IH01-PatrickLiu
From IEOR 170 Spring 2007
[edit] Individual Assignment #1
This “Simpsons” clock is a perfectly fine example of a well designed clock. Starting with picture A, the user can easily understand from the visible arrow that turning the little circular shaped piece clockwise will also turn the dials of the clock clockwise and vice versa. This step can be me confirmed by visual mapping because, when the user flips over the clock and turns the circular piece the user can see the dials move and know exactly what time to turn it to. Picture B illustrates an example of natural design. Obviously the battery cell is for carrying batteries and the shape of the cell when empty has pictures underneath to show which direction the batteries should be inserted. The main point is an empty slot shaped like it should be holding batteries is exactly what it should be used for; just like a ball is made for bouncing, a cup is made for holding liquids, etc. Picture C, is a basic on off switch for the talking clock. Picture D is simply a button that is pressed for the clock to talk. Lastly, picture E is an example of a natural signal; it came naturally to me that this is the area where I would hang the clock up on the wall. All the attributes the clock possesses are pretty intuitive and I did not require a user’s manual to set up the clock.
My 2007 Honda Accord also has a clock, but setting it up took me more than an hour because I had to read the user’s manual in order to comprehend how to program this clock. The instructions say “You can quickly set the time to the nearest hour. Pressing and holding the SOUND button, then pressing the R (Preset 6) side of the bar sets the clock back to the previous hour. If the displayed time is after the half hour, the clock sets the clock forward to the beginning of the next hour.”
I did not really understand the instructions; therefore it took me even longer just to set a car clock. Compared with the “Simpsons” clock, the level of difficulty comes a few degrees higher.
As explained in the article, “The Psychology of Everyday Things,” there should not be more buttons than actual operations. In this case I had to press the “SOUND” button in order to set the TIME. But in fact there is no correlation between the “SOUND” and the TIME. The problem with this car design is that they should have a few buttons or knobs to allow the user to actually turn each hour or minute if necessary. I am able to see why the designers of Honda did not make more knobs, because the design of this radio layout is symmetric. Adding extra knobs would be aesthetically displeasing.
However, As can be seen from my quick sketch, adding two knobs, one that correlates with the hour sign and one that correlates with the minutes sign is all that the designer needed to incorporate to make this radio layout an efficient design.
