Oops, Bad User Experience

If you have been, "at the heart of the blogging and social media revolution since 2001", one expects a little more attention to design. You don't have to be all wiz-bang and ajaxy, but anticipating user expectations is something you should be able to do.

So I was rather aghast when visiting Six Apart's website to find that their nice thumbnail grid highlighting their premier clients wasn't actually clickable.

All those cute thumbnails of blogs you're just dieing to check out? Not actually links. Sorry, can you explain that to me? They show me the blogs, but then don't let me go to them? What bone head came up with that idea?

How hard would it have been to do an old school image-map? Oh, right, the image is actually hidden in the CSS. I guess that makes it easier to switch the CSS for mobile users, but since when was easy part of a good design process? So it seems we are dealing with either a lazy designer, or a clueless manager. Even so, how hard would it have been to recognize that your viewers might like to check out some of those blogs? How hard would it have been to add one little link below the thumbnail grid that links to a list of premier clients?

Texas Furniture Makers Show 2009

Ten years! The TENTH Annual Texas Furniuture Makers Show will be held in Kerrville, TX and run from October 22 to December 5, 2009.

More information and entry form can be found at the KACC web site.

The Kerr Art & Culture Center has rounded up another great set of judges for this year's show:

• Jonathan Binzen of New Milford, CT is a nationally known craftsman, author, contributing editor for Fine Woodworking Magazine and photographer specializing in furniture and architecture.
• Spider Johnson of Mason, TX is a professional artist, writer, furniture maker, wood marquetry master and musician.
• Curtis Whittington of Boerne, TX is a professional furniture maker and master craftsman.

Two dozen woodworkers have already been accepted into the show during the early registration period. If you are a Texas furniture maker, hurry to get your entry application in before August 15th.

As in past years, there will be a review with the judges the day after the reception. This is one the the smartest and most valuable programs any furniture show anywhere does.

Also, this year's continuing education will be, "The Contemporary Scene in Handmade Furniture" by show judge Jonathan Binzen.

The reception and awards ceremony will be on November 7th, 2009.

Cash Awards:
First Place - Best in Show: $1000
Best Craftsman Award: $750
Best Design Award: $750
Best Contemporary Style Furniture: $750
Best Traditional Style Furniture: $750
Best Texas Style Furniture: $750
Best Whimsical / Art Furniture Style: $750
Woodcraft's People's Choice: $300
Best Apprentice Furniture Maker: $250
Hill Country Turner's Choice Award: $100

Microsoft has dumb customers

Microsoft features 'real' people in their new ads who are looking for laptops and, surprise, they find that PCs running Windows are better for them than Macs.

The first 'shopper' up was the now infamous Lauren who says she is on a strict $1000 budget. Why such a strict budget Lauren? You are driving a VW Beetle that costs a good $10,000 more then a nice little Honda or Toyota. It's a vanity car. I don't know much about clothes, but yours look trendy and expensive. And, in the end, you are 'drawn' to one laptop because of its looks.

So, the idea that you are on a budget, or that you are too smart to get suckered into the Mac simply for its design is flat our ridiculous. In reality, 9 out of 10 Laurens wind up buying a Mac


Second 'shopper' up is Giampaolo. He says he is 'technically savvy'. He drives a Ford Probe, 'nuf said.

Also note that none of these shoppers seem to do any research until they hit the floor at their local Best Buy. That's just dumb.

I'm going on about this because it is really sad that Microsoft just can't figure out how to find an ad agency with a brain.

Oh, and I own a Mac (I got a good deal on it). And I run Windows on it. And I drive a Toyota Matrix. It's not pretty or hip (it is downright ugly) but it was cheap, reliable, and is like a mini truck when I put the rear seats down.

Buttons = Good

The 2nd generation iPod Shuffle was one of the most beautifully designed mass manufactured products ever (IMHO). Granted, it had the dreaded click wheel, but its size, shape, and the fact that it was basically a clip with a music player built in made it one masterfully designed object. It bordered on being too small to be practical, but it was still large enough so that it was possible to find after you put it down.

Ever the optimist, I thought Apple would improve the Shuffle by keeping the shape, but replacing the click wheel with discrete buttons that would be easier to find and distinguish by touch. And maybe add a little screen?

Sadly, this was not to be, the new iPod shuffle eschews buttons to the point of sacrificing usability. It is also too small and nondescript. Put it down and I dare you to find it again.

The controls are on the headphones which ties the player to the headphones. Don't like the included headphones? Tough, get used to it. It's Apple's way or the highway.

Why even bother having the headphones plug in? you can not change them, so a more fully thought out design would simply integrate them with the player. There is simply no need to have them as a detachable part. It's an odd oversight for a company known for its design prowess.

