July 30, 2005 12:05 AM

Broken: frozencpu.com directions

Directions for this product mention penguins - lots and lots of penguins - and conquering Europe... optionally.

(Thanks, Paul)

July 29, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Roof-repair ad

Ken Weiner points out that this ad copy might need some improvement.

July 28, 2005 12:17 AM

Broken: Fourseasons.com reservation form

Connie Cheng writes:

This is the reservation profile I have to set up when I tried to make a reservation on fourseasons.com. Note that the field descriptions are inside the text boxes, and when I click on the box, it is automatically cleared for me to enter the information. What am I supposed to put into the first text box? I have no idea unless I click on another text box *without* entering something into the first one, otherwise the description won't show up again.

Is this in any sense better than putting the field description in front of the text box? It doesn't look very "styled" to me anyway, which is the only reason I can come up with why they are doing this. Very broken.

Broken: Sprint PCS lock-in policy

From Cam Barrett: How Sprint PCS Loses Customers.

July 27, 2005 07:43 PM

Broken: Shaving cream label

This shaving gel isn't what it appears to be.

That's the "before" shot. Click the "next" link to see the "after".

Update Aug 3: Here is the response from Gillette.

Broken: Aquarium sign

This sign at a Japanese aquarium needed a bit more advance planning.

July 26, 2005 01:52 PM

Broken: New York potholes

My friend Andrew Rasiej, who's running for Public Advocate in NYC, has started a "This Is Broken"-like site - WeFixNYC - where New York residents can send in pictures of potholes, and the location - and they'll be posted on the site with Google Maps providing location data.

Broken: Parking sign

Creed Combs asks, "Where do I park the back half of my car?"

Broken: Outlook spellcheck

Brian Simcoe writes:

This one really gets me. I always spell-check my e-mails before sending them. The spell checker catches my repeated words. But in this case, as has happened to me before, it is the first word that I mistyped, not the second; "the the" should have been "to the". But Microsoft assumes that the only possibility is that I will want a different second word. My only recourse is to cancel the spell check, then say "No" to the question, "The spell check was canceled. Do you want to send anyway?" then go back and find the mistake and edit it "manually". Grrr.

July 25, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Sign to secret nuclear bunker

Chris Worth offers up this sign, pointing us in the direction of a not very "secret" nuclear bunker.

July 23, 2005 12:43 AM

Broken: Dictionary.com on Microsoft

Kareem Kandil writes:

If you look up the definition of "Microsoft" at dictionary.com, you'll get a rather interesting definition.
 
See for yourself here.

July 22, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Restroom design in fancy NYC restaurants

Kris Arnold points us to this NYTimes article from a few months back:

I couldn't figure out how to trigger the electronic-eye sensors above the commodes, motion-detecting flushing mechanisms with enough of a delay that you were sometimes asked simply to trust in a cleansing aftermath to your departure. I've encountered religions with less daunting leaps of faith.

I couldn't figure out how to tell whether commodes were occupied. Neither, apparently, could anyone else, because whenever I was using one, someone in the communal area would rattle the door, not to mention my composure.... And I couldn't figure out why, in restaurant after restaurant, the attempt to relieve oneself turned out to be anything but a relief.

Link to full story

(Also see megnut's response)

July 21, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: San Francisco traffic sign

Paul Schreiber points us to this puzzling traffic sign in SF.

July 20, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Men's room sign in Braille

Tom Davidson writes:

This pic is from the National Botanical Gardens in Washington, DC. The public restrooms there have unmarked doors, but have enormous signs hanging from the ceiling just in front of the doors to identify them. Someone realized that this might cause a problem for the blind, so they helpfully added braille to the sign.

Unfortunately, there are two problems here: the ceilings are around fifteen feet tall, which means that the lowest point of the sign is still more than eight feet above the ground. And even if a blind giant were able to feel the bottom of the sign while looking for the restroom, he still wouldn't benefit from the braille -- which is just printed directly onto the sign; it's not embossed or raised in any way.

July 19, 2005 12:59 PM

Broken: Bad parking in Yahoo lot

Photos of bad parking jobs in the Yahoo parking lot.

