A look into the Stethoscope: Doogie Howser Edition

So this actually has nothing to do with Neil Patrick Harris, the kid doctor we all saw growing up (at least most of us, I guess), but rather what he always wore around his neck. Its the symbol we all know to mean, he/she is a doctor: the stethoscope. Every time I went to my doctor for my regular check ups, I would beg to play with his equipment. Usually, all I'd get was a quick look at his stethoscope and that thing used to take a peak into your ear. But I got to take a look at one of these stethoscopes again not too long ago because my girlfriend and her friends were talking about them because they are all first year med-school students.

As they started to talk about them, they said how it was so hard to determine which side you are using. I had no idea what they were talking about. To me, it only has one side. However, I was informed and proven wrong. The bigger diameter side is used to listen to adults, while the smaller, more acute side is for young infants (since their heartbeats are not as strong and harder to hear). Doctor's (or normal people playing with them, like me) cannot tell which side the stethoscope is currently set to. Instead, you tap a side and determine which is active. This is such a pain, literally. I hurt my ears by tapping too hard on the smaller side. It feels like a rush of extremely high pressured air comes and attacks your ear drums. Not pleasant.

It is strange to me why the designers of this thing cannot add a simple notification symbol of some sort that indicates which side of the stethoscope is currently active. It would be as simple as a red sticker. No need for anything fancy. All in all, this thing is a really cool device and fun to use...at least until you send a gust of high pressured are into your ear.

A look into the Roomba Automatic Vacuum Cleaner

Check out my video explaining how it works here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUqGRORw1CI

Enjoy,

Maurilio

A look into Asprial Clocks

So I was struggling to find another cool design to talk about for this week's blog post and funny enough, Jisi and I found it at the same time (I was on the same website just at the top of the screen). Luckily, he chose to talk about something else (I'll read yours later Jisi...). This device may be something Dr. Don Norman will love, or hate considering on how you present it. Its a new way of designing clocks that looks cool and is (actually) functional! Check it out below:


Really cool huh? The ball in the middle is held down by gravity and the clock spins slowly in the clockwise direction. So after a 12 hour period the ball falls through the hole and it's 12 o'clock (PM/AM) again! You may be worried about getting dizzy, but lets be realistic and know that it goes full circle in 12 hours.

So lets look at the design of this thing. When first looking at it you may notice that its hard to tell what time it is. The makers, Aspiralclocks.com, have recognized this as well, and have given customers the options of ordering clocks with several hashes that help indicate the time (like the picture over on the right). The addition of hash marks take away from the nice looks of the product as they become a bit overwhelming. Next, lets look at the mental model of this device. When reading time we expect the numbers to stand still and the hands to move. This is opposite as the numbers spin round and round. Next, we expect the numbers to the right to be greater to the ones on the left (in the clockwise direction). This is also opposite. So if it is 5:30, you'd expect the ball to be in between the 5 and the 6, with the 6 being on your left side. Nope, not on this clock...I find this a bit confusing. I guess this messes with the natural mapping of traditional clocks.

I wonder what Dr. Norman would say about this time-telling product, we all know he loves that beautifully designed watch...

A Look Into Nerf Guns (or our office downstairs)

So everyone knows about the arsenal of Nerf guns that we have downstairs. But has anyone ever taken a good,long look at one? I guess, analyzed it for its design and function? Well after messing around and throwing darts at the wall for a study break, I decided to sit down and actually learn how to operate one of those things downstairs. I was actually throwing the darts because I find it more accurate to do so, and I don't really know how to use the actual gun.

Take a look at the pictures on the right. I have included one that is fully assembled and then taken apart. There are a lot of parts! Five parts are included when assembling the gun, AND you are supposed to load tons of arrows into the magazine chamber. When I look at this, I think it has been designed this way for 2 reasons. 1) This is the actual mental model and design for real guns and 2) kids love things that can be assembled together, so why not make it fun in more ways than one? The fact that these things are made to fit the actual mental models of real guns is actually pretty scary.

Anyway, let us move onto the actual assembly of the gun. I actually like the gun a lot more now that I know how to use it. After taking it apart, putting it back together, taking it apart, putting it back together, and messing with it, I found a lot of interesting functions of the gun. They are all mechanical functions running the operation of the gun. I think my favorite is the ability to use the gun without the front ends (4&5) . It still functions perfectly well with just the magazine and the integral part of the gun. This is extremely useful in the toy market being that kids tend to lose everything they own. Next, I love the forcing functions you encounter when inserting any of the detachable parts. The scope on top (1) slides in the matching rails that force it in in the correct direction. Same with the bottom scope (4). The additional gun chamber located at the front of the gun (5) locks in beautifully by means of a match, twist, lock function. The magazine is actually a little tricky. If you were to look at it individually, it would be hard to decipher if it is perfectly symmetrical. It isn't. As you can see in the picture below, Nerf has marked the magazine with an arrow indicating which way the bullets have to face and how the magazine should be entered.

