Ghost of me

I was having (actually still having..) an online discussion on msn when i had to go offline for a while so I left and went back. After waiting for a while (expecting somebody to add me to the conversation again, which nobody did) I asked one of them to add me. Turns out "I" was still in the conversation and they could still see "me" inside. In the end had to sign out and sign in again loh.

Oh our "project" is to find examples of good and bad designs and our bad design is supposed to be this pair of hot and cold water taps. It's supposed to be bad because the cold water tap turns in the opposite direction of the hot water (and also conventional) tap. The conventional tap turns on the anticlockwise direction. Somebody found this example somewhere and everybody agreed on it but I only seriously looked at it now because I'm doing up the slides and it only became clear to me because somebody illustrated it on the slide (as opposed to all description previously, in which I got lost in the clockwises and anticlockwises).

But after looking at it, I think the design is actually good! The design allows for ease of usage when using both hands. Notice that it's a "downward" direction when you are turning the handles when using both hands. This "downward" direction is like pushing down the handle of a door (grip kind). When you turn a knob on a door, right hand and left, which direction do you naturally use? You don't turn anti-clockwise with your right hand, right? Or clockwise with your left.

And I just realised...I turn on the tap with my left hand and turn it off with my right. It's such a smart design! But I suppose people are used to only one tap per sink usually so it doesn't occur to them yet that the designer is really making our lives easier.

There was this example of a bad design in our readings. Ok, actually it's not "design" they mean but actually interface. Which I think what they mean by bad interfaces are designs that do not communicate well with new users. I guess this then justifies our bad example. So anywho, the example in our reading is this projector has only one button. I think you're supposed to fit some physical slides or papers into it and it goes forward or backwards. So a short tap on the button moves the slides forward and holding it longer is reverse. So the problem was that it had no instructions on the projector itself and students (and lecturer) did not know how to use it and often resulted in a mess-the papers etc are ejected. But I think the logic of this machine is that when you are presenting, you just need to tap lightly on the button without having a need to look down at which button you should press. Isn't that a good thing? No distractions during presentation? It's a good design!

So poor thing, these designers. They obviously put in a lot of thought to make our lives easier and yet people do not appreciate them. Are users thinking too much or too little?