IH01-MichaelToulouse
From IEOR 170 Spring 2007
Bad design
The bad design I chose was the Curtis RCD725 Stereo. It was bought from Target for relatively cheap. It has a CD player on top, a display with the buttons underneath, a remote control, and a cassette deck below (The cassette controls are hidden in the bottom front panel).
Figure 1: Curtis RCD725 Stereo and Remote
The greatest design flaw is the display. One of the selling points of the stereo was that it had a display which cycled through a series of very pretty colors when it was on. However, the actual information stayed as black LCD text, and while in use, the cycling colors force the eyes to continually adjust to the background, rendering the display intermittently unreadable. Also, when the display is dark blue, the information cannot be read from more than 6 feet away, regardless of how long it is left to let the eyes adjust. Since the goal of a stereo, and especially one with a remote, is to allow mobility while listening, this poses a problem, as the user must be nearby to use any function. In addition, the clock function is rendered entirely useless, as it is only shown when the stereo is off and in dark blue display mode, and is as such practically invisible. The dark text of the stereo also meant that the stereo was nearly unreadable at night, since it relies solely on the backlit screen to read it.
The modifications I would most likely make would be to make the display and the information on the LCD screen larger, and also make the text brighter. Other stereos with simpler displays possess backlit LCD text and are easily readable in all but the brightest conditions.
Figure 2: Proposed changes to stereo
A factor which may have affected the design may have been an attempt to make an aesthetic tradeoff. Backlit text on an LCD screen is an older and cheaper technology than the current generation, and some may believe it to be a bad reminder of older technology. There may be some merit to this decision; however, the visibility and thus the utility was far too inhibited to fully justify it. As for the size of the text, this was likely because the designer wanted to have space for extra indicators such as the “Equalizer” functions, which supposedly optimized the sound for pop, rock, or classical and displayed the result.
Good design
A good design could be found in my Sony DRX-830U External DVD/CD Rewritable Drive. The drive plugs into a power source, and into a computer via the USB. There is a power button in back and a button on top which opens and closes the drive. It made excellent use of the concept of affordances. The shiny front surface implies “don’t touch” and “don’t block”, and there’s only one button in plain view of the user. Buttons are for pushing; the visible button performs the most sensible function for a DVD writer. The power button in back, a traditional I/O button which is familiar already to most people who use electronics, is out of the way to prevent unconscious use, which could be harmful if in the middle of burning a disc. The front surface is indented, so that it cannot be opened without the button being pressed, which prevents unintentional tampering and protects the more functional components underneath. Finally, the stand allows the drive to work both in the shown position and flat, depending on the user’s preference. The DVD drive was designed for simplicity. All the work is done in the computer it is hooked up to, and so the designers probably sought to make the drive the least outwardly complicated they could.
Figure 3: Sony DRX-830U External DVD/CD Rewritable Drive.
