Even after 14 hours driving along the icy interstates over the holidays, I never quite figured out the car radio in minivan we borrowed from my in-laws.

As far as I could tell, the main features were an annoying display of animated graphics, bright neon lights that made it impossible to read the labels of the buttons and no off button.

It took me about two hours to figure out how to switch stations, then I decided to play a CD (yes, I still own CDs) and all hell broke loose. By the end of my trip, I still didn’t know what 80% of the controls did.

Is this the best we can do? Is anyone designing car radios that don’t look like navigation controls for a spaceship?

Shopping at the mall this Christmas was a horrible experience. I circled the lot three times before finding a parking space, inventory was a bit picked over, and checkout lines wrapped halfway around the store.

All I could think was: Man, I love shopping on the internet. Not only do I avoid the aforementioned hazards; I gain incredible shopping tools. I admit it. I’m a product review junkie. Product reviews, user ratings, price comparisons…it almost makes shopping enjoyable.

But this year something started nagging at me about product reviews. Are they trustworthy? Do the customers whose reviews I read have the same priorities as me? More to the point, what if the people rating these products are woefully ignorant?

For example, I have a friend who recently bought a new TV. I asked him how he liked it. “It’s got an awesome remote! See how it lights up?”

The remote. Really? Are these the type of people leaving reviews of big ticket items on the websites I browse? Maybe the guy who recommended my hiking boots just liked the laces, and the woman who raved about the digital camera I just bought liked the pretty blue color.

There are a few product review sites attempting to mitigate this challenge. CNET reviews pair their user ratings with a “CNET editors’ rating” to give you an expert opinion.

ConsumerSearch claims to “analyze…reviews and sources and rank them according to how credible they are, based on specific criteria we have developed for this purpose.” In short, they tend to favor professional reviews, and consider only aggregate data of consumer reviews.

Buzzillions, on the other hand, emphasizes customer reviews. They categorize reviewers into meaningful groups to help the consumer align themselves with a certain type of reviewer. For example, for shoe reviews I can view reviews by people that are comfort-oriented, stylish or conservative.

A step in the right direction, but I’m not totally convinced that the product reviews I see are accurate. But I’ll live with it. In the same way I trust contributors to Wikipedia about the Island of California or a lamp-post with a name, I’ll have to trust Epinions reviewers to recommend the best breadmaker.

After all, it’s much better than going to the mall.

Pownce closed down this week, and they definitely left the party with their integrity intact. They announced their closure a few weeks ago on their blog and in an email sent out to members. I haven’t been an active user of Pownce in a long time (it’s not my fault they didn’t make it…) but this part of the email caught my eye:

To help with your transition, we have built an export tool so you can
save your content. You can find the export tool at Settings > Export.

Pownce clearly cares about their users, at least enough to add a new feature after they knew they were shutting down. Maybe I’m making too big a deal of it, but that alone is enough of a reason to switch from Twitter to Pownce. Well, except that it’s too late now.

Sketching is not just right side of the brain stuff. All throughout my academic career my professors almost unanimously agree that students should draw more pictures when trying to solve math, physics, biology, computer science, etc. problems. After years of hearing their pleas I’ve finally started to come around. Even with all this technology surrounding me I can safely say that sketching is the quickest way to get ideas out of my head. Some may suggest mind mapping software but for me nothing beats pencil and paper. Drawing offers a physicality that we’ve yet to duplicate in computer interfaces. Things like multitouch screens and Wacom tablets come close but they just never feel quite right.

I’m not huge fan of upfront design. I prefer to take an idea and start building and design through iteration of an actual product. Pencil can be great for that. Several of the features I’ve written have started out as quick sketches on paper with mini-addendum sketches as I go. And nothing beats going to a different room with your pencil and paper to solve difficult conceptual problems. Because I kept losing these awesome sketches, a few weeks ago I bound some Idea Works notebooks. They’re recycled from old stationary that we couldn’t use because of an outdated phone number. Good for the environment and good for the brain.