Insomnia

Yesterday, I was getting my car serviced (winter tires... you gotta do what you gotta do). While I was waiting, something caught my eye. Another customer that was waiting in the lounge stood up and went for a coffee. I observed as she stood there trying to figure-out how to get coffee out of the fancy machine. You know, one of those machines that makes single-serving "gourmet" coffee.

She found the drawers with the coffee pouches. Picked the roast she wanted. Then, stood there unable to figure-out where the pouch went. When she felt that the machine had humiliated her enough, she put the pouch back and made a beeline for the restroom. She made it back to her seat and resumed reading the paper.

After seeing this, I decided to go and try it for myself. I am a "muddler" I will persistently muddle through a problem until I reach a conclusion. That is the only reason that I was able to extract a cup of coffee out of the machine. There is no obvious way to open the machine up to put the pouch in. You have to first start the machine by pushing the "coffee" button. Only then did the drawer open and let me put the coffee pouch in. when I put the pouch in, it went right through the drawer and landed on the table. It turns out that I had put it upside down. After trying a second time. I was finally successful.

Did they ever test this machine with real users? That machine would have made a great example in The design of everyday things. It looks really good. It probably won design contests. But it makes the users feel like they are idiots.

Labels: design

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