Last weekend, I tried to buy some vitamins. My selection method was pretty simple: for a given price level and ingredients, I prefer a small gelcap to a large capsule. But the design of many bottles prevents you from telling how big the actual pills are. For instance, the bottles are often opaque, and some [...]

For whatever reason, some people feel compelled to include a bunch of extra text in their documents, rather than simply referencing or linking to the original source. Worse, this information is frequently retyped from memory or copied from an older version of the data. This behavior frustrates customers, since they have to re-process the extra [...]

If you want to communicate effectively, it’s generally a good idea to use the same words that your customers do. This rule applies whether you’re creating a website, writing a user’s guide, or designing navigational signage. I’ve seen this recommendation many times before, yet companies still get it wrong all the time.
Here’s my most recent [...]

I understand the use of lowercase names for certain companies and products. Sometimes, it just looks better that way. But extending this practice to the buttons and navigation on a website or application puzzles me. Since we use capital letters for more than just decoration, adopting an “uppercase is bad” mentality threatens to reduce usability [...]

I installed a new program today. Actually, I installed it three times. Why? Because I neglected to choose the right options for my computer from the littany of obscure choices on the installer screen. I discovered this after about two hours of trial and error for what should have been a 15 minute process.
But [...]

A customer recently asked me to help choose a laser printer from several Samsung models. So I went to the Samsung website, and located the list of available printers. Three or four of the models looked promising, so I tried to “middle click” on each product name to view the info in a new browser [...]

I recently filed my taxes online, which I have been doing for years. The product I use is very well-designed, with easy navigation and excellent help text on each page. But they added something weird this year: a sidebar that tries to provide contextual help for the feature you’re using. This would be fine, [...]

1.) Emit a high-pitched shriek. (My laser printer could wake the neighbors when it’s low on paper.)
2.) Provide a woefully inaccurate estimate of what to expect. (My laptop will say you’ve got ten minutes left on the battery, and then it shuts down one minute later.)
3.) Taunt people with a useless error message. (I’ve been [...]

My company has been using IP phones for years. Generally, they work great. There’s just one small problem: if the clock on your phone is wrong, you can’t change it. Apparently, the people who designed the phones decided to rely exclusively on network time protocol (NTP), and removed the settings for changing the date and [...]

Sometimes the simplest innovations are the most useful. To see what I mean, let me describe my recent shopping experience at Staples. I decided to pick up a replacement chair mat from the local store, instead of ordering it online. I actually went this route because retailers roll the chair mats into a tube [...]