HCI: Bad User Design
Hi everyone! Today I will discuss terrible user design. Growing up I would get very annoyed when I’d find glass ketchup bottles at restaurants. Ketchup is a lovely tomato based condiment and mixed with mayonnaise, can be eaten with fried starchy foods/meats. When you get a hot plate of delicious food, all you need is a side of ketchup to complete the meal.
However your food will get cold. That sauce will not leave that bottle. What will make it better is a plastic bottle which does exist, but my point is glass bottles need to stop existing.
USB’s should be able to be inserted in any direction. Just like how a Mac laptop can be charged on either side.
Here’s an interesting article about the history of the USB: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2999836/happy-birthday-usb-the-standard-turns-20-and-proud-inventor-ajay-bhatt-tells-all.html
Interesting point with the ketchup bottles. I assume you’re praising plastic ones for squeezability. But then ketchup could still stay at the bottom of the plastic bottle and require shaking/thumping. But soon after the plastic, I think, came the upside down bottles, which solves that second problem. That’s an interesting tradeoff between sustainability (plastic less, glass more) with convenience. Here’s a nice post about the physics of ketchup, btw. http://www.rheothing.com/2012/11/is-ketchup-really-thixotropic.html
With the USB-A plug that you show (the classic one), if you assume that you can’t solve it the way USB-C does (the ones that you refer to that can be inserted either direction), it might be an interesting challenge to design a better way to indicate to users the right way to plug it in. Little arrows on top? A notch in the metal?
Thanks for your examples!
Stephen
First time hearing the word thixotropy. Its interesting to hear the types of viscosity in terms of shear rates. Its pretty cool to deeply think about things that we usually see everyday without notice.
As for the USB, I’m glad flippable USB’s exist!