(Thanks, BoingBoing)

Broken: Voice mail greetings

Here's a user experience that I have grown to dread recently. It seems to get worse every year.

Voice mail in 1995:

"Hi, this is Bob. Leave a message." Beeeeep.

Voice mail in 2005:

"Hi, this is Bob. Leave a message." (pause) (pause)

"At the tone, please begin speaking. When you have finished your message, you may hang up or press one for more options. To send a numeric page, press star. Otherwise, fill out form 1040 and wait for three weeks while we drain all of your cell minutes explaining to you how to do something patently obvious that you figured out with no instruction the first time you ever left a message on an answering machine, what was it, 20 years ago? Anyway, here's the beep."

(pause) (pause) (pause) (pause)

"And just a reminder, you can still press one at any time for more options."

(pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause) (pause)

Beeeeep.

Of course, by then, I've forgotten what I was calling about and have to say "well, uhh" a few times before I get to my message... thereby making a poor experience for the recipient, too.

I'm not sure how this problem has come about. Is it because carriers want to...

- stuff more features into the voice mail program, and this is the only way they can think to do that?

- increase the average call length, thereby racking up more chargeable minutes?

- play the phone-woman's voice as often as possible?

Regardless, the problem is irritating... especially since we know how good, how easy and fast leaving a voice message *used* to be. There's no worse technology interface than one that gets *worse* in the latest version.

Who's to blame? I'd rather not play the conspiracy theorist, so I'll chalk it up to "just one of those things." But the problem is still there. Who, within user experience at one of the carriers, will take up the charge to bring voice mail back to the golden era of the 80s and early 90s?

- - -

[P.S. If this looks familiar to longtime readers, it's because I originally ran this piece in my Good Experience newsletter a couple of years ago. Oldie but goodie.]

July 18, 2005 12:04 AM

Broken: Icons on corporate van

Philip Hollenback writes:

Here's a logo seen on the side of a van from some document management company. The text is fine, but quick: what do the icons mean? It's a mystery to me.

This was taken near Wall Street, NYC.

July 16, 2005 12:10 AM

Broken: iPaq camera settings

Chris Hussey writes:

I recently bought an HP iPaq with a built-in camera. The software, HP Image Capture, offers three JPEG compression levels for saving your files. The part that's broken in my opinion is the naming convention of the compression levels. Maybe it's the programmer side of me, but when I think "Best compression", I think of the smallest file size (which would translate to lowest picture quality). Instead, the exact opposite is true: use "Best compression" for the largest files, best picture quality.

Simple fix: Change the word "compression" in the interface to "quality".

P.S. Sorry I couldn't find a better picture of this online, I had to use a camera-phone at close range to get a snapshot.

July 15, 2005 10:35 AM

Broken: calltheinternet search results

Not so much broken as it is strange... if you Google "calltheinternet", you get an interesting "did you mean" suggestion.

(BTW, calltheinternet.org is an interesting site in itself...)

Thanks to Matthew Lewis for the pointer.

Broken: Water dispenser buttons

Peter Conrad writes:

Here's the water dispenser at work. To get hot water, you have to push "both red buttons." But there are three! It turns out that you have to push both of the LARGER red buttons to get hot water. The smaller one is supposed to give you extra hot water, but there's no indication of whether you push and release it before pressing both larger red buttons, or push all three, or what. Pushing the small red button turns on the red light, but sometimes the red light is just on anyway. And the water doesn't stop flowing for about three seconds after you release the buttons (red-red or blue) so you always end up with a full spill compartment.

[P.S. Peter Conrad draws cartoons at peterconrad.com. Good shtuff. -mh]

July 14, 2005 08:09 AM

Broken: Glass patio tables (potentially)

If your patio furniture includes a glass table, beware: CBC Newfoundland and Labrador - More worry about exploding glass tables.

Broken: WordPerfect spellcheck

Christopher Benway that WordPerfect doesn't appreciate his writing about humans - homo sapiens, that is. The spellcheck advises, "Avoid this offensive term. Consider revising."

July 13, 2005 11:05 AM

Broken: Featuritis

Featuritis is broken.

