While shopping with my wife last weekend, I thought about some of the high-tech enhancements that people have proposed for dressing rooms. For example, at least one company has designed an interactive mirror that shows how different outfits might look. But then I realized that the most valuable enhancements are probably much simpler than that. […]

I bought some clothes at a well-known retailer over the weekend. They had a really big sale and did a great job promoting it inside the store. Afterwards, I noticed that my bag even had “Sale” written on it in huge letters. While this serves as a nice reminder to me about the event, they’re […]

Many websites and web-based applications have a “Tell a Friend” feature. The idea is to make it easy for people to share content or products that they enjoy, without the hassle of drafting a separate email and then copying in the info. However, most of the Tell a Friend features I’ve seen are buried at […]

I recently received an Amazon package that contained some small but heavy items. The box was partially open when it arrived. The cause was obvious: they didn’t use enough packing materials, so the contents bounced around wildly during shipping, nearly breaking through the tape that held the box closed. I’m sure Amazon has guidelines for […]

I had an appointment with my dentist yesterday. But right before I was supposed to leave, the dentist’s office called me to say they were running behind, and asked me to show up a little bit later than my original appointment time. Then, when I got there, I ended up waiting another 20 minutes past […]

Last night, I watched the season premier of Heroes. Sprint is one of the corporate sponsors, and they’ve paid for some product placements in the show itself. But at one point, they crossed the line into the ridiculous. While walking around in a remote part of Africa, one character asked another if he could use […]

Most car commercials contain footage of the car driving around in nice scenery. Recently, I noticed that the scenery seems to vary based on the geographic area where you’re watching the ad. This should come as no surprise — after all, winter driving scenes don’t make much sense in Florida. But I think there’s more […]

Lately, I’ve noticed that more and more blogs have stopped putting a date on their articles. It’s not on the top of the page, on the bottom of the page, or even in the URL itself. Why are they doing this? My best guess is to make the article look more “fresh” to people who […]

A few years ago, I started receiving a business magazine that I never subscribed to. It was free, so I didn’t think much of it. But once the “subscription” ran out, they started asking me to renew by filling out an information card. They didn’t want money, just more info about me. Since I never […]

DVD menus contain some of the worst user interfaces you’re ever likely to see. Their designers always seem to place form before function, and even then, the resulting product looks cheesy and primitive. In this article, I’d like to examine what websites would look like if they were created like DVDs. Here are some examples: […]