adam bondurant

Mozy is a service for backing up your data. They’re owned by EMC, so hopes are high that they’re good at what they do (although they didn’t start as an EMC company: They were purchased). I started paying $5 per month for the service a while back because I realized my backup strategy wasn’t very good and for unlimited storage, it seemed pretty enticing.

But Mozy hasn’t backed up any of my data in 163 days — that’s over 5 months. Now, ultimately it’s my fault that I didn’t catch it sooner, but when it comes to backups, I’m paying this company to “set it and forget it.” Not once did Mozy’s icon in the system tray alert me that backups had failed, but they’d silently been failing for a little under half a year, while the company happily charged my credit card every month.

If it’s too hard for developers to pop up a notification bubble that something has gone wrong, I guess it’s also asking a bit much for a backend tool that would shoot off an automated email alerting me as much. But it’d definitely be nice, and wouldn’t make me dislike them so much right now.

I’ve got an email into their customer support box (although I’ve emailed them before about a synchronization issue with their Mac software and never received a reply), so my fingers are crossed. I guess I should start considering my options, though. It seems like they may just suck at what they do.

I was pretty excited when I heard about the new KOR ONE water bottle. All the water bottles I’ve had in the past have annoyed me, so I welcomed the chance to try one that looked better in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, after my water bottle arrived last night, I realized there are things that already annoy me about it, and I’m fighting the urge to give it away.

The first thing you’ll most likely notice about the KOR ONE is its height: The thing is huge, and not in a good way, in my opinion. It stands almost 11.5″ tall, which is at least an inch taller than all my previous water bottles. It sticks out like a sore thumb and also suffers from not fitting in certain cabinets/my refrigerator. The KOR is also not circular, so it’s a bit tough to grab onto. The fact that it’s 3.5″ wide at the base doesn’t help that, either. It also doesn’t seem to fit very well in standard cup holders.

The top of the bottle is also a tad clunky. You press a button on the side and the lid flips back, but it’s a tad top-heavy and almost made me spill a few times when I flipped it open. On the plus side, the mouth of the bottle is very wide, so actually drinking from the thing isn’t a challenge, as it can be with other water bottles.

Overall, I generally like the look of the KOR ONE, but I think it suffers from a few design choices that make me question whether or not I’ll keep using it. If they can come out with a shorter, rounder version, I can definitely see myself picking that up and using it. Let’s hope this bottle is the first of many from KOR.

I set out this morning to buy a new microwave oven. Long story short, I left empty-handed. Short story long, I left two stores ultimately frustrated with the design and user interface of the current crop of microwaves.

Microwave 1 (Emerson)

Look at your cell phone or your television’s remote control. Most likely, its buttons will be laid out in a familiar fashion, like so:

This is a familiar interface. You’ve been using it for a long time, and any time a manufacturer needs to display the numbers 0-9, it should most likely come in this form (excepting 10-key interfaces such as calculators). This is because your brain has created a memory map for it and can easily figure it out without conscious thought: You could find the keys blindfolded, your brain knows the keys so well. Look at the panel on the Emerson microwave:

Awful. Just plain awful. You literally have to re-learn how to press the keys, which could slow you down considerably. Furthermore, you’re not doing yourself any favors, as few other devices are likely to have the same interface.

Microwave 2

I like the tactile feel of the next microwave’s buttons, as opposed to the flush look most seem to be sporting these days. Unfortunately, this model fails two tests: First, the Start/Stop buttons are only slightly larger than the buttons in the column on the right. Second, there are no visual hints as to which button is which. Make the start button green and the stop button red or some variation thereof. With every button the same color, you have a very difficult time picking out a single button from the crowd in a hurry.

Microwave 3

One thing this microwave has going for it is the color variation on the Start button. Unfortunately, the designers chose to go for minimalism on the numbers, which ends up a very bad idea. Where does the 1 end and the 2 begin? When you are not given clear boundaries, you may accidentally press one button when you mean to press another. Also, I’d argue the Start button isn’t nearly large enough. You could easily miss it and instead hit the Timer/Clock button.

Microwave 4

This microwave fails in the same way as microwave 3, but it tops it by not offering any color variation nor border around the Start button. Another thing that’s difficult to see from the picture is that the lever to open the door is pretty well hidden. Granted, it’s in the “usual” position at the bottom-right corner of the microwave, but it’s difficult to tell the size of the button with no visual/color cue.

For a kitchen appliance I’m being asked to pay $100 or more for, I’d like these companies to hire someone with a background in usability! I know it may be too much to ask, especially since they’re largely a commodity, but I can’t help but think someone could come out as a clear winner in the arena just by paying attention to The Little Things. iPhone anyone?