Design Critique: Products for People

Patent Agent Michael Levine joins Timothy Keirnan to discuss the process by which inventors obtain patent protection for their ideas in the United States. What is a patent? How do inventors research to learn whether their idea is truly novel? What are the steps and costs associated with researching and filing for a patent? What about patenting a novel idea in other nations? In this 68 minute episode, we'll learn answers to those questions and hear some anecdotes about fascinating patents Michael has seen in his career as a patent agent. Michael's website is https://www.enterprisepatent.com/

This is our last episode for a while, but is well worth the wait! We have an interview with Viktor Rydal, industrial designer from Nomono, who talks with Tim about the Nomono Sound Capsule. Visit the Nomono website about the SoundCapsule to see and hear their demonstrations. This truly innovative solution records conversations with its custom lapel mics into its Sound Capsule hub, and their cloud application removes bad room acoustics to create astoundingly good audio from rooms that did NOT sound good to begin with. It's an interviewer's dream come true. Whether used by user researchers, journalists, or conference organizers, the Nomono Sound Capsule achieves good clean audio recordings in everyday noisy environments. The Sound Capsule allows the interviewer to focus on the interview, not worry about the audio engineering and room acoustics. For over an hour, Viktor and Tim talk about the story of the Sound Capsule's design and development. Tim is enjoying his new job teaching at Michigan Technological University but needs to focus on the relocation and new job in its first year--so no more episodes for a while. Expect us...when you hear us. Thanks for listening since 2005 and we promise some more episodes in the future. Check www.designcritique.net for the occasional blog post in the mean time.

Dushyant Kunungo joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about enterprise UX.  * Duhsyant's professional background * The importance of user experience to employees working in an enterprise--both to their morale and their productivity. * Dushyant and Tim share eyebrow-raising anecdotes from enterprise user experience projects they have been on. Employees need effective, efficient, and enjoyable products/tools as much as external customers do. * Dushyant talks about his book, UX Decoded: Think and Implement User-Centered Research Methodologies, and Expert-Led UX Best Practices. You can reach Dushyant at his LinkedIn page. His book's publisher is at this link: https://bpbonline.com/products/ux-decoded?variant=41816075043016 Tim recommends everyone listen to this episode of Dushyant's excellent podcast, UX Banter, with Neal Ford discussing authenticity in branding: https://www.uxbanter.com/e/importance-of-authenticity-in-branding-neal-foard-s1-episode-7/  

Barry McBride joins Timothy Keirnan to discuss the history and content strategy of The Orange and Brown Report, an independent news and analysis business catering to Cleveland Browns football fans. The Orange and Brown Report offers both free and paid subscription tiers of news and interaction with its beat writers and analysts. Across 80 minutes, Barry talks about: * The origin of his Cleveland Browns fan advocacy and community-building in 1995, when Browns ownership and the NFL betrayed Browns fans by moving the team to Baltimore and the legacy media refused to cover all aspects of the story. * HIs first website, Greedwatch.com * His second website, BrownsTNG (The Next Generation) * How legendary Browns former QB Bernie Kosar and his family helped Barry create Bernie's Insiders, a startup that professionalized Barry's concept with credentialed news reporters. * The transition to The Orange and Brown Report and further maturation of the concept. * Plans for the future of the OBR. You can find the Orange and Brown Report at www.theobr.com Tim's book recommendations: Managing by Values by Blanchard (https://bkconnection.com/books/title/managing-by-values) Learning to Scramble by Kosar (https://clevelandlandmarkspress.com/book_details.php?bid=27#&panel1-1) Almost Too Good: The Undefeated 1948 Cleveland Browns (https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/just-too-good/)

Matt Ranta, head of practice at Nimble Gravity, joins Tim for a discussion on how companies can and should improve their digital interactions with customers, whether they are B2B or B2C. Whether it's in email messages or web pages, details matter. 03:47 The importance of proofreading marketing email messages. 08:03 Use new image formats like webp and AVIF to increase speed of a website and its SEO. 17:06 Test a website with browsers besides Chrome, which not everyone will use. 22:00 Competitive intelligence tools and keywords 25:30 The useful website evaluation optimization tool https://pagespeed.web.dev/ 28:20 In 2023 people are still not labeling images with alt tags 30:20 Allowing content to be buried deep because of not using pagination properly on web pages 35:34 Disavowing bad back links from undesirable sites you may not want to be associated with, and/or a website that is a link farm 40:22 Do not hide the search bar on the home page or other pages.  Make sure to read Matt's excellent article 10 Opportunities for Improving Your Digital Performance.

Eric Penn joins Tim Keirnan and Ken Mayer to discuss the first customer experience phases of his new 2023 Subaru BRZ after a month of ownership. The "Toyobaru Twins" (Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ) are the same car with some slight differences. This vehicle is one of the best examples of "user-centered design" we have ever encountered in a product, and Tim owned the first generation for four blissful years. Eric has purchased the long-awaited and much celebrated second generation, and we go into intense detail on our first four defined phases of the customer experience: Encounter (02:44) Decision    (07:21) Purchase   (21:00) Initial Use  (43:00) We will record an episode about Eric's longitudinal use in February of 2024 so that Eric has a full 12 months of ownership under his belt for that. On this podcast we are nothing if not thorough. In summary, the 2023 BRZ (the second model year of the 2nd generation of the car) meets or exceeds almost every criterion for delighting Eric as customer/user. The car's designers and engineers improved on the few weaknesses from the first generation without compromising what made the first generation so terrific. From the seating position, to the razor sharp handling, to the improved human-machine interfaces in the cockpit, to the new, more powerful engine, everything about this car screams or subtly implies "made for driving enthusiasts of light weight, nimble sports cars." Neither Subaru nor Toyota invented us to be so positive about this vehicle. It is incredibly well-focused on delighting a well-defined customer target.

