Mozilla wants to put an end to user rights?

Or maybe they didn't get a proofreader to review the Firefox About dialog.

UserX thinks even a well-placed hyphen would do here.

Stand up at your desk, avoid a heart attack

An experiment by UserX reveals that standing up while using a computer is hard but worth it

UserX is worried about his bottom line. Literally. He has noticed how overweight he is getting by sitting at a computer all day for work, and then for a few hours at night to watch TV, write or play. Making time for exercise is tough with all the other responsibilities pulling at you each day.

However UserX's butt really got into gear (so to speak) when he read about how sitting for long stretches of time can be very bad for your health in the long term. As in, you are more likely to die of a heart attack, even if you exercise regularly. (Couldn't find the original article but you can go here).

Besides that little thing, sitting for more than four hours at a time can cause the following (this list is compiled from here but if you search for "computer sitting heart attack" you'll find loads of links):

• reduction in blood circulation (causing varicose veins and numbness)
• reduced fitness (duh) leading to lowering of lung efficiency (not good) and more chance of digestive problems (!)
• muscle fatigue
• increased chances of injury from a sudden movement
• increased chances of getting diabetes

The article UserX linked above has tips on what you can do to avoid the problems. However, one item left off of their list is standing up while using a computer. The original article spotted by UserX had a picture of a man from a health website having just raised the top of his desk using books and boxes. When UserX first saw that picture, he thought that there was no way he could set that up at work. And UserX has remodeled his office in so many times that people drop by every other month to see what's new. (UserX is obsessive and needs his working environment to be perfect.)

Yet it stayed in the back of UserX's mind for a long time, long enough so that one day after coming back from vacation, he gave it a try. At first UserX thought he had to attach stilts to the legs of his desk, but then it dawned on him that any object in the office that was at standing height might work. By combining a book shelf, a file drawer, table tops, doors from cabinets, boxes and books, here is what UserX is using right now to work:

(Inadvertent plug for Tim Horton's there but it's the only way to start the day in Canada.)

At first you would think that having the drawers in front would get in the way of your legs, but this doesn't happen. You are standing up after all; you don't need to put your legs under anything.

So how is it going?

UserX candidly admits that the first few days were very difficult. You have to understand, UserX has been sitting at one desk or another using computers for 25 years, and he still has 25 to go before he can retire. So standing up for several hours a day was in fact making UserX light-headed. So much so that UserX had to sit down often that first week. Luckily UserX has a portable and could switch to a chair when required.

Now that it has been a few weeks, though, UserX thinks that he will never go back. In fact UserX has remodelled his home office to be the same way. Indeed some days it's tougher than others to stand up - it takes effort and some bit of fortitude, kind of like waking up early on a Sunday - but it has been totally worth it.

Other benefits:

• Standing up for hours forces you take breaks, because you just can't stand up any longer
• If you like to listen to music while working, you can dance
• Setting this up gives you a chance to perfect your keyboard-mouse-monitor placement (again you can Google for 1,000,000+ links, but here's an example for you lazies out there)
• UserX looks like he's working even harder than usual

What's Next?

Glad you asked. This whole thing started because UserX was looking for a way to exercise at work. He came across the office-desk-treadmill. An example:

Here's one link to a DIY page where this picture came from. The current top Google search for commercial versions of this concept seems to be Treadmill Desk.

This kind of thing isn't possible with UserX's setup right now, but it's on the horizon. UserX is ready to walk across America, five days a week.

Dedicated Back button with Windows Phone 7: usability gold or lump of coal?

What if life had a Back button?

That's the question UserX was pondering after taking a look at Windows Phone 7 models and user experience. Windows Phone 7 is the name of Microsoft's new operating sytem designed to compete with Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Palm's HP's webOS, and depending on whether RIM sheds another 2000 employees in the coming months, Research in Motion's Blackberry OS.

(Disclosures: UserX lives in Canada and does not want to see RIM fail; on the other hand, only the strong companies should survive. UserX also owns an iPhone 4 and an iPad but always looks for the good in all technology no matter how evil the parent company.)

Microsoft doesn't actually make or sell phones that use Windows Phone 7, but they do define some strict requirements if someone else wants to make one. One of these requirements is that every phone must have a dedicated Back button.

