Friday August 03, 2007

The real iPhone nasty.

Or why I now use two phones.

So what is the real nasty on the iPhone?

The real nasty is call management. It just plain sucks. I don't mean the dialer user interface. I mean the interactions between the rest of the system while you are on a call.

Case in point: I am on a call, rolling my computer bag behind me, heading to my office. A modal dialg appears telling me I have a text message. Do I ignore or view? I try to hit ignore with one hand and get view instead. Argh! The beast puts the call into the "background" and takes me to text messaging. Puts this annoyingly small green bar at the top which is impossible to hit one-handed.

After several tries, I finally get back to the phone dialer so I can end the call. The person I am talking to is a business person from another company who is wondering what the heck I am doing. Sigh.

Case in point 2: I am making a call. I am in a moving car. The person isn't answering. Apparently the neighborhood has folks with wireless. Very common in Silicon Valley.

The person is not answering. The phone pops up a MODAL dialog. Wanna join doohicky-wifi? I am trying to end the call before it goes to the person's voicemail. ARGH! Go away. I make the first dialog go away and before I can press End Call, I get another modal wifi dialog showing me even more wifi networks I can join. And it won't let me end the call!

I press cancel thinking now it will go away and I can end the call. Nope. A THIRD modal dialog comes up. Telling me I can turn off wifi from settings. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! JUST LET ME END THE BLOODY CALL!!!!

I have taken to using two cell phones. The other one understands that a phone is primarily about making and receiving calls and does not interfere with that task.

[evil laugh]

( Aug 03 2007, 08:23:52 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Thursday July 19, 2007

The first 12 hours...

of using my iPhone.

And already I am annoyed and overjoyed. I must be too much of a phone geek.

I send off a text message and skipped over to another app before it finished. So I went to Sent messages to find it 'cause I couldn't remember if it included something I wanted to say.

This is where you all start laughing. There is NO sent messages on this beast! How the heck do you have a conversation via text messaging without a Sent messages or a Drafts??

Then I tried to get my work email account setup. And tried and tried. Apparently the beast had lost its EDGE connection. Had to go to the iPhone support page to figure that out. Had to power it off and on and it came back. Ok, that one I can handle. First day blues or something.

But the camera sucks. Maybe I am spoiled as I love media phones, but this feedback on this camera takes some getting used to. The lag is long and the way the iris closes, you think the picture is taken and you move. Then it takes the picture.

Worse, there is NO way to bluetooth photos to my mac or anyone else's for that matter. Apparently I have to sync or email photos. Ok, fine I will email all five photos. Or not. Ok, I will email each photo individually. Sigh.

Yes, there are parts I like. However, I am surprised at how much I find annoying. The task flows are just a bit too simplistic at times.

Can there be such a thing as too simple?

[evil laugh]

( Jul 19 2007, 04:31:17 PM PDT ) Permalink

Tuesday May 29, 2007

Media phone lust. h4> Nokia n95

I have had the joy - or pain? - of playing with a Nokia n95 for the last several days. The first phase of the playing was a review of the UE, then I just played with it. Took it home and used it. I love media phones and am a big moblogger of photos and such so this phone is one I have been waiting to evaluate for a while.

The case that comes with the beast is a complete "Kodak Brownie" camera retro design. Its gorgeous - all the details are wonderful. The little metal button to close it; the wavy pattern on the inside. The brown is dead on. I checked it against my Brownie camera at home. The n95 case does have hard plastic sides which stiffen the case to better protect the phone.

Alas, the case is not perfect. The hard plastic is a tad too thick to really use the phone as a camara. Its hard to press the buttons. But the real kicker was the unlock issue. I locked the phone, put it in its case, and tossed it into my purse with everything else. Just like I do with any cell phone.

The phone unlocked itself and called my husband 15 times. Needless to say my husband was annoyed. I tried putting the phone in the little pocket for cell phones in my purse. Same thing. The beautiful stiff brown case is perfectly designed to rock back and forth on the buttons and unlock them. Grrrr!

So, I took the case off. I put the phone in the purse that way. It still unlocked but not as frequently and it only called my husband twice. Better.

I put the phone in the pocket of my jeans. The phone slides in two directions. Nice smooth slides. One way to open the keypad, the other to open the music control buttons. Everytime you move the phone, it slides open. And unlocks. I checked the beast out and tried to figure out if it had a physical lock so it can't slide. Doesn't appear to have anything. Grrrr!

The beast does take great pictures. This one is from the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve tide pools. This one is scaled; the full resolution version is here.

It takes great movies too. None of the tests I did were youtube-able however. You will just have to imagine videos of a dancing 5 year old maniac.

The phone has the latest and greatest Series 60 user interface. I can read my work email, enter appts, SMS/MMS to my hearts content, the contacts application is fully featured. You have to have a memory card to USB it up to a mac to download big files. Bluetooth works great but slow for movies.

