21st Ave Pedestrian Crossing

PROBLEM:


Pictured to the left are the signs indicating the pedestrian crosswalk on 21st Avenue, right next to Vanderbilt campus.  The signs take some display principles into consideration as they are highly visible outlined in neon.  The problem comes in that they are a distraction from their intended purpose.  Instead of actually looking for pedestrians crossing the road, drivers have to focus on the signs to keep from hitting them, and the signs even catch their attention as they drive past, distracting drivers from potential crossing pedestrians.  The signs' placement out it in the middle of the road distracts drivers even more because drivers have to avoid the signs.  Pedestrians are usually waiting on the sidewalk, or at least they start there, so drawing attention to the middle of the road isn't necessarily helpful.  Another problem comes as drivers get used to driving past these signs, they become less and less effective getting driver's attention, so drivers begin to speed past without respecting the signs.  All of these issues pose a safety threat to the pedestrians crossing the street.  It possibly even encourages unsafe behavior by pedestrians as the signs generate a false security that they are safe to cross the street, assuming driver's will respect the signs and slow down.


SOLUTION:


The system should use the common traffic light signals that are already being used: yellow flashing light, and a red flashing light.  Under normal circumstances the lights will flash yellow indicating that driver's should proceed with caution.  Signs used be located on the sidewalk to indicate that this is a pedestrian crossing, and the white lines should be kept to reinforce that message.  There will be a terminal on both sides of the street with a button for pedestrians to press when crossing.  The button will change the yellow flashing light to a red flashing light indicating that the driver's should treat the light as a stop sign.  A screen on each side of the street will count down from 15 seconds to give all parties involved a sense of the remaining time.  During the busiest times of the day, the light could stay flashing red even if the button isn't pressed as an added precaution.  After the timer counts down the button should not be able to activate the light switch for another minute to make sure traffic as a chance to pass through.  Drivers are used to looking for traffic light signals, so it doesn't require a great deal of focus for the driver's to receive and process the message.  The drivers could keep their focus on the road and on the pedestrians crossing the road instead of troublesome signs in the middle of the road.  This system would increase the effectiveness of the system and therefore increase pedestrian safety.

Towers Fire Extinguisher

PROBLEM:


Not that you could tell by looking at it, but this is a cabinet in towers that houses an emergency fire extinguisher.  The problems involved in this design shouldn't even need explaining.  The first issue is a matter of labeling. How would anyone know that there is a fire extinguisher in here, especially in the confusion surrounding an emergency?  There is literally nothing on the cabinet that says anything about there being a fire extinguisher inside.  If someone were to see a small fire starting somewhere and was running around towers looking for an extinguisher, that person would have to look very carefully to notice that inside this cabinet is a fire extinguisher.  In the rare instance that the person happened to notice that this in fact housed a fire extinguisher, how is he supposed to open it? There is no visible handle, and from looking at the cabinet, it looks like there needs to be a key to open the cabinet.  There is in fact a handle, but it is tucked up behind the metal where it can't be seen.  This makes no sense whatsoever.


SOLUTION:


The greatest value of a fire extinguisher comes in its ability to put out a small fire before the fire alarm has gone off and the fire department is notified.  Usually at the point the fire has progressed too far for a fire extinguisher to be much use.  Because of this primary use case, a fire extinguisher needs to be highly visible at all times.  Even if there is no fire people need to see it and notice where it is because if there ever is a fire, people need to know exactly where it is.  The first step in improving the design is to put a large sign, probably with red lettering (top-down processing says the display should match expectations).  The sign needs to be illuminated under low light conditions.  This technology is readily available, so have a light sensitive display is no problem.  The cabinet should also be made of glass so that someone looking for the fire extinguisher can actually see it in the case.  With the design pictured, someone could finally get through all the inconveniences and improbabilities and open the cabinet only to find that the fire extinguisher is missing.  Time is of the essence and it has already been greatly wasted at that point.  Finally, the cabinet should have a large red handle that instructs the user what to do.  It could say pull, turn, or push depending on the design.  The handle should also glow under low light conditions.  Maybe the illuminated sign could also shine a directed beam of light onto the handle so that it is easily found.  As it stands this cabinet poses a serious safety threat.  With these recommendations the cabinet could be made safe and suitable for an emergency situation.