John Leavitt, Senior Industrial Designer at Intelligent Product Solutions, joins Timothy Keirnan for a conversation about industrial design, using two firefighting products as a starting point. Besides the two case studies, we talk about general design process and philosophies, methods, education recommendations, and our ambitions for a world in which UX includes respect for users' privacy and security as a selling point. 00:00 Introduction 03:30 Design Process 08:06 Self Contained Breathing Apparatus case study 19:45 Fire Truck Inventory Feature case study 36:45 How does John recommend people learn industrial design and nurture their careers 40:30 Our dream of UX for any product having a main feature of protecting the user's/customer's privacy and security by default 48:50 John's favorite design resources Purism is one company that is making privacy and security of both software and hardware a primary selling point of their product designs. John's employer is at https://intelligentproduct.solutions/ John's contact info is https://www.linkedin.com/in/jleavit/

David and Jo Lau discuss the five phases of customer experience with their 2022 Kia Niro EV  (Encounter, Decision, Purchase, Initial use, and Longitudinal use). Vehicle purchases are often a negotiation of two or more people's preferences and needs in domestic situations, and we are delighted to have talked with the Lau family about their customer journey. The human-machine interfaces (HMI) in the cockpit are the simple and effective designs we're used to seeing from Hyundai-Kia vehicles, and Tim was most impressed with the EV charging indicators on top of the dashboard that face through the windshield: three aqua blue lights convey charge status at a glance, without anyone having to pull out a smart phone. The driving features a tight suspension with enough torque to avoid trouble on the highways. David and Jo share their cost per mile with us as well, which is pleasantly low at current electric rates in their town. Range anxiety is a very real thing but for shorter distances, a BEV is suiting them fine. The Laus are quite pleased with all customer experience phases except Purchase. Listen for an amusingly exasperating story about a tired old sales technique that was attempted on them, but they successfully resisted! https://www.kia.com/us/en/niro-ev Our Mazda Miata car club website is here if you would like to join us! http://www.realitydistortionfield.com/mimiata/  

Larry Rusinsky joins Tim Keirnan for a new kind of episode: critiquing  the user experience of food. Because the UX of food is so very subjective based on genetics, culture experiences, individual preferences, and a potential inconsistency of "production" for a particular dish, frozen foods are at least somewhat consistent in their production. Our critique is of Kroger's house brand Private Selection Artisan Stone Fired Pizza in the Cuban-Inspired Ham & Swiss flavor. We also ate a "control pizza" to attempt to create a reference point to describe the test pizza and which listers can relate to. The "fixed variable" as our control is a Newman's Own Thin & Crispy Crust Supreme Pizza. This is a nationally distributed brand in the USA. Larry and Tim found that Private Selection frozen pizza is a very fresh-tasting and interestingly flavored, at least in the Cuban-Inspired Ham & Swiss flavor. Larry says the other flavors are all worth trying. Both of us agreed that the value of these frozen pizzas is very good. Tim concludes the episode with a brief history of the invention of frozen food. This article explains the team that "designs" Kroger house brand items (including foods): https://storebrands.com/crowning-kroger This article lists some of the author's favorite Kroger house brand foods: https://www.allrecipes.com/article/kroger-brands-review/

Yousef Hegazi joins the show to help Tim Keirnan critique Pine64's PineTab, a low-cost 10-inch tablet that uses Linux as its operating system instead of iOS, Android, or Windows. Pine64 provides "system on a chip" computing devices that run free and open source software (FOSS) as their operating system and applications. The PineTab follows earlier projects such as the PineBook/PineBook Pro (a laptop), the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro (a smartphone), and the PineTime (a smart watch). Projects are shipped early to a community that can help with development and, at some point, the project will be ready for regular everyday users to buy and enjoy. Unlike other tablets on the market such as the Apple iPad and the Amazon Fire, the PineTab is not a closed ecosystem that sends information back to its manufacturer about how customers use the device. NOTE: PINE64's website for ordering the PineTab did mention that the operating system is "a work in progress". Our critique balances our impressions of the device's UX with that admission. At some point, though, the software needs to mature to be useful and usable for regular consumers. Check out the upcoming PineNote. Here is the article Tim mentioned that explains how the dominant tablet makers track users' activity on the devices and why. For those not comfortable with such an arrangement, a Linux tablet such as the PineTab may offer hope. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/31/21117217/amazon-kindle-tracking-page-turn-taps-e-reader-privacy-policy-security-whispersync

John Loss joins David Mettler and Tim Keirnan to talk about his book Not Always Homeless, created from ethnographic interviews with local people who were homeless in his area. Its subtitle is "The personal stories of 13 people who survived and escaped a life on the streets". After we discussed how he published his first book at age 80 based on  interviews with homeless people in the Niagara Falls area of New York State, we talked about about the 501c3 charity he and some fellow concerned citizens created to help local people without homes build a more stable life for themselves, called Help and Hope for the Homeless. Why and how do people in America become homeless, and what kind of assistance is proven to work successfully long term? John presents compassionate, insightful research and personal anecdotes from helping people in his community. Not Always Homeless... can be purchased on Amazon. The Niagara Gazette published this article about John's book and charity.

Tec-Ed CEO Stephanie Rosenbaum joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of two different electric kettle designs that heat water quickly and precisely: the KRUPS BW3140 Savoy and the Cuisinart CPK-17 PerfecTemp. Both designs accomplish the goal but in very different ways. The KRUPS kettle has its user interface in its base and excellent balance in its carafe, while the Cuisinart has its user interface in the handle of the carafe with better labeling, but worse ergonomics for the carafe itself. We discuss the details thoroughly, along with reflecting on how complex a user population can be for even the most simple tasks like heating water. Keep that user research going, whatever your product or service... Also, Stephanie received the UXPA's Lifetime Achievement Award the day before recording this! NOTE: Tim's memory was faulty about the cost of the kettles. They were closer to $90US each. You can find more details and photos for these products at the KRUPS website and the Cuisinart website.

