IH01-AnarJoshi

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Good Design

While studying abroad in London last semester I used to use the Transport of London Journey Planner website for all of my travel needs. I think that this website is an example of a good design because it is really easy to use and allows the user to customize their travel plans. The website incorporates all modes of transportation from walking to the underground to the ferry and also allows the user to search by station, post code, address, and/or place of interest. Once the user has made his or her selection, Journey Planner will calculate the fastest route to take and will also inform the user of planned engineering closures on certain routes. By utilizing the advanced search options, users can alter selections such as walking speed, handicap requirements, and choose to display routes with the least number of changes. I found this website to be extremely helpful and think that something similar to this should be created for American cities.

Bad Design

An example of a bad design is the toaster that I have at my place. The slots for the bread are narrow and can only accommodate certain bread sizes. The toaster is designed so that it starts heating up at the bottom and then travels up the coils, this causes the bread to be unevenly toasted. Additionally, the knob that is used to adjust the level of darkness is not clearly marked to indicate what level you are toasting at.

I think that a better design for a toaster is a toaster oven, which can not only toast food, but also bake things. However, if I had to improve on the current design of the pop-up toaster, I would make the slots wide enough to hold half of a bagel. I would redesign the coils so that they evenly heat the bread. Also I would add a numeric system to the side knob which would correspond to a darkness level for the toast.