Broken: Hummer navigational system

Kari White writes:

The GM navigational system is broken. I purchased a Hummer and since I frequently get lost, I wanted the latest navigation system.

I can figure out most any electronic device, but I met my match with Nat, the navigation system. Nat and I started off badly when I realized that she required a DVD to be inserted into my CD drive. I paid $3000 not to use my CD player?

The user manual was virtually no help at all. The buttons are labeled poorly, with strange icons supposedly representing "menu" and "back", although why they couldn't just be labeled as such I will never know. The joystick was a nightmare. Once, Nat got stuck directing me to my house and I had to eject the DVD just to get her to stop.

For a system that was supposed to make life easier, it ended up being a big headache. After a year of owning my Hummer, I still rely on common street maps to find my way around.

Broken: Wrinkle-resistant product page

Rod suggests that Eddie Bauer's website could do a better job of presenting its "wrinkle-resistant" clothing. This product page shows a nice shirt with more than a couple wrinkles.

Note: As of 4/7/06, the link is down. -eds.

Broken: Kennedy Space Center admission sign

Monica Fry writes:

On a recent trip to Kennedy Space Center, I came across this sign that caused me to stop and think for a moment. It seems that consumers have been conditioned to compare pricing packages from low-to-medium-to-high. (Think about the last time you paid for a car wash.)

This sign sends an awkward message by presenting the medium option first, then the low option, then the high option. While I'm sure this was done intentionally to "push" the medium package and get visitors to part with an extra $6.00, I did find it a bit difficult to understand with just a quick glance.

July 12, 2005 12:02 AM

Broken: Toaster oven

Peter Conrad writes:

Here's the toaster at work. It has three knobs that all look alike. The bottom one controls the function (toast, bake, etc.); the middle one controls the time in minutes; the top one controls the temperature.

In order to actually turn on the heating element, you must select both a temperature and a function. That's problem number one. You can't just turn the function knob to "toast" and get your bread toasted, even if you also select a time on the timer. Nothing will happen. So, many times I've listened for the timer and then discovered that my bread was still cold from the fridge. The temperature is usually turned all the way down by people when they turn it off, because it's not obvious which knob to turn to make it stop.

The timer does not shut it off automatically. Or at least it doesn't turn off the red light. I don't remember whether the heating element cools down when the timer goes off. It bothers me that I don't remember. But I don't think it's my fault.

The functions are listed in light gray, and OFF is down, even though zero on the timer is to the left. By the way, the temperature knob is marked as far down as 150, but turns past 150 to some unknown temperature that is kind of diagonally down and to the left.

July 11, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Coffee labels

I encountered these coffee urns a few days ago. Look closely at the labels. Decaff (misspelled) is on the left... and "Curtis" is on the right. Mmm, appetizing! "What would you like with your breakfast, sir? Decaff or Curtis?"

Broken: Address fields in online forms

John Dingman writes:

This picture is just an example of the typical online form that asks for your address. These forms are ALL broken, in that once I put in a zip code, I should NOT have to then select my state (or my city for that matter).

Zip codes are easily linked to their location and a simple lookup table could complete the city and state fields. I have not yet encountered a form that uses this simple shortcut.

July 10, 2005 06:28 PM

Broken: Hotel thermometer

Seth Godin writes:

Even the guys who like to point out how everything is not really broken have to agree that this thermostat is broken.

It's in a hotel room. By definition, people in hotel rooms don't stay long.

Since it doesn't have a thermometer on it, there's no way to know HOW MUCH to turn the dial to adjust the temp. Turn it too much and an hour later, you're out of bed, adjusting it again.

How does a thermostat without a thermometer do a better job than one that gives feedback when you set it?

(at the Chancery Court hotel in London, where, by the way, internet access costs a STUNNING $30 a day. Theft.)

Broken: (for fun) Skyline view

How many giant apes can fit on one skyline? Peter Jackson, take note...

July 9, 2005 12:02 AM

Broken: Microsoft Products search

One of Microsoft's flagship products today is Internet Explorer, the ubiquitous Web browser.

Robert Steflik invites you to use the search form on the Microsoft Products page to search for Internet Explorer.

