Design Critique: Products for People

Charlotte Purvis joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about ensuring good user experience with customer service professionals. When we call an organization for help with a product or service, these people are on the front line of customer interaction. How well they assist us will impact our perceptions of a product and the brand of the company that sold it. Charlotte's new book is The Customer Communication Formula: How to Communicate with your Customers and Boost your Customer Service Brand. She talks with Tim for 40 minutes about how she created her customer communication formula, how she coaches customer service professionals in call centers, and the importance of having a professional physical environment for people to do their best work in the office or at home. You can find Charlotte at her website

www.charlottepurvis.com

The Librem 5 is Purism's re-envisioning what a smartphone could be and should be. It runs on Purism's own Linux distribution PureOS, which is certified by the Free Software Foundation to be free of non-transparent, proprietary code such as many commercial products use.

The "Evergreen" batch of Librem 5 phones is the first official production model, and possesses unique qualities not found in most smart phones:
* Hardware switches to turn on/off camera, microphone, WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular connection.
* Easily removeable battery for easy replacement.
* Easy access to replace the cellular modem and the WiFi/Bluetooth circuitry
* Updates to the PureOS operating system for the long term, not just a few years.
* Connection via USB-C to an external monitor.
* Does not inherently track customers' usage of the phone and apps.

As of December 2020, this "Evergreen" batch of phones does not have a sleep function, so battery life is very short. The microphone of this particular Librem 5 is described as sounding "muffled" and "under water" compared to other smart phones. Purism promises continuous improvements to both the phone's operating system and the Linux kernel that interacts with this promising hardware. At this time, the phone is not usable as a "daily driver".

Useful links about the Librem 5 including video tours:

https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

https://puri.sm/posts/why-fsf-endorsing-pureos-matters/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaRf8JBL7tE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aQp3twe7D4

Susan Weinschenk joins Tim Keirnan to discuss the second edition of her wonderfully useful and usable book 100 Things Every Designer Should Know About People. First published in 2011, 100 Things... has helped many kinds of professionals and students learn to be better designers.
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/100-things-every/9780136746959/

Visit Susan's company at
https://theteamw.com/

Susan has been on the show multiple times over our 15 years and you may enjoy hearing these older episodes with her:
http://www.designcritique.net/podcasts/interview-neuro-web-design-with-dr-susan-weinschenk/

http://www.designcritique.net/podcasts/6th-anniversary-episode-with-dr-susan-weinschenk-on-100-things-every-designer-needs-to-know-about-people/

http://www.designcritique.net/podcasts/panel-the-state-of-the-internet-user-experience-in-2011/

We're 15 years old! Tim Keirnan is joined by show co-founder Tom Brinck plus UX legend Stephanie Rosenbaum for a celebration of the show's 15th anniversary. From July 2005 to October 2020, we've kept going when other shows faded away. Where did the time go? But time discussing product and service design is always well spent.

Tom and Stephanie continue our discussion series on the buzzwordification of UX--the good and the bad of our terminology becoming popular in the past five years--and memories from 15 years of doing the show.

Thanks everyone who listened, wrote, and guested on the show. We're proud of 15 years of commercial-free discussions on design.

Tim and Tom

This is a short episode on the dark pattern of not allowing a customer to leave a service without unnecessary effort.
The Sunday Times website does not allow users to cancel their digital subscription on the site. It took a 15 minus chat online to accomplish what should take one minute and a couple clicks. Hear all about it and think about what decisions like this mean to an organization hell-bent on annoying customers.

The Dark Patterns website referred to in this episode is at
https://darkpatterns.org

They do a really good job writing about and classifying  dark patterns. Thank-you, Harry Brignull and Alexander Darlington.