Tim recounts a 401K benefits website usability failure to cohost Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus. They then discuss the foundational importance of usability testing and of tracking the all-important time on task metric. Even in 2022, the most professional-looking website can disappoint customers if if UX fails at the most fundamental tasks.

Five years and 50,000 miles in the making, this critique of the 2016 Scion FR-S (aka Subaru BRZ or Toyota 86) puts the long in longitudinal review! Cohosts Eric and Ryan return to help Tim discuss the complete customer experience with the car from encounter, to decision, to purchase, to initial use, to longitudinal reflection. The "Toyobaru" is in our opinions one of the most successful user-centered car designs we've ever experienced. Toyota and Subaru aimed this car at a narrow customer segment and created something with an enthusiastic following and enough sales to continue the model into a second generation. It never tries to be all things to all people, but rather succeeds in creating passion and loyalty in its customers' hearts. This episode is way longer than usual at 100 minutes so here are the segment timings: 00:00-51:00 Encounter, Decision, Purchase, Initial Use 51:00-1:07:34 Longitudinal Use and Final Year 1:07:35-1:21:19 Second Generation Improvements 1:21:20-1:40:33 Special Guest and Conclusion A design this pure, with a customer base so well defined, is proof that large corporations can delight customers if an executive champion and a dedicated team work in concert to achieve their customer-centric goal.

Pinar Guvenc, a partner at Sour Studio, joins Tim for a discussion on how this consultancy does their Architecture, Interior Design, Product Design, and Public Spaces work. Sour is a hybrid design studio with the mission of addressing social and urban problems through sustainable and inclusive methodologies. Sour's use of co-creation panels and extended collaboration with all the diverse stakeholders on their projects is discussed, as well as a case study in public space design they did in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. Sour is proud to say they work "with" clients and stakeholders, not "for". Check out Sour's work on making accessibility a priority in product design with their Degree Inclusive antiperspirant packaging and their ADA 1.0 clothing form that helps retailers make fashion accessible to people with disabilities. You can find Sour at https://www.sour.studio/ Read some information about Taksim Square as well as view some photos.

Instructional designer Brian Duck joins Tim for two topics: why are UX practitioners still having to persuade  some companies that we need access to end users on our projects in 2021, and why Sony's ultra portable digital audio player is so bad compared with Samsung's player from 15 years ago. 00:00 - 08:00  We commiserate on the need in 2021, in some companies, to explain the fundamental need for early access to the end users of our projects rather than accept what managers dictate as "What the users need". Too many places still think requirements can be determined without proper stakeholder involvement. 08:00-40:00 We discuss the lack of progress in portable digital audio player UX by contrasting the superior UX of Samsung's 15-year old YP-U2J design with Sony's recent NWZ-B183 design that Tim is disappointed by. Brian tries each player for the first time to provide "newbie eyes" in this informal discussion ( this is not meant to be a real usability test). We discuss the importance of benchmarking a product category's UX among competing products before starting a project, and ensuring that those benchmarks are met or exceeded. We don't have any inside knowledge at Samsung or Sony about these two projects, but the glaring UX mistakes in the Sony are difficult to understand in 2021. Our summary of UX advice for the portable digital audio player design space is what Samsung did right in 2006: * Employ high contrast for easy reading in dim light and for users who have difficulty with fine print both on screen and on the body of the player. * Employ large enough text for the same reasons both on the player and in the screen. * Provide an asymmetrical cap shape and make sure it fits tightly to protect the USB port from being damaged. * Provide an asymmetrical shape of the player itself to make it easy for users to operate by feel without eyes on. This includes the headphone jack location for players that are not solely bluetooth. * Provide large enough and easily recognized hard buttons for basic function like Play, Next, Back, FF, REV. * Ensure the firmware operates the hard buttons consistently as on the Samsung--the Sony unit changes the direction of the Next and Back buttons based on which menu screen a user is navigating, infuriating! A positive review of the Sony that contrasts with Tim's disappointment: https://www.techulator.com/resources/15789-Sony-Walkman-NWZ-B183F-review.aspx A quick YouTube video of a delighted Samsung customer whose YP-U2J still works great after 15 years. Build quality matters as well as UX! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgbUrN_g7lQ

Gordon Olson, CEO of Torii Industries, joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about a new design of tank-less water heater. Tank-less water heaters remove the need for a large water tank to be heated 24 hours a day for occasional hot water use. Besides being inefficient use of energy, traditional tank water heaters can fail catastrophically, and provide large amounts of landfill waste after their useful life is over. The Torii solution will replace an old centralized water heater with a tank-less model that uses a carbon foam inside the pipes of the unit to heat water very quickly & efficiently for use on demand.  This design does not expose metallic components to the hot water that catalyzes oxidation and subsequent wear. Sensors and software will monitor the components and facilitate component replacement before any failures occur. You can visit Torii Industries at https://toriiway.com/

Dr. Laura Bix from the Michigan State University School of Packaging returns to the show! Her latest project was researching the packaging of medical supplies used by EMTs in the field as they stabilize patients and transport them to the hospital in the ambulance. Dr. Bix describes how most medical supplies are normally packaged for the highly controlled Operating Room environment and how they might not work as well in the field and in ambulances. From initial investigation ideas, to recording ambulance environments on closed tracks, to constructing an ambulance simulator usability lab for testing the opening of packaging with EMTs under repeatable conditions, Dr. Bix walks us through all the phases of the project. Here is an article on Dr. Bix's work at the school, including the study we talked about in this episode (I used two great photos from this article in this blog post, thank you MSU!): https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/packaging-the-industry-no-one-thinks-about-but-saves-lives Visit the MSU School of Packaging website. Even more links: https://www.facebook.com/MSUPackaging https://www.linkedin.com/company/msupackaging/ https://www.instagram.com/msupackaging/ https://www.instagram.com/msucoppac

