Jeffrey Morgan

What Do You Get When You Cross a DVD Player With a Computer?

Human Factors

In The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, Alan Cooper argues that embedding a computer into existing technology does not produce enhanced alarm clocks, cameras or cars, it produces a computer. Cooper's point is that embedded computers often make their presence felt too strongly in the user interfaces required to operate the new functions brought by those computers. I would add blu-ray players to Cooper's list. Why? Because blu-ray players act more like computers than DVD players.

Human Factors

Breaking Conventions Can Cause Accidents

Human Factors

Some time ago I read a newspaper article about a tragedy that occurred in a nursing home. Four elderly residents died after drinking diluted dishwasher cleaning fluid rather than the intended blackcurrant cordial drink. This story stuck in my mind not only because it was a tragedy for the residents, their families, and the staff of the nursing home, but also because it is characteristic of so many accidents: a sequence of unintended events pave the road to disaster.

Human Factors

Computer Power-Button Design Switches Off Usability

Human Factors

This article compares the usability of physical on/off swtiches with the user interface for shutting down a computer.

Human Factors

Come Back Dials—All Is Forgiven

Human Factors

Although digital devices have many benefits over their analogue predecessors, their one main drawback is their lack of dials as input devices. This article looks at the benefits of dials as input devices.

Human Factors

DVD Subtitle Usability Remains Poor

Human Factors

Back in 2001, Donald Norman highlighted the failures of DVD menu design. Much research on DVD menu design has been done since then. Unfortunately, DVD subtitle usability doesn't seem to have received the same attention.

Human Factors

The Hidden Functionality of Elevator Toggle Buttons

Human Factors

This article shows how making a simple change to the usual interaction style of an elevator button can improve its usability.

Human Factors

Fast Food, Slow Interaction

Human Factors

This article discusses why interactions driven by cash registers reduce the customer experience.

Human Factors

Learning Through Natural Feedback on the London Underground

Human Factors

This article provides a nice example of how feedback is used to teach users how the London underground barriers work.

Human Factors

Harry Beck's London Underground Map at 75

Human Factors

Harry Beck's map of the London Underground is one of those rare designs: functional, beautiful and difficult to improve. This article looks at Beck's iconic map of the Tube, which is now seventy-five years old.

Human Factors

A Modal Kitchen Timer With Great User Interaction Design

Human Factors

This article describes the interaction design of my kitchen timer. The designers have paid attention to how the timer will be used as well as to how it works, and despite ignoring the conventional wisdom that eschews modal interfaces-the timer has several modes and overloads every button-the interaction is natural and easy to use.

Human Factors

Poor Fridge Usability Got Me Hot Under the Collar

Human Factors

Interactive controls should produce an accurate mental model in their users about what the control does through clear labelling. This article demonstrates that breaking this rule makes it difficult for users to understand the effects of changing the value of a control.

Human Factors

Reducing Boot-Up Time Brings on Nostalgia

Human Factors

In their recent New York Times article, Matt Richtel and Ashlee Vance cite the impatience of contemporary computer users as the force driving manufacturers to reduce the boot-up times of their PCs. Making users wait for their PC to boot up has always been a heinous usability crime so this problem cannot be solved soon enough.

Human Factors

The Hand-Dryer's Secret Handshake

Human Factors

Users develop their mental model of software from the user interface and past experience with similar software. Developers' generate their mental models from their familiarity with how the software works. This article discusses how the differences between these mental models can affect the usability of software.

Human Factors

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