The (Mythical) Worn-Once Valet

Rain Noe recently wrote at Core77 about a hypothetical piece of furniture: a place to put clothes that are somewhere between clean and dirty. Worn once or twice, but not yet ready for the laundry. Right now, these clothes have no good home - they're either put back with clean clothes, or left haphazardly out, creating a mess. The closest thing Rain's found to this mythical product is Ounce, a project by MFA design students, but I agree, that it may deserve to be its own product category. Maybe it'll catch and maybe not - but give it a chance!

Other Options: Surprise me!

I'm relatively new to workplace messaging app Slack, so maybe I'm a little slow to pick up on their irreverent brand of design. But I still didn't expect this particular checkbox to appear in the Advanced Settings menu - and who could resist the temptation to click it? I couldn't resist it. But I won't spoil the surprise.

Ruggie, the alarm-clock mat you don't need.

This is Ruggie, an alarm clock which only turns off when you get your lazy butt out of bed and stand your full weight on its fleece-covered memory foam ("the most comfortable thing you’ve ever laid your feet on"). Okay... But why can't I get the same advantage from any other alarm clock by simply placing it out of reach, and save (an "estimated retail value" of) a hundred bucks?
[via Gizmodo]

Apple Mouse: Charging as an afterthought

Here's an image from Gizmodo's Adam Clark Estes, who describes it as the "sad reality" of charging Apple's Magic Mouse 2. This is charging - a necessary thing! - as an afterthought, not integrated into real usage scenarios or given its own usability consideration. And Apple's done it before. It reflects a complete prioritization of the other 99% of the product experience, which is a viable decision - but still, it feels lacking. That poor mouse, stuck on its back like an overturned turtle? Sad indeed!
[Gizmodo]

Lego Slippers eliminate the only bad thing about Legos

Legos rank right up there with the greatest products of all time. But when you - I mean, "your kid" - is in the middle of an epic room-size build, they become a minefield of potential foot pain. So, advertising agency Brand Station created what are unfortunately a limited run of Lego-proof slippers: just as blocky as Legos themselves, but a savior to parents' feet everywhere!
[via Gizmodo]

Watch out for design crashes...

People design network cables and add nice features, like protective boots to help easily unplug them. Other people design servers and add necessary features, like reset buttons. But if all those people aren't paying attention to each others' efforts, design crashes can happen - like with this Cisco router, where plugging in a cable with a protective boot presses the reset button on the server. Woops. Design carefully, people!
[Cisco, via Engadget]

Apple's Abandonment of Usability Principles

Usability-design uberadvocates (and former Apple employees) Bruce Tognazzini and Don Norman recently lamented how Apple seems to have abandoned principles of user-centered design in a scathing but thoughtful article in Fast Company. They point out that Apple has historically been among the best practitioners of these principles, but has lately overlooked them in favor of aesthetics. For example, "Discoverability" of features now takes a back seat to keeping the interface clean. "Recovery" is severely underimplemented as the system lacks a "back" button like Android's. "Consistency" can't be found among the dozens of differently-configured gestures across many touch devices. It's a good read, both cautionary and instructive - and here's hoping Apple pays attention, too!