Tim Keirnan interviews author David Loehr and designer Greg Swenson about the new memoir That's How Strong My Love Is: From Rock and Roll to James Dean. The memoir is an insider's perspective of rock and roll history, James Dean legacy, fashion, pop culture, and the counterculture of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s from New York to LA. This book is unique in that David, the world's foremost archivist of James Dean's remarkable life and career, saved so many artifacts from his own interesting life experiences to document them, including ticket stubs, posters, autographed photos, letters, post cards, clothing from various periods, photos, badges, pins, stage designs, newspaper clippings, and more. Greg worked with David to design the presentation of the memoir text and the appropriate artifact photos and scans, plus the cover. David's memoir is on sale at the following places: The James Dean Gallery (jamesdeangallery.com) Ebay.com (https://www.ebay.com/itm/265176747370?hash=item3dbdc40d6a:g:MMMAAOSw~XhgsUW0) Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/Thats-How-Strong-Love-Rock-n-Roll/dp/0578826151/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XH1Q1Z5PUE1D&dchild=1&keywords=that%27s+how+strong+my+love+is+book&qid=1627243483&sprefix=that%27s+how+strong+my+love+is%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-1) Greg's book, "Recipes for Rebels", is another book design triumph and is available at the following places: The James Dean Gallery (jamesdeangallery.com) Recipes For Rebels site (https://www.recipes4rebels.com/?product=recipes-for-rebels-cookbook) Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Rebels-kitchen-James-Dean/dp/0578165139/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1627243823&sr=8-2) The incredibly good 8 minute documentary "Lenny's Shirts" on Lenny Prussack's fashion design career is at https://youtu.be/eAuNU8npRv0 Lenny's shirts are available at his Etsy store at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LennyShirts

This is a solo episode in which I critique the design of Abbott's BinaxNow Covid-19 Antigen Self Test. This test is available in retail stores (in the USA a pack of two is, at this time, about $20). It tests for proteins one's body makes when fighting a Covid-19 infection, the symptoms of which not everyone experiences in the same way. The use of rapid antigen self tests could revolutionize public health for COVID and beyond. Imagine getting ready to visit someone you love whose health is compromised in some way that makes them more risky to something that is going around your area. A rapid self-test can put the mind at ease, especially for symptoms that allergies can mimic. Use of rapid self tests can protect coworkers, family, friends, etc., because if enough people use them during a time of an outbreak, those who may test positive for being infectious can self-isolate and prevent the spread while they contact their doctor to get help if needed. The BinaxNow test is as easy to use as advertised. The only improvements needed in my experience are a lower price per unit and less daunting technical communication. Perhaps for regulatory reasons, the BinaxNow instructions have a LOT of text on a double sided poster. But the instructions worked for me in the first use, so criticizing the instructions might be unfair. As promised in the episode, here are some excellent links about the advantages of cheap, easy to use rapid antigen self tests from the two experts discussed in the episode: Dr. Michael Mina's radio interview about rapid self-tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1XTc29ZGtM Dr. Mina's article from December 2020 about rapid self tests' ability to stop Covid-19 spread quickly: https://time.com/5912705/covid-19-stop-spread-christmas/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=ideas_covid-19&linkId=104733190 Dr. Robert Epstein's Carrier Separation Plan to use rapid self tests to stop the spread of any pathogen in a population: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.640009/full A good paper on the importance of testing frequency and fast results for reducing an infectious disease: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/1/eabd5393?utm_campaign=SciMag&utm_source=JHubbard&utm_medium=Twitter The development of a rapid saliva test is on the way: https://theshillongtimes.com/2021/05/21/new-rapid-antigen-test-can-detect-covid-in-saliva-accurately/ Another saliva test for Covid-19! https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/print/story/2021/05/14/livermore-company-develops-first-rapid-saliva-covid-19-test

Eric Penn rejoins Tim Keirnan on the show for a critique of Garmin dash cameras. And on this show you know we bought them with our own money, no review units or other favors from the manufacturer. The guys discuss the following models: * nuviCam LMTHD that combines a GPS with a dash cam * Garmin 35 * Garmin 46 * Garmin Mini In both Eric's and Tim's critiques, Garmin customer support was a big positive to the customer experience. The products were useful and usable, without any outstanding problems. When Tim's nuviCam broke after only two years, Garmin customer support worked diligently to help him fix it. Even though it could not be fixed, having a company sincerely try to help solve a problem salvages a relationship and Tim would consider another Garmin purchase because the customer service. Our previous episode with customer service professional expert Charlotte Purvis rings true here. In Eric's case, his 35 broke under the warranty period and Garmin quickly replaced it. No fuss, no muss. Eric discusses using the Garmin 46 and Garmin Mini together to record both front and rear views in his FiestaST. Eric also talks about his use of Garmin products for cycling.

