my comments on other blogs

I have commented on the following blogs

Devin McKaskle
Kevin McDowell
Loren Cole

I might have commented on other blogs earlier, by the deadline, but I forgot to list them here so you can see it.

dtv converter box

I've decided to talk about the DTV converter box and remote that the government has been encouraging us to buy if we want to watch free tv after February. I can only talk about my experiences with one of the brands, which I set up for my parents.

First of all, it appears that the designers intended for this device to be connected to only the tv, antenna, and the vcr. Since I had to connect the dvd to the tv as well, the resulting network was a major web of wires. I think my final connection strategy was to connect the box and the dvd player to the vcr using different connecting wires (the tri colored one and the single coaxial (???) wire), and then connect the vcr to the tv. Also, in order to actually watch the tv with the dtv, I had to turn on the vcr as well. It wasn't too hard but it wasn't easy for my parents to learn this extra step. I had to write a list of instructions for them so they could learn it faster.

Next, setting up the converter box to watch tv on was fun. As far as I could tell, there was no automatic prompt to set up the converter box for the first time. So, I had to look for the menu button on the remote. The company that designed this device tried to put too many buttons on the small remote. Since my parents have bad eyesights, they will have troubles seeing which buttons does what. It took me a while to find the menu button, which looked just like the buttons for the numbers, and it was hard for me to see the word menu.

I believe that this was mentioned in the book, "The Design of Everyday Things." If the device is too complicated, then people will memorize a few features and won't even use the rest. I believe that this will be the case at home. I'm sure there are plenty of features that the dtv box provides to improve quality of watching tv. However, since many of the features are relatively hidden (or listed in the manual), these features will probably be ignored, and only the basic clicking through channels will be used.

So cliff notes, too many wires, too many buttons, not designed for people who has bad eyesight.. not a good design..

The Design of Everyday Things

Even though this book was originally written in the 80s, many of the concepts of user interfaces still applies today. Since the title was dealing with everyday things, his examples were simple to understand. The door problem, such as pushing on the wrong end or pushing instead of pulling happens to the best of us. Other examples are more complex than the door problem, but his point remains clear: if the design is poorly design, then even the smartest will have troubles using it. He also makes another point about feedback to the designers. If it looks simple, or if the user has the instructions on how to use the interface, and yet, they have troubles, they would most likely not report the troubles to the designers, due to embarrassment. In the door example, whenever i mess up using a door, I think "I hope no one saw that" Finally, he gives some pointers on how to improve design. However, many new products still makes the same mistake as before. This can also be due to the consumers, who continually buy the cheaper product, which has the worse design. So the manufacturers believe that this is what the people want.