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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: Fresh choice "Eastern Delights" advertisement
Kenneth Norton writes:
I received this advertisement from Fresh Choice, (a restaurant chain) about its featured Asian delights.
"Granny's Apple Cobbler" sounds delicious but definitely Western.
I also like how they even used a special "Asian" font for the apple cobbler title.
Broken: Best Buy checkout page
Ben Scripps points out:
I purchased some iTunes gift cards from Best Buy recently. When entering my credit card information, I found that the drop-down menu for the credit cards expiration year begins with 2002.
Why would they need to include the years 2002 to 2006 in the credit card expiration drop down menu? Obviously any credit card that expires in 2002 would be declined.
For those of us who use a keyboard to navigate web pages, having 2002 through 2006 in the drop down list is just unnecessary and annoying - and pointless for everyone else.
Broken: Konriko wild pecan rice
A reader named Jessica points out:
Someone bought this Konriko Wild Pecan rice for me.
It sounded really good...until I read the fine print at the bottom which reads:
100% natural, long-grain rice with a nutty aroma & subtle flavor that does not contain pecans or wild rice.
Whatever happened to truth in advertising? Why would Konriko call it "Wild Pecan Rice" if it contains neither pecans nor wild rice?
Broken: Clean sweep campaign sign
Jason Aller submits a picture of a sign taken in Davis, California:
I found this sign on campus at UC Davis. It reads:
NOTICE:
This item has been identified as abandoned.
Please remove in 14 days or it will be removed.
The problem with this clean sweep campaign sign is that they left off the frame of reference for when the 14 days begins.
If you see the sign do you have 14 days left, or 1 day left?
Broken: American Express web transaction detail
From Paul Schreiber's Flickr photostream:
This transaction detail is from my American Express blue online statement.
Apparently "24, 25, 26, 25" is descending order. Sigh.
Broken: Time Warner Cable interstitial ad
Kevin Shay writes in:
Time Warner Cable's website presented me with this interstitial ad after I clicked on "Pay My Bill."
Making me look at an ad first in order for me to pay my bill is broken.
Broken: Walker feet
From Kazanjy's Flickr photostream:
A lady in downtown Palo Alto, California let me take a picture of her walker legs. This picture exemplifies one of the failings of a common user hack to make walkers actually work: tennis balls over the feet.
The problem is that tennis balls are made of low impact rubber, which doesn't perform well under the duty cycle of scraping along pavement all day.
Someone should design a walker properly so that the user doesn't need to modify its feet.
Broken: Windows Millennium update
Mike Lerley writes in:
I clicked the "windows update" icon on a client's older laptop running Windows Millennium, and this is what the Windows update site says:
Thank you for interest in obtaining updates from our site.
This website is designed to work with Microsoft Windows operating systems only.
To find updates for Microsoft products that are designed for Macintosh operating systems, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac
It almost seems like Microsoft has not only discontinued support for Windows Millenium, it's disowned it altogether!
Broken: No dumping sign
Eric Greiner submits a picture taken in Seattle, Washington:
There are two broken things going on here.
1. The signs states "Dump No Material. Whatever."
(I know it's a misprint, it should say "Dump no material whatsoever" but it is funny).
2. The fact that there is a big pile dumped (obviously it was dumped by park services) right in front of the sign adds to the irony.
Broken: Bus door instructions
Dave Reevely writes:
Here's a cell phone picture of the doors on a city bus here in Ottawa, Ontario. Bilingual signs are the norm in this bilingual city, but usually they say more or less the same thing in French and in English.
The English instructions state, "To open the door, wait for the green light, then wave hand near door."
The French instructions state, "To open the door, wait for the green light, then push the bar."
However, only the French instructions will actually
get you off the bus!
The English decal must have been left over from
some earlier model.
Broken: Arizona Tea containers filled too much
Chris Barr points out:
I love Arizona Green tea, but every single bottle I buy has the exact same problem - there is just slightly too much tea in every bottle.
