Everyday Interfaces

[everydayinterfacebook-blog]

Post #10

The New York Times Cooking website is one of my favorite interfaces. It is very well-designed on all three levels of design. On a visceral level, the color red, which is used throughout the site, is known to be an appetite stimulant. The color, coupled with the appealing photos of food than are nicely organized, make me hungry and make me want to continue looking at their site. On a behavioral level, the site is easy to use because it allows me to save recipes for later with a single click. Then, I can go back to them whenever I want and intuitively group and organize them for increased efficiency of future use. The idea of the recipe box plays on a familiar concept and promotes user engagement by encouraging users to “collect” recipes. On a reflective level, it reminds me of my grandmother’s carefully curated recipe box, which in turn makes me want to curate my own collection of recipes from this site. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I’ve never used this website, but it seems like many cooking websites are designed this way. I like how you drew on the reflective level, how the website actually reminds you a recipe box, and reaches you on a personal level.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #10

This week I thought about the three levels of design and what level some of my favorite products appeal to. I found reflective design the most interesting, because I think it is one of the most powerful. It has the ability to make people purchase something they may not necessarily need, or pay far beyond what the product is worth. A concept that is closely tied in with reflective design is brand perception. Lulu lemon, for example, does an excellent job of portraying their brand in an attractive way. Their entire company is built on reflective design, and whenever a customer sees a pair of yoga pants, a mat, or a bag with the lululemon icon, they are reminded of fitness, fun, and youth. Lulu lemon has branded themselves so that any customer truly believes that if they purchase something from lulu, they are not just purchasing a pair of pants, but a lifestyle. The association of a pair of pants being from lulu lemon increase the value of the pants, purely because they are associated with fitness, happiness, and overall well-being. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #9

This week I’m writing about Dropbox’s new text editing app: paper. Paper is still in beta so you have to sign up on a wait list to access it, but I received an invitation to try it about a week after first signing up. 

In the few days I have been using paper, it has become my favorite text-editing application. One reason I love paper is because of its design. It is very simple and minimalist, with text that auto formats and auto sizes easily. Paper is also great because it was made for collaboration. Similar to google docs, you can share your paper file with as many people as you want, and they can edit the document with additions of their own or comment on other people’s content. Photos fall right into place next to or below text, and with keyboard shortcuts you can create to do lists, add emojis, and link to other documents. I used paper to study for an exam the other day and I loved it! It was really easy to make lists and I even quizzed myself by putting the answers in the collapsible comment area. 

There are definitely improvements that could be made to Paper, but I think it is the closest a text editing application has come to mimicking the way people really think and collaborate. 

[justuandi1300-blog]

Post #9

A while back, I blogged about the poor design of Apple Messenger’s search feature. Essentially, the problem was that the app would list all search results without providing any ability to a) jump between those results, or b) examine the context of each result. Recently, I tried a new messenger app called Slack with a team I work with, which solves these problems nicely.

On the right of the screen, you can see all search results with a timestamp. (Note, that the overall context of search result is shown grayed-out in the background.) If you click “jump” on a certain search result on the right, the conversation on the left will scroll to that part of the conversation.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I did a competitive analysis report on Slack over the summer and know almost everything about their product. In general - Slack is an amazingly designed interface, people love it for many reasons, but the biggest one is that it is easy to use. This is even more impressive considering that it is a tool that originally started among developers, and has very good functionality for code sharing and third party app integrations.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #8

After I read always-late-lucy’s post about how Netflix uses the colors red and black to remind the viewer of a movie theater, I started thinking about how other companies might use color to convey things about their products. Almost every company does this in some way. One great example is UPS. The UPS logo is brown and gold. The color brown is generally not a loved color, but in this case it works for UPS. Brown conveys dependability and down to earth principles. It also reminds people of a parcel wrapped in brown paper, a timeless image. The gold adds an air of excellence to the logo, without being snobby or flashy. 

[always-late-lucy-blog]

Post #7

As I read Vignelli’s Canon, I was reminded of Netflix’s branding. Netflix, an online television and movie streaming service, uses black and red as part of its site. Vignelli writes that color carries along connotations and can be used as Signifiers. The colors Netflix use are heavily reminiscent of those found in movie theaters (red curtains and dim lighting). These associations are important and help create atmosphere for users of the interface. Moreover, the dark base color on the site draws attention to the bright “posters” for shows and movies. This further simulates the experience of walking through a row of film posters in a dim theater. Through these design choices, Netflix successfully boosts its service of providing a “home theatre” experience.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I like how you brought in Vignelli’s ideas here. I have definitely never realized that Netflix does this, but it makes total sense. There is something more attractive about Netflix than Hulu (at least to me) and I wouldn't be surprised if this was all because of the coloring. Hulu’s lime green isn’t a particularly popular color, and the red and black definitely portray a more luxurious experience.

