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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: Dummies book title
Emily Birch sends in a picture of the cover of a book:
"Teaching Kids to Read for Dummies" is one title that the "Dummies" folks should have skipped.
Dummies probably shouldn't be teaching kids to read.
Or are the kids going to read to the dummies?
Broken: "Fortune" store mall sign
Kevin Jones sends in this picture taken at a shopping mall in Belarus:
I recently went on a trip to the country of Belarus with my girlfriend. We were walking around a shopping mall and discovered this sign.
The store is suppose to be a "hip" clothing store, so the sign is made to be in English. The name of the store is actually "fortune."
In Russian, (the native language in Belarus) they abbreviate the word fortune. The abbreviation translates to "fart."
The store clerk is aware and just said they didn't know what it meant at the time. Oh well, it has probably tripled their sales.
Broken: O' Neill building sign
Jonathan Harford sends in this picture of the O' Neill building at the intersection of 6th Ave. and 22nd St. in New York City:
There is something about the O'Neill building that makes me feel a little queasy.
Why didn't they write it as "TheONeillBuilding.com"?
Then again, maybe they're just happy to have people talk about it.
[It's not just any ill building, it's the one ill building! -mh]
Broken: Microsoft anti-piracy banner
Reader "True Wireless" sends in a picture from Microsoft's website and points out:
On Microsoft's partner section of their website, there is a banner image at the top of the page that says "Protect yourself and your customers from piracy," but it shows a man holding an Apple iBook.
It looks like the banner advises people to buy Macintoshes to protect themselves from piracy.
Broken: Roman numeral on clock
Bob Crump points out:
I received this clock from my company a year ago before Christmas. It's been on my desk for over a year now and I finally looked at the four.
Whomever produced the clock seems to have their own version of the Roman numeral character for four!
Broken: Roca temperature dial
From Kanngard: How do I get the room colder?, a poorly designed Roca temperature control in a hotel room.
Broken: Carton recycling label
Alan Clarke points out:
This recycling label was on the outside of all the heavyweight cardboard packing cartons supplied by Pickford's, one of the UK's largest and oldest removals.
They should probably recalculate the percentage of their carton's recycled content.
Broken: Storefront recruiting
Mark Wooge writes in:
Recently, an Albertson's store moved to a new location.
Note the sign above the door of the now-empty store saying "Now Hiring" and the signs below saying they moved.
Recruiting for an empty store is definitely broken.
Broken: Temperature indicator on sign
Josh Santangelo submits a picture of a temperature indicator from Matt C's flickr photo stream:
Wow, Boston must really be suffering.
Broken: Town Centre sign
Phillip Wells submits this picture he took of a sign in Bermuda:
This sign to the Town Centre of St. George's in Bermuda is five minutes down the road from where I
live. Presumably, it was erected for the benefit of visiting cruise ship passengers since it is near the cruise ship terminal.
The sign is strictly correct as you can get to the Town Centre from either direction. However, it seems pretty redundant as there are no other ways to go unless you fancy a swim in the harbor ;)
Broken: MS Word - Well-being vs. well being
Will Flohry writes about his frustrating experience using the grammar checker with Microsoft Word:
Microsoft Word won't give up! When I type in "well being," it tries to correct me with "well-being."
When I type in "well-being," it corrects me again with "well being," sending me through a perpetual cycle of clicking! Broken!
Broken: Gift card
Nick Hulst writes:
Our local mall has made the move from using the traditional gift certificate to a using a pre-paid Visa card. This move was supposed to be a more useful format, but the pre-paid Visa cards have added their fair share of confusion.
Note the word "DEBIT" in large letters on the front face of the card. However, the card's instructions are not so straightforward.
The first bullet says that the card may be used "wherever Visa debit cards are accepted." Then, in the third bullet, the instructions say, "Select the 'credit' button when making a purchase. The card will not process correctly if the cardholder presses the 'debit' button."
Huh?
Broken: Therapy pillow
Reader Timylie writes in:
This is a pillow i bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond.
The pillow is supposed to be a "Therapy Pillow." However, the warning label says "WARNING: Do Not Use For Sleeping. For Decorative Purposes Only."
Sleep is therapeutic, so if I can't sleep on this pillow- it isn't a very useful therapy pillow!