UserX's first reaction to this news: Brilliant. Simply brilliant. How often has UserX been using his iPhone when all he wanted to do was go back to the last app he was using? With iOS, on an iPad, you can drag 4-5 fingers right-to-left to switch between apps, but having a button dedicated to cycling through the apps that were used previously, in chronological order... it's an impressive bit of usability. Even more useful on an iPhone when you're cradling the device in one hand.

So: It looks like usability gold. Sounds like gold. Feels like gold. Is it gold?

Sure, until developers get at it. Then it turns to coal. This is because individual applications can override the dedicated Back button's behavior.

One way to explain this to a user is to say that the dedicated Back button goes back to the last app, unless it doesn't.


This makes no sense. A happy user is a user that expects something to happen when he presses a button and then what happens is what he expected. If the dedicated Back button can be used for pretty much anything, you know developers will use it for pretty much anything. Microsoft may as well have named it the WTF button (and UserX does not mean "Where's the Forward button").

Let's dive into an example. So many to choose from, it's hard to pick. For brevity let's call the dedicated Back button the "d-Back".

Start with the obvious: a Web browser. It would be soooo tempting for a dev'ver to remap d-Back to the "go back to the last Web page" button. This might even sound useful at first. Except that you have completely changed the expectations of the button. A user is browsing, he clicks d-Back. He expects to go back to the last app. He doesn't; instead, the previous Web page is shown. "Fine," thinks the user, "that's not what was expected, but OK." He clicks d-Back a few more times. So.... how do you use d-Back to go back to the last app, as you thought in the first place? Hold down the Back button for two seconds? Press it twice? Stand on one foot while tapping?

The user is getting confused about what this button is for. Still he marches on. He updates his contacts and absent-mindedly press d-Back. He goes back to the previous app. He's happy. He downloads a game. While playing the game, he wants to go back to the his contacts. He thinks about pressing d-Back. It's a safe bet, since it's not a Web browser he's using. He goes ahead and presses d-Back.

The game pauses.

"Huh?" the user wonders. "I pressed d-Back". He presses it again. The game resumes. This sounds like it might be a convention. Certainly for many games, the Pause button becomes the Resume button; pressing it once pauses, pressing the same button again resumes. The user is willing to be flexible but is not yet sure.

He downloads another game. He presses d-Back. The game pauses again. He learns, unconsciously, that games use d-Back for pause. That's fine. He wants to resume the game. He presses d-Back again. Instead of resuming, the Windows Phone 7 displays the previous app.

Soon the user starts to distrust d-Back. Soon he will either learn which apps do what, or more likely, he will stop using d-Back unless he is absolutely sure what it will do. Swearing will occur in the meantime. This button goes from dedicated Back to utterly useless.

There are two solutions to this issue, and they both rest in Microsoft hands:

1. Microsoft invents an API that reads the user's mind.
2. Microsoft declares one behavior for the d-Back button and blocks any attempts at overrides.

UserX really wants solution #1 to become reality. This would be extremely when working at a computer. Until that day, UserX hopes for solution #2.

But why stop there? How about inventing a Back button for the real world? Attach a dedicated Back button to your arm. Did you go out to lunch? Need to get back to work? Click Back. Poof! You're back at your desk. Playing tennis and then run to the washroom? Finished? Click Back. Poof! You're back on the court in no time. Playing poker and bet heavily on three five's and lost? Click Back. Poof! Try it again, but this time be smarter. Just don't let Microsoft control the API, because if they do, you never know where you'll end up.

About this Blog

Call me UserX. The design of everyday things has a big impact in life. With a little user testing, these everyday things would make life on Earth much more pleasant. The carriage at the local Maxi grocery store is one such example (see the post). Well-thought-out doors are another. UserX shares his views in this blog.

UserX is not a User Experience (UX) professional but has been contributing to software design and performing testing on users. While at first UserX believed that a great user experience was magically conjured up by an all-knowing genius designer, UserX now knows that frequent real-world testing with real users during the design cycle is paramount to making sure you end up with a problem-free design and pleasing user experience.

UserX's inspiration is Bruce Tognazzini, with whom UserX took a terrific 3-day seminar on human/computer interaction design in New York. "Tog" spent 14 years at Apple and founded the Apple Human Interface Group. UserX encourages you to visit his web site at http://asktog.com/.

UserX would also like to throw out a link to Jakob Nielsen at http://www.useit.com/, from whose columns UserX learned much.

Yes, UserX likes to refer to himself in the third person. :)