The Sunday Times article on the French philosopher Levy is at
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bernard-henri-levy-interview-coronavirus-has-sent-the-world-into-psychotic-delirium-lz5sn8gnn

Kelly Goto, owner and principal of gotomedia and gotoresearch, joins Timothy Keirnan for a discussion about universal design and related topics. Dave M-R and Tim discussed Kelly's excellent 2018 article about professional terminology in episode 135 last year. Now she is on the show herself to cover a fun range of topics, including

• Universal Design,
• Inclusive Design,
• Accessibilty,
• Japanese design, and
• Designing for an aging population

It's 45 minutes of serious discussion that doesn't take itself too seriously. Kelly provided the following links to continue the learning after you're done listening:

https://www.gotoresearch.com/2020/02/27/the-era-of-adaptive-experiences-rethinking-universal-and-inclusive-design/

http://www.universaldesign.com/
(great story about Target in there -- it is a "design for all" store.

http://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/

https://www.service-design-network.org/

https://www.ageinplacetech.com/
( a tech blog run by a friend / colleague of mine)

Larry Rusinsky returns to the show to help Tim critique the Bose QuietComfort 25 acoustic noise canceling headphones. The links referred to in the episode include:

How Noise Canceling Headphones Work

Comparison of the Bose QuietComfort 25 with the 35

Bose: Why Audiophiles Should Stop the Hate

Bose Store Locator

Chief Phillips of the Plymouth Township Fire Department has the mind of a firefighter and the heart of a User Experience designer. Join him and Tim Keirnan for a sequel to our pumper truck design episode, this time to discuss the design of our  township's new ladder truck.

How does the purpose of a ladder truck differ from a pumper truck? What did the fire department learn from ordering and using the pumper truck that improved their design of the new ladder truck? How is the human machine interface (HMI) of the ladder truck made to be as easy as possible for firefighters, including controlling the ladder and hoses and foam generator?

Our discussion lasts 60 minutes and covers a wide range of anecdotes, from the scenes of emergency incidents, to the design specification reviews, to the shop floor of the Pierce factory where our truck was built.

Tesla Model 3 owners Ryan Malcolm and Syed Ibrahim join Tim Keirnan for a thorough critique of their cars while Tim moderates this ad-free, in-depth discussion. We follow the show's Critique by Values model to learn how Ryan and Syed experienced each of the phases of product experience:
Encounter
Decision
Purchase
Initial Use
Longitudinal Use

This is not a review of the car as much as it is a conversation about people's transportation needs and how the Model 3 fit into their current lives. Of course, aspects of the car are discussed throughout. As usual, we leave no stone unturned in a detailed, people-centered discussion unhindered by commercials.

You can find Ryan at his YouTube channel, which includes track day footage of his Model 3:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Ryephile/featured

You can find Syed at his website at:
https://www.syedibrahim.me/

Dr. Rebecca Grier joins Tim Keirnan for a wordcast episode about Fitts' Law and Fitts' List. Who was Paul Fitts and how did this legendary psychologist impact our design professions to this day?

In a beautiful bit of synchronicity, Wired magazine published this excellent article about Fitts and Chapanis solving a design problem on the B-17 Flying Fortress during WWII.:
https://www.wired.com/story/how-dumb-design-wwii-plane-led-macintosh/

Dr. Grier recommends the following links to use in our understanding of Fitts' work:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/fitts-law-tracking-users-clicks

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-information-capacity-of-the-human-motor-system-Fitts/634c9fde5f1c411e4487658ac738dcf18d98ea8d

https://fampeople.com/cat-paul-fitts

https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Paul_Fitts

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10111-011-0188-1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351978915006423

https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/paul-m-fitts-XSLBZF59k5

You can find Dr. Grier at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-grier-ux/

Jared Spool and Dana Chisnell join Tim Keirnan for a conversation about what Tim is calling the "buzzwordification" of UX. Has the increasing notoriety of this profession label helped us? Has it hindered us? Maybe it's a balance of pro and con. Maybe we just need to meet in a rental car in a parking garage somewhere in Dearborn and hash it out.

