Damn, I hate it when all the stereotypes fit. Like the crash test dummy, except these are Baby Boomer dummies.
Nissan made a suit for the punks to wear while testing the ergonomics of their car interiors:
- Dark glasses to simulate poor vision. Check
- Gloves to simulate reduced dexterity. Check
- Casts on legs and arms to simulate arthritic pain. Check
- Fat girdle to simulate a spare tire. Check
I blogged before about how unadvanced cars are.
Thinking strictly of designs for Boomers, add these to list.
- Swivel seats for exiting
- Seat belts that buckle in the middle instead of the side.
- All window de-icers.
- Louder turn signal clickers
I wouldn’t buy a car like that. Yet.
Ooh, swivel seats!
Those ergo suits were designed by the company I used to work for, IDEO, and are used by a variety of companies that are trying to improve UI design for products targeted at older consumers, including (most obviously) medical device companies.
I don’t care about car design. I care about driver monkeys. It’s the 21st century! Weren’t we promised driver monkeys by now?
@Brian: Kewl that you used to work for these guys. I almost wished for a “swivel recliner flinger outter” but that would be asking to much.
@Mr. Fab: Yes. Driver monkeys were promised in Popular Science in 1957. Now you have to go to Bangalore to get Driver monkeys.
But what are they doing to fog their minds? Both my mother and my mother-in-law have disturbing, though fortunately occasional, episodes of stopping at green lights or sailing through red lights. (This, I figure, is Boomers’ driving future.)
If they really want to simulate the Boomer driving experience, slip them half a Quaalude before you put them behind the wheel. Not enough to knock them out, just enough to render them slightly stupid.
Oh damn, GLS, your comments aren’t in white boxes anymore.
Oddly enough, my initials were GLS back when I was a maiden (ha!).
@Gretchen: Now wait, Boomers are not slightly stupid – yet. This would be for Senior Drivers. (anybody older than me.) You know entirely too much about drugs.
Comments aren’t in white boxes… well wait they probably will be. I was up to version 12 on code and had to go back to version 5 for the baby shit green to go away.
Maiden GLS – when you were 12?
@Gretchen: shit, see? white boxes. This coding crap is for the birds.
Brown or White?
Brown?
White!
whut?
Logged in: ummmmm, white!
I like babyshit green. It’s comfortingly familiar. And I like the white boxes; again, it’s like those Bibles where the actual words of Jesus are printed in red.
I don’t know, I am already slightly stupid. This is known as “mommy brain” — apparently having babies makes your brain, as well as your waistline, get flabby and soft.
Oh this will be fun, fun, fun. Piss on it, I’m going to spend some Google ™ money and have Kirk fix what I can’t.