Charlotte Purvis joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about ensuring good user experience with customer service professionals. When we call an organization for help with a product or service, these people are on the front line of customer interaction. How well they assist us will impact our perceptions of a product and the brand of the company that sold it. Charlotte's new book is The Customer Communication Formula: How to Communicate with your Customers and Boost your Customer Service Brand. She talks with Tim for 40 minutes about how she created her customer communication formula, how she coaches customer service professionals in call centers, and the importance of having a professional physical environment for people to do their best work in the office or at home. You can find Charlotte at her website www.charlottepurvis.com

The Librem 5 is Purism's re-envisioning what a smartphone could be and should be. It runs on Purism's own Linux distribution PureOS, which is certified by the Free Software Foundation to be free of non-transparent, proprietary code such as many commercial products use. The "Evergreen" batch of Librem 5 phones is the first official production model, and possesses unique qualities not found in most smart phones: * Hardware switches to turn on/off camera, microphone, WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular connection. * Easily removeable battery for easy replacement. * Easy access to replace the cellular modem and the WiFi/Bluetooth circuitry * Updates to the PureOS operating system for the long term, not just a few years. * Connection via USB-C to an external monitor. * Does not inherently track customers' usage of the phone and apps. As of December 2020, this "Evergreen" batch of phones does not have a sleep function, so battery life is very short. The microphone of this particular Librem 5 is described as sounding "muffled" and "under water" compared to other smart phones. Purism promises continuous improvements to both the phone's operating system and the Linux kernel that interacts with this promising hardware. At this time, the phone is not usable as a "daily driver". Useful links about the Librem 5 including video tours: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/why-fsf-endorsing-pureos-matters/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaRf8JBL7tE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aQp3twe7D4

Susan Weinschenk joins Tim Keirnan to discuss the second edition of her wonderfully useful and usable book 100 Things Every Designer Should Know About People. First published in 2011, 100 Things... has helped many kinds of professionals and students learn to be better designers. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/100-things-every/9780136746959/ Visit Susan's company at https://theteamw.com/ Susan has been on the show multiple times over our 15 years and you may enjoy hearing these older episodes with her: http://www.designcritique.net/podcasts/interview-neuro-web-design-with-dr-susan-weinschenk/ http://www.designcritique.net/podcasts/6th-anniversary-episode-with-dr-susan-weinschenk-on-100-things-every-designer-needs-to-know-about-people/ http://www.designcritique.net/podcasts/panel-the-state-of-the-internet-user-experience-in-2011/

We're 15 years old! Tim Keirnan is joined by show co-founder Tom Brinck plus UX legend Stephanie Rosenbaum for a celebration of the show's 15th anniversary. From July 2005 to October 2020, we've kept going when other shows faded away. Where did the time go? But time discussing product and service design is always well spent. Tom and Stephanie continue our discussion series on the buzzwordification of UX--the good and the bad of our terminology becoming popular in the past five years--and memories from 15 years of doing the show. Thanks everyone who listened, wrote, and guested on the show. We're proud of 15 years of commercial-free discussions on design. Tim and Tom  

This is a short episode on the dark pattern of not allowing a customer to leave a service without unnecessary effort. The Sunday Times website does not allow users to cancel their digital subscription on the site. It took a 15 minus chat online to accomplish what should take one minute and a couple clicks. Hear all about it and think about what decisions like this mean to an organization hell-bent on annoying customers. The Dark Patterns website referred to in this episode is at https://darkpatterns.org They do a really good job writing about and classifying  dark patterns. Thank-you, Harry Brignull and Alexander Darlington. The Sunday Times article on the French philosopher Levy is at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bernard-henri-levy-interview-coronavirus-has-sent-the-world-into-psychotic-delirium-lz5sn8gnn

Kelly Goto, owner and principal of gotomedia and gotoresearch, joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about universal design and related topics. Dave M-R and Tim discussed Kelly's excellent 2018 article about professional terminology in episode 135 last year. Now she is on the show herself to cover a fun range of topics, including Universal Design, Inclusive Design, Accessibilty, Japanese design, and Designing for an aging population It's 45 minutes of serious discussion that doesn't take itself too seriously. Kelly provided the following links to continue the learning after you're done listening: https://www.gotoresearch.com/2020/02/27/the-era-of-adaptive-experiences-rethinking-universal-and-inclusive-design/ http://www.universaldesign.com/ (great story about Target in there -- it is a "design for all" store. http://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/ https://www.service-design-network.org/ https://www.ageinplacetech.com/ ( a tech blog run by a friend / colleague of mine)

Larry Rusinsky returns to the show to help Tim critique the Bose QuietComfort 25 acoustic noise canceling headphones. The links referred to in the episode include: How Noise Canceling Headphones Work Comparison of the Bose QuietComfort 25 with the 35 Bose: Why Audiophiles Should Stop the Hate Bose Store Locator

Chief Phillips of the Plymouth Township Fire Department has the mind of a firefighter and the heart of a User Experience designer. Join him and Tim Keirnan for a sequel to our pumper truck design episode, this time to discuss the design of our  township's new ladder truck. How does the purpose of a ladder truck differ from a pumper truck? What did the fire department learn from ordering and using the pumper truck that improved their design of the new ladder truck? How is the human machine interface (HMI) of the ladder truck made to be as easy as possible for firefighters, including controlling the ladder and hoses and foam generator? Our discussion lasts 60 minutes and covers a wide range of anecdotes, from the scenes of emergency incidents, to the design specification reviews, to the shop floor of the Pierce factory where our truck was built.

Tesla Model 3 owners Ryan Malcolm and Syed Ibrahim join Tim Keirnan for a thorough critique of their cars while Tim moderates this ad-free, in-depth discussion. We follow the show's Critique by Values model to learn how Ryan and Syed experienced each of the phases of product experience: Encounter Decision Purchase Initial Use Longitudinal Use This is not a review of the car as much as it is a conversation about people's transportation needs and how the Model 3 fit into their current lives. Of course, aspects of the car are discussed throughout. As usual, we leave no stone unturned in a detailed, people-centered discussion unhindered by commercials. You can find Ryan at his YouTube channel, which includes track day footage of his Model 3: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ryephile/featured You can find Syed at his website at: https://www.syedibrahim.me/

Dr. Rebecca Grier joins Tim Keirnan for a wordcast episode about Fitts' Law and Fitts' List. Who was Paul Fitts and how did this legendary psychologist impact our design professions to this day? In a beautiful bit of synchronicity, Wired magazine published this excellent article about Fitts and Chapanis solving a design problem on the B-17 Flying Fortress during WWII.: https://www.wired.com/story/how-dumb-design-wwii-plane-led-macintosh/ Dr. Grier recommends the following links to use in our understanding of Fitts' work: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/fitts-law-tracking-users-clicks https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-information-capacity-of-the-human-motor-system-Fitts/634c9fde5f1c411e4487658ac738dcf18d98ea8d https://fampeople.com/cat-paul-fitts https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Paul_Fitts https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10111-011-0188-1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351978915006423 https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/paul-m-fitts-XSLBZF59k5 You can find Dr. Grier at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-grier-ux/

Jared Spool and Dana Chisnell join Tim Keirnan for a conversation about what Tim is calling the "buzzwordification" of UX. Has the increasing notoriety of this profession label helped us? Has it hindered us? Maybe it's a balance of pro and con. Maybe we just need to meet in a rental car in a parking garage somewhere in Dearborn and hash it out. Jared can be found at User Interface Engineering and the Center Centre school. Check the UIE site for his upcoming appearances in a city near you. Dana can be found at the Center for Civic Design. She is also, among many other wonderful things, the co-author of the legendary Handbook of Usability Testing 2nd Edition. She travels, too. Meet her if you can. This is the second in a series of indeterminate length. While not linked in any way beside the topic, you may also be interested in listening to the first conversation in the series with Serena Rosenhan and Keith Instone.

Mike Velasco joins Timothy Keirnan to critique the E-sds HDMI 2 Port KVM Switch Box. This item enables the use of two computers with a shared keyboard (K), video monitor (V), and mouse (M). The holistic excellence of this product is surprising. When a company does the mundane as well as this product, it shows what can be done with all details gotten right. From its excellent user interface, to its rugged build quality, to its beautiful packaging, to its well-written and well-illustrated documentation, E-SDS did everything right. This is what a good team can accomplish when value, rather than cost, is the focus for the customer. It also proves that goods made in China can be of terrific quality. Even the sales entry on Amazon.com is done extraordinarily well and ,while this show does not have nor want affiliate links, we’re going to put the Amazon link here so you can see how well the catalog entry was done. It has all the photos and text one would need to make a good decision. https://www.amazon.com/Supports-Auto-scan-Hot-Key-Netware-HDMI1-4v/dp/B07DFFFPR7?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_11891183011

Paul Axente, host of meetup group UX City and producer of the new Design Conversations podcast, joins Tim Keirnan for a wide-ranging discussion about UX in Romania and other topics, including: * UX City's purpose and meetings * Paul's unique route to a UX career * The Design Conversations podcast * Dark patterns in online retail * Concerns about Amazon's long-term effects on customers and communities * Paul's reservations about "corporate command" in the design process * Ethics of design * Customer experience of the video game industry (it's bad) but the promise of independent gaming companies who design for great games and for customers instead of only to make money. * The trap of people confusing tools with design skills. "What is the best tool for design? YOU are the best tool for design." If you are in Romania (and even if you're not!), look up UX City here: https://www.uxcity.net/ You can find the Design Conversations podcast in many places, including UX City.net and https://www.buzzsprout.com/245555

Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus returns to talk with Tim Keirnan about labels for our field. This continues our long-running friendly discussion about what we call our profession and why, and is there a difference--or should there be--between User Experience and Customer Experience? Dave appreciates the terminology differences whereas Tim wonders why we make such fine distinctions when at the root level we're all  "Designers of Stuff". Kelly Goto's excellent 2018 article: https://www.gotoresearch.com/2018/04/11/x-marks-the-spot-in-experience-design-thinking-ux-vs-cx-vs-service-design/ Jared Spool's excellent article published the day we recorded this episode. I think Jared's a mind reader! https://articles.uie.com/ux-and-cx-same-language-different-dialects/ NOTE: Tim regrets interrupting Dave too much in a shocking lapse of bad hosting etiquette...he was hopped up on cough syrup at the time of this recording, which you can hear in his deep head cold voice breaking worse than Peter's in that episode of The Brady Bunch. https://tv.avclub.com/the-brady-bunch-dough-re-mi-1798222209

Keith Instone and Serena Rosenhan both return to the show for an episode about UX and "buzzwordification". The last 3-4 years have seen a big rise in the use UX terminology in the media and among coworkers. What are the advantages and disadvantages for UX practitioners now that UX has become popular beyond academia and professional societies? Tim Keirnan sets up the roundtable discussion and the wisdom pours out of these two veteran UX professionals. The fireplace crackling gets a bit loud at points but plying guests with food, drink, and fireplace ambience is part of our recording process. You can find Serena at www.linkedin.com/in/serenarosenhan You can find Keith at https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithinstone/

Syed Ibrahim returns to the show to talk with Tim about his side project, Shoutouts.app. Syed's story of creating this web application is a terrific example of doing a minimum viable product. He candidly shares both advantages and disadvantages of releasing an MVP, and walks us through the details of having an idea, acting on it to create something that works at a basic level for a specific audience, and getting it out there to continue learning and enhancing it. You can find Syed at https://www.syedibrahim.me One of the best definitions of MVP is from Frank Robinson who created the term around 2000, see http://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/

Ben Woods joins Tim Keirnan for a single point perspective on the Fiskars StaySharp Max reel mower. Needing neither gasoline nor electricity, this lawnmower is completely powered by the user to cut the lawn. Ben discusses the values that led to his wanting this mower and his experience with it over several summer months of use. As usual we follow the critique structure to learn his experience with Encounter Decision Purchase Out of the Box Longitudinal Use Ben can be found at www.dbenwoods.com.  

