Renaissance

There is a new coffee machine in the office and it looks like a space age gadget.  With the new coffee machine in place the trusted old coffee machine was abondend/retired for a short duration. The old coffee machine made a great come back by engineers popular demand. ( Is there a managements truth here? )

There is a reson why the old coffee machine was so popular among the engineers. It had pretty simple interface and most of all the error messages were clear. So everybody knew what to do when things go bad. For example when the container gets filled with the grounded beans, the old machine says

Empty the drawer

For the same condition the new coffee machine says

Ground beans full

The message “Empty the drawer” is simple and to the point. You have to empty the drawer to get the fresh cup of coffee again but the message “Ground beans full” is not direct and message is not clear and ambiguous. It is not asking the user to empty the drawer. I first thought that the grounded beans are full and I am going to get fresh cup of coffee now, only to wait for eternity.

We humans are designed to understand simple and directed message, I hope programmers/designers understand this and write/design more simple and direct error messages in future.

(img src : www.ffffound.com)

I get happiness when using the following the reason being way they are designed. The list is not in any particular order. These are things that popped up immediately.

1. Linux shell (Bash)
2. Apple iPod nano
3. Nikon F75
4. Launchy
5. Fountain pen
6. Google search
   
7. Gtalk
8. Spectacles
9. Vim
10. Blackboard and chalk

Check out Stefan Sagmeister’s talk on Design and Happiness

Another example for showcasing the Apple’s obsession with clean design. The keyboard has laser drilled holes and led blends with the aluminum.

Photo by Swmoortiger.

Here is another product with led, when it would have been better with out one. A bluetooth headset, the user is not going to look at it anyway. At times it blinks and makes others nearly blind.

Found these cute description at back of ipod nano. Only Apple can think of this. The new ipod nano is just beautiful!

Like a fine pair of jeans, the color of ipod may change over a period of time.