The next time you see a sign that says “Under construction” or “Pardon our dust while we remodel”, check for one more thing. Specifically, see if they’ve provided a picture of what the work is going to look like when it’s completed. In my experience, this is a rare find — maybe 10% of construction projects have any sort of rendering of the finished work. The only exception seems to be those projects where an entirely new building is being constructed, since they tend to post an artist’s rendering near the work site.

Given that somebody must have approved the work before they started — whether it be the city, the developer, or just the condo board — I’m surprised that this visual aid isn’t more common. After all, it’s a good idea to help residents and passers-by visualize why things are in total disarray. When they can see the rationale behind the mess, they’ll be a lot more understanding of all the construction tarps, closed sidewalks, and other minor annoyances that go along with it.

With retail sales slumping in a difficult economy, many stores are running sales and providing significant loyalty discounts. Typically, they would offer something like $20 off $100, or another promo based on single-day purchases. However, I’m surprised to see that almost nobody is offering cumulative purchase discounts.

What am I talking about? Instead of just rewarding people for buying stuff that day, provide a sort of “punch card” that entices you to spend say $500 over a certain three month period, or simply make a purchase of any amount five times over that span. In exchange for doing so, perhaps you receive a $75 gift card or an equivalent discount. The idea is to get people coming back over and over, rather than cleaning you out one day and never showing up again.

Sure, this sort of thing might already be offered to people who have the store credit card, or have previously signed up for a loyalty card. But I think they’re missing out on a lot of additional sales from the much larger group of shoppers who come in because of a single promotion — and who might become loyal repeat customers if they’re given the right incentives.

One of the websites that I use regularly has a built-in messaging feature. Whenever someone sends you a message, it appears in a special area where you can reply, delete, etc. The site also tries to notify you when new messages come in. The problem is, these notifications are always wrong. For example, if I have three new messages, it might tell me I have five.

I’m sure there’s some complex technical reason why the numbers don’t match up. Maybe it’s legacy code that will take years to update. So my advice to developers is simple: if you can’t provide an accurate tally, don’t give any numbers at all. Saying “You have messages” is almost as useful as giving the exact number, especially if those numbers aren’t accurate in the first place. In other words, err on the side of less information if you can’t be sure that the underlying data will match up.

I just learned there’s a Lego store on Michigan Avenue. I’m not exactly in the market for a large quantity of Legos, but I do pass by that area quite often. Since Lego stores are few and far between, I thought I would have noticed the store by now. Then I discovered the problem: it’s not visible from the street.

Since I haven’t actually been there, I can’t say how far inside the building you have to travel to reach the Lego store. Whether it’s just beyond the main entrance or several floors up, the challenge is the same: you need to create awareness at street level. For example, you could purchase ads on nearby buildings or bus shelters telling customers exactly where you’re located.

Obviously, it’s better to have doors that open up onto the street and window displays that passers-by can see. But if your real estate situation prevents that, at least make an effort to get your message across to potential customers as they walk or drive past your location.

Last weekend, I got to see part of the Chicago Marathon. With over one million spectators, it’s a pretty major event, spanning a huge area from the downtown Loop to the surrounding neighborhoods. Of course, the crowds of spectators tend to purchase a lot of food and drink, which means big business for the restaurants and bars along the marathon path. With this in mind, I was quite surprised that so few of those businesses were open on marathon day.

This was clearly a missed opportunity. Granted, many of the businesses in question are located in a business-oriented section of town that basically shuts down for the weekend. But the marathon is one of the biggest events of the year, and the crowds are always huge. The few restaurants that stayed open looked quite busy, so there was money to be made. Their competitors just didn’t want the hassle of being open an extra day, I guess.

The takeaway here is to be aware of those times when you might want to change your hours a bit. If there’s a big event taking place, perhaps it’s worth staying open a little bit longer, or adding a Saturday or Sunday shift to your weekday-only restaurant. And if you’re still not convinced, try sitting it out one year and visiting the area as a customer. You may be surprised at how much business the other guys are getting just for being open when you’re not.

