Sunday, January 25, 2009

exercise 4



I love my teapot it is transparent which gives you visual feedback for when the tea is ready. The affordances are very clear in the design. The lid has a handle which suggests it should be pulled upwards revealing a strainer for loose leaf tea. This can also be easily removed for tea bags. The physical restraint on the lip of the opening allows you to drop the strainer back in without it falling all the way through. The handle comes up over the tea pot and has groves on the underside that clearly suggest they are for your fingers. The spout informs you that it has to be tipped to pour and visual feedback of the curve of the spout and the tea coming out shows you where to place the mug. I prefer the handle coming up over the teapot to handles on the side. I have a steady hold on the pot and don't have to worry about hand being burned on the side of it. The spout is well designed and does not dribble tea after you have poured it. 
I hate the faucets in my bath tub. There are no affordances to show you which way the faucets turn and which one is for hot or cold water. The sensory feedback takes about a minute at first making it a pain to judge by trial and error. After a horrible first shower in my new apartment I learned the mapping: the left dial is for hot water and turns clockwise, right is for cold water and turns counter-clockwise. The physical constraints don't make it hard to find out which way the dials turn but in the middle of a shower when they are both turned halfway it is unnatural to change each dial a different way to change the temperature. The mapping goes against everything I am habituated to do. At the end of my shower I always turn off one of the faucets then blast myself with either hot or cold water before I get out because of these design flaws. 

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