01 Dec 2006 0014H

User centered design roundup (and Tivo-bashing)

Yesterday was a bonanza for user-centered design related news. When I cracked open my USA Today this morning, aside from the prescription label story, a judge has ordered the US Treasury to make currency more accessible to the blind. This will likely entail a redesign that should make the size of the bills different and also colored differently. No word on coinage, where the 10 cent piece is smaller than the 5 cent piece or 1 cent pieces.

There’s the story that Windows Vista is launching at last and with it the newest version of Microsoft Office. Vista aims to be more Mac like, which is nothing new. The new version of Office has had a high-level redesign, reflecting the vast numbers of user experience folks hired there in recent years, with the result that the top nav has been worked over to reflect user tasks instead of system objects. But although things are easier to find now, it’s also true that people will have to get used to doing things all over again, just as we were getting used to the old ways. This is true for many things.

Finally, TiVo’s about to become the next WebTV. The endgame has finally arrived for TiVo. I see ads on TV that are finally seizing on the importance of the brand to the experience, but, it’s a little late to be bringing out the Chicken. With no growth (in fact, a Q3 loss of $11m) and a big burn rate, I hate to say it, but we’ve seen this show before, folks. They should have licensed the technology sooner. Of course, it’ll be a much better buy once the company goes into court.

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