These days, most software designers understand that confirmation messages are a good thing. For example, if the user just made some changes, you should show a message that says “Changes saved” or something along those lines.

But aside from showing the confirmation, where should you take the user next? Should you bring them back to the editing view to make more changes, or to the page where they originally clicked “Edit”, or perhaps to a page that shows all their recent changes?

Depending on the context, each of these options has merit. The key is to think about the logical next action that the user will take. Then, put them on the right page and provide them with the appropriate links to help speed up their workflow.

By the way, here’s a great example of what NOT to do. For extra special badness, show the user a confirmation message, and then bring them to a screen that has nothing to do with what they just saved, no relationship to the path they took to get there, and no links to get back. That’s a guaranteed way to leave people frustrated and confused.

Against my better judgement, I found myself at an H&M store on Saturday. After picking out a few items, we went to the checkout area. The overtly stylish cashier rang up the purchase, and I gave him my American Express card for payment. He looked at it for a little while, seemed confused, and then pointed to an unintelligible sign on the wall behind him. The message: H&M doesn’t take Amex.

I was floored. Refusing to take Amex is a favorite habit of ignorant small retailers, not multinational chain stores. Plus, H&M used to accept Amex, so something must have changed along the way. Whatever their reasoning, I’ll never be going back there again. The best part is, I bet these lost sales aren’t being recorded anywhere. The revenue is lost forever, and the geniuses in corporate have no idea of the consequences of their decision.

Sometimes a company or product confers an obvious benefit over the competition, but little effort is made to promote this advantage. Take Trader Joe’s, for instance. Their pricing is vastly lower than any other grocery store in downtown Chicago, yet they never show any comparisons of how much money you’re saving. I’ve run the math myself, and many staple products are 20-50% cheaper than other stores. So why doesn’t the store promote this fact?

I believe Trader Joe’s uses a very deliberate marketing approach where their customers are basically sharing a “secret” about how great the store is. Current shoppers know about the quality of the food and the money they save. But the store never goes out of their way to talk up these benefits to non-customers.

In this fashion, Trader Joe’s creates an element of mystery about the store. Non-customers ask themselves why their friends shop there so often, what’s the big deal about it, etc. Eventually, some of these uninitiated people will either hear about the benefits first hand, ask a friend, or just show up at the store. Then, they’ll join the club and help spread the word to their group of friends.

If this is actually their strategy, it’s quite brilliant. Trader Joe’s lets customers do the marketing for them. Messages from the store itself are very low-key. As a result, the word-of-mouth takes the form of a valuable, closely-guarded secret, rather than typical marketing hyperbole.

During the course of a single weekend, I experienced two very different approaches to bag check. First up was the Art Institute of Chicago. This well-known museum likes to greet paying members by forcing you to check virtually every bag you bring in — especially if it’s on the prohibited list. What does this list include? Try everything from “backpacks” to “briefcases”.

Meanwhile, the Banana Republic store a mile north of the museum won’t let you give them any bag to keep in the front while you shop — no matter how much stuff you end up lugging around the aisles. It seems like both of these organizations should be able to find a happy middle, but they’re afraid to give anything different a try.

If a restaurant only serves breakfast a few days a week, you would expect them to open earlier on those days to accomodate the breakfast crowd. Similarly, when a restaurant is open the same hours every day, you would expect them to offer the same meals every day. So far, this is just common sense.

However, I ran into a strange exception last weekend: a restaurant that opens at the same time on Saturday and Sunday, but only offers a breakfast menu on Sundays. What’s more, their website is rather unclear about this. I didn’t fully understand this weird setup until after I arrived on Saturday and tried to order an omelette. They made it for me anyway, but not without some fuss.

It’s really easy to prevent this type of confusion. If your business only offers certain menu options or products or services at specific times, come right out and say that. For a restaurant, this belongs right under the operating hours, or on the page with the various menus you serve. As usual, setting the proper expectations helps prevent confusion and leads to happier customers.