FW: [Sigia-l] NYC-CHI 29 Jan, 6-8PM: Antenna Design Case Studies/NYC Subway Vending Machines

[David Heller]

Ziya wrote:
"I'm sure they enjoyed the fee but they shouldn't be too proud of their
final product. If they actually designed the entire enchilada, well, I'm
an irate NYC taxpayer. :-)"

Ya know, I lived in NYC for 10 years before my move to CA a year ago and
I have to say that the advent of the metrocard machine from soup to nuts
was a HUGE blessing. Eliminating tokens the way they have, has been a
HUGE improvement. The ATMs themselves are a wonderful machine and I
found when looking at adults using the system, very few people needed
assistance from other travelers in using the machines. If you compare
this to other ATM ticket devices like the NJT, LIRR, etc and to other
subway systems throughout the country which have been lauded over NYC
for decades (IMHO very wrongly), such as BART in SF (where I am now) and
Metro in DC, the Metrocard system is so much better it is incomparable.
But that isn't even the real point of this post.

I'm sorta pissed when we can't be critical w/o being attacking. I'm
sorry Ziya, you are usually very good at this, but both you and
Christopher Fahey I feel overstepped the line between heuristic
professional criticism and just being rude. What is that line? "... they
shouldn't be too proud ..." Jeez, if I was going to get that type of
scathing attack on any of the products that I've worked on in the last
10 years I would probably not put my name on them. Not b/c I'm not proud
of the work I do, but I would expect my peers to know the realities of
design. Design is never about perfection, but it is about working the
system to create the best that you can within that system. The system is
not only the design environment, but the design process environment and
even if they designed the whole enchilada, as you put it, it still
requires so many outside forces that it would be impossible to get what
any designer would wanted. 

I think the reason I take this a bit personally, is b/c I work in an
environment where I am damn proud of what I accomplished, but that
doesn't dellude me from the fact that I know my product is not up to
snuff in many criteria. In this case though it is absurd b/c the product
itself is just leaps above anything like it I have come across in the
industry. Sure it isn't perfect, and it does break some ATM rules, but
it is also different from the Bank ATM that many have compared it to.

Everyone should be proud of their efforts. If you feel those efforts
were off, then we should give constructive critique, not denunciations.
I wish I could be there for the event tonight. I would love to ask them
about the process and about design decisions that are being questioned.
Again, heuristic analysis aside, if you look at the real world results I
think they are quite telling, especially in comparison with other ATM
subway ticketing systems.

-- Dave

David Heller
Sr. User Interface Designer
Documentum: The Leader in Enterprise Content Management 925.600.5636
 
david.heller at documentum.com
http://www.documentum.com/
AIM: bolinhanyc  //  Yahoo: dave_ux  //  MSN: hippiefunk at hotmail.com
 
--"If it isn't useful, it will never be usable."