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 […]

I recently came across the Uncle Mark Gift Guide and I liked the concept immediately. As a customer experience consultant, Mark Hurst shares his recommendations on which products are easy-to-use and actually do what they claim. It follows that these products would make excellent gifts within their category, since recipients will spend their time using […]

With most web-based applications, the developer makes more money if you use them more.  Whether it’s more user licenses, more projects, or more data being stored, their revenues go up when customers expand their usage of the service.  But these very same products tend to make it hard to do a rather simple thing: duplicate […]

Most software products do a pretty good job of disclosing their system requirements, like how much memory and what sort of processor you need to make them work.  Even though the terms can get a little obscure, at least the company has made the effort to tell you what’s required. My experience buying a coffeemaker […]