CS1300

[csci1300]

Post #8

I’m a deep sleeper, so my roommate (s/o to @nervousballoontragedy​) often wakes up to my alarm while I don’t. She was frustrated and I felt bad about this, so I bought a vibrating alarm wristband off Amazon called the Shake N Wake. This device has several design problems:

You have no idea how to set it without reading the manual–for example, to set an alarm, you have to press MODE twice.

The battery holder is difficult to get back in. Do you slide? do you snap? Took me and my roommate ten minutes to figure out how to put in batteries.

It vibrates so loudly that my roommate wakes up to the sound before I wake up to the sensation.

Overall, I give it:

1/10 learnability

2/10 memorability

4/10 efficiency

[arjundesigns]

That’s annoying that the device didn’t work. I’ve heard there are now little pads you can put underneath your mattress that track your REM cycle and wake you up at the appropriate time with gentle vibrations. The cool thing about these ones is that it can sense you getting out of bed so there’s no way to “trick it” and just turn off the alarm—you have to actually get up.

[csci1300]

wait can you link me to this? it sounds like just what I need!!

[jepjepjinerp-blog]

Post #9

The new(relatively) default “photos” app for android phones is rather confusing. You don’t start out being able to view all of your photos: when you open up the app, you only see an incomplete amount of all your pictures. To see all of your pictures (all screenshots, saved photos, downloads, etc.), you have to navigate to “device folders” on the left side to see different sections: “photos”, “instagram”, “screenshots” etc, which took me a very long time to figure out. It would be much easier if this was the main page.

[csci1300]

God, I absolutely loathe the Photos app. It makes it impossible to sort through photos the way I’d like to in order to do the filter-and-Facebook thing, I actually downloaded an alternative gallery app just for the old layout.

The interface is also bad for determining what photos are local and which are not, which makes deleting local copies scary and risky business.

[csci1300]

Post #9

A friend came to visit me this past weekend and unfortunately got very very sick. After spending the night taking care of her, I decided in the morning to take her to the emergency room at RI Hospital. However, actually *getting* to the ER was a challenge. I called an Uber and input the location for the ER, but when we got close, we realized the address was just for the main door of the hospital. I asked the driver to follow the signs for the ER, but he also got lost--so lost that he just dropped us off on the street for us to just walk there.

If there is any interface in the world that should be easy to understand, it’s getting to emergency services. That’s why 911 is such a short/memorable number, and why emergency signs tend to be bright red. However, the signs for this ER were normal looking with yellow arrows--i.e. straight up impossible for an distracted person to methodically find. I don’t understand how something so important was designed so horribly.

P.S. my friend is fine now! :)

[csci1300]

Post #8

I’m a deep sleeper, so my roommate (s/o to @nervousballoontragedy​) often wakes up to my alarm while I don’t. She was frustrated and I felt bad about this, so I bought a vibrating alarm wristband off Amazon called the Shake N Wake. This device has several design problems:

You have no idea how to set it without reading the manual–for example, to set an alarm, you have to press MODE twice.

The battery holder is difficult to get back in. Do you slide? do you snap? Took me and my roommate ten minutes to figure out how to put in batteries.

It vibrates so loudly that my roommate wakes up to the sound before I wake up to the sensation.

Overall, I give it:

1/10 learnability

2/10 memorability

4/10 efficiency

[nervousballoontragedy-blog]

YASSS the Shake-n-Wake! What a ~fascinating~, ~amazing~ device!

I felt like the maker tried to cram too many features in this device. They might have been able to get rid of some of the different modes had they just focused on making this just a daily alarm, instead of also making it an hourly alarm.

Also, the thing is hella ugly. The band looks like a blood pressure monitor cuff and the actual device looks like a kitchen timer. Imagine wearing that to sleep.

[csci1300]

Honey, I don't just imagine. This is the reality I live with.

[nervousballoontragedy-blog]

Post #8

When my UI prototyping group was sharing our images on Google Docs, I noticed an extremely odd design decision:

Can you figure out how to rotate the picture? I couldn’t until someone pointed out that you have to click and drag the circle floating above the picture. When I rotated it, it didn’t snap into place at common angles (i.e. 90, 180, 270). Instead, it inconveniently rotated 273 degrees. I think the design would benefit from having both the circle floating to rotate and also a tab that appears when you right click to rotate counterclockwise and clockwise by 90 degrees. That way both designers who need more precise image rotation and casual users would benefit.

