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 und...
Nov 24, 2019•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Sep 13, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 document...
Aug 09, 2019•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 * Custo...
Jun 30, 2019•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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/201...
May 13, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 po...
Mar 14, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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://ww...
Feb 24, 2019•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ....
Dec 16, 2018•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Oct 28, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Aug 20, 2018•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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;...
Jun 10, 2018•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Industrial designer Gene Duarte joins Tim Keirnan for a discussion about the Pod Light and the Blade Multi Light, two of Gene's designs for Mychanic. As Head of Product Development, Gene tells the story behind the designs of these two creative and usable reinterpretations of the shop light. Tim has used them successfully for ten months and explains why they serve his needs in the garage and the house so well. Well done, Mychanic You can find Gene's Pod Light and Blade MultiLight at http://mychan...
Apr 25, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Molly Fuller from episode 127 returns to tell us about her Indiegogo campaign to fund development of more stylish and affordable compression clothing for teens with autism and sensory disorders. Check it out at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/molly-fuller-design-clothing/x/16724313#/ and http://www.mollyfuller.design
Apr 11, 2018•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Molly Fuller joins Tim Keirnan to discuss creating stylish clothing for teens with autism spectrum disorder or other sensory needs. Her clothing designs use compression as a form of deep pressure for comfort and relaxation. Medical clothing does not have to look medical and she tells us about her interest in fashion design in school, and her tying it together with her career in medical service design, including working at the famous Mayo Clinic. You can learn more about Molly and her products at...
Mar 21, 2018•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let it snow! This episode finds Tim and guest cohost Mike Velasco talking about the customer experience of snowblowers. Or snowthrowers. Tim relates his newbie snowblower customer experience with the Toro SnowMaster 724 QXE while Mike relates his long history with snowblowers in general and his Craftsman 881730. In a world where the word "innovation" is all too often misused by advertisers and Silicon Valley snake oil salespeople, the Toro is truly innovative. The light weight, the joystick for ...
Feb 28, 2018•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Accessibility expert Mike Elledge joins Tim Keirnan for an out-of-the-box critique of the Reizen 12-Digit Jumbo Talking Calculator. This calculator has many features that make it a good choice for people with low vision or coordination troubles, with its oversized buttons and display and its ability to speak values entered and calculated. However, Mike finds opportunities for improvement, including the typeface chosen for the buttons, the very small and distant minus symbol and other symbols put...
Dec 31, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Eric Penn and Ryan Claffey join Timothy Keirnan for a critique of the Ford FiestaST. We never pretend to be objective on Design Critique, as we are too honest. We admit our biases so you know where our opinions are coming from. In this product category, our bias is small sporty cars with less mass and great handling that let you feel what's going on. The Ford FiestaST is a hot hatchback that won our undying admiration from the first drive. Tim calls it the American MINI Cooper, and he ought to k...
Nov 21, 2017•2 hr 51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Syed Ibrahim joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Motorola MotoG4 smart phone. While the G4 was touted as an affordable, "pure, clutter-free version of Android", Tim's experience was anything but pure Android. Syed's expert Android wisdom provides a counterpoint to Tim's confusion and disappointment as the discussion ranges from the pluses and minuses of the G4 to the shortcomings of various reviews of the phone when it came out. Our conclusion is that, if the botched implementation of the G4...
Aug 22, 2017•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast We return to the Garmin Nuvi 2598LMTH to try Garmin's companion application for it, BaseCamp. Aravindh Baskaran is back to help Tim Keirnan try to create a customized commute route in to the office and upload the route to the GPS unit. This is a very informal usability test and Tim wanted Aravindh around because the first time Tim tried to do this, he was not successful. Aravindh has used Base Camp to create car club routes on back roads with the Windows version of BaseCamp, so he is acting as i...
Jun 30, 2017•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aravindh Baskaran joins Tim Keirnan for a critique of the Garmin Nuvi 2598LMTHD. We follow our usual critique structure that includes the following: Encounter Decision Purchase Out of the Box Initial Use Longitudinal Use The Garmin 2598 is an interesting mixture of excellence and frustration. On the positive side, we found that * The map screens, both day and night versions, are very well designed. * The voice sounds terrific because it is both pleasant stylistically and cuts through the noise o...
