June 30, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Coffee maker

 Mike Boyink writes:

Attached are two pictures of my coffee maker. The designers choose the wrong color LEDs to indicate state.

We're conditioned by traffic lights to associate green with "go", and red with "stop", but if I want the coffee maker to "go" (make coffee now) I have to make sure the red light is lit.

The coffee maker has three states:
-Not brewing (off)
-Brewing now (on)
-Set to brew when the timer goes off (Auto Start)

June 27, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: (Might be fixed!) Hotel phone charges

We're already making a difference! Readers of my Good Experience newsletter (sign up by emailing update@goodexperience.com) will remember that I wrote a piece recently on Customer Experience and Hotels, talking about exorbitant phone charges at San Francisco's Palace Hotel.
Bryan Mazzarello forwarded the column to the Palace and got back this response:

Thank you for bringing the article regarding the Palace Hotel phone charges to our attention.

Your comments have been forwarded to our Executive Office. We are currently reevaluating our rates and how they differ from other hotels in San Francisco that are members of our comparitive set.

Thank you again for your time in responding and we shall endeavor to adjust rates accordingly.

"I said, `I do not really care if you clean the room or not, but I expect that my room rate includes the room being cleaned,' " Mr. Hanson recalled telling the clerk. "It's like if you went to a restaurant for dinner, and they charged extra for sitting in a chair or using a knife."

June 26, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Restroom sign

Seen at a rest stop between Washington, DC and Raleigh, NC. These signs are on the interior of a bathroom stall door.

Thanks to Libby Cecchi!

(Click the image to zoom in.)

June 25, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Bathing suit shopping

Ned Batchelder's wife writes about the difficulties of buying a decent bathing suit. A perfect text entry for thisisbroken.com - I found it on Ned's site. (Read full column here.)

This is about designers who cannot measure, who don't understand the first thing about the female form and can't be creative if their lives depended on it. I am making a list to "out" the worst features and see if they can do better from now on. First of all, the Miraclesuit: it isn't...

June 24, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Airport Windows errors

 Lukas Oberhuber risked life and limb to take these pictures in European airports. The obvious question to the airline: If you can't keep your Windows-based displays from reverting to DOS error messages, do I really want to fly on your planes?

(Click the images to zoom in.)

June 23, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Bank homepage search

Go to www.bankofny.com - the Bank of New York, the bank that Good Experience, Inc. uses - and search from home page for "merchant account". Guess what comes up: the exact same home page, again. No results page at all.

P.S. June 27 update: Stefani Pritchard reminds us that "the search function works properly when the user clicks on the 'Submit' button. But for the many experienced computer users who assume the return/enter key serves the same purpose, the result is a screen refresh. Definitely broken."

(Click the image to zoom in.)

June 21, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Fast food sign

"Do Not Enter" sign is placed in front of the fast food entrance. It's supposed to be a sign for the parking lot.(Click the image to zoom in.)

Thanks to Melanie McIntosh.

June 20, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Harvard Business School reunion sign

Sign seen at the Harvard Business School alumni reunion 2003, directing alumni to lunch. (How does anyone read this sign? Are they supposed to get food at all?)

Thanks to Good Experience reader Phil Terry.

Broken: Hotel pool hours

Here's the pool at an Embassy Suites hotel in Austin, Texas.

The sign reads "Pool Hours, 9 AM - 10 PM".

This business hotel closes the pool at exactly the hours when business travelers would want to use it.