Human-Computer Interaction(HCI) is a fast-growing field that combines behavior sciences with program design.
First, research HCI: http://www.hcibib.org/hci-sites/ORGANIZATIONS.html
Second, check out this link: http://www.baddesigns.com/examples.html
Third, find your own "bad design" to report on in the comments section of this post. Offer a suggestion for design improvement.
rw
14 comments:
There is a studio for yoga class at my apartment building surrounded with mirrors four sides. First time I went to the yoga class, instructor told me to open the closet and pull out the mat for the starting. I got confused becuase there was no indication of closet in the studio whatsoever. The closet was embedded on one side of wall behind the mirror door with tinny tiny door knob that is also embedded.
Suggestion: Maybe put the sign that says "Closet" on the mirror?
one design i think that is definitely bad is the yellow light on the tri light traffic signal. Because apparently people always speed up to pass it instead of slowing down. so apparently it isn't working. i think something more physical like a drop barricade, that senses cars from a distance and stops in adequate time.
Sun! If you read the link i gave, the authors indicate that anything that needs a sign is bad design. Can you come up with another idea? rw
Kj15- wow, a drop barricade would be pretty radical! How would an ambulance get through? rw
One bad design I think is the "bump ahead" sign on streets. It's usually placed on a street near a school to make sure cars slow down since there's children around. Recently, BOTH of my parents missed the signs and hit the bump hard. I saw the signs both times. Whether they just didn't see them or weren't paying attention I couldn't really say, but even though I saw them, it's VERY hard to see them at night. They're yellow signs but they don't shine. One possible way to fix these signs is by making sure they're more visible at night. Whether the color of the signs have to change or they need to have some sort of light up at night, they're not visible enough when it gets dark out. The bumps were put there on purpose for the safety of pedestrians/children, and the signs are there for the safety of the drivers. The combo needs to work together to make a street safe. If one doesn't work, the whole purpose of it being there goes down the drain.
Another thing I would say that needs a better design is the hill a couple blocks from me. When you're driving you come up to a rise in the road, and when you come down, there's a light like 10 yards away. You can't see the light before you go up the hill, therefore if there was a car waiting down at the bottom for the light to change, you wouldn't know it. And that can cause a big accident. I don't really know how to fix a design issue like that. Maybe put a stop sign before you get up the hill so at least you'll be going at a slow pace once you come down. Or what would be cool would be a screen showing video of the bottom of the hill, and if there are cars ther or not.
In the movie theater by my house, there are head rests on the seat. Since I'm short, the headrest is above my head and it ends up pushing my head down and hurtsing my neck. It is awkward for me to sit in the seats, and I wonder why they didn't just leave the seats without the headrests. They are not comfortable for people who are too short for their heads to reach, so I would suggest that they either get rid of the headrests or get adjustable headrests.
yea, bad designs are fun. One thing i have a pet peeve for is the talk box in an apartment building. When you're in the apartment, and you hear the buzz, you have to walk over to the box press talk to talk, and listen to listen. Only problem is i'll push listen, they won't talk, then i'll push talk while they are talking and talk myself and when i push listen, they again will not talk. It can be the most awkward minute ever. I propose a talk box where someone rings then, you push a button to initiate a two-way conversation, talking and listening. Humble situations.
(this is of course ruling out the telephone in every apt. and talking two way in that sense).
well..... I have one idea that suggest to Soda Can or the bottle..Im sure that everyone has an experience that couldn't decide what you want to drink? like I want coke.. but want to have sprit too.. but get both soda.. too much and more money..
So I have an idea that how about make an soda can or bottle Half coke & Half sprite.. divide it two side and make a cap up and bottom.. for Can we can open and finish one side and flip it over and get second flavor..
How is that??? make sense?? haha...
Ok here's one, Cut-off gloves that turn into mitten's???Really now people should be more decisive, make up your mind, either get gloves that are actually effective and entirely covered, or just get mitten's its not that hard.
Two-door cars that seat about four people are ridiculous. They look nice maybe, but if a person in the back wants to get out, the person in the front of the car is inconvenienced by having to unbuckle his seatbelt and exit the car. After doing so, the back-seat person must now push the seat forward before he can exit the car...this is dumb. If the two-door look is so important, you could probably install a door with a hidden seam.
at the high school i went to, the student center, a cafeteria/lounge area for students, had a full wall of floor to ceiling windows with sets of glass doors in between the panes of windows. the doors have hidden seams, so at least once a day someone runs smack into the windows thinking they're open doors, or walks towards the windows and tries to open them thinking they are doors. this is bad design because people get hurt on a daily basis, and in case of an emergency, students can be more in danger because there are no clear exits or signs. a solution would be to add some sort of indicator on the ground by the exits, clearer door handles, some sort of stickers on the windows, or even seating along the windows to make the exits clearer.
A bad design is why do cars have their gas valves on different sides? Why can't there be just one universal side where your gas valve is located on your car?
I can never remember which side my gas valve is and then I look like the idiot who has to back up and change to the other side or reposition my car. If there was just one universal side life would be a lot easier.
One bad design is that apple computer mouses often dont have a right click button. Seriously. What the hell is with that?
I think door handles are pretty people-friendly in terms of design (like you know when to pull, push, or turn by the kind of handle it is). What bugs me is that too many people install door handles counter-intuitively. I mean, why screw with a good design by installing a push handle on the pull side of the door? Really.
One thing that I find to be a bad design is my USB phone charger that plugs into the computer. It allows me to charge my phone through my computer, but I found out the hard way that it will only charge my phone if my phone is on initially. This means that if my phone is completely dead and I need to charge it, I can't. The computer needs my phone to be on to relay the message that it needs to be charged. Needless to say, I ended up taking my phone battery out and warming it up with my hands to give it just enough juice to convey the message to the computer to charge it.
Post a Comment