I was running on a hotel treadmill recently and I came across an excellent example of terrible user interface design. On the screen, the “TV” on/off button was directly above, and very close to “Cooldown”. When running, it was impossible to tap the TV button without hitting Cooldown, and at that point there was no option to resume. Clearly the person who designed this screen had never used a treadmill before, or taken the time to consider how difficult it is to accurately tap a button when running.
At Ballast Lane Applications we take pride in owning the products we design and build, by becoming part of the product team. We don’t take a client’s word at face value, and instead we challenge, question, dig into the details, present alternatives, iterate, test, iterate some more. This has resulted in long term, trusting relationships, and a lot of thoughtful, user friendly products.