I was pulling this on my wife not too long ago about the usability of our bathroom.

Classic case of HCI turning into HLI (human to life interactions)

Before being a user-experience professional, I’m an architect and urban planner by education. This to say that north arrows don’t always point up. Informative Maps (like the ones on parks) are a compromise between scale and information. The map is always rotated to best view and the larger scale on the support (paper, billboard…). To give a sense of direction the north is then re-orientated. Say you have a house that is not orientated to cardinal points. People read it best if the blueprint is not rotated; so the blueprint is rotated to best view and the north follows.

Nothing to do so much with the orientation of North, which I’ve always been able to figure out nicely as long as North was oriented to make sense from where I was reading the map. That is, if I’m standing reading the map while facing east, I would be happy for North to be pointing left on the map. Makes sense to me (and my peanut brain).

But in those maps, the “YOU ARE HERE” indicators are never obvious enough. Takes but a few seconds to find North, and you’re done. Takes you scanning the entire legend for the “YOU ARE HERE” icon, and then scanning the entire map to find that icon.

Sometimes the icon is a red circle with “YOU ARE HERE” written somewhere near it. Sometimes it’s a red triangle without words (hence the cross reference with the legend to double-check). Sometimes it’s a star. Sometimes it’s some other obscure icon, and sometimes not even red — I’ve seen blue as well.

They may as well put Waldo in the map somewhere with it. By the time I’ve found the symbol and the nearest restroom, I’ve had pee running halfway down my leg.

Hi !

Excellent ! Simples joke are always the best

I also pest sometims about usability of things and for exemple : restaurants maps.

Bye

This is a great comic. Seems light at first, but it encompasses a very important message: Do we have to let UI and informal design reviews take over our personal lives? I am not sure if I am self-aware enough to realize when I am annoying my friends and family (or even colleagues) when I give my two cents about how the oven knobs work, or why my dog’s harness is such a pain to put on him. And even when I do realize I am being a noodge, do I care enough to stop?

Very nicely done! I for one think that taking UI into the everyday life should be embraced and relished rather than apologised for. I know it can lead to raised eye-brows and groans from friends and loved ones when you wax lyrically about the fact that it wasn’t your stupidity that meant you spent 2 minutes pulling on a push door, but the ignorance of the designer, however doesn’t this issue happen with every job? If you enjoy your job then it is usually because it’s a topic you find genuinely interesting and it is also usually a subject that you believe you have a valid contribution towards. I constantly have films and plays interrupted by my Drama Teacher/Stage Manager girlfriend whilst I’m enlightened about the complexity of the lighting system, but I think it’s something we endure to help understand that person more (and occasionally gain interesting info). Don’t steer away from it but proclaim your insights from the highest steeple (or at least make people sit through you tirade until they sedate you with beer).