Bill DeRouchey

One of the simplest and most satisfying buttons ever. In these situations, I love to imagine the designer who made that arrow. The boss says, “Hey minion, we need an arrow that says Push for Free Cheese, get to it!” “How big do you want the arrow?” “I don’t

Hesitation is the bane of interaction design. Whenever someone is interacting with technology and they stop, puzzled, confused, uh, unsure what to do next, something is wrong. Their flow has been foiled because the interaction did not match their expectations. But invariably, the person feels stupid, thinking it’s their

Um, wow. December means it’s time for lists. The Best Cheeses of 2006, The Best Short Cheese Stories of 2006, The Best Cheesy Celebrity Meltdowns of 2006. One of the best collectors of these lists has been Fimoculous. Rex at Fimoculous just published his Best Blogs of 2006 that

The first glorious wave of handheld electronic games kicked off in 1977 and 1978. With Electronic Football from Mattel, you dodged the little red dashes to move downfield and score. With Simon, you had to memorize and repeat the lighting sequence by pushing huge buttons. And right at the same

Following up from a previous post on early light switches, here’s some more insight into the history of the button. To recap, the light switch and the doorbell were the earliest electromechanical buttons to appear in the home. They portended an interesting future for people living around 1900. However,

From a movie review of the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. I don’t know why after so many lousy James Bond pictures I always look forward to the next… Like most people, I bonded with Bond when he was Sean Connery… Roger Moore made Bond old-boy and arch…

Welcome to first, and perhaps only ever, movie review at the History of the Button. I watched Click with Adam Sandler simply because it was a movie all about a remote control. A movie about buttons! The plot is simple: Sandler gets a remote control with which he can control

Speaking of pepper, here’s an image of leisure for women in 1956, fifty years ago. This editorial cartoon from the Daily Herald in 1956 proposes the easy life for women. Get dinner ready, cook four things at once AND roast a cornish game hen in the portable roaster, in

Need to add a little spice to your life today? You know what to do. Out of context, this is one of the craziest buttons ever. Heck, in context, it’s still pretty odd. I want it in my kitchen.