Now that we have learned how to assemble the gun, lets learn how to use it. This was an even trickier task for me. Once the gun is fully assembled you have to perform certain tasks to get it armed and ready to fire. Looking at the first picture above, you must pull the gray slider shell toward the back of the gun. This then gives a great confirmation that the gun is armed. See next picture on the right. It shoots out an orange tube with the word "ARMED" embedded in it. Excellent way to notify the user that its armed. Okay, so now you think you're ready for an intense foam arrow shootout. Not quite. As you attempt to pull the trigger, you feel that it is locked in place. This would put you in a really sticky situation if in the middle of a battle. I played and played around with the gun to try to figure it out. Finally, I found that you have to push the gray slider back into its original position to begin firing. Ahhh, now we're in business. BUT, there's one more thing. You have to repeat the pumping of the gray slider every time you want to fire a bullet, if not, you're left to a one shot miracle.

So that's it for the Nerf gun. I believe its the RS-C50 model for those of you who are curious. Hope the next time you're down in the office and want to have some Nerf battles, you'll remember this article and get a heads up on your opponent. Happy foam arrow shooting!

A Look Into Fountain Drink Lid Dispensers

Think back to the last time you went to dine at a restaurant that had free refills, aka exposed fountain drinks for your drinking pleasure. Have you ever taken a look at the dispensers? If you remember back to the beginning of the year, I brought this issue up during class. THERE ARE NO GOOD DISPENSERS OUT THERE. Every time I go to a restaurant I get really frustrated and irritated by the fact there are wasted lids everywhere.

Take a look at the picture below. I took this tonight while on my dinner run to Chipotle. This is what you normally see for dispensers. Unfortunately this picture does not have the lids laying around everywhere like they normally are, but an employee had just cleaned up the area. Anyway, there are several problems with these sorts of lid dispenser models.


First, the plastic that is used is extremely thin. Every time you try to pick one up, you get 2 or 3 or 18. However, I do not believe the plastic is the biggest problem with the design. It should be relatively thin so that material costs are minimized and there is not much waste.

Secondly, ALL of the lids are exposed! That means that people have free reign over all of the lids and can contaminate them as they please. Granted, people normally don't sabotage your lid just to sabotage your lid. But how about normal airborne contaminants? What if they happen to sneeze on your soon to be lid?? Gross.

Lastly, there is no way of determining what lid is meant to fit your size cup. "Is this the Large or the Extra Large??" That is normally the thought that goes through my head, but usually I find out that my size is the medium...womp.

What if there was a great mechanical device, free of any sort of electronics that could be sold at a cheap price to restaurants that can help you rid yourself of these common lid problems? This device would need to enclose the rest of the lids, dispense one at a time, and have a visual aid to help you choose the appropriate size with no confusion. I can see McDonald's and Chipotle buying these for every one of their locations. You heard it here (or in class) first. Sketches and patent to come soon...hopefully.

A look Into the iPad (Sounds like iPod but with a funky accent)

Yes, I know, I chose to talk about the latest product that Apple has come up with: the iPad (man that lowercase 'i' and uppercase 'P' really get annoying when typing). However, I'm not here to talk about how SWEET and AWESOME it is, but more to talk about how it seems like a funky size of an iPhone.

Let us first start by talking about Apple's really smart business plan (or will it be?). I am no Apple fanatic, so I immediately thought about the iPad like I do most sequels of great movies: pure crap and mere money makers (with the exception of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze). However, when you think about the human interaction that will occur with this new product, you start to see that there will be practically no learning curve. As seen in the photo comparison below, people automatically know how to use the new device.
The mental model developed with the iPod or iPhone can be immediately applied to the iPad. Additionally, look at the mapping (the one button on the entire thing). People are extremely familiar with menu button located bottom-center, so there is no need to learn anything new.

Now let me move onto my skepticism. So the iPhone is approximately 3 times smaller in width than the iPad. This means that the ability to hold the iPad firmly in the palm of your hand is thrown out the window. Without the fancy cases and stands shown on their website, I feel like this product will not be as fun to use. Sure one of the features is the ability to play new, sweet games, but how far are you going to take that? You won't be playing those fun little mini-games like on the Wii because I doubt you'll want to shake your new $629-$829 merchandise like a Polaroid picture (shout out to Outkast, I know its corny, but you'll live). Plus, I don't know how well something of this shape is going to create a well suited form for us humans. Personally, I would hate touching the screen just by gripping it and getting it all smudgy. And, without the nifty case, are you really going to type on a perfectly flat surface (carpal tunnel?)?

To me, this product is a blown up iPhone that will look just right in Yao Ming's hand (check out the photo of him and his new bike below) and will be extremely popular purely because its an Apple product. However, don't think I won't be proven wrong. I know Apple has a pretty good track record as of late and can easily persuade skeptics just like me in the next few months.

A Look Into Designing New Balls: Fifa, Adidas VS. NBA, Spalding

The world's most popular event is among us: Fifa's World Cup 2010 in South Africa (Shout out to Dean!!). Taking place every four years, sponsoring companies rush at the opportunity to create new products. Come this summer, Adidas will be celebrating 40 years of doing just that. Since 1970 Adidas has tweaked the design of the modern day soccerball to deliver a new match ball.

