The Petrol Pump Problem
The "petrol pump problem" emerged from a conversation with
Jones a while back, and stems from a stupid error I found myself making at some gas stations.
Compare the pump above to the pump interface below, found at other stations:
The difference is small but significant. The first has large labels with smaller buttons above to select the petrol grade. The second example has large labels that
are the buttons. The problem I was experiencing with the first example is not a positioning and/or manipulation problem familiar to common industrial
ergonomics. By ergonomic measure the buttons are appropriately positioned on the pump. For the most part, they fit to me. The problem is that the label and button are separate. I want to them to be the same; I keep trying to press the label. The problem is one more familiar to software usability, and reminds me of the shift that has occurred on the web where the label is now usually the target. It's been a while since I've seen "for this, click here". "this" is generally the link itself. Indirect to direct manipulation.
The proliferation of
touch in to
personal devices and
public interfaces is pushing that model out to the physical world. Perhaps its a sign that I spend too much time on the internet, but this is a shift I feel I've internalized and suspect others are as well: There are no more buttons, we expect everything to be its own button.
Labels: ergonomics, touch interfaces, usability
Do mobile phones dream of networked sheep?
I'm not a morning person, and in that gradual stage between sleep and awake my mind messes with me. Monday morning I was particularly unexcited to wake up, so I reached over to the passenger side pillow and mashed the keys of my phone to see what time it was. The display of my phone took an unusual amount of time to wake up...in fact, it just didn't. The display lit up soft black, the keys backlit, but the UI graphics wouldn't appear. I found myself whispering to my phone "come on, it's time to get up", but it just lied there. Like me, not quite sleeping, not quite awake. I gave up, and we both went back to sleep.
That morning, when I got in to work, my colleague
just happened to slip me this passage from
Design Noir:
"When objects dream...
Electronics are not only 'smart', they 'dream' - in the sense that they leak radiation into the space and objects surrounding them, including our bodies. Despite the images of control and efficiency conveyed through a beige visual language of intelligibility and smartness, electronic objects, it might be imagined, are irrational - or at least they allow their thoughts to wander. Thinking of them in dreaminess rather than smartness opens them up to more interesting interpretations."
Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects, Dunne & Raby, p.8
I think the universe is messing with me too.
Labels: design, electronics, mobile phones
Creativity is like Sudoku
“…it’s like
Sudoku” is a phrase I'm told I’ve been using somewhat often recently. Oddly, I don’t even play Sudoku. The point is, it’s a problem that can’t be solved all at once; you just have to start. Somewhere, anywhere. And have your eraser handy. The phrase comes from a
zefrank video, which is easily one of my favorite descriptions and analogies for the creative process:
I’m interested in this…confidence to start things, because I look at creative projects like they were Sudoku puzzles: you can stare at them as long as you like but you won’t suddenly see all the numbers. You have to start. You have to find one box to fill in, and from that, another one reveals itself. You might not be able to solve all of them, but as long as you know its possible, you’ll keep trying. And no matter how many you solve, each new one begins with a bunch of empty spaces. [02:24-02:50]
If you haven’t seen it, the entire video is really a great listen.
I got thinking about the video again recently after hearing
Mitchell Resnick, from the
Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT, speak about the work they are doing to help children grow their creative mind. He stated “At the root of creative thinking is the ability to create”. I believe this was in the spirit of what zefrank is saying, but I wanted to exchange the word
‘ability’ in favor of
‘willingness’. The sort of research on creativity that zefrank
points to in his monologue emphasizes the importance of self-motivation in creative acts:
“…the intrinsically motivated state is essential for high levels of creativity…” Teresa Amabile, Creativity in Context, p. 102
Further, not only does external motivation not help,
it can even have the opposite effect.
While a person’s natural capacity for divergent thinking surely has an effect on the level of originality, when comes at least to basic creativity it seems that the belief that one is – or is not - creative is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You just have to be willing to try, to start.
I'm
supposed to be creative for a living. But it's impossible to be motivated every moment of everyday. Motivation can easily be swayed by disinterest in projects, personal distractions, mood, weather... Reflecting on my own moments of creative ebb at work, lack of motivation, not
muse, is really at the heart. I've found that the best way to cheat this is to create artificial project deadlines, or promptly schedule work sessions with team members. Basically, force myself to start. Yes, technically it's an external motivation to begin, but I know that at least once I start, solutions will appear and the satisfaction in making new things and ideas will slowly impel real internal motivation,
obsession. Start.
Labels: creativity
Energy Flow
I had a chance to visit the
MIT Media Lab in Cambridge last week, and among the many inspiring things I saw was this beautiful information graphic - albeit not for its content - illustrating the total energy flow in and out of the U.S. in 2005. (Click to enlarge - Energy in Quadrillion Btu). The image was used in a presentation on sustainable architecture by
Kent Larson.
Two things to notice in the illustration are the overwhelming dependence on fossil fuels, and that nearly two thirds of all petroleum/crude oil consumed is imported. When looking for the image,
I came across several other equally powerful visualizations of energy use, such as the one below which illustrates the shocking amount of energy lost when converting fossil fuels to electricity.
It felt appropriate to post this on
Blog Action Day.
Labels: information design, sustainability
Button lust
In one of my first interaction design classes 5 years ago at the
Umeå Institute of Design, I introduced myself "My name is Mike Kruzeniski, I'm from Canada, and I really really like buttons". I think
Dan Saffer feels much the same - I really really like
No Ideas But In Things.
Labels: blogs, interaction
