The Blog of Harald

Thanks to heavybit.com – michael newton for this one (and for Crash Bonsai):

One of the problems plaguing modern technology is that designers can’t seem to build user interfaces that people understand. Buy a microwave in Canada and try to use the popcorn button; it doesn’t work. Or look at digital watches, VCRs, even cars; the interface sucks. Even worse, they’re all different.

Washington designer Burkey Belser agrees, and has a humorous presentation on the subject. Here’s the quote from michael newton’s blog that caught my eye:

The buttons were marked Chop, Grate, Grind, Stir, Puree, Whip, Mix, Blend, Frappe, Liquefy. Belser found the distinctions absurd.

“If I’m not mistaken,” he said recently to a roomful of colleagues, “you turn this thing on and the blades whir around with a singular purpose, slaughtering everything within reach.”

Belser created his own one-word identifier: Vaporize. For the buttons, he created a scale of speed, from In A Second to Now.

See the Washington Post article for more examples.