Re: Multimedia

["IVB" <ivb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thx dude. I specifically pursued an "art-based" design b/c of my desire to
satiate the following non-techie relatives:
- Wife, who is a marketing person with a psych degree
- Wife's best friend, and most common babysitter we got, who's an actor and
is confounded by his iPod.
- Mother-in-law, who's a montessori school teacher and still won't use an
ATM or put gas in the car
- Father-in-law, who's an architect
- Brother-in-law, who's a schoolteacher
- BIL's wife, who's a real estate agent and prides herself on her ignorance.

I was looking for something 'accessible' to that contingent, all the regular
stuff seemed too clean and sterile.


"Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:zKGdnTxgtdQEp1zZnZ2dnUVZ_oydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxx
> "Dean Roddey" <droddey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:Cr9wg.70821$Lm5.58229@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Here are some more that a guy has been working on as part of his
> automation
>> business. They look quite nice:
>>
>> http://www.5280automation.com/interfaces/gallery/1-CarbonFiber-Home.jpg
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
> Really nice work, but not as interesting as IVB's work for a number of
> reasons.  The menu screens he's developed, like the one with the soap
> bubbles, not only seem to be easier to understand and more friendly to
> non-geeks, he's made the buttons different sizes and uses size to indicate
> the more frequently used functions.  That flies in the face of standard
> interface design where all controls are equivalent but in my view it is
> superior because page after page of similar looking screens and buttons
> tend
> to merge into each other.
>
> Typically, the most frequently used controls would be placed at the top of
> a
> list, but I like the larger buttons better.  They instantly and
> unambiguously communicate which buttons are the ones you're most likely to
> press.  The strong design elements on each menu screen also made it very
> clear what screen you're on and that's something that the high-tech looks
> tend to do poorly.  They all look very much alike and human factors
> engineers claim that's an invitation to press the wrong buttons.  It would
> be hard to confuse the soap bubble screen with something else and that, to
> me at least, is a very good thing in an HA control system (or any control
> system, for that matter).
>
> --
> Bobby G.
>
>
>