Granted, most people will probably still be able to pick it up and just start using it, but there are several features that will be opaque to those who don't read the manual. But, for such a simple product, should there even be a manual?

These hidden features are all based on audio feedback feature of the new shuffle, it now talks to you. I hate the idea of my audio device talking to me, but no one will know they are there, so I guess that it's a wash.

But why build features into a product that people won't use, that people can't use because they don't know they are there.

The hardcore Apple consumers, not the fanboys, but the ones that buy a new iPod every year because they break, or loose, or just want to replace their old iPod don't read the manual. They just want to pick it up and use it, taking the cues on how to use the player from the player itself.

It's just bad design to obfuscate the functions of a product.

Edit: Almost as soon as I published this post, I realized that there are plenty of good reasons to obfuscate functions of a product, especially software. Many products (like Microsoft Word) have huge features sets that only a handful of people use. So obfusscating those features clear up the interface for the average user, but leave them there for the power user.

Now, the iPod Touch is incredible. And now that it works with the Kindle Bookstore, it's even more incredible. I had a chance to have a look at a the Kindle App for the iPhone and, though it was a little small, found it to be a cool and usable eBook reader. Granted, I'm still young enough to set the type to its smallest setting, that does make a big difference. If you can not read it at the smallest text size, it becomes very tedious to flip the page every two seconds. I wonder too if it will also cause excessive eye strain having to constantly go from line to line as you are forced to with such short lines of text.

Gate Keeper

I have long had a sense that the collaborative process can go very well, or very wrong. I have witnessed a group being led, not by the brightest person, but by the loudest. In my experience, the loudest is usually not the brightest, far from it. I think this behaviour stems from the general rule: when traveling abroad in a country where you do not speak the native tongue, the best way to make yourself understood is to yell louder.

This describes one pitfall for the collaborative process, but there is another for which I have always wanted to express more intelligently then simply saying, "well, the head guy just doesn't get it." That always seemed unsatisfactory to me, because it sounds like whining and a cop-out.

Today I watched a video of a speech John Gruber gave at MacWorld. In it, he nailed the idea that has been floating in my head, he put it in a way that is much more clinical, almost a formula, "The quality of any collaborative creative endeavor tends to approach the level of taste of whoever is in charge."

dead wrong

I respect the heck out of John Gruber. He is smart, clever, insightful, and writes well. So it's something special when he gets it wrong. It's rare, but he did it today. In speaking about the new MaBooks:

What’s important to Apple about this process isn’t that it makes laptops cheaper. It’s that it makes them better at the same prices.

The problem is that the new MacBooks are slower then their predisesors. Their clock speeds have stepped backwards, not forwards and they are stripped of Firewire. Those two reasons are why Apple laptops got nixed off my list of potential next computers.

MacBooks are standing still in processor speed and price, but in this industry, if you are not increasing performance, you are raising prices. Oh sure, the GPUs are better, but what is that good for, games? Really Apple? Are you serious?

When I bought my MacBook, it not only had better features then a similar Dell, it was actually cheaper. Those days are long gone.

And to make matters worse, Apple still has one old school MacBook left, basically a left over the the last generation that comes in at $1,000. So Apple can say that they have dropped their price, but the reality is that the 'white' model is now the ghetto model, it says you did not have the cash for a 'real' MacBook. And this one is underpowered too!

The MacBooks now get completely spanked by competing PCs. Case in point, for $1275 I can buy an HP dv3500t with a 2.53 Ghz quad 2, 4 gigs of ram, with a 512mb geforce graphics card, running Vista 64 bit. This is all important because it will simply blow the doors off the MacBooks if you want to do some work with Adobe CS4 which, for the PC, will be 64 bit and able to use the GPU if it is a geforce with at least 512mb.

Hmmm, $1,300 for a pretty case, or $1,300 for a screaming machine that will rip the face off of CS4?

And about Industrial Design, when it is good, it makes stuff easier to use, increases performance, and reduces price. Apple forgot that this time round.

The new MacBooks are pretty though... Too bad it's only skin deep.

Texas Furniture Makers Show 2008

The ninth annual Texas Furniture Makers Show will be held from October 23 through December 6, 2008. It is held at the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center in Kerrville, Texas.

This state wide show is a growing phenomenon open to all Texas furniture makers. Because of the large pool of interested furniture makers, work will be selected for the show by a jury. Work accepted for the show will be eligible for the following list of prizes:

• First Place – Best of Show - $3,000
• Best Traditional Furniture - $1,200
• Best Contemporary Furniture - $1,200
• Best Texas Style Furniture - $1,200
• Best Whimsical/Art Furniture - $1,200
• Woodcraft’s People’s Choice - $300
• Show Committee’s Choice - $250
• Best Apprentice Furniture Maker - $250
• Best Furniture with Decorative Carving - $250
• Hill Country Turners’ Choice Award - $100

The awards will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the KACC on Saturday, November 1st 2008, 6 to 8pm.

