Media: Zen Haiku applies Usability Heuristics to Everyday Life

'You might accuse me of being obsessed with usability,' says Chad Lundgren on his Zen Haiku site. 'You might be right. At any rate, here are ways I apply usability heuristics to my life.'

'Prevent errors. I am not a morning person. If I need to take something to work, I put it in the car at night. Exception: perishable goods, such as food and videotapes, which melt or spoil in the car if I forget them. I pack lunch in the fridge the night before.

'Prevent errors... For a long time, I kept my wallet and keys in my back pockets. This added to pick-pocket paranoia in crowded places, and made fast food drive-thrus arduous. I read an article mentioning that European men tend not to use their back pockets, more for vanity than practicality. I started using my front pockets only, and I've never looked back. So to speak.'

Other commentators have chipped in, for instance:

'Visibility of system status. If I'm pissed off at at someone, I'll tell them.

'Match between system and the real world. No more drugs.

'User control and freedom. If anything takes up too much of my time, I take a step back and make sure that it's not taking over me....

'Error prevention. I listen to my mom.

'Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. I tell people what I think,' writes Joshua Kaufman, below Lundgren's piece.

Associated Link: Zen Haiku: Usability applied to life

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