I took Ferris and Will’s independant study class a while ago, Dr. St. Amant gave a little talk about human-computer interaction. Since then I’ve been all about some usability. I’ve read the Apple and Gnome user interface guides, and other more normal articles about usability stuff. I filed a bug at work for a project where I listed maybe 10 suggestions to improve the UI. I don’t think the developer was very happy…
Anyhoo, since I bought this townhouse I’ve noticed some things that could work better. Mostly dealing with light switches.
The front door
Definitely need a motion sensor on the light here. Or at least a smaller, motion sensor triggered light shining on the keyhole.
The laundry room
You can’t actually go inside the laundry room–it’s just a washer and a dryer behind two of those sliding doors. There is a light in the room that you have to manually turn on. Why not have the light turn on automatically when the doors open and turn off when the doors close?
The closet below the stairs
Same as above. While you can go inside this closet and close the door, why would you want to?
Downstairs bathroom
Why not have the light turn on when an infrared sensor detects someone in the bathroom?
THIS IS THE FUTURE, DON’T QUESTION IT
*sniff*
We made a difference.
My favorite usability snafu is the sign in the library above the change machine that says:
Cashiers absolutely
WILL not
make change
Why would you bold the word that represents the opposite of what you mean?
But do you really need to have the light turned on every time you’re doing laundry or looking in a closet? Isn’t the ambient light from the room usually sufficient?
Well, yes, there is ambient light (moreso in the laundry room than in the closet)… but both of those doors are open so infrequently that the light probably wouldn’t be on more than 15 minutes a week.
Very well. You can have your lights.
Maestro, lights!
Aziz, light!
Mama Fu… who knew?
Hey Mark! I almost didn’t recognize you without the curls today, but it looks like that really was you! How funny. I also never figured you’d be so easy to find. Just sayin’ hi.
~Jane
PS Tell Lisa I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say hello.
Re: Mama Fu… who knew?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Jane Y. from RALFTY?
Re: Mama Fu… who knew?
That’s the one! :O) I could tell you were also trying to figure out where you knew me from. Was that in fact Lisa with you? It’s ironic running into you after all these years with another regional NFTY event coming to Beth Or next year for the first time since that Fall when we got married… was it seven times? Good to see you’re doing well!
Re: Mama Fu… who knew?
Neat. Yep, that was Lisa and our mom. I had no idea they were having another regional event here. So….. what’ve you been up to the past 6 years?
You could just have really fast robots that run from room to room turning on and off lightswitches whenever you move. I think that’d be cooler.
Or really fast monkeys! Now we’re getting somewhere!