Fire Department Chief Dan Phillips joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion about designing the new fire engine for Plymouth Township, Michigan. How does a fire department decide which features are most needed, most wanted, and affordable for a given budget and for the the engine's coverage area? Unlike most passenger cars, a new fire engine is custom built and takes ten months to deliver. Their cost is over half a million US$. The pressure is on a department to get it right, because the service life of a fire engine is 15 years active duty and 5 additional years in reserve. The new engine balances several values: * Provide safety for the local citizens and their property * Provide safety of the firefighters who use the truck every day * Provide good financial stewardship of limited public resources to get the best solution for the budget. You can see our Public Safety Committee's short documentary videos on the obsolete current fire engines at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClTidKC6ZDUJVLoWedD5_gA Our first new fire engine is a Pierce Enforcer. Check out Pierce's website for the Enforcer and other models they make: https://www.piercemfg.com/ Thank you to the men and women working in fire departments everywhere.

Author Giles Colborne returns to Design Critique to talk with Tim Keirnan about the new second edition of Simple and Usable: Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design. Simple and Usable is one of the best books on UX we've owned in our careers. The contents are simple and usable just as the title promises, and this is one book that both practitioners and stakeholders will benefit from reading. Giles and Tim talk for 40 minutes about various topics including Giles' career having progressed along with the UX profession across the decades, moving from basic website design to service design to organizational design. The physical design of the book reflects the theme, and the publisher did not stray from the successful book design of the first edition. How "get out of the office" is still of prime importance today and the crucial importance of field research with our users. Types of users Giles has observed in his career: experts, willing adopters, mainstreamers. The seductive danger of relying on expert users in our designs. How Alan Cooper's method of Personas has been undermined by some practitioners' use of person-less personas when they haven't even talked with or observed actual users. How this risks the integrity of the design profession as much as a user-less usability test would. Working with stakeholders on design projects. Being teacher or facilitator as opposed to "persuader". Don't rush into design. Understanding what's core takes time. Simple and Usable can be found at its entry on publisher Pearson/NewRiders site.

Mike Velasco joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Milwaukee 13" Jobsite Work Box. This tool box is oriented vertically in contrast with conventional tool box designs, which provides both advantages and disadvantages. While Mike enjoys the design and uses his tool box regularly, Tim has not been as impressed despite the numerous positives of the product's design and construction. This is why we do the show! Good designs of even "simple" products like a tool box cannot always please every user; people are so different. As usual, we structure our critique around the following points: * Encounter * Decision * Purchase * Initial Impression (out of the box) * Longitudinal review You can find the tool box at Milwaukee's site here: https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Storage-Solutions/48-22-8010 Note that product photography usually involves very bright lighting, and in this case Tim was not expecting the interior to be as dark as  the product photos appeared. The photo on the Design Critique blog page is not using a flash for a more accurate representation of what a user sees when looking into the box for tools along the bottom.

Industrial designer Gene Duarte joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion about the Pod Light and the Blade Multi Light, two of Gene's designs for Mychanic. As Head of Product Development, Gene tells the story behind the designs of these two creative and usable reinterpretations of the shop light. Tim has used them successfully for ten months and explains why they serve his needs in the garage and the house so well. Well done, Mychanic You can find Gene's Pod Light and Blade MultiLight at http://mychanic.com In the photo above, the magnetic base of the Pod Light is shown with the paint-safe sticker showing. Also, note the packaging of the Pod Light with the included batteries clearly obvious.

Molly Fuller from episode 127 returns to tell us about her Indiegogo campaign to fund development of more stylish and affordable compression clothing for teens with autism and sensory disorders. Check it out at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/molly-fuller-design-clothing/x/16724313#/ and http://www.mollyfuller.design

Molly Fuller joins Tim Keirnan to discuss creating stylish clothing for teens with autism spectrum disorder or other sensory needs. Her clothing designs use compression as a form of deep pressure for comfort and relaxation. Medical clothing does not have to look “medical” and she tells us about her interest in fashion design in school, and her tying it together with her career in medical service design, including working at the famous Mayo Clinic. You can learn more about Molly and her products at http://www.mollyfuller.design Molly is "on tour" this March and April! You can see her at the following events: March 25th - 30th: National Alliance for Caregiving, San Francisco, CA April 10th: Design of Medical Devices Conference, UM Minneapolis April 14th: Fraser Walk for Autism, Mall of America, Minneapolis April 21st: Pickin for Autism, Amsterdam Bar, St. Paul

Let it snow! This episode finds Tim and guest cohost Mike Velasco talking about the customer experience of snowblowers. Or snowthrowers. Tim relates his newbie snowblower customer experience with the Toro SnowMaster 724 QXE while Mike relates his long history with snowblowers in general and his Craftsman 881730. In a world where the word "innovation" is all too often misused by advertisers and Silicon Valley snake oil salespeople, the Toro is truly innovative. The light weight, the joystick for controlling the chute, the new design for moving the snow, the nimble handling, and the accelerator in its handle are unlike anything Tim found in other brands and models. Its speed is also impressive. As mentioned in the outro, the website movingsnow.com is a terrific resource for learning about snowblowers, and thewirecutter.com also had a good review of the Toro. https://movingsnow.com/2015/2015-toro-snowmaster-724-qxe-824-qxe-picture-review/ https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-snow-blowers/ https://movingsnow.com/2017/2017-craftsman-snow-blowers-whats-new-one-best/

Accessibility expert Mike Elledge joins Tim Keirnan for an out-of-the-box critique of the Reizen 12-Digit Jumbo Talking Calculator. This calculator has many features that make it a good choice for people with low vision or coordination troubles, with its oversized buttons and display and its ability to speak values entered and calculated. However, Mike finds opportunities for improvement, including the typeface chosen for the buttons, the very small and distant minus symbol and other symbols put across the top of the LCD, and more. We close this episode with email from listener Costan Boiangiu.

