http://www.interactiondesignblog.com The blog about interaction design and usability Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:00:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/11/writing-quicker-messages-with-swype/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/11/writing-quicker-messages-with-swype/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:58:45 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=417 QWERTY history This reminds us about the QWERTY keyboard history. Originally Christopher Sholes developed another keboard layout for the first type writers. He had problems with the first designs however; typists were so fast that the key got stuck into each other, causing a jam. The solution was simple but with great consequences; reorder the layout in a less logical way to keep typists from typing too fast. Other systems such as the 'Dvorak keyboard' can type around 400 of the most common words in English without leaving the middle row while the QWERTY keyboard can only reach up till 100. Another statistic; the middle row of the Dvorak system do 70% of the work while QWERTY only does 32%. [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/11/writing-quicker-messages-with-swype/feed/ 5 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/08/when-sound-design-fails/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/08/when-sound-design-fails/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:00:04 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=262 Unpressable buttons' has written a nice post about sound design in products. There are numerous examples where companies spend tons of money just to get the sound right. Volvo is known for testing endlessly just to get the typical Volvo sound for closing the door. A second example are the coffee machines that use beans. Nowadays the beans can be grind without any noise but that coffee machine would not sell at all. The customer wants to hear heas beans being grinded; it is part of the coffee brewing experience. Unpressable buttons use the example of artificially created shutter sound of a pocket sized digital camera which you still have with modern SLR's.These camera's work so silent that they use this sound for either enhancing the user experience or (more importantly) to give audible feedback to the user about the status of the product. [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/08/when-sound-design-fails/feed/ 3 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/08/it-took-some-time-but-bill-finally-got-it/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/08/it-took-some-time-but-bill-finally-got-it/#comments Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:37:14 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=261 [Continue reading...]]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/08/it-took-some-time-but-bill-finally-got-it/feed/ 1 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/07/mapping-of-controls/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/07/mapping-of-controls/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:02:23 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=229 When you are forced to learn In the following three examples you are forced to learn which controls operate the burners. The spatial arrangement of the controls in relation to the burners is ambiguous. Often producers try to reduce this problems by placing icons next to the controls to indicate which burner it operates. But it still requires you to look at the icon every time. After many repetitions you might have learned which burners the controls operate but what happens if you are going to cook at another stove? Exactly, you have to learn it again, another long painstaking process. [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/07/mapping-of-controls/feed/ 13 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/07/another-usability-lesson-f-patterns/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/07/another-usability-lesson-f-patterns/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:32:50 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=225 [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/07/another-usability-lesson-f-patterns/feed/ 0 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/hifi-equipment-what-happened-to-usability/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/hifi-equipment-what-happened-to-usability/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:32:21 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=199 [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/hifi-equipment-what-happened-to-usability/feed/ 5 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/how-designers-communicate-with-users/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/how-designers-communicate-with-users/#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:14:08 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=178 [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/how-designers-communicate-with-users/feed/ 1 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/new-parking-meter-interface/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/new-parking-meter-interface/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:57:49 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=160 [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/new-parking-meter-interface/feed/ 6 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/when-poor-usability-services-the-user-experience/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/when-poor-usability-services-the-user-experience/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:16:59 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=143 [Continue reading...] ]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/06/when-poor-usability-services-the-user-experience/feed/ 3 http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/05/top-8-mistakes-in-usability/ http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/05/top-8-mistakes-in-usability/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 11:50:58 +0000 admin http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/?p=130 [Continue reading...]]]> http://www.interactiondesignblog.com/2008/05/top-8-mistakes-in-usability/feed/ 0