Make sure you buy one for your country if you want to plug into a TV. The one I had is a PAL version and I did plug it into a TV and you could tell it just worked - complete with rolling image on my NTSC TV.

The battery life is about what you might expect. Charge it everyday if you plan on playing with all those cool features. I did not play with the GPS as my SIM card from Cingular would not cooperate. But taking pictures and then downloading them all day meant the battery was not going to last more than one day, maybe a day and a half, on one charge.

I love the feature set on this phone but I am really going to have to think about the physical issues around this unlock issue before buying one. I love my husband but even he doesn't want to hear from me 15 times a day!

[evil laugh]

( May 29 2007, 02:27:47 PM PDT ) Permalink

Monday May 21, 2007

Designers ARE nuts.

Designers love constraints.

Most folks think designers are nuts when they say they love constraints but we do. Constraints are what makes designing solutions to problems challenging, fun, and innovative.

Working with and around constraints means a designer has to be very good at adapting. At figuring out ways to get around a constraint, or how to turn a constraint into a part of the solution, or how to get rid of the constaint by solving the problem a different way.

All of the paths for dealing with constraints require that the designer think "out of the box". Meaning that they think about solving problems in unexpected ways. Thats fun. It can also be very challenging.

Thats why design teachers will sometimes literally take a piece of design work - a poster or product concept - and turn it upside down. It makes you see things differently. Learning to see things in different ways is key to dealing with constraints.

Solving a problem from a different perspective can result in an innovative solution. It can be as simple as eliminating 3 extra steps in a task or opening up new opportunities for further innovation. Your choice.

[evil laugh]

( May 21 2007, 04:12:58 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

Design matters.

Focus matters.

If we apply a laser focus on the user populations our tools must target and use that focus to drive our decisions, we have a higher chance of being successful in creating tools for user populations that Sun is historically unfamiliar with. Without the laser focus, we tend to get carried away with our technology and solve problems by throwing technology at it.

Define the problem space. Design a solution. Apply technology.

[evil laugh]

( May 21 2007, 01:39:49 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

Tuesday January 16, 2007

Are you a design thinker...

...or a business thinker?

I came across this interview with Roger Martin on the Design Strategy conference pages. It offers an enlightening perspective on working with designers from a business person's viewpoint.

I especially like the discussion around reliability and validity. Business people think in terms of how reliable a product will be. Designers think in terms of how valid the design of a product is. This is an over-simplificiation of course but it sheds light on how one might 'design' a better conversation with a business person. Which is the intent of the interview.

The part about how designers love constraints and business people hate them made me laugh out loud. We designers are an odd lot sometimes - chain us up with constraints and we just work harder.

[evil laugh]

( Jan 16 2007, 02:55:29 PM PST ) Permalink

Thursday September 28, 2006

Over designed?

Or under designed?

We have had a dishwasher saga going on. For TWO months. It goes like this...

Dishwasher dies. Measure hole in cabinets. Find new dishwasher. Order it. Schedule install. Installer can't fit the dishwasher into said hole in cabinet. The hole is too narrow. Dishwasher goes back to appliance store. Grrr.

We then have numerous consultations with contractor types. Cabinet to the left has space on the left so move it over? Nope. Cabinet is screwed and glued and has a very long run of counter on top. So take the wall of the cabinet off and router out more space? Nope. The drawer can't be adjusted like that. Order a different sized dishwasher. Grrr.

I was not at home when the installer came out, so I head to the appliance store to see for myself what the issue is. Turns out to be rubber gaskets doohickeys on either side of the dishwasher. Part hard plastic and part soft, these two parts run up either side to seal the space between the dishwasher and cabinet to keep steam out of the cabinet space. They are the ONLY part of the dishwasher that requires a 24" opening.

Some things just beg for reality adjustments. Or strenuous application of a sharp instruments.

The installer was scheduled to return. I was ready this time. Had several different blades to choose from. I explained my plan of attack. Having attempted to install the dishwasher once already, he was not keen to take it back yet again so he was game.

I sawed, sliced, and whittled plastic while he wired up and plumbed the beast. He had to help me in the end as that plastic was hard. But we managed to remove enough of the hard plastic while leaving the soft plastic to seal the sides. Had to slice off a bit by the hinges to remove parts that rubbed.  He told me he had never in his 7 years of installing had to make modifications like that before. Between us, we did a good job too.

Never get between a determined mom and her dishwasher.

[evil laugh]

Tuesday September 26, 2006

A toy for the wicked?

Ok, maybe not the wicked. Smirk. Its really hard to be annoying when someone hands you a little white box with a little white Mac Book in it. Fully loaded.

Thursday September 14, 2006

Media phone lust.

