How to design a car to make it look cleaner.

Have you ever pulled up behind a car and noticed dirty finger prints on the trunk of the car?  Most cars with lighter paint can accumulate a small amount of dirt without looking dirty.  It is only when some of that dirt is wiped off that you start to see how dirty the car actually is.

Without the fingerprints, this car would look clean.

The reason for this is that the human eye can detect contrast much better then it can detect absolute color shades.  Look at the image below.  If you cover the background with two pieces of paper, you will see that the middle bar is the same color from left to right.  The human eye perceives a change only in reference to other colors.

The eye can recognize contrast better than absolute colors.

When people touch a slightly dirty car, they scrape off some off the dust and create a contrast.  This happens to most cars where the back door lifts up.  Most people grab the bottom edge of the door when it is above their head leaving fingerprints.  To minimize the impact of this problem, car manufactures should add a design element like raised trim in a darker color to the bottom edge of the door.  When you reach up to close the door, you would only touch the trim piece instead of the solid color door.  This would prevent fingerprints wiping away some of the dirt and showing that the car is dirty.  Of course, the trim piece would be designed to match the overall style.

A black trim piece that people would touch when they close the door.

By adding this simple design element, a light color car will not have fingerprints on the back door when the car is dirty.  This will make the car look cleaner even when there is a slight layer of dust.  A clean looking car does not have to be washed as often thus saving people time.  Therefore, a small change to the design of the car will prevent busy people from having to spend their Saturdays waiting in line at the car wash.

Do you have any overdue library books?

The library is a great place to get access to books that you will read for a short time and do not want to buy.  This goes for both adults and children.  However, once you bring the library books home they have a tendency to get mixed in with your other books.  Many people spend more time looking for overdue library books then they spend actually reading the books.  Additionally, the late fees may be more then the book may have cost used on Amazon.

Can you find the library book?

The reason that it is hard to find a library book in your house is because it is difficult to tell the difference between a library books and your own books.  This is especially true when you are cleaning up after children.  Most library books have a small white sticker on the spine with the call numbers.  Hardly something that jumps out.  When you are looking for a particular overdue book, you do not want to look for a small white sticker just to find the missing book.

Instead, libraries should use a better visual system to identify their books.  One method would be transparent neon tape that is applied to the plastic cover that most library books have.  Another solution would be to paint the fore-edge (that is the edge of the pages opposite the spine, I had to look it up) a bright color.

The bright orange tape makes the library book stand out.

This way, instead of having to actively look for a missing library book, the book itself would stand out.  Whenever you see a pile of books your eye, would automatically see the library books and you would place these books in a special place.  Then you could always find the books when you are ready to read them or return them.

By increasing the visibility of library books, libraries would make it easier for people to find books at home reducing the number of late returns and reducing fines that people have to pay.  Then again, maybe libraries don’t mind if you return books late.

How do you get salesmen to measure their blood pressure?

For a recent consulting project I was asked to find a way to get medical equipment salesmen to use a particular blood pressure monitoring device.  The problem is, blood pressure monitoring is similar to measuring someone’s weight.  You can’t just run a contest like, “The Biggest Loser” because some people may already be at a low weight and it would not make sense for those people to lose any more weight.  Additionally, there may be particular reasons why it is hard for some people to lose weight or lower their blood pressure.

One solution is to create some incentive for people to use the actual device.  For blood pressure monitoring, people could take their blood pressure and then email the results.  Unfortunately, salespeople are somewhat comfortable providing information even when that information does exactly match actual recorded data.  To enforce integrity, the participants could be required to email a picture of the actual number that also shows some kind of date stamp such as the calendar from a cell phone.

Such methods start to get complicated and more time is spent collecting the data then understanding it.  A better solution is to use the Behavioral Science concept of Overconfidence Bias.  In this bias, people tend to believe that their skills or judgment is better then it actually is.  For example if you ask a room of 20 people if they think they are better than average drivers, more then half of the group will say yes.  Salesmen are particularly vulnerable to this bias.

