- Buyer Beware: The Insteon Dilemma2022/05/10
One of the values we have on the show is that a product or service should make one’s life better by purchasing it. What defines a “better” life is up to the individual. But we hope people will consider how bringing a new product or service into their life will impact that life, either before […]
- We’re in WELP Magazine’s 20 Best Product Design Podcasts of 20212021/05/29
WELP Magazine have us in their list of 20 Best Product Design Podcasts of 2021. They have great taste! Thanks to the WELP magazine team for that, and also thanks for informing us of other user experience-related shows we didn’t know about. So much good free content is out there and the only problem is […]
- Librem 5 Featured in iFixit Video2021/02/27
Purism’s Librem 5 smart phone was featured in a video from the good people at iFixit. All three phones in this video have easy-to-access components that make them easy to repair or customize over the life of the product. This is exactly what we at DesignCritique: Products for People advocate for most electronic devices. We […]
- Lessons from a site outage2019/11/23
There is a lesson here about keeping one’s WordPress site updated faithfully, but for lack of doing that or perhaps some other reason, I saw this Monday when I tried to publish the November episode: It was an awful week of waiting for the powers that be to unflag our domain as a vector for […]
- Nothing new under the sun, again2019/09/02
Hemmings Motor News has a wonderful section every month called Antique Ads. In their August 2019 issue, this ad appeared from 1957. Out of respect for Hemmings’ copyright to their work, I won’t scan more of the article than this portion of the ad, but take a look. Looks like what is called an AV […]
- I’ll be speaking at UX Akron on Friday, October 12th!2018/10/04
Thank-you to Ben Woods and the good people of UX Akron for inviting me to speak this month. I look forward to an evening with those who can make it out. UX Akron Akron, OH 437 UX Folk For user experience professionals, students and those interested in learning more about: UX (User Experience), human-computer interaction, […]
- Visual Design History of 78RPM and 33 1/3RPM Record Sleeves2018/07/15
My grandparents were spectacular people who gave me the best things in life: encouragement, loving memories, and cool artifacts from history. Their collection of old 78 shellac records not only sounds great, it looks great, too. Now I know why. Rudolf A. Bruil wrote a wonderfully thorough article on the visual design and packaging of […]
- When Manufacturers Cheap Out2018/04/04
This well-written article breaks my heart. I’ve lived long enough to see the arc of companies that design and sell a magnificently successful product, often for many years, delighting their customers while earning a profit. At some point, management decides to “take cost out” of the product by removing the durability and other desirable features […]
- FT86 Speed Factory Understands Delightful Packaging2017/10/13
Now this is how how to delight customers without hurting your profits. I ordered this inset plaque for the center console of my car–it covers up a bare space where the seat heater switches would go if my car had them–and FT86 Speed Factory not only shipped the part to me very quickly, but when […]
- Happy New Year for 20092008/12/31
Hi everyone, Thanks for listening to Design Critique over the past year. 2008 was fun and I have three episodes in post-production right now for 2009. The photo is from the holiday card I sent this December to family and friends, and I thought why not share it with the listeners. I don’t know who […]