Work will be broken into five categories:

• Contemporary
• Traditional
• Texas Style
• Whimsical/Art Furniture
• Apprentice

More information and entry form can be found at the KACC web site.

This year's show will be judged by three respected and knowledgeable woodworkers:

• Asa Christiana - Editor of Fine Woodworking
• Michael Fortune - Designer, teacher, mentor, and one of Canada's leading creative furniture maker
  
• Paul Sellers - Director of the School of Woodworking at the Homestead Heritage Village in Waco

The show also offers continuing education for furniture makers. This year, Michael Fortune will be giving his presentation, "Developing an Idea from Concept to Completion." One of the most intriguing things for any designer is to see how another designer works. No matter how long a designer has worked, there is still so much to learn, an opportunity like this should not be missed. The seminar costs $20 and will be held at the KACC on Saturday November 1st from 2:30 to 5:30pm. Seating is limited, so sign up soon.

The show is sponsored by: Woodcraft, Otto Dukes Machinery Company, and Fine Lumber & Plywood.

The Hill Country is a beautiful part of Texas, The Fall/Winter is a great time to see it, and there will be wonderful furniture! You would be crazy not to go.

How to create a thinking child, start with "Toy Book"

There is no lead paint in these toys (unless you add it yourself) and they are all 100% made in the USA (unless you live outside the USA). Steven Caney's Toy Book introduces your child to the world beyond prefabricated 'play modes'. If you don't like the idea of you child becoming a mindless automaton in a consumerist society, show him/her a world of his/her own making.

OK, so I'm being a little dramatic, but I like this book. I'm a designer so I am probably predisposed to the idea that your own imagination is better then the latest Spiderman toy. What is important about this book is that it not only gets some simple yet creative toys into your child's hands, but it also shows them that the world is not made up entirely of preconfigured blocks that have to be consumed as is. This book shows them they can deconstruct the world around them and remake it to suite their imagination.

This book has a series of simple instructions on how to make basic toys. One of the compelling things about these toys is that many are scientific or musical in nature, allowing you child to begin to 'play' with science or music. What a great way to get them interested in learning. The "Water scope" and "Water Lens" are two example of this, if you have a small bucket and some other household items, you can start to learn about optics and maybe demystify the pair of glasses your son or daughter just got.

I was quite excited when I saw this book, and bought it on the spot. I had Steven Caney as a design professor while I attended RISD. He had more impact on me then any other design teacher, he truly taught me to think outside the box. And yet, also how to deal with the practical side of business. After reviewing the book, I can safely say that a lot of Steven is in this book. He has a voracious appetite for invention and you can start to see the glimmer of that mind in this book. Two other great books by Steven Caney: Steven Caney's Invention Book and Steven Caney's Ultimate Building Book.

Texas Furniture Makers Show - 2007

Last week was the eight annual Texas Furniture Makers Show in Kerrville Texas. Another successful show with strong work and great judges. This year the judges included Charles Kegley, Rex White, and Thomas Moser. Rex White has had work in the show several times and had won numerous awards in the past. Thomas Moser founder of Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers is well respected and was really a great choice of a judge. I don’t know anything about Charles Kegley other then that he made for a good judge and was quite affable, yet direct when fielding questions about his decisions.

From left to right: Charles Kegley, Rex White, and Thomas Moser

As always, Jim Derby did a master job of running the show.

Jim Derby at the awards ceremony

I was asked again this year co-lead a continuing education seminar and this year I was with Alton Bowmen and Frank Stazza. It was a round table discussion this year and I think that worked out quite well. I had a number of photos I took at the ICFF this past spring and I had a little slide show of these. Frank did a great demo on handtools.

Frank Strazza’s handtool demo

I thought the judges first place choice for the show was a little odd, but generally I was in agreement with their decisions, including Frank winning second overall for his Jewelry Cabinet.

Frank Strazza - Jewelry Cabinet

This has become a strong show and it is always remarkable how a show limited to state wide entrants can draw such strong work. But then, Texas is a large state.

Jim Derby will start working on the Ninth Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show in short order, I look forward to seeing it!

Texas Furniture Makers Show - 2006

Time again for the annual Texas Furniture Makers Show. As in years pass, KACC has found three talented people to judge the show: Amy Devers, Christi Farley, ASID, and Jim Wallace. KACC is offering show participants a ‘review’ session with the judges on Sunday, November 5, 2006. This is a unique opportunity for furniture makers to gain insight into the work displayed. I can not emphasis enough the value of this session, it is truly unique. This session is open only to show participants.

