http://usabilityfail.com usability fails are everywhere and it's sad. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:02:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en From Sociological Images: Hewlett Packard (HP) recently released face tracking software that allows a webcamera to chase you around as you talk to it. The face recognition software appears to recognize lighter-skinned faces with no problem, but has trouble with darker-skinned faces. I agree with the original post that this probably has ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=341 Lately Volkswagen has gotten a bit of attention for their concept videos aimed at showing how making things fun can get people to do things a little differently. For example, turning stairs into a piano motivates people to forgo the escalator, and a trash bin with an unnatural echo gathers ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=312 From my friend Mark, usability as done by insurance companies: There are times when posting about a really bad user experience is simply an effort to amuse myself and my friends in usability, and so we can perform the all-important task of acting snotty and superior for a little while. ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=307 Ignite is an event where people get together and give 5-minute presentations on anything. The slides advance every 15 seconds and the topics range from stuff like chocolate to scrabble to information visualization. It's an interesting challenge, so I signed up to chat about hacking usability at Ignite Lansing. I'll ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=305 I come across good information design in surprising places. I knit, although only sporadically since I don't like knitting in hot weather and often don't have time during the semester. I often end up googling for techniques on how to do something, most frequently, increases and decreases, and well, Knitting ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=297 This has happened a few times: I'll be a little turned around and double-check with Google Maps on the iPhone to see the best way to get myself back to civilization. Google Maps will spit out a completely weird and convoluted way to get there. In fact, a couple of ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=285 After describing to a few people how I used MTurk for quick "usability" testing, I got enough positive responses that I thought it was worth writing up a quick report on it. One of my favorite things about interaction design is putting things in front of users. Actually talking to real ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=274 Spotted at Box Dog Bicycles in San Francisco: When the users have to fix the UI themselves, you've failed. Also, the annotation doesn't actually help you pick a language... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=270 You can have soap or water...but not both! When the faucet is on, it is impossible to squeeze your hand above the tap to get some soap. The odd part is that there was plenty of room next to each sink to fit the soap dispenser, which is what ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=263 Humans are lazy. We are incredibly lazy. So lazy, in fact, that we are reluctant to type those four extra characters: www. http://indiana.edu takes you to this: http://www.indiana.edu takes you to this: It's kind of like how http://lib.msu.edu doesn't load and http://www.lib.msu.edu automatically forwards you to http://www2.lib.msu.edu. Don't ignore your type-in market, dudes, ... http://usabilityfail.com/?p=237