Blogging as therapy

Trying to get a rebate issue solved proved to get me riled today. Cable internet company sent me to three phone numbers, three chats and an email. Seven people!! One of the reps accidentally disconnected me. One customer service rep gave me the number to Devries U. I wonder if they all thought that was just too funny. I am not impressed with the phone calls to Charter Cable today. I will change service as soon as I can. That is the problem with living in the rural part of the state. Very little choice. To top it all off I do not even own a TV so I definitely do not need the cable for that...just need Internet for my job and my education.

Above is a screenshot to the rebate company's online tracking help system which I got to after negotiating many hard-to-find links. LINKS WITH NO UNDERLINE OR OTHER COLOR THAN THE REST OF THE SITE. They do it on purpose...I mean seriously. As the screenshot shows I cannot submit this helpdesk ticket because see the red highlighted line? It says I am missing some input. But look at the drop down menu...there is not the ability to "chose" anything. I guess they figure they'll make folks so unhappy they will go away. Ok so that is broadbandoffers.com and they deserve the way to make a customer happy - NOT award tonight also. Dummyheads.

User friendly control panels

Beth and I were talking last Institute about the "freshman 15" or the weight that one puts on during their first year in college. Well, since I began grad school in 2006, I have put on a freshman, softmore AND junior 15 so this year I bought a really nice treadmill. The biggest problem with grad school hasn't been the grad work, but the second job that I've been carrying as well as my full-time one, which has me in front of a computer way more than any human should be.

I was a bit nervous that the control panel of this machine would be difficult to use, but it is not. I have not (like most Americans) even opened the instruction manual. All that I need to do to make this work is put the red key in (bottom middle) and press the start button on the lower left. This makes the machine go at a half a mile per hour. Then I can simply click the speed button along the righthand side to increase the speed, and I can change the incline on the lefthand side as well. There are also handles on each side that have up and down arrow buttons for speed on the right handle and incline on the left handle. SO easy - start slow, increase after a couple of minutes, get up to heartrate and do the amount of time there and then slowly cool down. What can be easier. There are all kinds of programmable buttons along the middle horizon...but for now I don't feel the need to program anything...

In The Design of Everyday Things Donald Norman speaks to control panels that are easy looking but not necessarily easy to use. This results from what he describes as the complexity of actions that can can be accomplished only through a rich complexity of execution by the user. I think this panel above is the perfect marriage of ease and complexity. If you want ease it is there, if you want programmability - have at it! And this interface meets Norman's criteria of grouping the buttons into logical, functional modules. Bravo Sole!

The Role of Emotion in Design

Once I started to think about things in terms of product design it’s as though I descended Alice's rabbit hole and have new eyes. I have read sections of Donald Norman’s Emotion Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things with enthusiasm. In the book he delved into design from the perspective of usability, aesthetics and practicality. I will no longer look at teapots in quite the same way as he uses this simple item to illustrate how we put emotion into the purchase of things in our life and how they are often imbued with meaning. Think about being inside of a Pier One store and looking at twenty-five models of teapots. Will we choose one because of its visceral design – they way it looks? Or from a behavioral perspective, i.e. its usefulness and the pleasure we derive from it? Or do we buy one that has a story of some sort to “tell” about “who we are” and how we choose to live our lives? What Norman really is saying is that emotion plays a bigger part in our lives than our rational, logical tradition. There’s a chapter about the role that music plays in our emotional lives and how some design seeks to capitalize on that. In the book is an example of a teakettle designed to evoke the same notes as steamers and barges on the Rhine River. There’s too much sound and noise in my life – so as you can see from this example – my teakettle which has a very handsome and practical aspect has no whistle anymore – because it was too annoying…

Screen Capturing with Jing

I found a new free tool for screen captures that can be shared with anyone. I learned about it from an online instructor who is using it to be able to see the results of his student's LabSim scores. After it is loaded to the computer its icon is this sun that hangs out at the top middle of my desktop.

If I mouse over it expands like the photo above. Left-side click is the tool itself. Middle-click is the storage location for one's screen captures and the right-side is for settings and tools, help and the quit button.

I launched it to take a photo of my screen and it helped me set up the screen-capture size. Then I clicked and it took the photo then using the tools in the vertical tool bar you see above I added an arrow, a custom text box, and I highlighted the area of interest.


Once I was done adding the elements I used the horizontal navigation bar you see above to save. Then I exported it to a web folder using Picasa. And below is the finished product!! Using Shneiderman's Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design I would conclude: It was consistent in its round fun-ness. There were never any errors. I could undo easily. Everything was easy to understand. I definitely felt like I was in control of the tool and that it responded to my actions. Displays were simple and I was never in short-term memory overload.

From Drop Box

Human Human Computer Interaction

I have had issues with the screen on my new Dell mini since I bought it. I first noticed it when the things on the screen that should be white were bright yellow. Eventually it became a quivering mass of color and I was unable to do anything. I've contacted Dell through two different methods. The first time I used a Chat session which was awesome. The nice lady took over my computer and re installed the driver. That did the trick for about 3 days. Then a week or so later when I had time to deal with it again I tried an email session. They wanted me to restore to a previous good config setting day. Unfortunately the SYSTEM RESTORE was not turned on. How did that happen I wonder? So I tried a chat again last Friday and the machine is going to the shop because there is nothing else I/we can do from this end.

From a user perspective having issues is a pain, but I always find Dell very helpful (if the machine is under warranty). I like chat and email much better because I do not have to worry about the language barriers. Wonder how long I will be without it. Good thing I have another machine (or two).

