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 »

I saw these very strange-looking “Do Not Lean on Door” decals on the subway some time ago, featuring some bizarre inconsistent typography, and Gothamist got to the bottom of it.

Says an MTA spokesman:

We did have a recent problem with a car builder who took it upon themselves to manufacture and apply subway car decals without the prior approval of NYC Transit. The cars were delivered to NYC Transit with the wrong decals. They have since been instructed not to do so going forward, and those that were applied in error will be replaced with NYC Transit approved and manufactured decals.