And now, for something completely gross...
Ok, I'll admit this is something of a gruesome topic, but I'm known around the house for doing the Dirty Jobs, including carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and landscaping that involves "things that have gone bad".
One particular day, a few weeks ago, I'm cleaning up the yard and remember our bird feeder needs to be cleaned out. I had filled it months ago, but it's buried under a climbing vine on our back patio, so birds fail to find it (a usability problem, no less). Add to that - it's a cheap bird feeder and has a crack in the top so water seeps in. Combine those two and you have the equivalent of a toxic waste dump no self-respecting bird would go near.
So I get around to taking a look at the bird feeder, up close, and realize after a few spine-crawling seconds, that the bird seed in the bottom of the feeder is moving. Ever so slightly, in little ticks and bumps that look like the legs in a slow-churning popcorn popper.
It didn't take long to realize that the entire column of bird seed, up the plastic enclosure, was moving in slow motion; that the pea-green liquid and decomposed seeds around the outside were moving around in lavalamp-esque gloops and glops.
Trust me, there's a usability bent in here somewhere, I'm getting to it...
After taking a few seconds to compose myself, and re-position my stomach, I got to work cleaning out the bird feeder. I will spare you the gruesome details, but the cause of all the motion was a small herd of fly larva, or maggots, if you prefer. I don't think I've been that ill about a backyard chore in a long time, and hope not to in an equally long time, if ever.
To get to the point and put this story to rest. I had two highly competitive emotions running through me during and after the cleanup job: 1) pure an unadulterated revulsion at what was in my backyard, and 2) a deep-seated primal urge to somehow share what I had just experienced.
That's when I decided to go online. Oh sure, superficially I was looking for advice on fixing crummy bird-feeders, but I quickly found that answer (throw them away) and I kept looking. That's when I came upon this little site called "Make a good house a GREAT home: Killing Maggots". The really neat thing about this site is that there are 316 little tiny stories about the exact same thing I had just experienced. Every one of them written by someone just as repulsed as I was, all with a desperate cry for help. People share their empathy, offer some advice (some practical, some primal) but everyone working together against a common enemy.
Just reading the first hundred or so posts quenched my thirst to bond with someone who had seen what I had. The Blog/discussion forum format made it a very simple and easy process. I didn't have to learn how it worked, didn't have to download, install or transmogrify any of my settings to purge my system of the need to bond with my fellow humans.
This strikes me as a "usability" story not because of its innovation or flashy design or superior aesthetic. It's an amazing example to me of how the Internet can help people communicate without getting in the way of that experience.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to know what I did with the birdfeeder, I cleaned it out thoroughly and hung it back up. The previous occupants live somewhere in the forest behind my house. I know, I should have killed em. Then again, connecting with my fellow humans reminded me that some of the shorter amphibious residents of my yard need to eat, too. One animal's revulsion is sometimes someone else's dinner.
One particular day, a few weeks ago, I'm cleaning up the yard and remember our bird feeder needs to be cleaned out. I had filled it months ago, but it's buried under a climbing vine on our back patio, so birds fail to find it (a usability problem, no less). Add to that - it's a cheap bird feeder and has a crack in the top so water seeps in. Combine those two and you have the equivalent of a toxic waste dump no self-respecting bird would go near.
So I get around to taking a look at the bird feeder, up close, and realize after a few spine-crawling seconds, that the bird seed in the bottom of the feeder is moving. Ever so slightly, in little ticks and bumps that look like the legs in a slow-churning popcorn popper.
It didn't take long to realize that the entire column of bird seed, up the plastic enclosure, was moving in slow motion; that the pea-green liquid and decomposed seeds around the outside were moving around in lavalamp-esque gloops and glops.
Trust me, there's a usability bent in here somewhere, I'm getting to it...
After taking a few seconds to compose myself, and re-position my stomach, I got to work cleaning out the bird feeder. I will spare you the gruesome details, but the cause of all the motion was a small herd of fly larva, or maggots, if you prefer. I don't think I've been that ill about a backyard chore in a long time, and hope not to in an equally long time, if ever.
To get to the point and put this story to rest. I had two highly competitive emotions running through me during and after the cleanup job: 1) pure an unadulterated revulsion at what was in my backyard, and 2) a deep-seated primal urge to somehow share what I had just experienced.
That's when I decided to go online. Oh sure, superficially I was looking for advice on fixing crummy bird-feeders, but I quickly found that answer (throw them away) and I kept looking. That's when I came upon this little site called "Make a good house a GREAT home: Killing Maggots". The really neat thing about this site is that there are 316 little tiny stories about the exact same thing I had just experienced. Every one of them written by someone just as repulsed as I was, all with a desperate cry for help. People share their empathy, offer some advice (some practical, some primal) but everyone working together against a common enemy.
Just reading the first hundred or so posts quenched my thirst to bond with someone who had seen what I had. The Blog/discussion forum format made it a very simple and easy process. I didn't have to learn how it worked, didn't have to download, install or transmogrify any of my settings to purge my system of the need to bond with my fellow humans.
This strikes me as a "usability" story not because of its innovation or flashy design or superior aesthetic. It's an amazing example to me of how the Internet can help people communicate without getting in the way of that experience.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to know what I did with the birdfeeder, I cleaned it out thoroughly and hung it back up. The previous occupants live somewhere in the forest behind my house. I know, I should have killed em. Then again, connecting with my fellow humans reminded me that some of the shorter amphibious residents of my yard need to eat, too. One animal's revulsion is sometimes someone else's dinner.
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