Mar 02, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Subaru WRX is a legend, and life is too short not to drive legends. The "bug eye" version of this all wheel drive sporty car from 2002 and 2003 was a success worldwide but especially in the North American market where it was the first time we got this car. Later generations of the car delighted owners as well, yet the bugeye models delighted customers in a unique way that the newer cars do not duplicate for all their recent advantages. What made the bugeye WRX so attractive then and to this ...
Dec 31, 2016•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast 2016 has been a bad year of manufacturers trying to force customers into upgrading their devices by user interface trickery. First Microsoft and their Windows 10 deceptions, and now Apple with iOS10 reminders that cannot be refused. In this episode, Tim describes Apple's failure to provide a "No" response in the iPhone's UI and the "nag screen" that repeatedly makes an offer the customer can't refuse. It's not quite as bad as the Windows 10 manipulation scheme was, but the increasing lack of res...
Nov 16, 2016•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alvaro Vargas joins Tim Keirnan for a thorough discussion of the customer experience of eReaders, in particular the offerings from Kobo. Tim is the newbie, having recently bought a Kobo Glo HD as his first eReader, and Alvaro provides the longitudinal review of Kobo eReaders, having bought four of them over time. His current model is a Kobo Glo. As usual, the discussion follows Tim's list of Customer Experience Phases: Encounter Decision Purchase Out of the Box Early Use Longitudinal Use In addi...
Jul 30, 2016•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brian Shunamon from the USA sent us a message so on point that I asked him if I could record it and publish it. As an Information Technology professional with corporate clients, as well as a guy looked to for tech advice by friends and family, Brian addresses the concerns of our last several episodes on Microsoft's customer experience mistakes with its Windows 10 upgrade policy and behaviors. He reminds us that enduring patterns of mistreatment is a bad precedent not only in our personal relatio...
Jun 23, 2016•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Microsoft hit a new low in their obnoxious campaign to upgrade customers' PCs that were Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10. The user interface is almost impossible to say "no" to when the dreaded Win10 upgrade message appears. Anecdotes about affected customers Tim knows and a critique of two freeware utilities that can keep a Windows machine under the user's control are featured in this short episode. When will Microsoft learn to respect customer's private property and offer an honest UI to upgrade t...
May 26, 2016•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tim Keirnan and Mike Velasco critique three generations of the AppleTV: 2, 3, and 4. Mike's experience with Gen 2 and Gen 4 provide a backdrop to Tim's first month with his refurbished Gen 3. It's 90 minutes of thorough discussion on three iterations of the same product. Where else will you hear this level of detailed critique on product design? Nowhere! And not one commercial to fast forward through.
Apr 30, 2016•2 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Windows 10 upgrade has become infamous for its pushy, hard sell approach and its "phone home" data tracking "features". Did you know the "hard sell" is known by such other fun names as "advance consent" and "inertia selling"? It's all about disrespecing customers' property rights, personal rights, and using people as objects for short term gain instead of offering them a decent value proposition. As recounted in this episode, even the technical implementation has flaws that result in a custo...
Feb 24, 2016•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast In service design and delivery, people are the user interface between an organization and its customers. This anecdotal episode recounts two excellent customer experiences with two seemingly well-run companies. Both employ people whose friendly personalities and professional skills, backed by efficient business processes, won them Tim's business. Story 1: WOW Internet makes switching from internet service provider AT&T Uverse painless and affordable. Story 2: A Plus Auto Repair & Transmission sh...
Dec 23, 2015•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Wayne Neale, CEO of Kaydak, joins Tim Keirnan for an interview that ranges across several topics: * Experience Design: From UI to User Experience to Customer Experience and beyond * Design Thinking * Service Design You can find Wayne at http://www.kydak.com/ The service design episodes of Design Critique Tim mentioned can be heard here: http://designcritique.net/dc32b-interview-cafe-design-with-tom-diab http://designcritique.net/dc47-interview-designing-the-ux-of-conferences-with-jared-spool htt...
Oct 14, 2015•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Time for a mobile episode! Aravindh Baskaran, UX researcher and designer, joins Tim Keirnan to look at the user experience of Android Lollipop. What did we like about it and what do we think could be better? With Android Marshmallow on the way, it's time to reflect on Lollipop's effectiveness. Android is used, in one form or another, by more customers around the world than any other mobile OS (stats we found on this were so inconsistent that we gave up looking, but Android was clearly in the lea...
Sep 07, 2015•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
