The title of the above presentation was actually, This Is Broken, and according to the explanatory text asks, " Why are so many things broken?" and then, "Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the 7 reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them."
This is a very amusing look around our shared environment with the focus on whether innovations within it help or hinder our day to day lives.
Essentially, Seth Godin is highlighting some of the aspects and concerns of Interaction Design, defined by Preece, Rogers, and Sharp as "designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives." (Preface)
This means that objects or technologies that have been designed for use in some fashion in our world should have decent functionality for the human user and, as Vicente states, "should focus on the physical and the non-physical aspects of the system." (p.24) For Vicente, results can be, and sometimes are, catastrophic:
"More and more, we're being asked to live with technology that is technically reliable, because it was created to fit our knowledge of the physical world., but that is so complex or so counterintuitive that it's actually unusable by most human beings." (p.17)
As I watched the above movie clip, I was often reminded of the usability goals as outlined in the Preece, Rogers, and Sharp text.
For instance, several of the sign examples were obviously not effective, as they confused vital information with spurious information so that the reader could not see the essential text.
The airport information sign was not efficient in providing speedy and important information to the traveler
The video thus provides some simple examples of what Vicente says are "unrealistic assumptions about human beings, creating a bad fit between people and technology." (p.44)
Listen to Kim Vicente discussing, The Human Factor
Hence my blog title for this posting points to the design process as broken as opposed to the item itself !
Is This Broken or Is This Design Broken? You tell me!
