It sucks being in that 5%

You can't design for everyone. When designing an exercise bike, there are going to have to be people who are too short to use the bike and people who are too tall to use it if you want to make it comfortable for the majority. How do you decide where to make the cutoff? Apparently designing for 95% of the population is appropriate, and it makes sense, but being in that 5% really sucks.

For me, buying gloves is horrible. They never fit. The closest I get is buying big XLs and they still don't fit well. The finger sheaths (Wikipedia told me this is what they're called) are always too short and it ends up in a sort of webbed finger action that doesn't work for me.

Some sinks also put me in the 5%. The back of the sink will be too close to the stream of water and will make it so I can't wash my hands without touching the inside of the sink. No one wants to touch the inside of a public sink, who knows what went on in there.

No one is going to tell a company that they must produce bigger gloves, but is it ethical for a public place to install sinks that are only big enough for 95% of the population? What about more important decisions like the placement of fire alarms?

How big is too big?

America's obsession with going big has gone too far. The 5-for-1 Big Bottom Giant Beer Glass is so dumb. The glass holds 60 oz of liquid- that's 5 cans of beer.

Ok, so you might not have to get up and go to the fridge or keg as often, but you are most definitely going to have some warm beer. Even the laziest person out likes their beer frosty, or the people at sporting events wouldn't yell "Get your ice cold beer here!" They would just yell "Get your beer here!" and there would be no such thing as color changing mountains on Coor's cans, which is the second dumbest thing ever because if you want to see if the beer is cold, just feel the can.

There are only two benefits to this glass, and for one, you have to be under the age of 17. If you are a youngin' and you have your beer in this glass, your friends might think you are cool. "Oh man," they may say, "look how much beer Johnny has! He is awesome!"

The second benefit is if you're at an event, preferably a Gator tailgate or a UF pool party, the beer you are drinking is out of a keg, and you have no rights to said keg. With the gigantic glass, you only have to steal someone else's beer once and you have 60 ounces. That's a lot of ounces for just one steal.

The next big thing in wine bottles?

The big thing now is sustainability. Companies that make an effort to reduce their carbon footprint improve their public image and, in most cases, it improves business. There are some industries, however, that aren't ready for this kind of change. One of those is the wine industry.

Yealands, a sustainable wine maker from New Zealand, is starting to put its wines in plastic bottles. Manufacturing their recyclable PET bottles generates 54% less greenhouse gas emissions and uses 19% less energy. This all sounds good, but I don't know how it will work out.

Wine is one of those products where most customers don't know the difference between high and low quality by just looking at it. They look at the label, the region, and most importantly the price. Wine in a plastic bottle is going to rub people the wrong way. I am not going to look at a plastic bottle next to the traditional glass and assume that the wine in plastic is of better quality. For one, it's different, and people aren't comfortable with change. Also, plastic is considered cheaper than glass, and if you're cheaply packaging your product, maybe it doesn't deserve better. Consumers take weight into account when they are assessing quality, as well. Weights are often added to plastic products to make them appear more expensive.

The screw off cap is supposed to make wine last longer. I know of people who know that and don't buy wine bottles with them because they are comfortable with the cork and think it means quality. I think sustainable business practices are generally a great idea, but in some cases, they wont translate into sales.

Can we make recycling easier? Please?

I just got back from Sustainable Design and I'm thinking "save

the world." I go into my kitchen to get a snack and what do I see? Two overflowing brown paper bags stuffed with cans, jars, and other recyclables.

The roommate and I both like to recycle. One of my best friends is super hippie and washes and reuses Solo cups, ziplock bags, etc. and got me feeling guilty for throwing recyclables away. When I was growing up we had bins for newspaper, cans, plastic and glass. We would put them outside the house once a week and they would get picked up. It was so easy.

When I went to undergrad, I wasn't as eco-friendly. It was harder to find bins and my roommates didn't care to recycle, so we didn't. When I came up here, though, my roommate was into recycling and I started feeling bad throwing things away. So we started the recycling bags. Where to put the items once the bags became full, we didn't worry about till it happened.

The first time I had to dispose of the recycling, I took plastic bags filled with the cans and jars to

Ford, and separated them into the recycling bins. I know, this sounds crazy, but I figured that I was going to Ford anyways and whats 5 minutes separating plastic, glass, and aluminum if I could be helping to save the world. I did it once more and decided it wasn't working out for me. That didn't stop the recycling effort though, and the bags started filling up.

Now, the roommate and I want to recycle. We rinse out the cans and jars and put them aside to recycle. We just don't know what to do with the stuff. There are about 8 big dumpsters within 30 yards of my backdoor, but no recycling

bins. When we moved in they didn't have any information for us about recycling. It's just such a hassle to do the right thing. Maybe Northwestern should do a community program and try fix this. Isn't that something universities do? And if NU is doing something, it really needs to advertise it better. There is definitely some service design work to be done here.

I just want to recycle... I just want to save the world... Is that too much to ask?

The Blob VB3, Microliving at its Finest

I was perusing through a design blog and found the Blob VB3, an awesome egg shaped micro living space. It has a bathroom, kitchen (although I can't seem to find it in any of the pictures), a bed, lighting, and tons of storage cubbies. It looks cool.

I participated in an undergrad brainstorming session last week, and one of the topics was microhouses. The project was to build a single person house that could fit on a trailer, and we thought of tons of ways to save space (folding tables, beds, etc.) while still living comfortably. Although the Blob might not account for all of the problems (waste removal, heating/cooling, etc.) we discussed, it still looks like it's a step in the right direction.

Some might say that the exterior is an eyesore, that they couldn't put this in their backyard. I think it has an organic modern shape to it that would look good in any backyard. The Blob VB3 is not going to revolutionize the way people live, but it could open some eyes to the possibilities of microliving and give designers inspiration for the next wave of tiny houses.

The worst iPod accessory ever?

Now it may seem weird that I'm making the first post of a blog called That's the Bees Knees about a deviceI don't like, but I couldn't help it. while I was browsing through the gadgets that were shown at the CES this year, I came upon ION's new line of products. While I can imagine some of these ideas developed through user centered design, I cannot imagine the iType was one of them. The iType is a full sized keyboard that docks with an iPhone or iPod Touch, providing the user with a better typing experience.

I see three main problems with it. First, and most importantly, if you are going to carry around a full sized keyboard, you might as well bring your laptop with you and get its full functionality. While this system is going to be a little lighter than the average laptop, its length and width will be the same and it will only have the features of the iPhone of iPod Touch. The user will have to plan in advance when they might want to use it, as people do when they take their laptops with them, as opposed to users having their phone on them at all times and using it whenever they want.

Tying into the first problem, many of the people who would want a larger keyboard for their phone might have troubles with the screen on their device as well. Although the system is almost the size of a laptop, the screen is still the size of the iPhone. When typing an email or document, the user will have to hunch over (as the iPhone or iPod docks flush with the keyboard) to look at the small screen.

Finally, since the iPhone cannot recognize the keystrokes from the iType, another application must be used while inputting text. Having the extra step of copy and pasting, or sending the content through email, makes the process longer and could mess with formatting.

Although some of ION's other products look interesting and promising, like their cassett tape to mp3 converter or their picture in picture video camera (which records the user as well as the target), I don't think the iType was well thought out or used any principles of human centered design.