[everydayinterfacebook-blog]

Post #6

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

In this post, I will explain why I am such a huge fan of Exhibit A over Exhibit B. Both are relatively simple tools used to extract the juice from a lemon cut in half. However, A’s interface makes it very apparent to the user how to use it. Its geometric form is full of good affordances. The two parts connected by a hinge make it obvious that the user should pull top and bottom apart. The lower cavity is a half sphere that shows the user which way the cut lemon should be oriented when it is inserted. When the user closes the handles, there is a gap between them that signals to users that they are to squeeze them together in order to juice the lemon. From start to finish, the interface makes the process of juicing the lemon highly intuitive. 

Exhibit B, on the other hand, has an ergonomic grip that makes it clear where the user should grab it to use it. However, it does not have affordances to signal whether the user is to poke or twist, and which way to orient the tool and the lemon with respect to the bowl to catch the juice. Using exhibit B almost always leads to seeds falling into the bowl because the interface doesn’t afford the user with hints about the best way to use it. It is less effective, less efficient, and less intuitive to use than Exhibit A. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I completely agree with your comparison here. Not only does exhibit A have good affordances that make the product easy to know how to use, the mechanics of the product also make it way easier to get juice out of the lemon. The wooden design of Exhibit makes the appearance of it desirable, but it is simply not useful.  Especially in a kitchen appliance, when utility is almost always a first priority, it doesn’t make sense to design a product like this.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #7

An interface that I have used for a long time, but continues to confuse me, is my washing machine. Most washing machines, in fact, tend to have bad interfaces. As you can see below, there are buttons to change the soil level, spin speed, wash temp, dispensers and buttons to choose eco boost, extra rinse, or deep clean. The first four buttons let you toggle between different levels, like light, medium, normal, and heavy. Using buttons for this is a bad idea, because the user has to press it multiple times to get to the option they want. If they accidentally click an extra time, they have to go all the way around the options again. It would be easier for these options to controlled with a knob. Secondly, these options are really confusing. Below are some of the thoughts that run through my head when choosing these levels. 

Soil level: well my clothes are dirty, but I didn’t roll in mud or anything... but I don’t want them to not get clean. What is the difference between medium and normal?

Spin Speed: How fast do washing machines normally spin? Why is there a no spin option? I don’t want my clothes to just sit there, but I do have some expensive leggings in there, I don’t want those to get ruined. What is the normal level, medium?

Wash Temp: Well I don’t want hot, because I have some different colors. So I can choose from cool, cold, and eco cold. What the heck?

Obviously it is nice to have some choice in temperature, but the options could be simplified by breaking them down into hot, warm, and cold. I don’t think its necessary to have any options for spin speed, except maybe normal and no spin, in case there are some delicate clothes. Soil level is also not necessary, I would suggest adding an option for ‘extra dirty’, in case the user really did roll in mud. The other buttons are equally ambiguous and unnecessary. It is unclear what ‘normal’ wash settings are, so it is difficult for the user to choose the right options. I personally don’t want to under wash my clothing, so I normally choose the most aggressive options, which is probably unnecessary. An ideal washing machine would have three options for temperature, and two options for spin speed and soil level. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #6

This week I am going to talk about a product that I use every day. 

The fabulous egg spatula. I’m not confident that that it the actual name of the spatula, but that is how we refer to it in my house. My roommate got the spatula in the beginning of the year and when she first described it to me said “the egg basically flips itself”. This spatula is made out of flimsy bendable metal and is longer and thinner than other spatulas. At first one might think that this spatula is no good. It can’t pick things up because its not sturdy enough, and the fact that its so flimsy also makes it hard to scrub when you clean it. So its not the best spatula for burgers, but its perfect for friend eggs. A common problem with fried eggs, especially if you like them over easy, is that you cant get the spatula underneath the egg to flip it without breaking the egg. This spatula is thin enough to slide underneath the egg, and because it is metal it is super smooth and sleek. It is sturdy enough to pick up and hold the egg, and large enough for you to be able to get the entire egg on the spatula before you flip it. This spatula would also be really good for crepes or small pancakes because of its size. It is surprising that I’ve only just stumbled upon this product, as I’ve bought kitchen supplied many times. This spatula must be making a lot of money, and I would be surprised if more companies don’t start customizing their spatulas for commonly cooked foods. I’ve included a picture of the spatula below, as well as a picture of what using this spatula can help avoid. (In pancake form). 

