A collection of 26 posts

More people than ever are living long, healthy lives. The number of active, healthy oldsters is large–and increasing. Despite our increasing numbers the world seems to be designed against the elderly.

I was once proud to be at Apple, proud of Apple's reputation of advancing ease of use and understanding. Alas, these attributes are fast disappearing from their products in favor of pretty looks, or as designers call it "styling." A journalist has just reported my views. And Bruce Tognazzini and ...

LG. get your act together. Every so often I can't stop myself from complaining. This is one of those every so oftens. No visibility. Insufficient tactile differentiation among the controls. No labeling of which side is right and which left which matters, both because these are stereo earphones an...

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I got tired of light switches that contained a long, one-dimensional linear array of switches mounted on a vertical wall controlling a two-dimensional placement of lights that were placed on a horizontal plane. No wonder people had difficulty remembering which ...

A few years ago I wrote in praise of the Hilton Alarm Clock: easy to set the alarm time, I said. I take it all back. Nice try Hilton, but there is one other important feature you neglected to provide: the clock has to tell the correct time. Hilton: Try again. This one was a nice try. Time for a ...

Also high on all three levels. People look at it and say "I want it." It is easy to use. It is fun to show off.

Who would have thought it -- a better stapler. This is a great example of how even the most mundane, commonplace commodity can be improved. PaperPro completely rethought the operation. On the outside, the stapler looks just like the old-fashioned kind, but try it once and be convinced forever. Pu...

Conclusion: Hotel alarm clocks are getting better, as two examples show. But they are still imperfect. Kudos to Hilton for trying. Now it is time to bring out Version 2.0. By the time you do 3.0, you should have gotten it right....

My book Emotional Design (correctly) gave the impression that I enjoy tea. But the result has been a surplus of riches: my readers provide far more suggestions of tea-brewing products than I can

I know, this is supposed to be about good design, but I couldn't resist adding this wonderful story: Robbers foiled because they couldn't open the doors into the restaurant

Who would have thought it? The standard kitchen whisk can be improved. The German culinary company WMF has created this novel whisk thathas separate strands of wire with a ball at the end

The company LeapFrog has a wide variety of truly excellent children's toys -- both fun and educational. Elton Billing told me about their toy for learning the multiplication table. Billing described

The tyg -- a multiple-handled cup is brilliant behavioral design. Why did it disappear?...

Clever redesign that allows quantity to be seen from above. They work! (I own two.)

Brilliant design: High on all three levels -- Visceral (beauty); Behavioral (usability); and Reflective (Pride of ownership)

Google shows the correct way to handle errors....