Nokia n95

I have had the joy - or pain? - of playing with a Nokia n95 for the last several days. The first phase of the playing was a review of the UE, then I just played with it. Took it home and used it. I love media phones and am a big moblogger of photos and such so this phone is one I have been waiting to evaluate for a while.

The case that comes with the beast is a complete "Kodak Brownie" camera retro design. Its gorgeous - all the details are wonderful. The little metal button to close it; the wavy pattern on the inside. The brown is dead on. I checked it against my Brownie camera at home. The n95 case does have hard plastic sides which stiffen the case to better protect the phone.

Alas, the case is not perfect. The hard plastic is a tad too thick to really use the phone as a camara. Its hard to press the buttons. But the real kicker was the unlock issue. I locked the phone, put it in its case, and tossed it into my purse with everything else. Just like I do with any cell phone.

The phone unlocked itself and called my husband 15 times. Needless to say my husband was annoyed. I tried putting the phone in the little pocket for cell phones in my purse. Same thing. The beautiful stiff brown case is perfectly designed to rock back and forth on the buttons and unlock them. Grrrr!

So, I took the case off. I put the phone in the purse that way. It still unlocked but not as frequently and it only called my husband twice. Better.

I put the phone in the pocket of my jeans. The phone slides in two directions. Nice smooth slides. One way to open the keypad, the other to open the music control buttons. Everytime you move the phone, it slides open. And unlocks. I checked the beast out and tried to figure out if it had a physical lock so it can't slide. Doesn't appear to have anything. Grrrr!

The beast does take great pictures. This one is from the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve tide pools. This one is scaled; the full resolution version is here.

It takes great movies too. None of the tests I did were youtube-able however. You will just have to imagine videos of a dancing 5 year old maniac.

The phone has the latest and greatest Series 60 user interface. I can read my work email, enter appts, SMS/MMS to my hearts content, the contacts application is fully featured. You have to have a memory card to USB it up to a mac to download big files. Bluetooth works great but slow for movies.

Make sure you buy one for your country if you want to plug into a TV. The one I had is a PAL version and I did plug it into a TV and you could tell it just worked - complete with rolling image on my NTSC TV.

The battery life is about what you might expect. Charge it everyday if you plan on playing with all those cool features. I did not play with the GPS as my SIM card from Cingular would not cooperate. But taking pictures and then downloading them all day meant the battery was not going to last more than one day, maybe a day and a half, on one charge.

I love the feature set on this phone but I am really going to have to think about the physical issues around this unlock issue before buying one. I love my husband but even he doesn't want to hear from me 15 times a day!

[evil laugh]

( Sep 14 2006, 11:10:14 AM PDT ) Permalink

Friday April 07, 2006

Brand or Customer Debated...

Brand versus Customer Requirements?

So the other day we were having a great philosophical discussion about applying brand to what we do....it sort of went like this:

Assume you work in an area where you are trying to open new markets. A domain that moves fast and change is the rule. You start by going out and doing homework. Figure out who the companies are that represent this market. What is their business model? What keeps them up at night - also known as "pain points". What do they think makes a product successful? Who is their target market?

Gather as many requirements from as many key customers as possible. Correlate your information. Think hard about what these requirements imply about problems to solve. Turn them over and view from all sides. Upside down works really well. Then you can start innovating about what you can do to solve those "pain points".

The burning question to answer is how to prove to a customer in a brand new market that you understand their domain and therefore they should consider you as a potential source of cool stuff to buy.

Somewhere in here, insert orthogonal thread. We need to apply our brand to whatever we do. Yeah right. And how do we do that? What comes first, the brand or the customer requirement? How do customer requirements and brand intersect?

Imagine the new domain is consumer devices. One of many possible ways to prove to a customer that you understand what they are up against is to design one of their devices, user interface and all. So, do you start the design of the device from your company's brand concepts? Or, do you start from customer pain points and requirements?

The customer wins.

What we ended up with was a process where you went out into the marketplace and researched what devices worked, sold, were cool, etc. Brought back those ideas and turned them into concepts. Took the concepts and innovated while keeping the customer pain points and requirements in mind.

Once the concepts had a chance to gel into something that captured the innovation and pain points solutions, then put the branding filter on them and consider how to innovate the brand into something that works in that domain for that customer audience.

[evil laugh] The customer always wins.

( Apr 07 2006, 12:57:02 PM PDT ) Permalink

Monday January 30, 2006

The comfort of cluelessness.

Wanna gather requirements do you?

Dilbert hit the spot with Sunday's cartoon.

User research is a big trend and it's actually quite useful. I firmly believe one can never do too much of it. But cluelessness does happen.

[evil laugh]

( Jan 30 2006, 01:57:06 PM PST ) Permalink

Wednesday December 21, 2005

Mistake Rituals.

Flush that mistake.

