Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Design Problem with my Speakers


Recently I read a book “Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman and suddenly I am seeing lots of design problems around me :)

I have a set of speakers which has 2 buttons power On/Off and volume. See below image.



1) The buttons are labeled
2) The functioning of the volume button is suggested by groove mark

3) Volume button is large in size than the power button
4) And both buttons has same shape

How will you operate these buttons?

The power button operates as a push button and turning the volume button
clockwise/anticlockwise increases/decreases the volume.

So here the two buttons with similar cylindrical shape are operating with different style. Don’t you think this is a bad design?

Now while operating the power button, whenever I try to push it, the speaker gets pushed back instead of only button due to speaker's light weight so every time I have to support it with another hand and then operate it.

Now see below image of another speaker



The buttons are on top of the speaker.


Both buttons are different in shape and have different functionality. The definition for them is very clear, one needs to push and the other needs to turn up or down.
 

How do you find it? I found it very easy to operate :)


2 comments:

  1. There is a more simpler solution for this use only one rotating button (We used to have this in old radios) which will start radio or any other equipment and further rotations will increase the volume. This will save one button and also solve the push button problem. This is used in dimmers and also in ceiling fan regulators. (Sushil)

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  2. Pradeep, it is great to see a developer thinking from End Users perspective :) To the design flaws you rightly pointed out, I will say - "They should have appointed us to test it before taking them out to market" :-))

    -Deepak Satarkar

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