How Something Can Blow And Still Suck

I need to vent at an everyday device, the Dyson Airblade (lots of airflow puns rising up out of this one).

Do you recognise the Dyson Airblade? You should, they are drifting up everywhere like strange alters to the god of hygiene. For those of you without such refined tastes in electronic bathroom equipment, the Dyson Airblade is a revolutionary product for hygienically drying your hands in after using the bathroom facilities. 

A noble cause and important cause, let me make that clear. I don't dispute the Airblade's goals. From the moment I first saw one several years ago, I thought we were entering a new age in hand-drying technology. I was sure it was a short step before I had my jet-pack, levitating care and self-cloning. Needless to say, such technological fantasies have have yet to arrive. 

At least then, with my Airblade, I could hope for an excellent hand-drying experience. Sadly, that is not to be. What is wrong with the Airblade and why should a user experience / human factors designer care? Because the experience sucks. Or is it blows? I'm pretty sure the Airblade does a little of both. 

Using the Airblade is deceptively simple, the user inserts their hands in the hand shaped slots and massive torrents of air blast out of the machine to suck/blow the water off your hands. Like "Blades of air" apparently.

So what happens when I try this seemingly simple task? Well, my hands rattle against the front and back of the device like oars in an unsteady current. I have tried dozens of these machines and the airflow pressing against each side of my hand is still un-even. The machine may not be designed to deliver uneven airflow, but the team has seemingly not accounted for my own limited target finding capabilities.

It is nearly impossible to get my hand directly into the 'sweet spot' where the two air currents are theoretically supposed to cancel each other out. Instead, due to the narrow slot, I end up rattling back and forth in the machine, rubbing my nice clean hands all over its rubberised rim like an out of control bumper car. 

So now I'm bruised and frustrated. And by the way my hands are still wet. Like a concert pianist I prepare myself for one more assault on the machine, carefully slipping my hands down in the orifice, hoping to avoid becoming another Airblade crash statistic. This time, with muscles locked against the airflow and teeth gritted I manage to hold some sort of wobbly position near the center of the airflow.  

So what happens next?

A spray of water bursting up from the machine and coating my face. 

Nice.

Do I know why? No. Does it happen all the time? No. About 50 % of the time when using a Dyson Airblade. Have I ever had it happen when using a classic old "non-hygienic" hand-drier. No.

The thing I am most curious about is whether I am unique? 

Nope.

With a bit of Google-fu I just found a Malcolm Cranmer who makes the same complaint about positioning in the Airblade. I am sure where there is two there is more!

Soon there will be a revolution for the return of the seething hot jet engine hand driers that blast a torrent of air down past your hands and across the tile. No doubt stirring up a whole lot of nasties on the way. But boy don't your hands feel nice and dry. 

 For now, Christopher 0, Airblade 1.

Massage, Match Marriage, Immigration

All in one session? I love street signs. They are the human equivilent of the Peacock's tail.  

Distraction By Design

Where are all the Human Factors engineers when you need them. Especially in the design of dynamic control interfaces. One on the most common dynamic control interfaces is the humble, but ever so prevalent, car dashboard. Driving is fundamentally a dynamic control task, with tens if not hundreds of perceptual adjustments and reassessments occurring constantly.

Heading, Possible collisions, Conditions and usually be assessed by looking outside the car.

Velocity, the most crucial of all numerical variables, is accurately measured by the speedometer and is often the largest and most visible gauge on the drivers dashboard.

So why is the radio portion of the dashboard so big and bright? Granted, the massive glowing panel can be darkened, but not by default.

Is it more dangerous to have a non-essential panel dark by default versus highly visible (but potentially distracting)?

My Magazine Ignores Touch Input

I'm sure this video has done the rounds, but for me, it is so personal. I am young enough to enjoy the technological revolution and old enough to just remember the first home computers.

Watching this little girl struggle with printed matter seems an amazing portent of the next 10 years.

Shellshock. Whiplash. Overload.

What a month or so. Give me half a chance I am sure I will be sitting on a park bench somewhere in 50 years time reminiscing about the two months from September to October '11, 'them were big ones'.

Demibooks, the company I co-founded reached a funding milestone.

There was the release of an apparently deflating iPhone 4S. However, the rush of sales that proved many a pundit wrong or irrelevant. The iPhone 4S is selling like the proverbial hotcakes. It may have something to do with the super sexy Siri (Hal 9000's little sister). The age of the talkative machine is coming and no one knows where it well end (as long as it doesn't end like it does in the movies!)

An IT industry rocked by the news of Steve Jobs death, something that seemed unexpectedly and perhaps irrationally to affect the world at large. A single death that had a much deeper impact on those working in user experience and design.

For a company that appears to scorn the classic UX techniques, they sure produce a vast number of incredible technological hits that in turn create large scale social change. Devices that have pushed experience into the frontal lobes of technologists worldwide.

The Kindle Fire, the first tablet (other then the iPad) that seems to hit a sweet spot of gear + content.

Apple and Samsung take it to the patent ring to duke it out.

Facebook Timeline. Your Life digitized in one long timeline.

Technologies like Tumblr, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook mobilizing civilian armies worldwide to protest socio-economic inequality. Protesters using twitter as a political platform (again) when occupying Wall Street.

Meanwhile, the cynical could argue that the froth of high-technology and social movement has done little to address truly wicked problems, like a famine threatening to break out in the Sudan.

Truly a month made of equal parts joy, sadness, devastation and hope.