Allyse & Sarah's Walk

On our walk we found a number of odd things that made the building harder to navigate. Although the layout seems fine and dandy (one 4 story building with staircases in the middle and at each end), the room numbers seem to jump all over the place. The corner girls' bathrooms had handles on the outside but you could not pull the door - only push. The water fountains were very simple in their design, where you push a button and the water comes out. Although a little more complex, the design of the pepsi vending machines also worked on the same concept - put in enough money, push the button, and you get your bottle of soda pop. Simple things everywhere seemed to have the best design - door handles when you pull a door, light switches with only an on/off function, elevator with a vertical button design, fire alarms, and exit signs. There were some odd little things - light switches with a horizontal orientation, thermostats that had a series of moon images and one giant button, bathrooms with two different types of faucet handles.

Answer to questions (in order):
1) The interaction depends on our assumptions on whether or not the device will be easy to use - if the device seems hard to use then we will read (or rather glance at) the manual.
2) S - Had a washing machine flood half the house due to improperly using it
A - Problems with Myspace interface
3) S - Deadbolt key/lock - can never figure out; keypad never works
A - Toothbrush with functions never used until accidentally discovering them; too many remotes for one tv
4) Visibility or lack of - visibility = exit signs, elevators; lack of = thermostat, corner girl's bathroom doors
Affordances - doors, thermostat, water fountain
5) Cheap tiny cameras with no feedback; faulty design in a TV/computer hookup
6) Copier/scanner/printer master button; RA walky-talky
7) S - Remote control
A - Stuffed animal

And my (slightly) late circuit image - a very simple circuit in an old remote
There is, of course, the voltage source (that go where the AA batterie drawings are). The large black thing with the arrow is a capacitor. There are two resistors (gold-gold-black-red and gold-brown-violet-red). There is a half-cylinder looking shape that I'm not sure of, but then the ciruit heads to two diodes that send a message to the TV.