Towers Trash Chute

           






PROBLEM:


Pictured here is the opening for the trash chute on the 12th floor of Vanderbilt's Carmichael Towers.  The problem here comes when students throw in trash bags that are too full or filled with glass bottles.  Students are just using it as an easy way to throw away whatever it is that needs to be diposed of, and this trash chute makes it all to easy to throw improper waste down.  There is a macroergonomic disconnect is that students just want a way to easily and quickly dump their trash.  The trash chute on each hall allows students to dump trash, in whatever form, for it to land all the way at the bottom of the chute for the disposal crew to deal with.  The disposal crew wants trash in a form that allows for it to be picked up and disposed of safely and efficiently.  Unfortunately because there is no system in place to control how students dispose of trash, trash gets clogged in the chute somewhere between the 8^th and 9^th floors and threatens to crush the disposal crew when it finally falls.  Also broken bottles and such pose a significant hazard to disposal crews. 




SOLUTION:


A conveyer belt system could be instituted that would allow trash to be lowered, one bag at a time, down the belt, and safely deposited at the bottom of the building.  Although this system would be more expensive to the Vanderbilt administration, it would allow for increased efficiency in trash disposal and increased employee satisfaction.  Also, as it stands, there is no display to let students know how to best dispose of their trash.  A simple way to improve the situation would be to have a sign telling students not to over fill bags and "NO GLASS."  Students still may not follow directions, but if the sign is clear then students would have to directly violate the directions in order carry out their improper practices.  Another helpful redesign effort could be to make the opening of the trash chute smaller.  Currently, the door to slide in trash bags is the same size as the chute itself.  This increases the likelihood that a student fits in a trash bag that is too large that clogs the chute.  If the opening were made smaller, clogging could be greatly reduced.  All of these changes would improve the safety and effectiveness of the trash chute.  

Rand Trash Cans

PROBLEM:


Similar to the trash cans outside of the pub, these trash cans, located in Rand, are simply asking for students to throw away their trays.  The primary design flaw is that because of the slot placed on the side of the trash cans, the design is forcing students to start the process of throwing away the tray because the user has to put the tray at least partly inside the trash can in order to throw away the trash.  Furthermore, most food in rand is served on ceramic plate that is meant to be reused.  Even if a student doesn't throw away the tray it's even easier to throw away that plate for the same reasons mentioned above and because a user has to intentionally hold on to the plate and the tray at the same time to make sure neither goes in the trash can.  And even more difficult is holding onto the metal silverware that is on the plate.  Now a student has to hold onto the silverware, the plate, and the tray to keep everything out of the trash can that shouldn't be disposed of.   This design greatly reduces the efficiency of the cafeteria trash disposal system.

SOLUTION:


This proposed system is a complete redesign of the current system and uses the idea of a conveyor belt that is already being used in Rand.  There will be a convey belt where students will place their trey.  First it will pass by a strong blower.  The idea behind this blower is that it can separate items on the tray by weight.  Fortunately the trash is all much lighter than the ceramic plate, the plastic tray, and the metal silverware.  The trash will be blown of the tray and into a trash bin.  Once cleared of the trash, the tray will pass under a strong magnetic conveyer belt.  The only magnetic utensil on the tray is the metal silverware, so it will be picked of off the tray.  From there the magnetic belt will hold on to the silverware and carry it away until it is scraped of the belt and dumped into a wash bin.  This will be done by a slanted metal sheet that angles right up to and agains the conveyer belt.  It will allow the belt to pass by without allowing the silverware by.   The tray and plate will then continue on and be clean of everything else.  They can then be conveniently picked up by the kitchen staff and washed for reuse.  The major benefit of this system is that nothing reusable gets thrown away.  Students don't have to think about holding on to anything, they can just place their tray on the belt.  The system is much more automatic and requires very little decision-making that can create a source of error.  Therefore, this proposal greatly increases the efficiency of the trash disposal system.

iPhone Case

 

PROBLEM:


