If you’ve ever flipped through an LL Bean or Land’s End catalog, you probably noticed that all their cold-weather gear has a temperature rating. This helps you decide which jacket to buy based on the climate that you live in (or are planning to visit). I find these usage tips really helpful, since they tie […]

In some industries, it’s standard practice to disclose the suggested retail price, and then show how much money you’re saving. Cars are probably the best example, with only a small number of cars ever selling at (or above) MSRP. I’ve seen this with groceries, too. In fact, some stores just use the price that’s printed […]

I looked over the user’s guide from a flat-screen TV yesterday. Aside from the usual problems with poor grammar and warnings against putting the TV in your bathtub, I noticed something else: they wasted a huge amount of space on the obvious. And I mean, really obvious. In fact, they dedicated two entire pages to […]

My BlackBerry seems to need charging a lot more often lately. Now that I think about it, the original battery is at least two years old, maybe close to three. But aside from the age of the battery, I really have no way of figuring out whether it’s time to replace it. And because I […]

While shopping at Target, I noticed a particular inefficiency with their store layout. Regardless of what’s on display, virtually every aisle is the same width. Walking from one aisle to the next, I saw consistent bottlenecks happening. But these weren’t just related to the popularity of the goods being sold. Aisles with products that everyone […]

How many times have you done a web search and clicked a few of the results, only to be greeted with blaring music, an unwelcome voice-over, or a series of robotic noises? If your browsing habits are anything like mine, this happens at least once a day, which sets off a mad dash to close […]

While looking at some leftover bags of Halloween candy, I noticed a very smart packaging decision that the manufacturer made. I’m sure this caught my eye when I bought the candy, but I forgot to write about it at the time. So what’s the innovation? Instead of printing the number of pieces per bag in […]