So much that there is actually tea inside the cap on the top; there's not even any air bubbles inside the bottles at all! When the cap is removed, of course the excess tea spills out, and I've never had this not happen.
This also makes it difficult to pour the first glass of tea without spilling even more!
If their tea wasn't so good, I wouldn't buy it anymore.
Broken: Hotel door knob
Scales writes:
This is a picture of a door knob my friend encountered at the Galaxy Hotel in Athens, Greece.
To open the door with this door knob, you had to push the blue part in and then turn your wrist at an odd angle - making it very difficult to enter your hotel room.
Broken: Warning sign at cliff edge
Rory Parle submits a picture taken in Ireland:
I took this photo of a half-hidden warning sign at the Cliffs of Moher in the west of Ireland - half of the sign is literally inside the wall!
Broken: (Just for Fun) Traffic lights sculpture
Kip Nicol points out a picture from REALJimBob's Flickr photostream:
This traffic light sculpture in Canary Wharf in London is located in a real roundabout - I wonder how many people have actually mistaken this sculpture for a real traffic light cluster!
Broken: Forbes news article
A reader named Mick points out:
This text clip is from a Forbes article about Zimbabwe.
It quotes the US ambassador Christoper Dell, then puts up a link to news and stock quotes from Dell computers!
Broken: Windows Vista search results message
Larry Danver writes:
When it can't find what you are searching for, Windows Vista politely tells you so.
But in the same screen, it asks you if you found what you were looking for.
Doesn't it know that you didn't?!?
Broken: Bath temperature selection
Nicholas Mann writes:
Broken: Pacific Gold beef jerky description
Steve Jackson points out:
This bag of Pacific Gold beef jerky is a good example of meaningless marketing-speak.
It proudly proclaims that it's "natural-style."
"Natural-style" is a bit like being "alive-style"; it either is, or isn't.
Broken: Student loan re-payment letter
Hay Kranen from the Netherlands submits a scan of a student loan payment letter he received:
I received this letter (which is in Dutch) asking me to pay back my student loan.
The text of the letter is fine and informative, but the accompanying illustration is of a fat man who drank too much wine and ate too much fish, and is now being presented the bill.
If this is how the government thinks that students spend their loans, what else do they think of us?
A rough translation of the letter: at the top it says 'Paying back your student loan,' and at the bottom of the letter it ironically says: the IB-Groep (the institution that handles the loans) accommodates you.
Broken: Logging off the Citimortgage website
An anonymous reader writes:
When I click "Sign Out" to log off the Citimortgage website, the screen above shows up, asking me whether I want to continue.
Here's a quiz: If I want to sign out, should I click "yes" or "no"?
Answer: According to Citimortgage, anyway, the correct answer is "yes." That's right - clicking "yes" to continue will sign you out.
It's so sad that little mom-and-pop businesses like Citibank don't have enough money to afford basic usability...
Broken: Quantity label
This package is labeled with the quantity - "One Yummy Pound."
"One Yummy Pound" of what?!?
Broken: Staples Mailmate shredder demo
Paco McFuentes points out:
If you click on Staples Mailmate junk mail shredder demo link, you are taken to a flash video showing the shredder working on a CD and a letter in its envelope.
This demo is broken because the video is an animation - rather than showing the actual product in use. Also, the clips show debris shooting out *from* the shredder - if the Staples Mailmate shredder actually did that, it would literally be broken.
Broken: Sign over garbage can
Karl Mok submits a picture taken in Ontario, Canada:
Broken: Mattress pad washing instructions
Steve Jackson writes in:
On my new mattress pad there are two tags with washing instructions:
Machine Wash Warm
and
Machine Wash Cold
Using two tags to explain what can be done on one is just inefficient; providing different directions is just plain broken.
Broken: Amazon packaging
Mike Berman points out:
Amazon.com used an enormous box just for sending me a small electric shaver - they filled the rest of the box with about 20 of those little air-sacs.
They could have just sent me the electric shaver in a smaller box, which would prevented them from wasting packaging material.