It was only a month or so ago that my friend (and former co-worker) Brian left ABC News for a new job with another television outfit based in Washington, D.C., but it would seem that he got out just in time–the New York Times is reporting that 400 or so staff members at ABC News are being let go.

ABC isn’t the only network having issues.  The article also mentions that CBS is having problems, too, and NBC, which is the only broadcast network (aside from FOX) to operate its own cable news channel, is apparently in the minority when it comes to making a profit–funny, considering that their ratings are generally terrible.

Add to that the fact that you can’t go more than twenty feet in any direction without encountering someone who complains about the bias that has creeped into today’s broadcast journalism.  Some say FOX News is slanted to the right (enter Media Matters), while others cry that MSNBC is slanted to the left (welcome, NewsBusters)–it’s the same song-and-dance all day long, every day, every week, every month.  Never mind whether or not the accusations are actually true, because in my book it’s irrelevant.

In my mind, the answer to most, if not all, of these problems is quite simple.  News divisions simply have to stop being required to make a profit.

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Earlier this week Newark Liberty International Airport was shut down for something like six hours when some random guy walked the wrong way (“in the out door,” so to speak) through a security checkpoint and into the “sterile area.”

I don’t know how many of you have been to Newark Airport, but the security screening checkpoints there are set up the same way as they are at many other airports–three to five “lanes” alongside one “exit lane” where arriving passengers can leave. (You can see the exit lane in this photo–it’s from the New York Daily News story above.)  This exit lane is generally unobstructed and may be observed by a TSA agent, though sometimes it is not.  Some, but not all, of these lanes are also closed off by doors that are locked from the inside, but if a big flock of passengers are all headed to baggage claim, those doors can be held open indiscriminately.

These wrong-way security breaches could be stemmed entirely with just a little bit of design know-how.  What about an automated high-capacity revolving door, for example?  Or perhaps an “airlock” type of design with one set of doors on either side?  They could be set to let people out, not in, and be locked down automatically if necessary.

This kind of breach just strikes me as a big waste of everyone’s time and money.  Perhaps that’s stating the obvious.  But it should be equally obvious that preventing these breaches is almost ludicrously simple.

My boss at my full-time job got his degree in geology and spent the first part of his professional life working for oil companies.  He was sent all over the place; it wasn’t unusual for him to spend time on actual oil rigs in rickety laboratories, and not infrequently he’d have to drive 50 miles to get to the only functional telephone for miles.  He has many a colorful tale to spin and even speaks some Indonesian because of all of these efforts.

He also doesn’t like it when people complain.  If I kvetch, I’m also expected to suggest how to fix whatever it is that’s bugging me.  So, if I’m banging my head against my desk because I’m struggling to design a new webpage (or whatever), he sometimes will put my peril into perspective by saying things like “That’s frustrating?  No, no… frustrating is [insert various perilous oil-related story here].  Frustrating is [insert an increasingly improbable-sounding oil story here]. Etc.”

As rich of a person he’s become through all of his experiences, I think it’s important to point out that he has made me cringe more than once by trying to design a logo in Microsoft Excel.  He routinely drives me crazy by noting that (probably thanks to his parochial school background) he prefers symmetrical designs to those that are not.  From what I’ve been able to ascertain, there’s a certain harmony that he draws from symmetry; asymmetrical designs wreak havoc with that music.

He’s a different person than I, and his experiences are vastly different from my own.  That said, I’m sure he absorbs at least a fraction of the amount of sheer brainpower, effort, energy, refinement and polishing that goes into designing a successful interface just by virtue of the fact that he sits less than fifteen feet from me.  He’s also learned, just by osmosis, that when I talk about a  “successful” interface, there is but one metric to evaluate that.  A “successful interface” is one that is so simple and so elegant that users just naturally understand it.  If a user thinks just a single time something like “How do I…” and abandons the task, the design is a failure.  It’s a zero-sum game.  (He’s a numbers guy–he’s picked up on that. Believe me.)

People like me are paid to come up with “perfect” interfaces, and I’ll tell you firsthand that we aren’t successful every time.  Rare indeed is the project where I hit a home run on the first inning–more often, I’ll come up with an idea and have it implemented only to later come up with a half-dozen “patches” to fix holes in my solution that I didn’t initially see.  Just like a tire, you can make repairs so many times, but eventually you just have to scrap the whole thing and start over from scratch.

So I hope this explains why, over the years, I’ve had so many days where I’ve been at the office until 7 or 8 PM at night and why I’ve been so tired/crabby when I’m out and about.  The truly hilarious part of all of this is that it’s utterly amazing and terribly gratifying in the end to see my work… well, work.

Twitter is unquestionably the “it” social network/micro-blog/indescribable web app of the moment, so it’s gratifying to see that local officials in certain cities are embracing it as a way to keep the public updated.  CNN reports that police and fire departments in cities nationwide are using the service to rapidly disseminate information to the public:

“We think the police department has an obligation to get information out to the community through whatever means or mechanisms we have at our disposal,” said Lakeland Police Assistant Chief Bill LePere. “Traditional media releases, expecting the local print media to pick it up and run it in the newspaper tomorrow, is 24 hours too late.” … Public safety officials are finding the use of sites [like Facebook and Twitter] to be not only speedy, but also a convenient way to distribute press releases, Amber alerts, road closings and suspect descriptions.

Twitter is an ideal platform for this kind of rapid information dissemination, and it’s easy enough to use that even the non-tech savvy can get on board.  I applaud the police and fire departments that have chosen to use these tools, and I encourage more to jump on board.

In my day job, I try and keep myself from complaining too much or too often, mainly because my boss has a decidedly different definition of “frustrating” than me.  He (who, incidentally, is not a designer, and would be the first to admit it) spent the first part of his professional life working for oil companies.  He was sent all over the place–he spent time on actual oil rigs in rickety laboratories, and not infrequently he’d have to drive 50 miles to get to the only functional telephone for miles.  If I’m being particularly verbal about my daily struggles, he’ll occasionally remind me that my difficulties aren’t all that bad (relatively speaking!) by saying things like “That’s frustrating?  No, no… frustrating is [insert various perilous oil-related story here].  Frustrating is [insert an increasingly improbable-sounding oil story here]. Etc.”

Given his background, I can appreciate that his definition of frustration clearly involves a degree of physical brawn and time waste that I don’t have to deal with.  But, in my own defense, I think it’s also fair to say that he, as a non-designer, may not fully see the amount of sheer brainpower, effort, energy, refinement and polishing that goes into designing a successful interface. Continue Reading »