Fade to Play

During the lunch session of the UBC Town Hall I attended yesterday, there was a “usability situation” that I watched with interest. One of the attendees was having a difficult time trying to figure out how to press a knob or button to get hot water from the dispenser. Finally she called one of the Catering staff members for assistance.

She unfortunately was not much help as she say a tiny button at the top and pressed that but found it hard to keep the water flowing. Finally she was able to figure out that she had to press the lever down in order to get water.

Relevance: Usability issues confront us daily like a game to be solved in order to win a prize (e.g. win hot water).

Although I won’t be attending as I have a crazy May as it is and no $$ to travel to the Valley, I do recommend people head down to D-Camp which is a spinoff of barcamp because Rashmi is organising it, meaning it will be a top-notch event.

Technorati Tags: dcamp, barcamp, usability, design