Jared can be found at User Interface Engineering and the Center Centre school. Check the UIE site for his upcoming appearances in a city near you.

Dana can be found at the Center for Civic Design. She is also, among many other wonderful things, the co-author of the legendary Handbook of Usability Testing 2nd Edition. She travels, too. Meet her if you can.

This is the second in a series of indeterminate length. While not linked in any way beside the topic, you may also be interested in listening to the first conversation in the series with Serena Rosenhan and Keith Instone.

Mike Velasco joins Timothy Keirnan to critique the E-sds HDMI 2 Port KVM Switch Box. This item enables the use of two computers with a shared keyboard (K), video monitor (V), and mouse (M). The holistic excellence of this product is surprising.

When a company does the mundane as well as this product, it shows what can be done with all details gotten right. From its excellent user interface, to its rugged build quality, to its beautiful packaging, to its well-written and well-illustrated documentation, E-SDS did everything right. This is what a good team can accomplish when value, rather than cost, is the focus for the customer. It also proves that goods made in China can be of terrific quality.

Even the sales entry on Amazon.com is done extraordinarily well and ,while this show does not have nor want affiliate links, we’re going to put the Amazon link here so you can see how well the catalog entry was done. It has all the photos and text one would need to make a good decision.
https://www.amazon.com/Supports-Auto-scan-Hot-Key-Netware-HDMI1-4v/dp/B07DFFFPR7?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_11891183011

Paul Axente, host of meetup group UX City and producer of the new Design Conversations podcast, joins Tim Keirnan for a wide-ranging discussion about UX in Romania and other topics, including:
* UX City's purpose and meetings
* Paul's unique route to a UX career
* The Design Conversations podcast
* Dark patterns in online retail
* Concerns about Amazon's long-term effects on customers and communities
* Paul's reservations about "corporate command" in the design process
* Ethics of design
* Customer experience of the video game industry (it's bad) but the promise of independent gaming companies who design for great games and for customers instead of only to make money.
* The trap of people confusing tools with design skills. "What is the best tool for design? YOU are the best tool for design."

If you are in Romania (and even if you're not!), look up UX City here:
https://www.uxcity.net/

You can find the Design Conversations podcast in many places, including UX City.net and https://www.buzzsprout.com/245555

Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus returns to talk with Tim Keirnan about labels for our field. This continues our long-running friendly discussion about what we call our profession and why, and is there a difference--or should there be--between User Experience and Customer Experience? Dave appreciates the terminology differences whereas Tim wonders why we make such fine distinctions when at the root level we're all  "Designers of Stuff".

Kelly Goto's excellent 2018 article:
https://www.gotoresearch.com/2018/04/11/x-marks-the-spot-in-experience-design-thinking-ux-vs-cx-vs-service-design/

Jared Spool's excellent article published the day we recorded this episode. I think Jared's a mind reader!
https://articles.uie.com/ux-and-cx-same-language-different-dialects/

NOTE: Tim regrets interrupting Dave too much in a shocking lapse of bad hosting etiquette...he was hopped up on cough syrup at the time of this recording, which you can hear in his deep head cold voice breaking worse than Peter's in that episode of The Brady Bunch.
https://tv.avclub.com/the-brady-bunch-dough-re-mi-1798222209

Keith Instone and Serena Rosenhan both return to the show for an episode about UX and "buzzwordification". The last 3-4 years have seen a big rise in the use UX terminology in the media and among coworkers. What are the advantages and disadvantages for UX practitioners now that UX has become popular beyond academia and professional societies? Tim Keirnan sets up the roundtable discussion and the wisdom pours out of these two veteran UX professionals.