(Hint: It doesn't come up.)

July 8, 2005 12:42 PM

Broken: Orbitz flight search results

Phil writes:

Orbitz is broken.

I searched for flights, selected the one I wanted, and Orbitz said, "this flight is no longer available."

So I searched the flights again, and every time I clicked on the $964 ones, they were no longer available at that price, even though I reran the search. I don't think they really existed at that price. All the flights for $964 were actually $1,600!

Broken: Jacket pockets

Peter Conrad writes:

Here's a picture of the inside pocket of a jacket I bought. Or is it? Actually, it's the outside pocket. There is no inside pocket. But the way the outside pocket is constructed looks and feels just like an inside pocket.

I keep forgetting and putting things in there from the inside. What kinds of things do I put in an inside pocket? Things that I want to keep safe, things that are fragile, things that suffer when they then fall right through onto the cold, hard ground.

July 7, 2005 10:45 AM

Broken: (just a comment) Condolences

My thoughts and support are with the people of London.   -mh

P.S. Several good links to coverage at Boing Boing.

Broken: Stock photo choice

Daniel writes:

Not exactly broken, but perhaps a bad stock photo choice. Does this person look happy to be a Cingular customer? She seems as ticked off as I do when I get my monthly statement. $106 for two lines and I still don't get good reception in my apartment? Sheesh.

July 6, 2005 12:06 AM

Broken: Wilmington, NC airport monitors

David Gallagher writes:

Here's a pretty monitor that displays departure information at the Wilmington, N.C. airport. It reflects not the actual status of flights, as travelers would expect, but the SCHEDULE of flights.

I took this photo while waiting to board the 7:20 flight to LaGuardia. The moment the clock hit 7:20, the flight status switched to 'departed,' even though half the passengers were not yet on the plane.

A plague of locusts could ground every plane in the nation and this thing would still be merrily ticking off departures. (It's a safe bet that the 'arrivals' screens have the same problem.) This is an information system that actually has less information about what's going on than the people who are supposed to benefit from it.

To its credit, the airport does offer free Wi-Fi.

Broken: Map to conference center

Karen Landis points us to this map to a conference center and writes:

I thought about attending an event in September. I'm new to Chicago and have no idea where Northlake, IL or the Midwest Conference Center is. Happily, the event site provides a map. After pursuing this particular map, I still have no idea where Northlake or the conference center might be.

In fact, I'm more confused. The arrows from the gray boxes look just like the directional arrows. The green hurt my eyes. I think the target destination is the squiggly "M" next to the words "Midwest Conference Center" spelled out in a red, green, blue combo but I'm not sure.

I do appreciate that they offered a larger version of it in a PDF. Hard to figure out? Make it bigger!

July 5, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Taco Bell sign

Nathaniel Kennedy writes:

Attached is a picture of a menu sign from a local Taco Bell in the Pittsburgh, PA area. The last item in the menu on the left struck me as funny. Maybe not so much broken as funny: there's a one-dollar "Per Breast Upcharge."

July 4, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Park sign

Mike Kendra writes:

This sign is in a Warren, Michigan park:

   ALL ANIMALS PROHIBITED IN PARKS

While walking through the park, my wife and I counted over 200 squirrels... somebody should report these violators! (Note squirrel in photo).

July 1, 2005 12:04 AM

Broken: KidzMouse box copy

Ronnie Paskin writes,

I just bought this mouse for my daughter.

The box says: "Squeeze my head anywhere and I will click!", and that it's easier for young children, etc.

Well, I was testing it and trying to squeeze Elmo's head, but no click. I spent several minutes on their site, downloaded the driver, etc, then finally realized that you do have to use the buttons, Elmo's head [printed on the body of the mouse] is there just for decoration.

What happens apparently is most of their mice are shaped like bugs, and the head *is* the buttons; they have a driver that will turn both buttons into the same left click action (making it a one button mouse so it's easier for the kids).

I'd say the box designers had no idea how the mouse worked... or they had bad specs (e.g. "we always say 'squeeze my head anywhere and I will click' on the boxes").

In any case, I'd say the box design is broken.