Starting off with the traditional pentagon/hexagon panel ball in Telstar (Mexico, 1970), Adidas has now evolved to a revolutionary design that uses only 8 "3D Panels" in its Jabulani (South Africa, 2010). This new design was inspired by the design change made in the last official World Cup ball, the Teamgeist (Germany, 2006). This new technology allowed Adidas to develop a ball that is truly round due to the reduced number of seams which, consequently, resulted in a tremendous boost in quality and performance. By building off of this idea, Adidas has now created an even "more round" ball by reducing the panels from 14 to 8. Fewer panels means fewer seams which means "rounder" ball. This design has 2 different panels, the "3D Tripod Panel" and the "3D Triangle Panel". Four of each are molded together to create a perfectly round half-sphere. The other half is created the exact same way and then added together to complete the full sphere. Check out the full evolution of Adidas' products and actual manufacturing process here:

http://www.soccerballworld.com/Jabulani_2010.htm

According to this soccerballworld.com article, Adidas partnered with several professional soccer clubs in order to perform user testing. As of now, and like the reviews of the previous official match balls, players have reviewed the product quite positively.

Now let us shift to the world of our National Basketball Association. In the Summer of 2006, NBA Commissioner David Stern and official basketball supplier, Spalding, eagerly introduced a new and improved basketball. As shown on the right, the new design flaunted a new interlocking panel system that allowed 1/3 more material to be exposed. Additionally, the ball was developed using Spalding’s Cross Traxxion, a microfiber material with moisture control that allowed for a better grip. The NBA was also enthusiastic of this design because it eliminated the need of the "break in" period required by the traditional leather ball.

However, unlike Fifa and Adidas, the development of this product was never run by its professional users. Even though it was taken through laboratory and on court testing, NBA teams were given the new product only after it had been designed. So come summer training, David Stern and Spalding began to receive numerous complaints from players around the league. Gilbert Arenas, Shaquille O'Neal, and Steve Nash were among the players to voice their complaints. Among them were claims that the ball bounced in an unpredictable fashion and became slippery when wet (so much for that moisture control).

An interesting fact was highlighted by a 2006 article in the Washington Post. Apparently, "The players' union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Dec. 1 because it was upset that the league switched to the new ball without consulting players." It's silly to think that millions of dollars were invested in making a new product that is supposedly designed to improve player's skills without consulting the players themselves!

4 l00K in70 7H3 vId30 94M3 W0RlD

(Translate the title here: http://www.jayssite.com/stuff/l33t/l33t_translator.html)

For those of you who have played video games growing up, this will be somewhat entertaining. But for those of you who haven't, I hope that you can still enjoy this post, anyway. I've decided to talk specifically about video game controllers and their evolution over the past few generations of consoles.

Nintendo, as we all know, has been the one consistent video game company throughout our lifetime. Playstation and Xbox consoles have only been around for about 15 and 10 years, respectively. To start off, I want to touch on the vast change that Nintendo has made in its controller design from its NES to its modern day Wii. As you can see in the pic on the right, Nintendo has gone from the basic 2-button layout to the motion sensing Wii remote. Both in my opinion were designed extremely well. However, Nintendo did have its hiccups when designing controllers for its other consoles. The quotes next to each sum it up pretty well (I censored the offensive language). Look at the N64 and Gamecube controllers. Why on Earth would you have a "three prong controller"?? I never once used the D-pad on the left. C'mon Nintendo...

Lets move on and look on the opposite sides of the Nintendo spectrum. The simplistic nature of the NES controller doesn't really give the user much chance of screwing things up. Move using the D-pad on the left, push A or B to perform actions, Start and Select in the middle for option and menu purposes. Thats it. Nothing fancy at all.

Now look at the Wii remote. Gamers back in the late 80's could only dream of such a beauty. The remote is designed extremely well, keeping simplicity alive, and utilizing the mental models of both a TV remote control and the original NES controller. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wii remote (I mean just the way it works, I'm pretty sure we all know what it is), here's a pic:

As you can see, it has very few buttons, just like the NES controller. People, especially those who have never played video games before, have really enjoyed using this product. The simple and intuitive design makes it easy for anyone to use. Also, one of my favorite things about this design is that you can turn the remote sideways and use it just like the oldschool NES controller! Sweet!

Ok, now onto Microsoft and its start-up of the Xbox. Sorry, didn't notice this is getting a little long (I'm a nerd when it comes to video games), so I'll keep this short. Take a look at the Xbox controller evolution below:

Just look at the first Xbox controller. Does it look like it was human centered? Maybe for Yao Ming and other NBA players, but for normal people? No. However, I applaud Xbox for its redesign because I really love the Xbox 360 controller. It fits in your hands perfectly, buttons are easy to access, and the dual joystick system is awesome for first person shooter games. So that's it from me. I'll leave everyone with a funny pic of the original Xbox Controller:


PS - I don't actually know how to type in 'L33t', I used that same site to translate from English.