The show is starting earlier this year: October 26, to December 2, 2006. The reception and awards ceremony will be from 6 to 8 pm on Saturday, November 4, 2006. That is the same day Karl Muench and I will be giving another class on furniture design: "The Art and Function of Furniture". Howard Hale will also be offering a finishing class the same day: "Essential Furniture Finishing Techniques".

The winners from the 2003 show can be seen here: http://www.kacckerrville.com/2004furnitureshow.html. And the work of David A. Petersen, a former show winner (2003 President’s Award), can be seen here: http://www.masterpiecefurniture.com.

If you find yourself in or near the beautiful town of Kerrville in November, you owe it to your self to see this show.

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

While in Louisville, we visited the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. It is located not far from several hotels and is close to many other museums and places of interest.

Second floor gallery

During our visit we saw a furniture show and wood turning show. Both were enjoyable and worth seeing. The museum works to share the art and craft of Kentucky artist, but also reaches out to weave in national artists and craftspeople. It makes for a good mix. The museum is spread over three public floors and has a good amount of work on exhibit, definitely worth a trip.

Fin Spin by Bruce Mitchell

The Museums gift shop is also of note displaying the work of dozens, if not hundreds of Kentucky artists. It is a show in itself and quite densely packed, so walk through it twice, or even three times to not miss anything.

The museum also has a permanent collection, part of which is on display. I was somewhat less impressed with this section. There are several good examples of ceramics, wood turning, and an exceptional quilt, but it also had some questionable folk art, or outsider art as some like to refer to it. I appreciate genuine folk art, but it is a title used far too loosely and it did not seem to fit well with the museum's focus on craft.

sweet new blog

Found a sweet new blog for people who like to make stuff, check it out: Make.

wooden bike builder

There are a lot of people building a lot of crazy bikes out there, but something about this guy caught my eye.

Rhino 3D

I just installed Rhino again on my fresh install of WinXP. I had forgotten how much I love that program. For those that do not know, it is a CAD program that uses NURBS to create complex surfaces. Simply put, it makes curvy stuff. It is very easy to learn and use, but it is not parametric, so one does need to know how to build a model in parts that can be modified later without having to rebuild the whole model. I usually do this with a combination of carefully saving all the construction input (curves) used to build any given surface and saving incremental versions of the whole file.

I had not used Rhino in more then a year (as I am now doing primarily web design instead of product design), but I was surprised how much of it I remembered. I just fell right back into it. I guess the thousands of hours spent working on it over the years had some permanent effect on my brain.

It is cheap too, it is $900 bucks now. But back when I started using it, it was $800 compared to $14K for PTC’s ProDesigner which is what I was using. ProDesigner was not only stupidly expensive, but slow, buggy, hard to use (like way hard to use) and quite limited. Over time, I completely replaced ProDesigner with Rhino for my design work which involved integrating with ProEngineer (PTC’s main app). Yes, not only did Rhino play nice with ProE (ProEngineer), over time, I found it easier to integrate then ProDesigner.

I pulled it out because I will be building a few pieces of furniture and will be modeling the design in Rhino. Yes, I do remember how to make furniture, astounding is it not? It is nice to be using one of my favorite programs of all time, three thumbs up (way up) to Rhino. Though, to be fair, Alias kicks ass, but was always just to expensive and did not have enough export options.

As for the furniture, I have a couple of new tools to help in the endevour. I won’t mention what they are until I have had time to fully test them out as a number of snooty woodworkers that I know will no doubt be looking down their noses at my new machines.

Texas Furniture Makers Show

The Texas Furniture Makers Show will be held at the Kerr Arts & Culture Center in Kerrville Texas. The show opens on October 28^th and runs through December 5, 2005.

This is the sixth year of the show which has consistently been filled with a an excellent and eclectic range of finely crafted work.

I had the pleasure of judging the show in its second and third years. It has come a long way since then and now the show is judged by an ever changing three person committee of highly qualified individuals.

Jim Derby, the president of KACC (Kerr Arts & Culture Center), has done a tremendous job of building the show. Ken Malson has also been instrumental in the development of the show.

The event just keeps getting bigger and better. Last year I was fortunate enough to inaugurate a continuing education event for woodworkers focusing on design. This year in addition to the design class that I taught, KACC is also offering a great class on wood finishing, which is one of the more overlooked, yet very important parts of woodworking.

This year, Karl Muench will be teaching the design class and Curtis Whittington will be teaching the finishing class. If I can manage to get there, I will be sitting in on the design class and putting my two cents in. But I am very torn as the finishing class is held at the same time.

I highly recommend all Texas woodworkers to submit their work for the show (it is too late this year, but start thinking ahead for next year).

For anyone interested in design, this is a great show to see. If you are anywhere near Kerrville, you really should go see this show. Kerrville is quite a nice little town in the Hill Country so stay and have a look around. You will be surprised by the number of galleries the town has, I know I was.