Rhonda Bracey: At Random

… you just can’t open it!

Why did a miniscule proportion of world’s population do such stupid acts as tamper with products that they’ve made it difficult for the rest of us? And why are companies so fearful of tampering and law suits that they make products that are almost impossible to open—by anyone?

I’m not arthritic and I can use my hands as well as I could when I was in my 20s, but in the past few days I’ve had two instances where getting a top off a product was more than difficult. It was frustrating, annoying, and in one case put my teeth at risk!

One instance was one of those ‘push down and turn to open’ lids that’s meant to keep children from consuming the contents. Well, I pushed down and turned about six times before I got the darned thing to open. And I swore a bit too.

The other was a plastic jar of what used to be called stewed fruit. It seems the two main producers of these ‘jars’ are using a seal that can only be opened by brute force. Here’s a picture of this ‘seal from hell’:

So, what makes it nasty? See those two little bits that stick out? Well, there’s four of them, evenly placed around the seal.  But they are almost impossible to lift using my adult fingers, small though they are. Fingernails get broken in the process, and once I resorted to using a kitchen knife (NOT a sharp one), but that only put my eyes, face, arms, and hands under serious threat of mutilation. Only once have I been able to lift these tabs enough to pull them back to break the incredibly strong seal. And then the seal itself is a sod of a thing to remove without spilling the contents.

The only thing that works for me on this seal is my bottom front teeth! Yes, teeth. I’d like to see the manufacturers’ reactions if I sent them a bill for missing or broken teeth as a result of trying to consume their product!

I wonder how those with even slightly limited motor impairment get on. The elderly spring to mind, anyone with arthritis or lessened strength in their arms and hands, multiple sclerosis sufferers, and the like.

Design for usability and accessibility is not just for software—it’s for every product we use. This seal meets neither requirement—it’s not usable, and it definitely prevents the product from being accessible!

Just a little rant to finish off the year…

David Pogue, the technology writer for The NewYork Times whose blog posts I read each week, had an interesting tale he posted on Dec 20, 2007 about the ethics of downloading and copying music etc., and the generational differences between his audience responses.

It’s already generated more than 250 interesting comments! I especially liked Bill Shepherd’s comment (#4).

Enjoy your Christmas however and wherever you spend it!

And enjoy this Christmas ‘mashup’ song:

Sunday morning, 6:30am, summer time. The sun’s just up and so am I. So there I am, collecting the morning paper from the street verge, and I’m definitely not awake! What do I see at the end of the street? A sheep! Yep, a sheep. I looked twice, thinking I was dreaming, went back inside to get the camera fully expecting it to be figment of my imagination… Nope. A sheep. In the street.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’re in town, not out in the farming area. So where this sheep came from, I have no idea. But he hung around our street until at least 10am, when the heat forced me inside from gardening.

Proof:

More photos…

One thing about living in the country (even though we’re close to town on a large suburban-sized block) is the plethora of bugs!

A new one to me is the pie-dish beetle, which my husband spotted walking across a paving slab in the back yard this morning. He recalls its name ‘cos as a kid he found one in Perth and sent it in to the Museum where Harry Butler, the famous West Australian naturalist, identified it.

Here’s a picture of this little beastie; it’s about 2.5cm (1 in) long and about 1cm (1/2 in) across: