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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Broken: ATM's changing buttons
Adrian Howard writes:
The Yes/No buttons on my local ATM (Barclays Bank in the UK) switch positions depending on the operation. I'm always pressing the button that two screens ago was "Yes," and now, for no obvious reason, is "No".
Broken: iTunes censorship
Paul Schreiber writes:
The iTunes music store is a bit censor-happy. They list "Moby Dick," by Herman Melville, as "Moby D**k."This post ran in the June 2004 issue of "Popular Science." iTunes has changed the listing back to "Moby Dick" since we received this submission.
Broken: Cell phone designs
Adam Berson writes:
The display on my Verizon Audiovox-CDM8600 cell phone alternates between "Verizon Wireless" and the current time every 4 seconds; sometimes forcing me to wait 4 seconds just to know what time it is.Also see, The truth about all of those fancy, feature-packed cell phones, by Scott Kirsner.When the phone is charging, the display alternates between "Charging..." and "Verizon Wireless." I have to open the phone and look at the internal LCD to see the time.
When the phone is "searching for service...," the time is not displayed on the external nor the internal LCD. But the phone knows what time it is, because when you set an alarm, the default alarm time is the current time. So, when the phone is "searching for service...," I need to set an alarm to find out what time it is.
Broken: Street signs of Arlington, MA
Bob Cox writes:
Here is a link to the Missing and Hidden Street Name Signs in Arlington, Massachusetts page. The street signs there are placed far away from the corner, which makes it very hard to know what street you're on.
Broken: XBox error message
Nowak writes:
Here's an error message from my XBox. It reads, "This is an Xbox game disc. Please put it in your Xbox to start playing." At least they were kind enough to write out the same error in multiple languages.
Broken: Advertisement lettering
Channing Rollo writes:
How does this company expect to build customer confidence and earn business when its front window reveals incompetence at its chosen trade? Note the peeling and missing letters on the window signs for this signage business.
Broken: Gas pump sign
Dave Marra writes:
This sign was posted on a texaco pump. It reads, "Debit cards are currently down due to the weather. Please use all cards as credit. Sorry for any inconvenience." What does weather have to do with debit cards?
Broken: ShopRite rubbing alcohol
Bob Sifniades writes:
I have twice now unscrewed the cap, on this bottle of ShopRite rubbing alcohol, and re-capped it without breaking the safety seal. Aren't these things supposed to be tamper-evident? The only sign of tampering is that some of the product is now missing from the bottle.
Broken: Parking garage exit
Jack Kelly sends in two pictures of the dangerous parking garage at his office. The left picture shows the exit only ramp. What's broken is that it's not labelled at all: someone could easily drive down the ramp as someone else drives out the exit. There is an "Exit Only" sign (see right), but it's only on the inside.
Broken: Kleinfeld's ad copy
This is an ad from the Kleinfeld's website. Kleinfeld's is a famous bridal-fashion store, so this graphic is bragging about one of their designers. Note the "symphony of sewers" -- how attractive for a bridal gown designer!
P.S. Thanks to A.T. for the pointer :)
Broken: Elevator directional signal
Ben Grill writes:
The up and down lights above the elevators in my building aren't very user-friendly. There's no barrier or distance between the green "up" arrow and the red "down" arrow. So when an elevator arrives, it lights up, but you can't tell if it's lighting the down or up arrow. Hence, I spend a small portion of each workday asking people "Is this going up or down?" Take a look at the photo - do you think it's going up... or down?
Broken: Yahoo! Weather forecast
Mark Nelson writes:
Here is a not so uncommon occurrence when you check your local weather at Yahoo! Weather. You will often find that today's high will be a lower temperature then the current temperature. It can be argued that the high temperature is the forcast, but it still doesn't make much sense. If the forecast is wrong, shouldn't you update it?
Broken: Lost cat ad
Dave Lawrence writes:
I clipped this from my town's free local newspaper, "The Wycombe Star." It's an ad which reads, "LOST; Pretty black and white semi fluffy Cat, wearing a pale blue collar." But the associated picture is clearly not a cat-- it's a rabbit!
Broken: Macromedia Central install
Anthony Malloy writes:
I went to the Macromedia site hoping to download and install Macromedia Central. I clicked on the "Macromedia Central Install Now" button and got this great bit of information telling me that to install Macromedia Central I had to install Macromedia Central.
Broken: Bridge closed sign
Justin Hankins writes:
When the Norfolk Botanical Gardens began upgrading a footbridge over one of their waterways, they built a temporary pontoon bridge to minimize inconvenience during construction. The only problem is the sign they placed to notify people about the change. In big letters, the sign reads "BRIDGE CLOSED" with a large arrow pointing to the working, temporary footbridge. In smaller letters, the sign says "new bridge being constructed." The fact that new bridge construction is barely visible from the location of the sign adds to the confusion.
Broken: Amazon Gold Box price
Chris Ruegsegger writes:
Late last year while looking for Christmas presents on Amazon I happened to run across this strange pricing error in my Gold Box. The regular price is "$69.99," but my special gold box price is "$71.95!" I have to wonder if anyone was duped into paying more for an item they saw in their Gold Box.
Broken: Fruit of the Loom underwear name
Bill Statler writes:
Fruit of the Loom makes boys' underwear with pictures of cartoon characters on them. They are sold under the name "Funpals." For the girls' version, they have chosen the unfortunate name "FunGals".Granted, they have at least capitalized that middle "G" in the logo, but even the Fruit of the Loom website lists the item in all-caps as "FUNGALS."
Broken: Elevator button labels
Terry Jones writes:
The elevator doors at the Delta terminal at La Guardia opened but the woman in the elevator didn't get off. As I entered, she was speaking on the intercom to the security department trying to figure out which button to push to go down.As we were on the second floor and wanting to go down I just pushed the lower one and off we went.
Then I looked for the source of her confusion. The buttons were labeled. DP (the top button) and AR (the bottom button). Checking my usability decoder ring I translated them to "Departures" and 'Arrivals'. I suppose they could have even been more bizarre and used TK (ticketing) and BG..( baggage.).
What ever happened to 1 and 2?
Broken: MSN 8 banner ad
James Andrews writes:
This is a banner advertisement for the Microsoft Network 8. It reads, "With MSN 8, you can use Encarta multimedia to bring leaning to life."
Broken: Wine cork warning label
Andrew Lyons writes:
This cork comes from a bottle of wine I bought in Florida in 2002. This warning label very clearly warns against letting the cork fly into your eye!