Usability: May 2004 Archive Page

Amusement parks just wouldn't be amusing without all the warnings that we ignore.

• Whipper-Snapper Whiplash Worries
• Bull's-Eye BS
• Astounding Amusement Park Physics

--Dennis G. Jerz

--Cruel Amusement Park Instructions (Jerz's Online Reading Room)

Traditional sources of water collection are from dams, springs, rivers, streams and farm reservoirs, with the introduction of boreholes where these traditional sources of water are unavailable. Until now such boreholes have been operated by handpumps as the use of modern alternatives such as diesel, petrol or electric pumps are costly to install and have the concomitant constant financial burden of fuel and maintenance costs. --Children's roundabout solves the water problem in remote areas (www.roundabout.co.za)

Harnessing the energy of kids playing. Not as efficient as the system featured in The Matrix, perhaps, but still innovative.

I wonder, though... if, as the manufacturer's website says, the chore of carrying water has traditionally fallen to women and children, what will happen when a community depends on a patented roundabout play pump for its water?

My culture teaches me to let kids be kids, and not to give them too many chores. I don't know enough about the cultures being served by this invention to know whether people really would starve, or perhaps not draw enough water for proper hygeine, if the kids didn't have "fun" while doing it. By making water-drawing "fun", is that training a generation of kids not to do anything that isn't fun?

The pump installation also features billboards, two of which are designed to carry health messages, and two more designed to carry local advertising. The income from the advertising is supposed to pay for the maintenance of the facility.

In America we tend to be very sensitive about the presence of advertisements in playgrounds. I personally feel like a sell-out whenever I take the kids to a McDonaldland play gym.

Via metafilter, which points to some interesting discussion on worldchanging.

Since I started using computers, they've become almost a million times more powerful. Although big computers can be alienating, their evolution generally leads to a better user experience.... Although the bigger, newer mainframe had an actual CRT screen, it also had obscure commands and horrible usability. Worst of all, it was highly alienating because you had no idea what was going on. You'd issue commands, and some time later you might get the desired result. There was no feeling of mastery of the machine. You were basically a supplicant to a magic oracle functioning beyond the ken of humankind. --Jakob Nielsen --Thirty Years With Computers (Alertbox)

After a couple of hours of subscribing to favorite feeds, your news grazing habits will be changed forever. Just as TiVo lets you watch TV more efficiently, RSS readers do the same by letting you scan your favorite blogs and news sites faster or letting you cast your net over a wider range of material. --J.D. Lasica --Surf's Down as More Netizens Turn to RSS for Browsing (Online Journalism Review)

I'm only just starting to get into this habit, but I will probably try to use it to keep tabs on my student blogs next fall.

You will need the following items, depending on what you plan on doing with the orange:
1. Oranges, lots of them in case you are hungry or if you mess it up.
2. Two bowls, one to peel them over and one to put them in. It's important to peel them over a bowl because when you screw up and smash it (accidentally) you at least can drink its sweet sweet magic juice. --Mike Rubino --How to Peel an Orange (Tranquility Lost)

I've always felt that oranges were a lot of bother.

A great example of creative writing that riffs on the technical genre of instructions.