Here is how the program would work.  Each salesman would be given a blood pressure monitor.  Instead of asking for periodic updates, a contest would be held at defined times.  At the time of the contest, each person would be asked to guess what his or her blood pressure is.  Then their pressure would be measured.  Points would be awarded based on how close the person guesses to their measured pressure.  Under this model, the participants would have an incentive to measure the pressure on their own and to remember that number.  They would also start to learn what impacts that pressure.  Does it go up after coffee?  Is it higher in the morning or in the afternoon?

By creating a competition based on the Overconfidence Bias, the salesmen would not only use the device on their own but they would also have a better understanding of what their own number is and what impacts that number.  Whether the participant chooses to take steps to reduce high blood pressure is up to them but knowledge of a problem is always the first step.

How much money do I need in retirement?

One of the biggest problems facing people planning for retirement is determining how inflation will impact monthly living expenses.  Most websites offer an online calculator to help you find the numbers.  For example, assume you currently spend $3,000 per month on food, clothing, hobbies and rent, and you plan to retire in 20 years.  Using an online calculator, in 20 years at 3.5% inflation, you will need $6,000 per month to maintain the same lifestyle.

The problem is, that these calculators don’t give you an intuitive sense of the time value of money.  What happens if you postpone your retirement by 5 years?  What happens if you retire in 20 years and your retirement lasts 35 years?  Each of these calculations would provide a new number, which you must record along with the scenario.  Behavior Science teaches us that people are better able to internalize data when it is displayed in a graphical form rather then a numeric form.  This is why analog watches are preferred over digital watches and why people prefer stock charts over spreadsheets to view stock performance.

Instead of offering an online calculator that gives an exact number, companies should use a graphical format that helps people visualize a range of numbers that more accurately represents the real world.

Here is how it would work.  First, find your current monthly expenses on the left side of the chart.  Then move your finger to the right the number of years until retirement.  The line that you cross tells you how much money you will need to sustain your current lifestyle assuming 3.5% inflation.  As you continue to move your finger to the right you will see how each year you need a little more money to compensate for inflation.

By using this graphical format, companies can give people a more intuitive feel for the amount of money the person will need for retirement.  In addition, the graph will make it easier to run different scenarios such as postponing retirement or the impact of a long lifetime.  This will help people better plan for retirement and understand that there are no exact answers for retirement planning so you need allow for deviation from your plan.

We will talk later about how much you need to save in order to withdraw the necessary money as detailed in this chart.

A Desktop User Interface That Fitts

One of the problems with the Microsoft Windows user interface is the fact that the menu bar is attached to the top of the active window.  When you move your mouse to the the menu, there is the potential that you can overshoot the menu and must move your mouse back.  This increases the amount of time necessary to use the menu.

Apple addresses this issue by putting the menu bar at the top of the page.  This makes it impossible to overshoot the menu and speeds up activity.  Bruce Tognazzini wrote about this issue in an excellent article titled, “A Quiz Designed to Give You Fitts”.  In the article, Bruce writes about Fitts' Law that states, "The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target."  Anchoring the menu bar at the top of the screen creates an infinity large target which is in line with Fitts Law.  The problem is, that there is still a distance between the active window and the menu bar that must be crossed which slows users down.  Refer to the Dead Space in the picture below.

A better solution would be to use the same backstop that Apple uses but decrease the distance the mouse must travel to reach the menu bar.  A backstop should be placed at the top of the active window to prevent the mouse from moving beyond the the menu bar at the top of the window.  This would increase the effective area of the target while decreasing the distance traveled by the mouse.  If a user wanted to access another window, they could move the mouse to the left, right or bottom of the active window to escape.  A user could also use Alt Tab, a key combination that can be accessed by the left hand that usually does not access the mouse.

When the mouse hit the backstop, it would stop and only slide from left to right. If a user continued to push the mouse past the backstop, the pointer would eventually be released and could continue to move across the desktop.

