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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Broken: Pedestrian experiment
Dave Lawrence writes:
The image shows a sign in Cambridge Circus-- a very busy intersection in the middle of London. The sign reads, "Pedestrian Casualty Reduction Signal Timings Experiment." What does that mean? Is it safe for me to cross the street?
Broken: Pedestrian walk signal
Brian Everton writes:
I walk by this intersection in Manitoba, Canada, often. It is right next to the neighbourhood elementary school. The pedestrian "Walk/Don't Walk" signal is blocked by the utility pole.
Broken: Capital One state map
Paul writes:
Capital One mailed me a personlized loan offer for my small business in New Hampshire. They even took the time to draw a little silhouette of my state to show how much they care about New Hampshire! Unfortunately, they didn't bother to proofread -- the state shown is Vermont, the next state over!
Broken: Petco Park seating
Ward Andrews writes:
My father and I visited San Diego's new Petco Park this weekend. We were looking for our seats, in section 111, and were surprised to find they were no where near the sign pictured (pointing to sections 110 and 112). It turns out that the odd numbered sections were on the other side of the park, so we had to walk from the first base side to the third base side. Why not number the sections in order?
Broken: Smores maker
Julie Ricketts writes:
My children bought one of the ever-popular Smores makers for me for Christmas. Enclosed in the package was the attached slip. It reads,"To enhance the campfire experience, the grill will develop a warm glow during use and the surface will change to an antiquated, burnised finished. A slight curvature of the grilling surface may also occur. These transformations are intended to enrich the appearance of the S'mores Maker and in no way affect its performance."
This is a very clever way to compensate for design flaws... simply leave a note for your consumer!
Broken: Green stop sign
Heather Johnson writes:
This is a stop sign at an apartment complex in Irving, Texas. It is a green stop sign. Do I go or stop? Why would anyone make a GREEN stop sign? This is so dangerous.[Note: the sign is also physically broken in half through the middle. this is not a composite graphic.]
Broken: Calvin Klein t-shirt label
Tolik writes:
You can imagine how eager I was to put on my new Calvin Klein t-shirt after reading this tag. It reads, "Keep away from fire." Is my new t-shirt more likely to catch on fire than other t-shirts? If so, I would like to know why. Though, I think I'll keep myself away from fire either way.
Broken: Weird cycle lanes of Brighton
Jeremy Nicholson writes:
Here is a link to the Weird Cycle Lanes of Brighton website. This site catalogs the weird cycle lanes you can find in Brighton, U.K. There are bike lanes only 4-5 feet long, bike lanes that go through poles, and bike lanes which head straight into oncoming traffic. This site is pure gold!
Broken: Time.com over-page ad placement
Mike Hyttinen writes:
An over-page ad is an idea which in itself is broken. This example drives the point home.
The first picture shows the lead photo appearing on the homepage of Time.com on Wednesday, August
20th, 2003. It shows the Canal Hotel in Baghdad burning to the ground. The second picture shows the homepage of Time.com after the ad has loaded. It is an ad for mortgage solutions from DiTech.com. Because it is an over-page ad, you can still see the cars burning in the background.
Broken: Amazon.com's personalized e-mails
Nicholas Henry writes:
I received this e-mail from Amazon early this month. This is great example of broken personalization.
It reads:
"We've noticed that customers who have purchased The K&D Sessions also enjoy the work of Various Artists. For this reason, you might like to know that Various Artists's Sounds Good in the Nude is now available." Who doesn't enjoy the work of Various Artist?
Broken: MSN software list
William Morris writes:
After recently rebuilding my Windows 2000 machine, I went looking for MSN Messenger as the final step in the process-- naturally I ended up at MSN.com.As you can see from the picture, the version they're currently offering is for WindowsXP. The text clearly states: "If you are using a different operating system, please select another version on the left side of the screen." But there are no other versions listed there! There are no links here, or anywhere else that I could determine, that take you to previous versions anywhere on the website Luckily, we had a copy sitting on our server at work. Hard to develop for it if you can't find it...
Broken: Square Toilet
Marc Rettig writes:
Here is a picture of the toilet in my London hotel. The toilet is square. My butt, like most, is round. In the presence of so many alternative designs that provide a better experience, this is a backwards innovation into brokeness.
