Out of Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics, it’s number 1. A point that I’ve used countless times to developers and managers to encourage better design of products. Yet when it comes to a product I use everyday (and so do you), it never occurred to me that there was potential for improvement.
Do you know what it is?
It’s my bathroom sink, and many are the mornings that I stand there idly, watching the water run, waiting for it to get warm to soften the bristles of my toothbrush. Swishing my fingers under the water, to make sure that a feeling of warmth isn’t just the nerves in my fingers getting bored. And then the naturally-human superstitious behaviors begin. Turn the faucet on and off a few times. Turn the nozzle from cold to warm really quickly to try and remind the faucet, “Hey! I want you to be warm now!”
Nielsen’s first heuristic talks about the visibility of the system status, and the faucet in my bathroom fails miserably. But the other day I saw a gadget being sold on ThinkGeek that can turn it around. It’s an LED facuet light that turns your water a cool blue color. But for $7 more, you can get the model that turns red when the water temperature hits 89 degrees.
Now that’s what I call system feedback.
Wow, how keen! Man, I’d love one of those.. but I’ve always been a sucker for anything with flashy lights, glow in the dark stuff, etc.
correction: it’s feedforward. feedback is when my hands jump back when i realize the water is waayyyy to cold or hot. :)
i may be a dork, but that is by far the coolest thing i’ve seen in a while. you don’t know how often i say “visibility of system status” in my daily life. maybe because i have this inherent need to always know what’s going on so i can feel like i’m in control =)