Passwords: Too many rules, too few brain cells...

Reader and friend Ben Jackson wrote recently with a rant about password rules - you know, how "they're all slightly different? (e.g., must have letters AND numbers; must be at least 8 alphanumeric characters long and cannot start with a number; must not be based on a dictionary word, etc.)" Like Ben, I have the same problem - these rules, especially when they directly conflict with each other (some must use nonstandard characters, others can't), break any system I might devise to automatically remember the password for any given site. And when that results in having hit the "forgot password" link, it can get even worse: as Ben observes, "sometimes, you can't even change it back to a password you used previously." Never a wholly pessimistic person, Ben does have a suggestion: "Why they don't remind you of their password restrictions when you get it wrong? ... I might at least be able to return to the frame of mind I was in when first presented with that asinine restriction, and re-derive whatever I came up with." It's not a bad idea, and it certainly might help with exactly these kinds of situations - but then again, reminding a would-be logger-in of the password rules might negate any extra security that they had provided. Hmm. Maybe the only solution really is rote memorization of hundreds of login/password combos - or just writing them all on a post-it on your computer monitor!

Mail Goggles - Saving you from your drunken self...

Friendships, relationships, and jobs alike can be threatened when alcohol is combined with the ability to communicate easily to anyone anywhere. Drunk Dialing is a well-known peril - but what about Drunk Emailing? Gmail engineer Jon Perlow used his 20% personal-project time at Google to build a safety feature against just that risk: Mail Goggles. It's a safeguard that kicks in late on weekend nights, which has you complete a few simple math problems within a time limit before it'll let you send your email. If it saves just one job, one friendship, one marriage - it'll be worth it!

Retirement Home Keys - Easy does it...

I was at my grandmother's retirement home a while back, and noticed something about her room keys: they had particularly wide "handles," wings that were easily 3 times as wide as normal keys (like the little one in the photo). And I realized that this makes sense: elderly folks have a tougher time with both dexterity and hand strength, so a larger key will help them handle and turn it better. Actually, it was pretty nice for me to use, too! In any case, it's a good example of making a choice with a keen awareness of the needs of the user.

Nebo Ballpark Vendor - Nine innings of convenience...

It may not be the kind of thing most people think of when considering product design, but the strapped-on rigs that ballpark vendors haul around the bleechers while hawking their goods are definitely ripe for redesign. Mario Weiss has come up with an upgraded all-in-one system called the nebo - and if there's a "better mousetrap" to be had in this category, it may very well be it. A backpack-mounted keg dispenses beer to side-mounted cups, over a tray that doubles as cold storage for ice-cream snacks. And it all leaves the hands conveniently free to cup to the mouth while shouting (pictured) and take exorbitantly high payments (not pictured).
[via The Design Blog and Gizmodo]

Ford MyKey - Forget Big Brother, here's Big Mother...

Ford recently announced an upcoming feature which will allow owners to program one of the car's keys to cause the car to behave in extra-safe ways, such as limiting top speed and stereo volume, using more persistent/annoying reminders to buckle seatbelts, and earlier warning of low fuel. The intention is that parents give these programmed keys to their kids to keep them in check - kind of like giving the valet parker a key that doesn't open the glovebox. And despite feeling a bit restrictive (and surely incurring the resentment of the offspring involved), it actually seems pretty useful - building these features into the guts of the car itself, rather than tacking them on as after-market add-ons, means they'll be much tougher to disable. The specific features all seem reasonable and well thought out as well - seatbelts, speed, stereo, and gas would be the first things I'd think of for safe and responsible driving. Now, will they build in a feature that shuts down the engine at curfew? Or maybe it's too "Cinderella" to have a Ford Focus turn into a pumpkin at midnight...
[via Autoblog and Engadget]

Buying Socks, the Amazon Way...

I've got big feet - size 13 - which means it can be tough to find socks. Most socks says "one size fits all!," and then in tiny print, "shoe sizes 7-12." So I thought that instead of trolling brick-and-mortar stores for their invariably smaller selections of big-and-tall socks, I'd try Amazon.com.

Big mistake.

Here's a screenshot of what I encountered, and why it confuses me, undermines my confidence, and is just plain unusable. First off, sizes - what's the difference between "King Size," "Large" and "X-Large?" Are they all the same? If not, which match up to size 13? There didn't seem to be any way to find out. Next, colors - check out that rainbow along the bottom row. Is it just me, or do several of those colors look the same? And how will any color look once it comes off the screen and is rendered in cotton? The color description boxes underneath - which don't match up with the color example boxes, by the way - certainly don't help. My third complaint: I just don't feel like buying a men's product called "fluffies." But maybe I'm just being stubborn there. In all seriousness, I understand that Amazon's whole thing is to combine the offerings of many retailers in one search result, so this kind of inconsistency is understandable technologically - but for the sake of the user, make some changes, and make it work!

Boarding Pass Circles - If it's "hand-drawn," it must be important...

Jasper over at the product usability weblog had a neat find a while back: airline boarding passes that are pre-printed with simulated "hand-drawn" circles around the most import bits of info. And ya know what, it's a pretty slick idea: no matter what font, size, or placement of that info, it won't stand out as much if it's "printed" just like everything else. But if it's circled as if by a real live person, it "pops." Still, Jasper makes an excellent point that this disrupts the task flow of the airline attendant, saying, "What will the ground stewards do now? Add another circle to the pass, just to make sure that you reall got the time and place right? The new design just might have robbed the ground stewards of an important way of bringing something to your attention." Good point!
[Uselog, and photos from the cranky flier and flyingismylife]