I thought the best example in there was of a stove (or range). Most ranges have to have a diagram or labels under the dials to show you which dial goes with what burner. This is asinine design. It makes more sense to arrange the dials 2 x 2, arranged so the top left dial controls the top left burner, and so on.
What you say is that design should follow function - which is perfectly legitimate. But for most products design follows cost and if cost dictates that you can only build a single vertical board with 10 cm height (only one dial fits) then the design will echo this.
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The same thing with light switches. It doesn't make sense to have the light switches go up and down, but control lights haphazardly (maybe the middle light switch turns the lights off in the back corner, etc.) Once you read this book, you will NOT look at everyday items the same way. Every time you do, you'll be asking yourself if it made sense to design it that way. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
What bothers me most is the inconsistency of it all. The company I work for has all their windows close in exactly the opposite fashion like my windows at home. In the beginning I - of course ;-) - "closed" the window of my office by turning the handle the wrong way. The result was the window swinging wide open and busting the plants etc. from the sill onto the table and floor. One cactus nearly died because of this ;-)
So, often, we neither have logic nor consistence here. Clearly a worst case scenario.
I thought the best example in there was of a stove (or range). Most ranges have to have a diagram or labels under the dials to show you which dial goes with what burner. This is asinine design. It makes more sense to arrange the dials 2 x 2, arranged so the top left dial controls the top left burner, and so on.
What you say is that design should follow function - which is perfectly legitimate. But for most products design follows cost and if cost dictates that you can only build a single vertical board with 10 cm height (only one dial fits) then the design will echo this.
The same thing with light switches. It doesn't make sense to have the light switches go up and down, but control lights haphazardly (maybe the middle light switch turns the lights off in the back corner, etc.) Once you read this book, you will NOT look at everyday items the same way. Every time you do, you'll be asking yourself if it made sense to design it that way. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
What bothers me most is the inconsistency of it all. The company I work for has all their windows close in exactly the opposite fashion like my windows at home. In the beginning I - of course ;-) - "closed" the window of my office by turning the handle the wrong way. The result was the window swinging wide open and busting the plants etc. from the sill onto the table and floor. One cactus nearly died because of this ;-)
So, often, we neither have logic nor consistence here. Clearly a worst case scenario.
take care,
Calibrator
take care,
Calibrator