User Centered

Studying the design of everyday things

Plug & Chug: 2006 IDEA Awards

,


The 2006 IDEA Awards

IDSA and BusinessWeek article on products awarded for design. I guess any designs that come out in the second half of 2006 are just out of luck.

There's 108 of 'em, so saddle up and enjoy.

Shown is the "Talking Tactile Tablet" with a quote from Donald Norman (from BusinessWeek).

Another spiffy product was the Duo shower curtain rod. Simply, a second bar on your shower curtain:

The Duo is a spacing-saving dual-rod system that functions as both a shower curtain rod and a towel bar. Taking cues from behaviors witnessed in cramped bathrooms, the Duo acknowledges the common practice of hanging towels over the shower curtain to dry, often remaining there until the next shower, and redesigns the rod to make it more practical for such habits.


More cool ideas in desktop interfacesiTunes again, "Keep my music organized"

Comments

Kenneth Maagekmaage Friday, June 30, 2006 6:38:54 AM

Other interesting accessibility research for the visually impaired:

A camera converts images to arrays of pixels in a dental retainer, such that the tongue can "feel" the image and transmit the information to the visual center of the brain. The brain "sees" the image not through the nerves in the retina, but the nerves in the toungue.
http://www.wicab.com/research/vision/vision.html
(pdf) http://kaz.med.wisc.edu/Publications/JRRD1098.pdf

A camera converts images to sound patterns, such that the brain can recognize it as visual information.
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/

Both these techniques require training, but then again, so did we! From birth to age three, according to this interesting timeline: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/infant/page7.htm

DaveStu_Pedasso Friday, June 30, 2006 12:20:39 PM

Speaking of usability, why in the world would Business Week use an ActiveX control for switching between each item? With the update that Microsoft sent out requiring a click to use, you have to double click on a lot of IE browsers (which I have to use at work) to change the page, EACH TIME. What a PITA solution to a patent problem.

Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez Friday, June 30, 2006 1:15:26 PM


Yeah, I noticed that doubleclick in opera as well.

I should have used this link instead:
http://www.idsa.org/IDEA2006/galleries/idea/idea2006/index.htm it might be a little easier to use.

How to use Quote function:

  1. Select some text
  2. Click on the Quote link

Write a comment

Comment
(BBcode and HTML is turned off for anonymous user comments.)

If you can't read the words, press the small reload icon.


Smilies