[justuandi1300-blog]

Post #3

OneDrive is Microsoft’s Cloud service that allows you to collaborate using Office applications. PowerPoint’s OneDrive integration doesn’t seem perfect because are at least three different ways to save and sync but it is unclear to the user if they do the same thing.

1. Select File/Save. Does this save only locally or does it sync my file with other users?

2. Select “Save and sync” icon at top. Is it a shortcut for saving? It says _save _**AND **sync, which would imply that these are separate operations.

3. Select “Updates Available” icon on bottom. This seems more like an “informative label” than a button but you can actually click it. Also, it’s unclear whether or not it does the same thing as options ½.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I’m not sure if I have ever used this product, but I agree that a lot of Microsoft Products seem to have a lot of buttons that I never use.... Maybe more descriptive names would help solve the problem, or maybe Microsoft needs to do more to let people know what features they have. Apple does a good job of advertising little known features in their ads and on the TV monitors in the store. Furthermore, if features aren’t being used, maybe they should just get rid of them.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #5

This week I am going to discuss an interface that I gave as a gift a couple weeks ago. I stumbled upon these items when searching for a birthday gift for my mom, and I immediately thought of affordances. The first item, the Buddha bowl, can be used as a large mug or bowl. Like any mug, it has a small handle, but this bowl is unique because the handle and the cup are shaped specifically to the palm of your hand. This bowl takes the affordance of the traditional mug to a whole new level. A similar item is the plate that accompanies the bowl. It is a regular plate, but it has a similar handle shaped for your thumb. The bottom of the plate is shaped to fit your fingertips, so holding this plate is extra comfortable and natural. The designs of these items are purely for fun, as they don’t actually increase the functionality of the product. However, these items are extremely popular, which shows just how much a good affordance can change the way someone perceives a product.

[everydayinterfacebook-blog]

Post #4

I’m not exaggerating when I say I have been waiting YEARS for Starbucks to allow customers to order ahead. Their mobile app has been a staple on my iPhone for the last three years or so, as long as it has allowed users to pay with their phones in store. This is a very useful feature, because it’s definitely faster than rifling through your wallet to find your credit card or Starbucks card. If you’re an average Starbucks customer, odds are, you’ve had your smartphone out the whole time you’ve been waiting in line anyway.

The new beta order feature makes every part of your Starbucks experience better. The app allows you to browse your recent orders, as well as popular menu items, including food. The tile format is aesthetically pleasing, the pictures are large enough that you can actually see what you’re getting, and it’s easy to scroll through. The feature allows you to browse by type of drink, or enter search terms. 

When you select a base drink, the interface allows you to customize your drink. The fact that the default option is presented in a different color makes it clear to the user that it is indeed an option. The arrows on the right indicate that they will take the user to another page where they will be able to change the default options. This interface is very learnable because it has affordances for first time users to see where they can change the default input. It’s an incredibly efficient interface because it stores users’ previous orders, including all customizations, and makes them the first to appear, so regular users don’t have to go through the same selection process each time they use the interface. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I haven’t used this feature of the app before, but I certainly want to, especially after reading this post. I think one thing they could do to make it better, that doesn’t actually involve the interface, is to advertise it more. In the stores, there is rarely a designated area for you to pick up your order that is different than the normal pick up spot. If I ordered ahead, I might feel awkward not knowing where to go when I get to the store. It would be nice if the app told you how the pick up process went (if it doesn’t already do this), or there was more signage in the store. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #4

The interfaces we encounter with our ios products are typically very good, as we have seen in many examples in class. However, there is one thing that I constantly struggle with on my iphone, and that is the Caps Lock / Shift button. 

As this photo shows, the shift button is a white arrow on a grey background when it is off, and a black arrow on a white background when it is on. The problem is that it is difficult to know if this button is on or off. While the grey button matches the [123] button and the backspace button, when the button shift is on, the button matches the other a-z keys, which doesn’t clue the user into the fact that the button is on. 

This problem could be solved by incorporating a good affordance into the shift key. If the button appeared to be pushed when it was on, if would be obvious that it was on, and to turn it off again the user has to push again. 

The image below is an example of a good affordance because it looks like a real button is pushed down in the second image. If this ios keyboard could incorporate some depth into their buttons, so that it was obviously pressed down, it would help users understand when the shift button is on. 

