3 ms·

While I get your point in general, I disagree with the water faucets. Typically that's how they work - because they turn outwards (so to speak) from the spout i

by ojbyrne 17y ago

While I get your point in general, I disagree with the water faucets. Typically that's how they work - because they turn outwards (so to speak) from the spout in the center.

jamesbritt 17y ago
Exactly. I expect them to be symmetrical, just like double doors, and would be surprised if they both turned in the same direction, because hands turn naturally in opposite directions. What's really annoying, though is when the faucets (or light switches) in a place are not consistent.
- inquata 17y ago
  For the faucets to be consistent, they need to behave like every water bottle, valve etc.: righty tighty, lefty loosy. @ojbyrne: It does not matter how they work from an engineer’s point of view: Design needs to be user-centered.
  - ojbyrne 17y ago
    I'm not talking about an engineer's point of view. In fact "righty tighty lefty loosy" is an engineer's point of view. When taps are presented in pairs users expect them to open "away" from the central spout.
    - inquata 17y ago
      That’d be interesting to clarify in actual usage testing – unless you already have such data to support your claim. I regard »righty tighty lefty loosy« as an established standard for opening revolving things. But due to the mnemonic existing in the first place, that probably needs some testing as well.
      - ojbyrne 17y ago
        I'll admit to not having data to support my claim, other than my personal behavior (and the guy above). I'm not sure how you would do the testing since I think everyone has used faucets, and they almost always go the way I described (or at least that's my best recollection).
        inquata 17y ago
        I had to think about this thread when today I, oddly enough, stumbled over not 1 but 2 blog posts regarding water faucets and taps: http://mattmorphett.blogspot.com/2009/01/sometimes-there-is-good-reason-to-break.html http://mattmorphett.blogspot.com/2009/01/sometimes-there-is-... http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/usability-taps-lessons-web-design/ http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/usability-taps-lessons-we... (via http://www.uselog.com/2009/05/checklists-and-water-taps-for-usability_28.html http://www.uselog.com/2009/05/checklists-and-water-taps-for-...)
  - jamesbritt 17y ago
    "For the faucets to be consistent, they need to behave like every water bottle, " I meant consistent with each other, if there are multiple faucets. The house I'm renting has two bathrooms with a total of three sinks. I think each sink had a different faucet pattern, until I changed them. For some reason hotels like to experiment with new ways to control water. Each time I use a different shower it sees to have some new variation on how to control as many functions with as few knobs as possible, and I don't understand why. Was there some key design failure in having two obvious knobs to independently control the flow of hot and cold water? Now I feel like I'm taking an IQ test whenever I want to get clean.

by ojbyrne 17y ago

While I get your point in general, I disagree with the water faucets. Typically that's how they work - because they turn outwards (so to speak) from the spout in the center.

jamesbritt 17y ago

Exactly. I expect them to be symmetrical, just like double doors, and would be surprised if they both turned in the same direction, because hands turn naturally in opposite directions. What's really annoying, though is when the faucets (or light switches) in a place are not consistent.

inquata 17y ago
For the faucets to be consistent, they need to behave like every water bottle, valve etc.: righty tighty, lefty loosy. @ojbyrne: It does not matter how they work from an engineer’s point of view: Design needs to be user-centered.
- ojbyrne 17y ago
  I'm not talking about an engineer's point of view. In fact "righty tighty lefty loosy" is an engineer's point of view. When taps are presented in pairs users expect them to open "away" from the central spout.
  - inquata 17y ago
    That’d be interesting to clarify in actual usage testing – unless you already have such data to support your claim. I regard »righty tighty lefty loosy« as an established standard for opening revolving things. But due to the mnemonic existing in the first place, that probably needs some testing as well.
    - ojbyrne 17y ago
      I'll admit to not having data to support my claim, other than my personal behavior (and the guy above). I'm not sure how you would do the testing since I think everyone has used faucets, and they almost always go the way I described (or at least that's my best recollection).
      - inquata 17y ago
        I had to think about this thread when today I, oddly enough, stumbled over not 1 but 2 blog posts regarding water faucets and taps: http://mattmorphett.blogspot.com/2009/01/sometimes-there-is-good-reason-to-break.html http://mattmorphett.blogspot.com/2009/01/sometimes-there-is-... http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/usability-taps-lessons-web-design/ http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/usability-taps-lessons-we... (via http://www.uselog.com/2009/05/checklists-and-water-taps-for-usability_28.html http://www.uselog.com/2009/05/checklists-and-water-taps-for-...)
- jamesbritt 17y ago
  "For the faucets to be consistent, they need to behave like every water bottle, " I meant consistent with each other, if there are multiple faucets. The house I'm renting has two bathrooms with a total of three sinks. I think each sink had a different faucet pattern, until I changed them. For some reason hotels like to experiment with new ways to control water. Each time I use a different shower it sees to have some new variation on how to control as many functions with as few knobs as possible, and I don't understand why. Was there some key design failure in having two obvious knobs to independently control the flow of hot and cold water? Now I feel like I'm taking an IQ test whenever I want to get clean.