The fireplace crackling gets a bit loud at points but plying guests with food, drink, and fireplace ambience is part of our recording process. You can find Serena at
www.linkedin.com/in/serenarosenhan

You can find Keith at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithinstone/

Syed Ibrahim returns to the show to talk with Tim about his side project, Shoutouts.app.
Syed's story of creating this web application is a terrific example of doing a minimum viable product. He candidly shares both advantages and disadvantages of releasing an MVP, and walks us through the details of having an idea, acting on it to create something that works at a basic level for a specific audience, and getting it out there to continue learning and enhancing it.
You can find Syed at
https://www.syedibrahim.me

One of the best definitions of MVP is from Frank Robinson who created the term around 2000, see
http://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/

Ben Woods joins Tim Keirnan for a single point perspective on the Fiskars StaySharp Max reel mower. Needing neither gasoline nor electricity, this lawnmower is completely powered by the user to cut the lawn.

Ben discusses the values that led to his wanting this mower and his experience with it over several summer months of use. As usual we follow the critique structure to learn his experience with

• Encounter
• Decision
• Purchase
• Out of the Box
• Longitudinal Use

Ben can be found at www.dbenwoods.com.

Fire Department Chief Dan Phillips joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion about designing the new fire engine for Plymouth Township, Michigan. How does a fire department decide which features are most needed, most wanted, and affordable for a given budget and for the the engine's coverage area?

Unlike most passenger cars, a new fire engine is custom built and takes ten months to deliver. Their cost is over half a million US$. The pressure is on a department to get it right, because the service life of a fire engine is 15 years active duty and 5 additional years in reserve. The new engine balances several values:
* Provide safety for the local citizens and their property
* Provide safety of the firefighters who use the truck every day
* Provide good financial stewardship of limited public resources to get the best solution for the budget.

You can see our Public Safety Committee's short documentary videos on the obsolete current fire engines at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClTidKC6ZDUJVLoWedD5_gA

Our first new fire engine is a Pierce Enforcer. Check out Pierce's website for the Enforcer and other models they make:
https://www.piercemfg.com/

Thank you to the men and women working in fire departments everywhere.

Author Giles Colborne returns to Design Critique to talk with Tim Keirnan about the new second edition of Simple and Usable: Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design.

Simple and Usable is one of the best books on UX we've owned in our careers. The contents are simple and usable just as the title promises, and this is one book that both practitioners and stakeholders will benefit from reading.

Giles and Tim talk for 40 minutes about various topics including

• Giles' career having progressed along with the UX profession across the decades, moving from basic website design to service design to organizational design.
• The physical design of the book reflects the theme, and the publisher did not stray from the successful book design of the first edition.
• How "get out of the office" is still of prime importance today and the crucial importance of field research with our users.
• Types of users Giles has observed in his career: experts, willing adopters, mainstreamers.
• The seductive danger of relying on expert users in our designs.
• How Alan Cooper's method of Personas has been undermined by some practitioners' use of person-less personas when they haven't even talked with or observed actual users. How this risks the integrity of the design profession as much as a user-less usability test would.
• Working with stakeholders on design projects. Being teacher or facilitator as opposed to "persuader".
• Don't rush into design. Understanding what's core takes time.

Simple and Usable can be found at its entry on publisher Pearson/NewRiders site.

Mike Velasco joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Milwaukee 13" Jobsite Work Box. This tool box is oriented vertically in contrast with conventional tool box designs, which provides both advantages and disadvantages. While Mike enjoys the design and uses his tool box regularly, Tim has not been as impressed despite the numerous positives of the product's design and construction. This is why we do the show! Good designs of even "simple" products like a tool box cannot always please every user; people are so different.

As usual, we structure our critique around the following points:
* Encounter
* Decision
* Purchase
* Initial Impression (out of the box)
* Longitudinal review

You can find the tool box at Milwaukee's site here:
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/Storage-Solutions/48-22-8010

Note that product photography usually involves very bright lighting, and in this case Tim was not expecting the interior to be as dark as  the product photos appeared. The photo on the Design Critique blog page is not using a flash for a more accurate representation of what a user sees when looking into the box for tools along the bottom.