[everydayinterfacebook-blog]

Post #3

The old Brown Job and Internship Board (JIB), much like Brown 25 Live (see Post #1), appeared to have been designed 20 years ago. The website was updated approximately two weeks ago. While its design is much more modern and aesthetically pleasing, some critical features were not added to the new site, making it more difficult to use. Arguably, the most important piece of information in a particular job posting is the application’s due date. For some reason, the new version of the site does not always include this valuable tidbit of information. When you try to sort the postings by deadline, it shows you multiple pages of postings with deadlines that have long passed. Why are the old posts still displayed? In preview mode, on the far right you can see the date that the application was posted to the site. Does anyone find this information useful? Wouldn’t everyone rather see the deadline in this spot? When you click on one of these postings, only after searching around a bit, scrolling down, and looking at the right side of the screen do you see that “This schedule has closed.” There is no other way to tell that the deadline for the application has already passed.

Oh - but wait! Only after scrolling through four pages of postings sorted by deadline do you come across a helpful bit of information. “Apply by tomorrow.” This is great. However, the site allows you to submit an application up until 11:59 pm on the due date, so you cannot actually tell which applications are still open and have the earliest deadline. While the old site was definitely outdated, at least it was easier to use and displayed key information clearly, rather than making you hunt around for it. Unfortunately, the learnability and efficiency of the site have decreased since it was updated.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this interface to blog about because I too have been using it a lot recently to apply to jobs for next year. It is SO frustrating. I also often find posts that are past the due date, and I’ve also had bad experience with it after submitting an application. All of the positions I have applied for require a couple interviews. After I submit my application, it is labeled as “Interview Requested.” However, JIB never tells you when this status changes. Multiple times a day I go into JIB to each position I have applied for to see if it will let me book a time to interview, meaning that I have been offered an interview, or if it said “not-offered.” I would think that it would be an easy solution for JIB to just send an automated email.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #3

Snapchat is truly one of the most frustrating interfaces I deal with on a daily basis. Even though I use it very often, I find myself struggling with some of the features. One of these features is the chat. First of all, the recipient of your chat gets a notification when you start typing, which is just weird. Can the recipient not wait a couple more seconds until the message is actually sent to get a notification? If I accidentally open an old chat with someone, are they going to get a notification that I am typing? Secondly, once the message is sent, it takes a while to actually be received. I will often get a notification that I have received a chat message, but when I open up the conversation it doesn’t appear immediately. Be careful here - because if you navigate away from the conversation, the message is actually deleted. The number of times I have received a message that I never actually got to read - countless. I believe there is some way to save the chats, but I have no idea what it is. Seems to defeat the purpose of the chat a little bit doesn’t it? Another frustration with snapchat is that it has very low learnability in general. Navigating from one page to another is not intuitive, and I often find myself clicking random buttons in an effort to do something that should be very simple. Snapchat does have a lot of good features once you learn how to use it, but its learnability is so low that a lot of those features aren’t actually discovered by many people. 

[wu-julia-blog]

Post #3

LinkedIn is one of my most frequently visited websites, and I also really enjoy using it as a professional tool. However, one aspect of its user interface that I have always struggled a bit with is its layout when I click on “Profile.” As soon as I click on that button, I am taken to a page to edit my profile without even seeing it entirely first. In “edit profile” mode, a user has to scroll through the clunky, bulky sections for each job before they can find the right experience to edit. Furthermore, if a user hasn’t seen their profile first, it is unlikely that she/he will know what and where to edit.

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

I have been using LinkedIn a lot recently as well, and it definitely has a lot of features that are not intuitive. Some of the sections on the profile seem repetitive, and as far as I know, there is no way to remove a section from your profile. (There probably is, I just can’t figure it out). One thing I also find really frustrating is the fact that there is no option to insert a bullet point in the text box where you write a description of your position. I ALWAYS use bullets to list my responsibilities and accomplishments and I actually have to copy and paste them from a word document. 

[rungeinterfaces-blog]

Post #2

My next post is about an everyday interface that I have used incorrectly multiple times. At first I thought it was my own fault, but after the 5th time of doing it, I have a feeling it is a design flaw. I am talking about the shower handle on my shower. After I’m done taking a shower I grab my towel and dry off standing in the shower. Often times there is still water dripping from the faucet, so I will yank the handle one more time to make sure it is completely turned off. However, most of the time I actually turn the handle the wrong way and end up turning the faucet back on and spraying myself. What is wrong with this shower? Why do I always instinctively think that on is off? I think my problem with the shower handle is rooted in a design flaw of all shower and sink handles. It is often difficult to know which way is hot and which way is cold, or even how to turn on a shower in the first place. This could be simplified by a more generic design, that is used in all showers and sinks. There could still be different brands and types, but if they all functioned in the same way it would save everyone a lot of confusion.