Ever come across a Preferences or Settings screen that shows you things you can’t change? This might be a text box where you can’t edit the text, a checkbox that you can’t uncheck, or a drop-down menu that only contains one item to choose from. In each case, the software makes it look like you […]

I booked a flight on the United Airlines site today. After confirming my travel times, I was presented with the option to pay for a seat with extra legroom. When I declined that, another screen appeared offering a “special deal” for upgrading to first class. On this second screen, I had to wade through a […]

Apple is widely respected for the design and usability of its products. But even they slip up sometimes. Case in point: I was trying to help a friend order a printed photo book from iPhoto. Whenever we tried to create an Apple account and submit the order, it said “An error has occurred – Please […]

Plenty of articles have been written about those awful voice-recognition menus that many companies use for customer service. But I came across an especially bad one recently. Not only is it poor at figuring out what you want, but you have to say virtually every choice out loud. They actually removed the ability to just […]

To the movie studios who design their DVD menus with cursor icons that look like a cloud or a star or a pony; To the software vendors who ship CDs and DVDs in a package that takes a crystal ball and utility knife to open; To the car companies who keep creating gauges that look […]

I have been riding the train systems in Chicago and San Francisco quite a bit lately. While neither is perfect, and San Francisco’s probably gets a lot more positive press, Chicago does something that every transit agency should emulate: they make their announcements as loud and clear as possible. When you hear “This is an […]