UPDATE ONE - Computer picked up by FedEx driver on Wednesday Feb 18th

UPDATE TWO - Rec'd phone call computer reached repair center in TX Feb 23rd

MACHINE DELIVERED TODAY March 4th - they needed to replace the LCD Panel - and I need to wait until it warms up to boot it up...it's been sitting in the FedEx truck all day...

ARRGH!! I can't believe that my computer came back not repaired. I was less than thrilled to call the support center yet again. I can't believe how nice I was to them...actually. I went online to search and see if this was a problem with these machines and found nothing. So back it goes - after they send me a box with a label. Believe it or not they could not send me just the label even though it was shipped just today in a box. Geeesh...They are replacing motherboard and LCD panel.

UPDATE March 10th the computer gets picked up once again by FedEx and is heading back to Texas.

FINAL UPDATE - I RECEIVED MY COMPUTER BACK ON MARCH 19th - delivered by FedEx. It is in great shape. And I really like it so I hope there are no more issues. I even felt confident enough to install some "productivity" and security software.

Digital Voice Recorder

When I got home from Institute I decided to get a digital voice recorder because I'm always fumbling around looking for scraps of paper and writing implements to write "Notes to Self." I like this little gadget very much. It's not very high tec to younger folks probably, but to me it reminds me of a tape recorder and is comforting. Back when I was growing up my parent's stereo included a big reel-to-reel tape recorder. The tapes were almost the size of dinner plates! This little recorder has the same buttons and features of all the tape recorders I remember in my past and so was very easy to learn how to work. There is no power off on the device, just a hold button which seems weird - other than that very intuitive - and fits in the palm of my hand very nicely. I can find the buttons I need without having to look at the device.

Bad Placement

Can I nominate the placement of this hand dryer by the door as really poor design from a user perspective (she says as the opening door hits her)?

Menu Usability

When I was at Starbuck's this past weekend and totally frustrated with their menu. I felt like I was in a foreign country like the above photo. Finally I got to the second line (where you pick up your coffee product) and had to ask "What will the name be of a large mocha latte when the barista calls it out?"

Forget about remote controls...what about alarm clocks!

I'm not sure what's up with the alarm clocks in the hotel rooms I stay in while on the road, but I can never figure them out. I mean seriously, they have radios in them, what's up with that? Finally I found this travel alarm clock that is about the size of an index card, folds up, and is indestructible. Plus, look how easy it is to set! Talk about user friendly...

How the heck do I check out?

I'm taking a PC Hardware Course to learn how to build my own computer and I needed to order a LabSim A+ CD from the bookstore. I easily located the book at the website and entered it into my Shopping Basket, but then I had no idea how to check out! Eventually I clicked the little shopping basket icon above the listing, but felt that was a "lucky guess." Why doesn't it say CHECK OUT or why isn't it another color? I wonder how many students get stuck here?

On unfamiliarity...

I can totally understand why we are studying HCI - those issues present themselves everyday and need to be kept in mind when designing and implementing hardware and software. What has become very apparent just from these first couple of personal experiences is how uneasy I feel when I am faced with a truly unfamiliar thing.

When I was in Fort Lauderdale I was able to get a couple of very good HCI examples and I can still feel the dissonance in my body when I was faced with the new technology. Take my cell phone camera for example. It was really simple to make the camera work by locating the camera icon and then pressing the button and snapping a picture. BUT then I got home and it took me quite a bit of time and research to get the photos off the camera and displayed in this blog. Okay maybe I could have tried to locate the manual but HUH we never do that. I plugged my camera USB cord into the phone and then the computer and got a message stating "unauthorized power cord," okay nix that. Then I went to the Web and googled. Pretty quickly I was able to locate how to use PixPlace and send the photos to that website. Oh, but my cell phone has no service at my house. Yes you heard that right...hard to think about ubiquitous computing when I can't even get cell service.


The above picture was my rental car which I loved, especially since last time I came down all the rental car company had left was a VAN! It was a snappy teal green Toyota Corolla, but after being in my Subaru with 204,000 miles on it all these years I had no idea how to make some of the features work. All I wanted to do was figure out how to get air conditionning and not cause an accident due to lack of attention on Route 1 leaving the airport! By the end of the week I was accustomed to this vehicle and my trusty Subaru with all of its non-working parts (including the driver side keylock ;o) seemed like something I would've driven in college. Oh right, I am in college.


This is a photo of the very cool parking meter that Manon and I encountered when we went to Las Olas to see art and the ocean. The meter is run by solar power and there are several of them along the road. You pay, get a ticket and place it on your dashboard. The instructions on the meter were pretty clear, but after swiping the credit card there was a moment of unclarity while we tried to figure out how to get more than $1 to register on the machine. We finally located an arrow key that would increase the amount. In our defense the sun was glaring on the face of the machine (as you can see), making it hard to read it the LCD output.


Lastly while driving the rental car back to the airport I needed to fill it up with gas. It never ceases to amaze me how many different models of gas pumps there are. The gentleman at the next pump called me over to help him. His accent sounded like he was from the Dominican Republic and he was confused. So I walked over and he asked how to get the pump going and I told him to swipe the card. He said he did, but could not get the pump going even after chosing the type of gas he wanted. While really studying it I realized that the pump start button was the upper yellow octane tag. Way at the bottom it said "start." Why the start button wasn't GREEN is beyond me...