Despite my continuing belief in the importance of symbols, I must point out that they are not a panacea and have some inherent limitations, especially if poorly designed, but even when well-designed. So when selecting […]
Author: Peter Sheerin
Peter Sheerin is best known for the decade he spent as the Technical Editor of CADENCE magazine, where he was the acknowledged expert in Computer-Aided Design hardware and software. He has a long-standing passion for improving usability of software, hardware, and everyday objects that is always interwoven in his articles.
Peter is available for freelance technical writing and product reviews, and is exploring career opportunities in interaction design. His pet personal project is exploring the best ways to harmonize visual, tactile, and audible symbols for improving the effectiveness of alerting systems.
BJ Fogg on “Why Simplicity Mattersâ€
While reading old postings on Push Click Touch (start at that post and go forward for a very interesting history of buttons throughout the history of technology), I came across a reference to an interesting-sounding […]
A Search for Symbols Opens Many Doors
I’m currently researching the design of elevator button symbols—the door open and close symbols, to be precise—and my search for reference material and real-world usage has taken me to some pretty bizarre places. My initial […]
Bookless Stanford Engineering Library is a Bad Idea
Stanford University’s Engineering Library is in the process of getting rid of 85% of its books, as it moves into a new building, and I have some huge philosophical and practical problems with this. The […]
Cartoons and Junk Food—Unclear on the Concept
I read with mild amusement and strong dismay the latest tactic of the nanny-state ninnies: Study: Cartoon characters attract kids to junk food. This is particularly interesting given that I’m in the middle of reading […]
Fail: Twitter Location Divining
Hey Twitter! I love the idea of being able to tag my current location in the Web interface, but it has a serious flaw. Your code assumes that it knows where I am better than […]
SF-PechaKucha #38 Inspiring
Last night was my third time presenting at the San Francisco PechaKucha Night, and perhaps the most inspirational of the four(?) events I have attended, partly because of the response I got to my presentation […]
Fail: Facebook Hides Unconfirmed Status
Now I understand what’s going on that bothered me in my previous posting. Since a Ping.fm posting was the first time I had tried to Like an item and couldn’t find the link to do […]
Failure—Ping.fm inside Facebook
There’s a cool posting by a friend that popped up on my Facebook wall, automatically included from his Ping.fm account. I’d like to comment on this posting. I know it’s possible because I see two […]
A Sound Proposal for Electric Vehicles
An article on CNNMoney.com published today, reports that automakers and advocates for the blind have agreed on a plan to add sounds to electric and hybrid vehicles when operating at low speeds, to help alert […]