By creating a local backstop at the top of the active window, Fitts law states that the time required to access a menu should be faster compared to both the Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh interface.  This will increase the productivity of anyone who routinely accesses menus such as graphic designers and will also make life easier for people such as seniors who may have poor hand eye coordination.

How heater manufacturers can improve the effectiveness of heaters.

Ever notice how your electricity bill tends to increase during the winter?  One of the major uses of electricity in the winter is for portable electric heaters.  In a typical situation, people will place the heater in a cold room that usually has a window and turn the heater on.  If the room is still cold, they will turn the heater higher.  What most people do not know is that if the heater is far away from the window, much of the heat from the heater can end up at the ceiling while the floor remains cold.  The reasons for this, is that cold air from the window falls while hot air from the heater rises creating a circulation pattern.  See the picture below:

As you can see, when the heater is placed away from the window, the ceiling is hot while the floor is cold.  To solve this problem, the heater should be place near the window.  The warm air from the heater will rise, be slightly cooled by the window, move across the ceiling and then fall down the opposite wall and heat the floor.  This sets up a natural circulation that evenly heats the room.  Architects know this and if you look at the placement of floor vents in a house or a hotel room you will notice that the heater is always placed below the window.  See picture below:

As the picture shows, the cold air near the window is heated before it enters the room and the air on the floor comes from the ceiling  rather than from the window.  Heater manufactures should use the Behavioral Science concept of Anchoring to recommend to customers where to place the heater for maximum comfort.  When people place a heater in the room, their first choice will be near the window based because of the labeling on the heater.  Today people are given no recommendations and the probability that the heater will end up near the window is low.

By anchoring people to the concept of placing heaters near windows, heater manufacturers can help customers heat a room evenly and reduce electricity use. This will ultimately reduce the overall cost of ownership of the heater as well as increase the perception of effectiveness of the heater.

Warning:  There should always be adequate space between a heater and any loose cloth like drapes.  Also not that this concept is not as applicable to heaters with fans.

Special thanks to Leura Greunke for the trigger for this concept.

How restaurants can increase the value of the food served.

Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after eating a great meal feeling physically tired and mentally slow?  The food may taste great but the large portions take a long time to digest.  On the other extreme is the diet menu.  Restaurants may display the low number of calories of an item but the selection may be lacking in taste.

How would you feel after eating this?

Customers must choose between meals that taste great but have consequences after the meal and items that are low in calories but may not taste as good.  If people do choose the healthier choices on the menu and lose weight, Self Attribution Bias from Behavioral Science tells us that people will never give the restaurant credit for the weight loss.

I propose that there is another option.  People are more likely to mentally enjoy a meal if there is a reward that is delivered in the short term.  In this case, restaurants could use the Behavioral Science concept of Framing and tell people how the food will make the patron feel a couple of hours after eating the meal.  While some foods make you fell tired and slow, other foods can make you mentally awake and energized.  To increase value to customers, some restaurants should focus on how you feel after a meal and then advertise those effects on the menu.  Instead of focusing on what the food does not have like calories, or cholesterol, the restaurant should focus on the short-term benefits the food provides.

Here is how it would work.  Imagine you are working in a law firm and you need to prepare for big court case the next day.  The menu would list several dishes that support brain function.  The meal could start with a walnut spinach salad, the main course would be salmon and desert could consist of blueberries.  Of course a couple on a date might opt for the aphrodisiac menu that includes oysters, shark fin soup and chocolate.  Mararthon runners would be offered a meal high in carbohydrates that would increase the storage of glycogen (or energy) in their muscles.  

Your mind would be sharp after this meal.

In summary, restaurants should design a menu that provides known benefits in the hours after consuming the meal and then advertise those benefits.  This will bridge the gap between food that tastes great but makes you feel terrible afterwards and food that is less appetizing but may provide benefits 20 years latter.  This will make people enjoy meals that may not have as much taste but have short-term health benefits.  It will also increase the value that restaurants offer to patrons by highlighting the food body relationship.