In my search for a fuel-efficient car I was amazed to learn that in New Zealand you can buy a Prius for around $5000.
Category: Devices
…but will it fold the washing?
For christmas my eldest daughter was given a Knex construction kit – and a few hours later Ferris was born. Ferris is pretty simple, but inquisitive – its main function being to drive around the floor, bump in to objects, act ‘confused’, persist and eventually get out of tricky situations. Of course “Ferris” – part […]
Man Goes Silly Over Usability
Here’s proof that usability can make you look a little bit silly. My work colleague is in love with these new mega-chunky Phillips headphones, which he bought half price for $40. I tried them on for myself. The sound quality is pretty average – I’d even go as far to say the sound quality isn’t […]
King Kong of Usability Stuff Ups
Last Wednesday I was setting up a usability test environment for a new website. Somebody commented on the computer monitor – “It’s fuzzy” – and proceeded to try and adjust the monitor settings. But, as I pointed out, the target market for the website is students. Our field research has shown that a fair percentage […]
Flashy Breakable Fisher & Paykel
Great news for Kiwi design – appliance maker Fisher & Paykel Appliances has joined the ranks of global brands like Bose, Playstation, Stella Artois, Blackberry, Audi and Chanel – based on a list of “CoolBrand Leaders for 2005” says an article in the NZ Herald. The articles says F&P “has long been a firm favourite […]
Hurricane Rentokil
A hand drier has just been installed at the Provoke toilets, and it’s creating chaos… …all because of a string of simple usability issues. The source of the issue (arguably) is the paper hand towel dispenser. The towels are the big chunky variety – great for absorbing moisture and muck, but they don’t collapse down […]
Down Traden
Are you paying too much when buying goods on Trade Me? All it takes to find out is a couple of Googles. Last July our juicer became redundant. That is, I was enthusiastically trying to clean out the hard-to-reach festering gungy bits of fruit pulp, and the thing just flew apart (I blame the designers […]