More thoughts from Tom Kelley's (IDEO) new book: The Ten Faces of Innovation.

I have read a couple more chapters that focus on the different roles that Kelley thinks are key to have in an organization to foster innovation. Given my sometimes more twisted perceptions, one amusing practice in the Experimenter chapter had me chuckling.

Kelley has a section where he talks about the role of failure: "Fail often, to succeed sooner." Rapid experimentation he calls it. But what do you do when an organization has gotten too beat up and fears failure?

He tells that story of Positive Coaching Alliance and the baseball team at Cal State which had, at that time, a losing streak going. The team created success rituals to change how the team thought about mistakes. They literally had a minature working toilet they used to flush mistakes away. It worked too; they went on to win championships.

I am going to try this one out on my four year old.

[evil laugh]

Oh, and Happy Holidays!! ( Dec 21 2005, 12:55:22 PM PST ) Permalink

Tuesday December 06, 2005

No More Devil's Advocate.

No more Devil's Advocate? Say what?

I have finally had a chance to start reading Tom Kelley's (IDEO) new book: The Ten Faces of Innovation.

I am always a bit skeptical of these kinds of books. Design firms rarely get a chance to ship products and walk their way through the entire messy process. But what they do get to do is design and create. And innovate. And IDEO has a pretty cool track record.

The book is about the roles that people can take to further innovation within an organization or company. The premise is that in our fiercely competive global economy, innovation is key to success. So far so good.

One of his first points is how the role of Devil's Advocate may well be the biggest innovation killer in America today. Think about it. How many times have you been in a meeting, on a roll, brainstorming up ideas only to have someone jump in and say,

[evil laugh]

"Let me play Devil's Advocate for a minute...".

I have done lots of brainstorming and ideation over the years and I can only think of a few instances where the devil hasn't killed the flow of ideas.

( Dec 06 2005, 12:46:32 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Monday December 05, 2005

Little fingers...

Little fingers and trackpads.

We have been attempting in the last six months to find opportunities for our daughter - 4 years old in 2 weeks! - to explore the computer.

She has no fear of computers and, like most children her age, just assumes that 'puters are a normal part of life. She has discovered all manner of fun things to do like DragonTales on PBS Kids and space shuttle movies at NASA. Most of which meant that Momma and Daddy had to operate things for her.

Why you ask?

[evil laugh]

Foiled by the mouse. I use a tablet and pen due to RSI. Well, she is only just getting the hang of holding pencils the "correct" way so that wouldn't do. Daddy has a mouse on his 'puter but it fits his hand which is huge compared to our daughter's hand.

So I dug out that little round excuse for a mouse that Apple shipped some years ago. Well it fit her hand better. Our daughter can be quite meticulous in her drawing and painting, so she can position that mouse pretty exactly.

But then she would press to click and the mouse would move under her hand....cause her hand is not large enough to hold it still while clicking. Argh.

Enter the new 12" laptop I let my husband buy. (I'm soooo nice, aren't I?) Daddy was trying to get something done one night on his big computer, so he fired up his laptop and sat her in front of it.

Walla! She can easily position the pointer by moving her finger. Then click via the button under the trackpad and - since the "puter does not move under her - it works. She can't drag anything yet but she can operate most of the games on her own.

Why didn't I (the user interface designer) think of that? :}

( Dec 05 2005, 09:44:06 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Friday November 11, 2005

Toilet User Experience?

Toilet User Experience?

Yes, I am in Tokyo again. I know this subject has been done to death. But Japanese toilets are fun. Hmmm, or rather, their user interfaces are fun, shall I say?

The hotel version is a compromise solution that caters to the western visitor. It has a simple set of the usual functions - enough to make it fun to use. Notice that there is no button for flushing on the control panel. Instead one has an actual handle to flush with. It makes for a context switch. Right when you are in the midst of trying out all the functions, you have to remember to revert to an old fashion handle to flush. And, the handle is tied to the control panel so you have to wait for the toilet to get out of "standby" mode before it will actually flush.

Then there is the "office" version. This is from one of the buildings that Sun has offices in. It has more features - some of which are not apparent. A heated toilet seat is an amazing experience. Then there is the automatic "water running" sound that starts as soon as you sit down. Unclear if the men's bathroon gets this feature or not. I wasn't going to try to find out.

However, there is no handle. And no button to initiate a flush either. Instead there is a sensor behind the toilet to automatically flush. And instructions for how to wave your hand over the sensor, in case you need to initiate manually.

For the germ-conscious in the crowd, there are no seat covers in the office model. There is a dispenser of "clean gel" that tells you how much toilet paper to tear off - and how to fold it up - so that you can wipe your seat down before use.

Don't forget to let it dry before sitting down.

[evil laugh]

Update

The picture that goes with Gemm's comments...

( Nov 11 2005, 02:28:57 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]