This phone case is a great example of a design that doesn't consider it's environment of use.  As seen in the picture, the case goes on the phone by sliding the two pieces of the case over the top and bottom of the phone.  The case weakly snaps in the middle to secure the case.  One of the most common places to carry a phone is in something like a pants pocket.  It is used slid in and out vertically like the case is oriented in the picture.  The problem with this case is that if the pocket is snug at all, the the bottom of the case will catch on the pocket and come off as the phone is taken out of the pocket.  Now that the bottom is exposed, there is nothing to hold the phone in the case, so it falls out of the top piece and hits the ground with no case to protect it (the exact problem the case is supposed to prevent).  The other possibility is that the top of the case comes off while pulling the phone out of the pocket and the phone stays down in the pocket.  This doesn't pose as big of problem as the last scenario, but it is still very annoying and decreases user satisfaction.  The design flaws inherent in this device decrease satisfaction and greatly reduce the effectiveness of the device.  As users become annoyed with the inconvenience of the device, they will either buy a new case or just not use a case, rendering this case useless.  Satisfaction is paramount in this kind of product.


SOLUTION:


One way to keep this basic design and improve upon it would be to turn the black rubber trim seen in the picture into a plastic frame.  This frame would be all one piece and would lock the case together once the two primary casing pieces were slid together.  Grooves could be cut into the plastic casing to allow the plastic frame to fit snuggly to the case.  The frame would clip ver the corners of the case, securing the fram and adding extra protection to the most vulnerable points of the phone, the corners.  This design improvement would increase user satisfaction and effectiveness of this product.

Pub Door Sign

PROBLEM:

This is the door leading from inside the Vanderbilt Pub to the porch outside.  Surprisingly, the side of the door on the right in the picture is always locked.  The white square seen in this picture is a sign saying "please...use other door."  The same sign is on the other side of the door, but it is even less visible because the lighting is worse inside than out.  Most people instinctively reach for the the right side of the door because they are right handed, and many times food trays are dropped, or at the least, students are frustrated because the door they first tried was locked for some reason.  This display violates many of the display rules I've learned in class.  First in foremost it is not conspicuous or legible whatsoever. The fact that the words can't even be read in this picture is evidence enough.  Also, this sign doesn't consider the idea of top-down processing.  People expect this right side to be the door to use, so the strength of the intended signal needs to be increased.

SOLUTION:


First, to combat the issue of visibility, this sign needs to be made bigger.  Also, black stands out against white, but it doesn't catch the eye at all.  A color such as red should be used to get the attention, and then instead of italicizing "please," and thus putting emphasis on that word, "other" should be bolded and underlined since that is the primary signal being sent.  This considers the idea of top-down processing.  With these two simple steps, the problem of slamming into a locked door, spilling food everywhere could be avoided.

Thistle Farms Business Processes

http://thistlefarms.org/

PROBLEM:


Thistle Farms is a social enterprise that seeks to employ the women of Magdalene House in order to give them valuable job training and improve their future job prospects.  The business manufactures and sells natural bath and body products.  This semester I worked on a consulting project for Thistle Farms in an effort to improve their business processes, specifically as they relate to point of sale data capture and storage.  Most of Thistle Farms' sales are made at events held outside of the store at different locations around Nashville.  Currently, product prices are memorized by the women, sales are written down manually, and the data is manually transferred into an Excel database back at Thistle Farms' facilities.  This system poses a macrergonomic issue as the system involves many variables and users.  The basic problem is that the process is far to manual.  From storing pricing information to transferring sales data, the process is completely manual and therefore, error-prone.  The system is not allowing the women to focus on their primary strength, which is interacting with the customers.  Storing price information can more easily and effectively done by a computer than by a human brain.  Because the system is so manual, there is a huge amount of error in the system, and the data that is captured for use in accounting and inventory management is inaccurate and unusable.


SOLUTION:


The solution to these system flaws is to introduce automation to the system so that the women will be free to sell products and interact with customers.  We recommended a mobile point of sale software that facilitates sales with the use of barcode scanners and credit card swipers.  The sales data is wirelessly transmitted back to a server in the permanent retail store.  This system speeds up transaction time, decreasing customer wait time and increasing customer satisfaction.  The system also captures data much more effectively and removes the error involved in human information recall.  Now reliable sales data can be taken from the server and used for it's various purposes.  The new system streamlines business process by taking human factors into consideration.  Machines are used for their strengths, so that the people involved in the system can focus on their strengths.