Preach it! A man after my own heart.
RT @odannyboy: Simplicity also takes time—time to strip away, to remove or rethink the overly-complicated.
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: usability
Our 5 Favorite Articles On UX (July 2012) – The Usabilla Blog
For your consideration…
http://blog.usabilla.com/our-5-favorite-articles-on-ux-july-2012/
—
from Our 5 Favorite Articles On UX (July 2012) – The Usabilla Blog http://blog.usabilla.com/our-5-favorite-articles-on-ux-july-2012/
via Instapaper+ifttt.
A railroad makes it hard for me to go home.
My full-time job is in the transportation industry, in particular rail services.
Today I was searching for tariffs on the Union Pacific site- see below:
I searched for a tariff rate using the little search field on the upper right. No results. So I hit what I thought was the “Home” link… but is actually the “Search Home” link. All that happens was the screen refreshed, leaving me stuck on the same page:
How do I get off this screen? The “shield” logo doesn’t work as a “Home” button and the navigation on the home page has vanished. It took me a full minute or two to finally notice the tiny little nav bar on the bottom.
Note to web developers… never make it hard for me to get back “Home”.
I expected better from Steam
This is one of those cases where I’m so shocked at how stupid something is that I have to double-check to make sure that I’m right before I post it here. I really couldn’t believe I was right, but unfortunately I was.
Recently, I bought a new game on Valve’s Steam service. It won’t load for me, even though I’ve installed and reinstalled it twice now. So I try to send an email to Steam support.
This is the screen that I got. Click it for a better view…
Apparently, you need to have a COMPLETELY SEPARATE ID and password for Steam Support. WHAT? I need a Steam account and a separate Steam Support account??
It’s clear that even Steam realizes this is a bizarrely stupid idea because their little cartoon has “unique account” in a different color with a little hand pointing to it AND a “Pro Tip” telling you: “Yes, we really are telling you that you need a separate account for help on an ONLINE GAMING PLATFORM!”
I love the little black cat. A character in their own cartoon is saying “Why bother?” in disgust and before you ask, NO the cat is not a link to a page giving a valid reason for this idiocy.
Steam, why would you do something this stupid? The only reason you exist is online gamers. Why would you do something that is guaranteed to frustrate your ONLY consumers?
iPhone App Review
Just installed the iPhone app for WordPress and I’m doing this post using it.
First issue is that when entering the title the keyboard does not rotate. It does for the body, but not for the title. This seems to be a bug.
Trying to add a photo and it’s a little clunky. Had to close the keyboard to get to the function. Then the commands were a bit confusing.
I’m assuming the app will be easier to use with practice, but it could easily be improved.
Not exactly kid’s play…
My kid has Wizards 101 installed and plays it quite a bit. So I installed it and started a character… two months ago. Naturally, I don’t remember anything. User name, password… nothing.
So I try to use the “I’m an idiot” button (a/k/a the “I Forgot My User Name” link) and get this:
So… lemme get this straight… in order to get my User Name I have to tell you my email address… and my User Name???
Anybody else see a problem here?
Demanding much?
This isn’t the post that I was intending to make today, but I have to now.
I was just trying to cancel my membership with Audible.com and was going through the process. They did the standard begging me to stay routine, which is fine.
Then I got down to the bottom and found this…
The “Select a Reason” field is REQUIRED. This is rather presumptuous of them, don’t you think? If I want to give you a reason, fine. But don’t DEMAND that I give you one. It’s like breaking up with your significant other- sometimes it’s just over.
Don’t make me lie to you as to why.
– Jay
New Glasses- The Follow-Up
As promised in my previous post this is the follow-up.
I received my new glasses via Fed Ex yesterday, well within the stated time frame. The frames are nice and don’t feel “cheap” and the lenses seem to be correct per my prescription. They came packaged in a hard shell glasses case and included a very clever little screwdriver which I may end up doing a post about soon if I get stuck for a topic.
All in all, a satisfactory experience.
Now if they could just add a few more images to their “Try On View” they’d be all set.
Optically yours,
– Jay
Just ordered new glasses.
I got my prescription from the optometrist and decided to give http://www.coastal.com a shot since I had a super-secret coupon code that got me what amounts to 90% off your first pair.
By the way… the code is “HIP2SAVEFREE”… but don’t tell them that I told you. It’s a secret.
So I’m going through and I pick out a pair that will make me look like George Clooney on a good day… aww hell, who am I kidding… I’m hoping for Bruce Willis on a bad day. Anyway, I pick out a pair and I see that they have this “Try On View” function:
Now, as you can see you can select the face that they appear on. Fortunately for me, I’m an older white male, so I found the distinguished looking gent pictured. However, my first thought was “Well, thank God only white people have crappy eyesight.”. You can choose the gamut between a young blonde cheerleader type, a slightly darker young lady, a young Studdly McStud college guy and… me. If you are Black, Hispanic, Asian or any other shade but Volvo-driving white guy, too bad.
To be fair, they do offer an “Upload Image” function where you can stick in your own photo which is kind of cool… but come on… couldn’t they offer at least some diversity in the stock images?
I’ll let you know how the glasses are when I get them.
LESSON LEARNED: A little diversity goes a long way.
– Jay
Poor design or an attempt at fraud? You decide…
So, I went to Fry’s today to pick up a tax software for this year. I needed one that did both Federal and State.
I picked up the H&R Block Deluxe package and flipped it over to check out the features:
Ahhh… apparently I can get the State version with the Basic edition. Since I don’t need any of the other features offered in the Deluxe edition, I picked up a copy of Basic and flipped it over…
Ummmm….????
So… Basic says the State module is only available in the PREMIUM version?
… Confused…. Bought Turbo Tax even thought it was more expensive.
Red Paint Usability Blog 