Broken: Chevron gasoline pump
Steve Wilhelm writes:
This is a picture of a gasoline pump at the Chevron station on Main Street, Los Altos. The buttons on the pump are almost the same color as the pump itself. Because they were so hard to see, the bottom two buttons were colored in by the gas station attendants.Also, the original buttons don't have labels because their function changes based on what the screen is asking -- because of this, the gas station attendants had to label the buttons "Yes" and "No."
Broken: The Gap's placement of jeans
Deborah Bancroft writes:
Jeans at The Gap are generally folded neatly in wooden shelf units, arranged by size, so that customers can easily find what they are looking for. However, time after time, I have had to ask for help to get the size 4 jeans down from a shelf two feet above my head. Why don't they put the jeans for people they know are shorter where we can reach them? The Gap has turned an efficient serve-yourself process into a time-intensive customer support issue. Bizarre arrangement! And so easy to fix.
Broken: Wacky warning labels
The winners of the Seventh Annual Wacky Warning Label Contest were announced recently. The fishing lure shown in the image took fourth place this year with the warning label: "Harmful if swallowed."
Broken: Salon Premium signup (fixed!)
Update June 8: Sumana Harihareswara, from Salon.com, writes us to say that this problem has been fixed:
Thank you for pointing out the problem with Salon's registration page on ThisIsBroken. As you may have noticed, we fixed the problem so now it'll work on Safari. I hope we cleaned the egg off our face in a relatively quick manner.
Thanks for the fix, Salon!
Here's the original post:
I tried signing up for Salon Premium yesterday and saw something unusual:
In the question, "Would you like to receive occasional e-mails regarding Salon Premium...", of course I wanted to select No. But both radio buttons were selected - Yes and No. I clicked on both and was unable to get either one to turn off.
(I went forward in the signup process anyway, and was blocked again when clicking "Submit" to confirm my credit card information brought me back to the same confirmation page.)
Thus I'm standing credit card in hand and still unable to sign up for Salon. This is broken.
P.S. I'm using Apple's Safari browser, v1.2.1, in OSX v10.3.3. Hardly an unusual configuration.
Broken: Five Star Billiards product list
Chris Fralic sends us a pointer to the Product Quick Links page of the Five Star Billiards, Inc. website. This page lists hundreds of products in no discernable order. It should definitely not be called the "Quick Links" page. Chris adds, "It's almost a thing of beauty - there are patterns emerging in this sea of links..."
Broken: Elevator up button
Matthew Haughey writes:
This is a blurry shot of the first elevator control panel you'll find in the lobby of the new Hilton, next to the Austin Convention Center in Texas. This is on the first floor of a 28 floor hotel.If you hit the top button, you'll set off the fire alarm and call the local fire department. The bottom button is used to go up to your hotel room. I wonder how many times people instinctively hit the top button, thinking it is the "up" button. They should get this very public and key component right.
Broken: New Uno card design
Dave Jung writes:
We recently replaced our 15+ year old Uno deck with a new one. The old deck had the number six underlined to help distinguish it from the number nine. If it had a line on it, the card was a six-- quick and easy.
The new cards have been redesigned. The number nine card now has its own line under it! Since you are playing in a circle, you have to be able to read the card upside down and sideways. The picture shows both a six and a nine card. Quickly, which is which? I find it extremely difficult to tell, especially if the cards are side-by-side.
Broken: Microsoft Word cut and paste
Phil Terry writes:
You cannot paste into the "Find" window in Microsoft Word.Related post: Microsoft Excel's copy and paste feature.So if you have a word or phrase in a document that you want to find and replace, you have to retype it into the "Find" window. Wouldn't it be simpler if you could:
- highlight the word or phase
- copy it into the clipboard
- paste it into the find windowThis would be easier and ensure that you have the exact match.
Broken: Union Station entrance
Jason Finneyfrock writes:
These signs were posted at the entrance to Union Station in Washington, D.C. A sign was posted outside which read, "Due to inclement weather please use revolving doors." However, a sign was posted on the revolving door which read, "Do not use revolving doors." A garbage can was also placed in the revolving door to stop people from using it.
Broken: Safety signs
Bob Cox sends us two great pointers: the Naval Safety Center's Photo of the Week and Signs of the Times, a PowerPoint file of 29 slides showing various broken signs. Although (I suspect) a couple of the images were edited, most of them appear to be bona fide, laugh-out-loud safety mistakes.