This is a picture of me trying to use a door in a hotel in Buxton. I didn’t even realise it had a door handle for most of my stay as it was so low. It wasn’t even an old door, just purely a case of aesthetics over usability.
And I promise i’m not a giant, the handle really is quite low!
Happy halloween! Trick or treat you say? Ok then, here’s a great treat for you! It’s a fun, free spooky halloween wallpaper for your iPhone, iPad or Android mobile phone. I’ve got this on my Android Galaxy S and it looks fab! 🙂
Keepitusable have produced a fab, fun and importantly, free ux poster as a very early little christmas present to you all. don’t worry, you don’t need to enter any personal details at all to download it, just click the image below then hit the big pink button to download your copy. alternatively, if you’d like a hard copy poster version to display by your desk, head over to their deviantART page.
A bit of Friday fun! Glance over the word image below and write down the first four words that you find. Ok? These are supposed to describe you. I’m not sure how accurate this is as I can’t find the original source online, but it’s fun to do.
What are the four words that describe you? Post them below!
For those of us not based in London, the Underground is a very strange and alien world that we have never experienced before. Having visited London many times, I am now used to the wonder and excitement of the Underground but for this article I will be casting my mind back to my first experiences and how bewildered I was by how staggeringly difficult the whole experience was. So let me take you on a journey…
Firstly, there are the masses of crowds, pushing you along, forcing you to go at a pace that as a newbie you really shouldn’t be going at. You want to stop before you get lost but you can’t so you slow down slightly, get pushed to the side and finally find a little space to get your map out. Back on your way you go. Now you get to a junction where you have to decide which line you need to take. So, you walk over to the large tube map on the wall looking for something large that shouts ‘YOU ARE HERE’ but there is nothing. You have no idea where the name of the place you are is in London so you don’t even know which vague area of the map you should begin to look for your starting point. You start looking in the centre, but you just cannot find where you are, nevermind where you want to go. So you look around for some help… in the north we are used to men in uniforms hovering about to guide you in the right direction…hmmm no such look here and all the passers by seem so pre-occupied and are rushing past you so quickly that you cannot ask them either.
Back to the map. Suddenly a lady comes over, also looking at the map so you grab the opportunity to beg her to tell you where on the map you are, but unfortunately she is also trying to find her way and begins to complain about the map. All you want at this stage is a list of stations so you can choose where you want to get to and it will helpfully tell you which line and importantly which direction (oh yes we’ve all made that mistake!) you need to go in.
You finally work out which line it is, yes the yellow one (it helps us visitors if you use this terminology rather than saying the name of the line). So you take the escalator, however, everyone strangely seems to know this alien rule to you which is you should stand to the right and if you don’t people will tut and push by you as if you’ve done the most horrid thing in the world. But hang on we’re in the UK, we overtake on the right not the left so where did this odd rule originate?
You make it to the platform and you have never seen so many people in such a small space in all your life!!! You consider turning back but it is impossible, the exit is totally blocked with commuters and the person on the tannoy system is telling you to move further down the platform. There is NO going back. There is an odd musty smell which makes you feel uneasy but how cute! there are rats running around on the tracks! Eventually you make it onto a train after lots of pushing and watching someone get trapped by the doors – what is all that about? What is this weird world where doors open and close on their own within a matter of seconds?
Suddenly, I remember that I was told by some fellow UX Londoners not to touch or look at anyone. But I can’t help watching these people because they are so fascinating. It becomes apparent that they really do not look at each other! I also notice people who get on, read a book for literally 1 minute before getting off – what is the point? How much can you really take in in a minute? But everyone is doing it…
I finally make it to my destination and pop into a cafe to reflect on my experience. I realise I’ve not seen any wheelchairs or pushchairs on my travels. Is the tube accessible for these people? I didn’t notice any lifts at all.
Now that I have been to London many times I have fallen into the trap of behaving in this strange manner myself. It is so easy to slide back into it. But it really is alien to the rest of the UK. The next time you see someone staring at the map or someone stood to the left not the right, just remember that it is your world, not theirs that is odd and you must forgive them until they learn the ways 😉
Please share your thoughts with me. I’d love to hear them!
Click on the above picture to be taken to a page (Daily Telegraph) where you will see the above lady spinning around. She will spin either clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on whether the left or right side of your brain is most dominant. This works!
Ok my macbook isn’t spraypainted red, but I have to give it credit for being the best computer I have ever purchased. It has made me go ‘Wow!’ which to be honest I’m not even sure had happened between me and a computer before. I find screencapture really useful and the ability to drag and drop practically everything makes things so easy and quick. The universal search function is a godsend. I could take up a lot more lines talking about all of it’s amazing features but let me tell you a bit about why I converted.
I had a Windows Vista laptop before my mac and I had it only about 8 months before it unfortunately started to behave like all my other ex-windows machines, annoying me every time I logged on to carry out updates, virus checks, etc, etc. Then Windows Media decided it would only play the sound and not the visuals of any video files (no matter how many times I followed the link and installed the file required). I always felt it was an uphill struggle using Windows and Vista was a massive disappointment (just trying to do a shut down was so difficult to find! – how many ways do you need to turn a computer off??). So I welcomed my mac with open arms and hoped it would make my computer life much easier. It definitely has and I continue to be more and more impressed the longer I use it. Totally the opposite of my experience with Windows!
Lisa Duddington 