The Parking Meter

#UsabilityFail 001

This is the first in our series on usability fails. If you have your own fail to share, send an image to chris@usabilityhub.com, and I’ll test it for you and share the results!

Here at UsabilityHub, we see a lot of tests, thousands every month. While a lot of people test websites, mockups, logos, it’s often the non-digital testing that catches our attention. Bad design is not limited to the digital world.

In the world of User Experience these types of real-world usability issues are abundant. In fact, Don Norman wrote a whole book about user experience in 1988 frequently referencing doors, teapots (such as the one shown above) and of course digital designs that confound user expectations.

A #UsabilityFail occurs when designers or engineers have not properly tested how users will interact with a product and created something that a reasonable person finds tricky to use.

For digital designers, this could be a misplaced button, complex design, or an incorrect icon. Thankfully in digital design it’s often easy to make changes and deploy a fix.

In physical products, however, it is not always so simple. The time and cost of manufacturing mean products cannot be easily fixed, often leaving these products in the world for users to deal with as best they can.

We’re excited to explore these product designs and share with you the weird and wonderful experiences that exist in our everyday lives.