Design Critique

"Attack of the Pointless Modal Confirmations"
Tim critiques almost two years of experience with the TomTomXL335TM portable GPS in a longitudinal review plagued by a ragged voice from a nasty January filled with mishaps, and a mental wooziness that we hope isn't too obvious. But food poisonings, auto wrecks, and seasonal colds cannot prevent the fact that the XL335 is a GPS that has terrific voices which sound wonderful, but unreliable software and horrid modal confirmation abuses throughout.
Just reflect on this one example of interaction design gone wrong; sadly, it is typical of the TomTom Way:

It takes eleven, that's 11, taps to change voices on the XL335TM. I am not making this up.

And here are TomTom's excellent marketing of its Star Wars celebrity voices:
Darth Vader in the recording studio: http://youtu.be/2ljFfL-mL70
Yoda in the recording studio: http://youtu.be/FdcJVuylmsM

Two feedback emails round out this 46-minute episode.

A new Design Critique episode type is born. When someone sends feedback on an episode, they may be asked to come on the show and discuss what they had to say. That's how Eric Gauvin from the USA got roped into doing an episode with Tim regarding Eric's email comments on episode DC84, The State of the Internet User Experience 2011 panel.

Thanks to Eric for making time to talk with me.

And season's greetings, everyone!

In this followup to episode DC82a, Tim describes the conclusion of his interaction with Logitech Customer Support. Unlike the MINI/BMW car maker attitude towards service after a sale, Logitech proves itself exceptionally good at listening to a complaint about a defective product and fixing it quickly without hassle.

If only more companies took their customer experience after the sale as seriously as Logitech does! Service after the sale is as important as the product design itself. Indeed, it IS part of the product design. Only arrogant, "take the money and run" companies, such as MINI, fail to understand this. Long-term brand loyalty is usually increased by responsive customer support.

The longitudinal review of Tim's 2009 MINI Cooper is here! A car so unreliable that he had to get rid of it after only 2.5 years. Automotive human factors engineer Ken Mayer (cohost from our earlier Saturn SC2 car critique) returns to help Tim on this very detailed critique of the second generation MINI Cooper, a stunning mix of greatness and disaster (the car, we mean, not this critique). If you love cars, you'll love this episode. We put the long in longitudinal product reviews!

Basically, the second generation (post-2006) MINI Cooper is a frustrating mix of unreliable components assembled unreliably. MINI refused for over a month to send Tim's dealer a new piston and rod when those went bad at only 31K miles. The flaky electronics are infested with more gremlins than, uh...that movie named "Gremlins". An addictively fun car such as the MINI almost makes you forgive its shoddy quality...almost but not quite. Tim broke his addiction and is now in MINI detox. Please pray for his recovery.

But there's still a lot to praise about the things MINI got right in this car. Buckle up for a rollicking, passionate, detailed review that covers everything you want to know about a car that inspires passion, both positive and negative, in an era of unloveable, boring "familymobiles".

Then join TrueDelta to tell the world about your car's reliability. Write your own reviews for your car(s) to tell the world what you've enjoyed and disliked. Check it out right now at
www.truedelta.com

Tim critiques the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 portable speaker system for iPods, iPhones, and other sound-making gadgets. The Pure-Fi Anywhere was Logitech's sequel to the highly successful mm50, which Tim and Alan reviewed way back in episode DC39.
This longitudinal review covers two years of experience using this product, including the new user interface, the industrial design that both delights and disappoints, the improved sound quality of the bass response, and a problem with the battery that we should all be upset about in consumer electronics.

Internet User Experience 2011 is coming to Ann Arbor, Michigan, this autumn! Check out what this terrific annual conference has to offer this year at
www.iue2011.com

Sixth Anniversary Edition! Dr. Susan Weinschenk joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion of her latest book, 100 Things Every Designer Should Know About People. Not just a collection of opinons, 100 Things... presents up-to-date research on the fundamentals that uderpin our work as UX professionals, while exposing several popular myths and misconceptions along the way.
Thanks for listening for six years! I'm proud of what Tom Brinck and I started back in the summer of 2005, and appreciate any and all feedback you send.

Susan's blog is at
www.whatmakesthemclick.net

Her Twitter is
@thebrainlady

Check out the Colours In Cultures color wheel by David McCandless at
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/colours-in-cultures/

You can read Tim's article about usability testing for entrepreneurs at the Entrepreneurial America website at
http://www.entrepreneurial-america.com/2011/07/product-usability-testing-for.html

Time for another wordcast episode, this time on ROI. Chad Esselink from the Ford Motor Company joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion on calculating return on investment for UX projects and forming a usability team. While at Ford, Chad used case studies backed with return on investment calculations to get buy-in from his superiors to create the Creative Design & Usability team.
We all think we know about usability's ability to cut costs, but Chad tells us that increased throughput is just as important (and quite different). When should we use one and not the other while attempting to persuade executives that usability pays for itself and more?
Throughput. Cost cutting. Know the difference! And no, I'm not going to tell you in the show notes, you have to listen.

Author Giles Colborne from CX Partners joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion about his book Simple And Usable: Web, Mobile and Interaction Design. To quote the back cover:
"Simplicity is a discipline that can be learned. This book shows you how with humor, powerful examples, quotes, and case studies. You'll learn to strip away complexity by organizing, removing, hiding, and displacing. And you'll discover how to create focused, elegant user experiences that people will love."

Here is Giles' website for the book:
www.simpleandusable.com

Does Giles' voice sound familiar? It should! I had him on the show back in 2006 after the UPA international conference that year. Episode 18, in fact:
http://designcritique.net/index.php?post_id=108542#

Tim interviews Carol Smith about the Usability Professionals Association's body of knowledge project. Carol led Michigan UPA members in a body of knowledge work day hosted at the offices of Tec-Ed, Inc., in Ann Arbor on Saturday, March 26, 2011.

If you would like to assist us in developing the UPA body of knowledge for our profession, contact Carol at
project at usabilitybok.org     (substitute the @ symbol for " at ", no spaces before or after)

See the body of knowledge project at
http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_projects/body_of_knowledge/bok.html
and
http://usabilitybok.org

You can find listener Yannig Roth's blog at
http://yannigroth.wordpress.com

Davin Granroth joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion of a structured design review method. This way to critique a design obtains maximum useful feedback with minimum pain to people's feelings. Tim refers to it now as "The Granroth Review Method" but Davin is quick to thank some writing professors at Michigan State University for the concept, which Davin has adapted well to our UX professional needs.

You can read about this method over at Davin's blog:
http://blog.davingranroth.com/2011/01/a-model-for-ux-design-reviews/

You can read about Sugru, a clay-like fixit and "mechanical hacking" material, at
their very well-done and fun website:
http://sugru.com

Finally, here's a link to Red Green, whom I referred to in the closing minute:
http://www.redgreen.com