum Mobile. The sign, in case … Read more

And another On/Off power switch symbol!

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We’ve seen much diversity of On/Off Power switch symbols here and here… and there’s more. Here’s the latest addition to the gallery: I spied this on a piece of medical equipment (a Critikon Dinamap vital signs monitor).  It shows a dot centered in a circle for ON, and the same dot banished outside the circle … Read more

Google Mail attachment guidelines: tell it like it is!

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I sent a friend an email with an attached Zip file. It bounced, with a message from “System Administrator” that read Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The following recipient(s) could not be reached: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx … 552 5.7.0 review our attachment guidelines. u14sm9443132gvf.20 I figured maybe the … Read more

Where Computing meets Pseudoscience

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Just posted a new article on my History of Computing site: Biorhythmic calculators. I have three of these wondrous devices, mechanical servants to a debunked theory. They use three different design approaches to achieve the same goal, and their mechanisms are therefore composed of the same functional components implemented in completely different ways. Go take … Read more

Here, try the headup publisher’s widget!

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I’ve blogged before about headup, Semantinet’s semantic search add-on for Firefox. Well, the creative folks at Semantinet are forever doing new things (one reason I like working there, despite the traffic jams between Jerusalem and Herzliya :-), and the latest is the headup publisher’s widget. This tool uses the same semantic search technology in a … Read more

It takes guts to be a side mirror

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It takes guts to be a side mirror 9

The other day I noticed a car whose side mirror had recently undergone some major trauma, losing its mirror and outer casing, ignominiously showing its guts. Here: These electrically-operated mirrors are now ubiquitous, but this brought home the complexity of their inner mechanism, with the wiring, motors, pivots and the chassis that everything must screw … Read more