Design Critique

USB

manufacturer: every single one

There is nothing worse in design for usability than designing something that is 90 percent symmetrical but absolutely NOT symetrical. The pervasive USB hook up on everything from ipods to cameras to phones to printers to (you get the picture) could potentially be the worst design of all time in my opinion. Especially considering that many computers and laptops have the usb slots on the back, the USB is notoriously difficult to register and almost every time you go to plug it in it in the wrong orientation. How many times have you felt stupid for inserting the usb stick incorrectly and having to flip it around?

 


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Placed by minigunz
on Wednesday November 7 2007 12:00:00 am

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Discussion (19)

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 7 2007 4:42 pm sorry this posted 3 times but the very well designed site needs some flash help it hung on the upload screen (i had to leave the site and come back to get off the hanging flash screen) and apparently posted the same thing three times with me never seeing anything. sorry TRANSLATE 

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 7 2007 11:37 pm So true. Btw. i do use a visual cue that most usb sticks have. That is: on one side you can see through the 2 holes in the metal. If you make sure you can see through the holes you know you're holding the stick in the right direction. If you hold it bottom up, you see the plastic. So the above picture has the wrong side up. TRANSLATE 

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 8 2007 8:54 am Mark the "upside" of the USB stick with a pen. TRANSLATE 

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 8 2007 9:02 am Mark the "upside" of the USB stick with a pen. TRANSLATE 

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 8 2007 9:03 am But you forgot about the socket!! Some USB sockets are vertical instead of horizontal, so marking the upside just isn't enough. TRANSLATE 

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 8 2007 10:24 am almost all, if not actually all, usb plugs have the usb symbol opposite the connectors, just make sure that is uppermost. For vertically aligned it is more difficult admittedly, you do have to be familiar with the machine. TRANSLATE 

  • minigunz

    minigunz wrote: Nov 8 2007 12:10 pm USB, Firewire, SATA, LAN, etc...Designers should use round plug designs like the "headphone jack". That way you never plug it the wrong way. TRANSLATE 

  • exoteric

    exoteric wrote: Nov 10 2007 11:01 pm Computer connectors are traditionally terrible even if they are round, think of the PS/2 plugs, round connectors which still have to be orientated perfectly. TRANSLATE 

  • exoteric

    exoteric wrote: Nov 10 2007 11:01 pm Most of the metal male USB plugs will only go into the connector by design. Only cheap plastic plugs sometimes fit upside down. I agree with you though, that connector designers should be consulted when formulating standards, not just electrical engineers. There is a certain degree of mental stiction in computer connector design that says that everything must be flat.
     TRANSLATE 

  • exoteric

    exoteric wrote: Nov 11 2007 5:01 pm And how about designing (if any) the USB with the almoswt same size of a ethernet port. Everytime I want to plug in a USB device I insert it into a ethernet port, then realizing the mistaking into the correct USB port but with the wrong orientation. TRANSLATE 



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