When user interfaces attack:
Posted by DeLong at January 13, 2003 09:26 PM | TrackbackDanny O'Brien's Oblomovka: ...A friend of Rupert Goodwins fell and broke his leg while skiing in the Alps over Christmas. The good news: he could still reach and activate his mobile phone to call for help. The bad news: it was a Microsoft Smartphone: "The next time I looked at the phone it appeared to have turned itself off -- so I tried switching it on again. When it eventually came to life I could not get it to dial -- a closer examination revealed the legend 'Radio off' displayed very legibly on the SPV's excellent screen. No amount of menu searching let me find anything that would turn the phone's radio back on. At this point I remember making a few comments about the dubiousness of Bill Gates' parentage. I eventually managed to flag down a passing skier who let me use her Nokia phone (which switched on immediately) to call for help. Later analysis revealed that the problem arose because of the SPV's implementation of the ON/OFF button..."
Additional recommended reading is Bruce Tognazzini's website (provided linkrot doesn't get to this first). In which, I like When Interfaces Kill, Separating the Men from their Toys, and the somewhat hysterically and unfortunately titled Are Safety Experts Killing our Children?. In that last one, he puts forward a hypothesis that the apparant increase in incidents of children being left in hot cars to their demise to the use of child-safety seats and the development of passenger-side air bag. I.e. since we now place the child out of sight in the car, it's far more easier forget about the kid.
I say unfortunately titled, because he's not advocating that cars stop installing passenger air bags or that parents stop using safety seats, but that someone just simply design something something in the car that alerts the driver that he or she is potentally leaving precious cargo in the hot car, much like the car tells you that ypu aren't wearing a seat belt.
Posted by: Sterling on January 14, 2003 04:12 AMSometimes the MS bashing just seems so silly. What the heck does "SPV's implementation of the ON/OFF button" mean? I think this means that somebody had never learned how to turn his phone on/off. I had the same problem with a Nokia a short time back. I had to call AT&T tech support to figure out where the power button was hidden.
Don N.
Posted by: Don Newell on January 14, 2003 08:38 AMRead Donald A. Norman's book The Psychology of Everyday Things. Then take the book to the side of Bill Gate's head. Repeat as necessary.
Posted by: Fred Boness on January 14, 2003 02:31 PM