Eric Penn and Ryan Claffey join Timothy Keirnan for a critique of the Ford FiestaST. We never pretend to be objective on Design Critique, as we are too honest. We admit our biases so you know where our opinions are coming from. In this product category, our bias is small sporty cars with less mass and great handling that let you feel what's going on. The Ford FiestaST is a hot hatchback that won our undying admiration from the first drive. Tim calls it the American MINI Cooper, and he ought to know. It's as close as we'll ever get to driving a Labrador Retriever puppy. Tim talks in detail with Eric and Ryan about their customer experiences with the FiestaST, including * Encounter * Decision * Purchase * Initial use * Longitudinal use Eric's first drive of the 7th Generation Fiesta on Belle Isle was captured for posterity. Ryan's Protege Garage is also well worth checking out.  

Syed Ibrahim joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Motorola MotoG4 smart phone. While the G4 was touted as an affordable, "pure, clutter-free version of Android", Tim's experience was anything but pure Android. Syed's expert Android wisdom provides a counterpoint to Tim's confusion and disappointment as the discussion ranges from the pluses and minuses of the G4 to the shortcomings of various reviews of the phone when it came out. Our conclusion is that, if the botched implementation of the G4's so-called "pure" Android experience is bad, the coverage of the phone in the traditional tech media was even more sloppy. How is one to shop effectively for a good Android phone in light of reviews like this? Syed has suggestions. Thanks to Tom Merritt for his report on Lenovo switching all its phones to "stock Android". The link to that particular episode of Daily Tech News is at http://www.dailytechnewsshow.com/dtns-3088-left-to-their-phone-devices/ and the license for distributing this excerpt, unmodified, is https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ We won't waste your time linking to all the crappy reviews of the G4 that missed the point in so many ways on this unfortunate phone.

We return to the Garmin Nuvi 2598LMTH to try Garmin's companion application for it, BaseCamp. Aravindh Baskaran is back to help Tim Keirnan try to create a customized commute route in to the office and upload the route to the GPS unit. This is a very informal usability test and Tim wanted Aravindh around because the first time Tim tried to do this, he was not successful. Aravindh has used Base Camp to create car club routes on back roads with the Windows version of BaseCamp, so he is acting as informal usability test moderator. The initial use usability problems Tim encountered were nothing compared to the design failure he found transferring the route to the Garmin GPS unit and using it. If you would like to follow along, you can download a Windows or Macintosh version of BaseCamp at Garmin's website: www.garmin.com Listener Costan Boiangiu's excellent email about the UX of GPS devices kicks off this episode, and the informal usability test critique of BaseCamp starts about 15 minutes in.

Aravindh Baskaran joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Garmin Nuvi 2598LMTHD. We follow our usual critique structure that includes the following: Encounter Decision Purchase Out of the Box Initial Use Longitudinal Use The Garmin 2598 is an interesting mixture of excellence and frustration. On the positive side, we found that * The map screens, both day and night versions, are very well designed. * The voice sounds terrific because it is both pleasant stylistically and cuts through the noise of the car sonically. * The device is fairly quick in its operation, including finding satellites (unless you are indoors, but why are you driving indoors?) On the negative side, we found that * The vaunted voice interface doesn't work well at all. Very frustrating. * The un-changeable and incessant alarm for school zones within a half mile of the car is extremely frustrating and can make us ignore alarms in general. * The unit occasionally freezes and no amount of pressing or tapping the screen will bring it back, forcing the user to unplug power from the unit and restart it. * Inexplicable routing can ignore oft-travelled commutes and actually send us the long way around. And sometimes Tim got a different route home if his address was in the Home saved location rather than his address being in the Recent list. * The settings don't encourage quickly finding what you want to adjust. Finally, email from listener Katie was a wonderful compliment to starting a new year of episodes. Thank you for listening, Katie.

The Subaru WRX is a legend, and life is too short not to drive legends. The "bug eye" version of this all wheel drive sporty car from 2002 and 2003 was a success worldwide but especially in the North American market where it was the first time we got this car. Later generations of the car delighted owners as well, yet the bugeye models delighted customers in a unique way that the newer cars do not duplicate for all their recent advantages. What made the bugeye WRX so attractive then and to this day? There is an analog, mechanical honesty and tautness to the 2002-2003 models, and modern versions are not as "organic" feeling. Ken Mayer and Eric Penn join Tim Keirnan for a longitudinal review of Tim's 2003 Subaru WRX. If it sounds like we recorded this episode sitting in the car, well, we did! This episode covers the following items in the following order: * The evolution of the all wheel drive niche in vehicle design and rally race history * The nature of forced induction, its pros and its cons * The superb steering wheel by Momo , the clean and usable instrument panel, the clean and usable controls, the amazingly good seats. * The factory boost gauge and short shifter options. * The design choices of 2003, with a value on providing the most feedback to the driver, versus modern car designs with their isolated and numb feeling for the driver. Ken's dad's 2015 WRX provides contrast to what Subaru did in 2003. How has the model evolved? * The heavy weight and mechanical complexity of an all wheel drive and turbocharged vehicle. * Tim's few and limited modifications to an otherwise stock bugeye WRX. * We almost forgot to talk about the qualities of a boxer engine and the excellent sound of the stock exhaust with unequal length headers. * The oil and transmission fluid dipsticks were poorly designed and those fluids are kind of, you know, just maybe, important. Skip ahead to 31 minutes if you want to bypass our discussion of the history of all wheel drive cars and comparisons to front wheel drive and rear wheel drive, and the principles of forced induction. Eric promises us a longitudinal review of his FiestaST in 2017! Stay tuned. . .