Archive for March, 2010
Bad UI Design Killed My Computer
OK, perhaps it didn’t kill it, but I thought it was somewhat entertaining. The story is this: last week I read this Jeff Atwood blog post on Coding Horror, where he describes a concept from UI design that he refers to as the “opposite of Fitts’ Law”. Jeff also includes a humorous illustration from a UI design book that illustrates the idea by showing a row of identical switches in the cockpit of a fighter jet: windshield washer, FM radio, ejector seat, and cabin lights.
Today I experienced a real example of the problems that can arise from this design flaw, similar to the issues Jeff points out with Gmail. I live in a moderately sketchy house, and there is a switch which controls the power to several walls worth of electrical outlets. The arrangement of controls is about as good as the fighter jet. Here’s a picture of the switch panel:
Brilliant switch design
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Pictures: Spring Break Ski Trip
I spent four days earlier this week skiing in Utah with some friends. We all skied at Snowbird, except for one day when I got an Alta pass and headed over the mountain to check it out. I had borrowed a video camera from a friend to try and get some handheld skiing footage, which seemed to work fairly well until I accidentally dropped it in some deep powder on some steep terrain and couldn’t find it. After that unfortunate episode, I was inspired to check out some helmet cams. I think this one seems pretty good; check out the video taken with it partway down this page.
I also had the chance on this trip to try out a new slope meter my brother gave me for Christmas. It was interesting to see how poorly I estimate slope—the very steepest terrain I skied barely hit 40°. It definitely doesn’t seem like that when you’re looking down from the top.
