All aboard the usability express; through product design!? Sometime last week I went to the store to get some sandwich fixin's. I picked out the normal ingredients such as lunch meat, cheese, bread, and condiments. I am usually kinda picky about the kind of mustard, so I go straight for the spicy deli variety. In addition I grabbed a squeeze bottle of mayo. (I could write a whole post about such a squeeze bottle, but that is for another place and time!)
Satisfied with my choices I head home to create a masterpiece. As I reach for the plastic mustard bottle I began to dread the fact that I will soon be fighting a stubborn seal to get this baby started. To my surprise, the manufacturer, French's, had added a plastic tab to the seal. I thought…
“Nice, that addition just made this product really easy to use.”
So now I was curious if my squeeze-o-mayo would follow suite. Sure enough, Kraft was on the usability train too. Ah, so now you see my point in all this. Somewhere between the mustard and the mayonnaise my brain related this deliberate seal improvement to web design, and all other forms of design.
We as designers should always be thinking about how we can improve the experience of our product, poster, website, etc. A small addition to a basic feature will go a long way, and will be appreciated by the people reading, using, and experiencing your creation.
- Usability
- 4/12/2006
- 10:06 pm