Common Sense in Technology Design & Implementation

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wall Magnets

It may seem very rudimentary but I have been very impressed by the innovative use of magnets in the office products industry. As a facilitator of highly collaborative meetings and a practitioner of low-tech but incredibly powerful workshops I am on a constant lookout for tools that enhance the productivity without involving a laptop or other electronic means.

Recently, working with a client in their office(s), I found a magnetic substitute for scotch tape. That is not to say that scotch tape is bad, it's just that these new magnets are very easy to put on, remove, and slide. Most, if not all, of the white boards have an iron surface, which works well with these magnets. The two kinds I have seen (in the pictures on the right) are:

Buttons, and
Brackets

Buttons are good for index cards weight category. The brackets, on the other hand, are very powerful and can hold may be up 5-6 lbs of load very easily. These are good to hang large plotter printouts.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Microsoft Office - You, Sir, have to restart

Wow, what an incredible change/upgrade of the user interface. I am talking about the MS Office 200o suite. It begs a question - why? And, where's the simplicity that MS is so famous for.

Isn't this a big risk? The first reaction that I have seen is people being put off, including me. I never had that reaction to any radical design change to any product, but this time it just lost me. It's a struggle to find functionality, that I so used to finding it all in one view.

Is it wrong? No! But, is it exaperating? Yes!!!

Southwest - We don't Remember you

This is one of the most respected and profitable airlines, no doubt. But where's the QA?

The image on the right hand side shows the login screen for Southwest Airlines. This has a checkbox that says, "Remember my account number for future login". Have you ever noticed that it actually never does remember it? What's up with that? It's probably the easiest test to automate.

This also happens to be irritating. Had it not been there I would have been OK. Since, it is there, I now actually want it to work, everytime.

Won't tell you when we open

Look at the service unavailability message on the right hand side.
This message is, in gist, telling the user to try later as the service is available only during certain hours.

Where are those hours listed? What time do you open?
And, this is an eCheque service, which allows the user to write electronics checks to users from other banks. Why can't this service be asynchronous?

Not to mention that it is one of the leading banks of India, ICICI

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Where's MySpace?

This is probably one of the most ridiculous error messages that I have ever seen on a prominent web page/portal. Recently, I was trying to register myself as a MySpace.com user and wasn't able to because I entered my birthday in the year 1910.

First of all, shouldn't the site allow a 97 year old to become a MySpace member? And most important of all, if there's an option to display and select the year 1910, you better allow it, or else don't display it. Isn't this obvious to the users? And, what makes my birthday real? The message displayed should be more sensible.