People are fond of saying, “Don’t fix what isn’t broken.” However, in the world of usability, oftentimes people don’t know that some things are inherently broken. Take the measuring cup, for example. If you ask people what’s wrong with it, they’ll give you answers such as, “It’s slippery” or “the handle gets hot easily” — but rarely will they point this out:

It’s actually hard to measure accurately without pouring a bit, bending down to look, pouring some more, bending down again

Enter Oxo. They didn’t reinvent a completely new measuring cup — they simply saw an issue and decided to fix it by improving upon the original design.

Oxo measuring cup

It’s simple, and it solves a real problem — even though most people wouldn’t have noticed that it’s a problem to begin with. That’s what lies at the heart of user experience.

Check out this blog for more information on Oxo’s measuring cup (even includes a video clip of the design process).