Human Centered Design and Self Serve Lids

This post isn’t meant to be a rant, but more to show how poorly designed or thought out many things that we interact with on a regular basis are. The coffee shop I go to nearly every morning when in my hometown has unintentionally labeled their coffee cream canisters for left handed people, so any right handed person is constantly re-arranging the containers to see the label, but then turning them back around to pour. The obvious solution would be to label both sides.

The photo above is from a Quizno’s sandwich shop where the staff dutifully refilled the disposable soda lids and filled the container to capacity. The staff should be commended for their diligence, but in practicality by filling up the container with lids right to the edge it is nearly impossible to get one lid out without removing all of them.

In this case I think neither the staff, nor the company designing the container had given much thought to user interface. What is interesting is that I am willing to bet that this lid container exists in many other Quizno’s shops. Mass production of things that don’t work.

User interface is not just for gadgets and computer software. It is also for basic tools and implements, and should actually be emphasized for basic things that we interact with in our daily lives.