[csci1300]

I actually disagree with this. I personally consider the rotation circle intuitive, as it visually matches how you might rotate something in real life. It’s a common design across many different programs, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and I’m sure others. It’s like the play symbol--until you know what it represents, it’s an arrow. With just a little exposure, it’s deeply intuitive.

[csci1300]

Post #8

I’m a deep sleeper, so my roommate (s/o to @nervousballoontragedy​) often wakes up to my alarm while I don’t. She was frustrated and I felt bad about this, so I bought a vibrating alarm wristband off Amazon called the Shake N Wake. This device has several design problems:

You have no idea how to set it without reading the manual--for example, to set an alarm, you have to press MODE twice.

The battery holder is difficult to get back in. Do you slide? do you snap? Took me and my roommate ten minutes to figure out how to put in batteries.

It vibrates so loudly that my roommate wakes up to the sound before I wake up to the sensation.

Overall, I give it:

1/10 learnability

2/10 memorability

4/10 efficiency

[csci1300]

Post #7

Check out this cool pencil I have:

I 90% super love it, but the eraser is just so weird and stupid. On the surface, it seems normal and makes sense:

But analyze this disassembly:

Wtf? Why is the stem of the eraser so long? It seems unnecessary. I thought that maybe it’s because you’re able to flip it over, but no:

Ugh. There has to be a reason for this that I just haven’t found yet, but considering I’ve used this kind of pencil for about three years now (super brand loyal, what can I say) and I still don’t know why, I’d say it ranks pretty low in terms of accessibility. It’s quite efficient, however--like, I guess I don’t see any problems with it other than wasting perfectly good eraser material. It is also memorable, since a power user myself can do really well with it.

[enchantingprinceflower-blog]

Post #6

The interface of the American outlet system could perhaps be improved… The main problem is the difference in size between the two relatively symmetrical holes in the face of the outlet. While nowadays, the majority of the plugs seem to have exactly symmetrical pins, there are still a few that pop up once in a while that have one pin slightly bigger than the other, limiting it to only one insertion position. Though I am pretty sure there is a technical reason for the size mismatch, such a design is hard to use because 50% of the time when someone goes to plug these mismatched plugs in, their first attempt fails and they have to flip the plug and try again. Such an arrangement is simply not learnable nor memorable!

[csci1300]

I totally agree! I also find them frustratingly similar to some international (and even, on occasion, domestic) outlets, as some international interfaces share the upper portion (the “eyes”), but not the lower portion (the “mouth”). This means that when you travel abroad, you might think your device will work, when really it won’t. :(

[jepjepjinerp-blog]

Post #6

Typing this post as I’m waiting to get checked off at lab hours for my computer science class, I’d like to comment on how irritating lab checkoffs can be. TAs have to run back and forth between the whiteboard and different students who sit there in lines that are always at least 20-30 people long if you don’t camp out next to the whiteboard 10 minutes before the lab time starts. Many times, lab checkoffs just have a few key sections to it: one could easily implement a system where students would submit screenshots of important sections or answer important questions online, and TAs could grade these to their leisure. Students could also just submit their code in a similar fashion to homework submission. 

[csci1300]

UGH THIS IS SO TRUE

FILLED WITH RAGE JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS

The only problem with screenshot is that it leaves more room for collaboration problems. However, I think it’s like, on the same level as homework. I think we should still have lab hours for lots of questions and talking, but be able to handin the labs in the same way we hand in the homeworks.

[csci1300]

Post #6

Caramel apples have the worst user interface. How are you even supposed to eat them, like really? If you try to bite, your teeth get caught in the soft caramel and slide against the edge of the hard apple, leaving you with a mouthful of caramel. The stick slides out when you try to pick it up or pull it out of whatever plastic/wax bag it came in, which is messy. And most environments where caramel apples are being served are not conducive to sitting down and slicing. The only thing saving them is the massive amounts of sugar.

[arjundesigns]

Post #4

The other day I was tearing pages out of my sketchbook to turn in for a class I was taking when I realized that the strength of the holes holding the paper to the spiral was less than the strength of the perforation. This means that unless you’re really being extremely careful, simply pulling on the paper will result in taking the paper out of the sketchbook entirely instead of just tearing it off of the edges. If they changed the strength of the perforations such that pulling on the paper would take it off of the edge instead of out of the book entirely, the perforations would actually perform a purpose. Bad design.

[csci1300]

Ugh this is so real. I actually have this in mind whenever I buy notebooks because it can be so annoying. It also brings to mind those Campus notebooks that are popular in a kind of hip-cause-it’s-from-Japan way (like Uniqlo started out as)--like, why are they popular? I like that they are thin, and writing on them is smooth, but they’re such a pain to tear pages out of.

[csci1300]

Post #5

I think the water dispenser in Faunce has a really good alignment of mental and conceptual models. When you individually get water out of it, pulling one of the handles, the pressure is very high, and when someone pulls on the second one, which is split from the first, the pressure goes down, because now the water is split between the two pipes. It’s so understandable I’m not even mad.

I also don’t know if this is weird to say, but the way it feels in the hands is oh so satisfying. Like, when you pull it, it offers just the right amount of resistance.

[vaprmiri-blog]

Post #5

Speaking of Square:

Recently I bought a coffee at a restaurant that used an ipad to take card payments, with a card reader that looked similar to the Square setup. The only reason I took note of the non-Square Square-like system is because I had a particularly positive experience: When the cashier swiped my card, there was a KA-CHINGGG noise just like those ~real~ cash registers of earlier days.

Given that I am giving someone money in the abstract/arbitrary action of swiping two pieces of plastic together, the sound feedback was valuable because it let me know exactly at which *moment* the transaction took place.

[csci1300]

Yeah dude, I think the register at Soban on Thayer is like this if I remember correctly? Idk, used to go there more than I do now. But it sucks for those readers, cause tbh every time I see those, I’m like, “Wow, the marketing team for this reader must have had to really sell this product to get them to use this instead of Square.” I’m so used to Square and value it so highly that anything that’s not Square seems inferior at this point for just being Not Square.

[csci1300]

Post #5

Chinese and Japanese websites are really confusing to figure out. Unless you can actually read the language, it’s difficult to figure out what you’re supposed to do--which means users will have to spend a lot of time scanning the page for what they want, even if they know the language.

Seriously, look at this:

Like, I speak Chinese and know enough Japanese to be dangerous, but I don’t even know where to start on these pages. There’s so many words!! Why are there so many words??? Like I guess if you already know how to use the site, it’s nice to be able to click to whatever esoteric function you need right from the main page, but otherwise, it’s just overwhelming and ugh no bueno.

Efficiency: 8/10 (like I said, good if you already know it)

Memorability: 4/10 (Where was that button again? What category should it be?)

Learnability: 1/10 (ugh just no ugh awful)

[csci1300]

Post #4

As I took a Megabus today, I noticed a lot people around me having trouble with the light switch. When they tried to find it, they would reach above themselves and grope for it in the dark, but because it didn’t stick out at all, they couldn’t find it and would give up. Very low learnability and efficiency, so bad that people weren’t even able to use the device. Memorable once your realized what the trick was.

[enchantingprinceflower-blog]

Post #3

An example of interesting UI design are the microwaves in the Ratty. Generally, a microwave has options for setting its “Power” level and for setting the cooking time and a billion other things that are rarely used. On the other hand is this microwave that is so much simpler in terms of both functionality and operation. The problem though is that while the interface is really simple, it is not immediately clear what the numbers do (I thought they changed the power level at first, but they set the cooking time) and what units/measurement they represent (seconds? minutes?). The same goes for the dial, whose function is not clear at all. Though this microwave has high memorability, I think a little better labeling would have made it significantly more learnable too!

[csci1300]

Dude, I totally get this struggle. Like, didn’t the designers of this learn in middle school that numbers should have units attached to them?? The dial is also very confusing. Badly designed microwaves are something I see a lot, actually--my high school had one that I only figured out how to use after like three years. Coincidence??

[nervousballoontragedy-blog]

Post #3

In my weekly trek down the hill to my Typography class at RISD, I noticed something strange about the chairs and table setup in my classroom. The arms of the chairs looked like a puppy’s paws laid out on the table. I’ve never seen anything like it, but then I realized the genius of the design. Instead of forgoing armrests like a lot of office chairs so that they would fit neatly under a desk, these chairs slide snugly with the table. They’re also not those awkward chairs you see with armrests that hit the sides of the table and don’t slide in properly because they’re at a poorly designed height. Love these cute and efficient chairs.

Learnability: 8/10

Memorability:  9/10

Efficiency: 11/10 (That’s right, 11.)

[csci1300]

Wow, those chairs are super space efficient! They’re cute, too. No wonder you found them at RISD. And awww “puppy’s paws” such a cute description!! :)

Armrests banging into tables is the #worst. However, I wonder if one flaw with this is its lack of extensibility--like, this is great pretty much simply because of the height of the table. If it was any different (say, just an inch higher--the horror, the horror) it would be terribad.