Broken: (For fun) Indonesian greeting cards
For Valentine's Day, a set of greeting cards I bought in Indonesia and scanned in today.
They include what's possibly my favorite greeting card of all time:
you.ll leare bad limes
behind nothing bul good limes on uoui mind
Broken: Grants.gov incompatibility
Spotted on Yahoo News, U.S. Grant Web Site Doesn't Work With Macs - Yahoo! News.
A government Web site that aims to serve as a one-stop shopping point for scholars and others in search of federal grants is creating headaches for users of Macintosh computers.
The site's electronic forms for would-be applicants aren't Mac-compatible.
What is grants.gov thinking?
Broken: Nursing program support
David Winston wonders:
I don't know if this qualifies as a broken link, but it is amusing that you can support the nurses through poor health practices.
Broken: "The Chili Experience"
Over at the Good Experience blog, The Chili Experience, including a rant on Bloomingdale's and Hugo Boss.
Broken: Sign to cenote
Ryan Heneise submits this picture taken in Tulum, Mexico:
This sign is posted over the entrance to a cenote (which is an underground river). This picture shows the stairs leading down to the cenote.
What is the "No Touch No break control" sign trying to tell me?
Broken: Sproutz architect's special note
Reader Dom writes in:
The other day, I came across Sproutz furniture, which has a cute idea for making formaldehyde-free children's furniture for classrooms and homes. However, when I clicked on their "technical info" link, I was greeted with a "Note to architects," which is completely unreadable.
The kicker is that it's an image!
How could they not have seen how impossible this is to read? Maybe they think that architects have a special power to read white text on noisy backgrounds :)
Broken: Hard-to-open packaging
Another good one from David Pogue. Link: Weapons in the Fight Against Hard-to-Open Packaging - New York Times.
Clamshell packaging annoys me especially because so many electronic products come entombed in them: radios, cameras, walkie-talkies, inkjet cartridges, videotapes, tools, phones, flashlights, accessories and so on... these sharp-edged, steely-hardened acrylic crypts have broken countless scissors, ripped flesh and wasted ridiculous amounts of people's time.
Broken: Gas pump instructions
Jessamyn West writes in:
Gas pumps are always a horrible hodge podge of instructions, pictures, ads and ad hoc instructions taped over older instructions.
Recently we've seen pumps that try to ameliorate this by having clear indications of at least where the instructions are. However, having to read a one item list to get pointed to the real instructions which are someplace else is broken.
Broken: Flight Tracker dashboard widget
Seth Falcon points out:
The color scheme used in the flight tracker widget in OS X Tiger's dashboard is broken.
They use dark grey for water and light blue for land. That is opposite of what most people are used to, which is that when you look at a map, blue signifies water.
I keep looking at the map and wondering, "what country is that?!"
Broken: Misuse of "literally"
I just saw this site and instantly added it to my favorites list: Literally, A Web Log.
An English grammar blog tracking abuse of the word "literally"
Thanks to ZP in the comments boards for the pointer.
Broken: Fender guitar amp box
Josh Smith points out:
This is the box containing the amp from the Fender Squier electric guitar strat pack.
It reads: THIS END UP, OPEN OTHER END.
On top of that, the amp is packed in the box upside down.
Broken: 24 hour check cashing
Adam Seifer points out:
This check cashing store is currently in-business.
They really should take down their "Open 24 Hours" sign.
Broken: Series of directional signs
Jim McDonough submits a picture of a series of signs taken in Dublin, Ireland:
No left turn, no right turn, no straight ahead, and a stop sign!
No wonder there aren't any cars!
Broken: Acela domain redirection
Michael McWatters points out:
If you go to http://acela.com, you arrive at this friendly but useless page. The user is required to enter ‘www’ in the url field of their browser even though a simple redirect on this page would have done the same thing.
Not necessarily broken, but definitely not convenient. This also may be costing the train company bookings.
Broken: Hand shredder
Reader Dan Lovy sends in this entry from Fungus Mungus's blog:
For those who want to rid themselves of their useless appendages, I give you...
THE HAND SHREDDER!
The only problem is once you've shredded one hand, you can't shred the other one! They need to come out with an automatic hand-shredder.
Broken: Car coffee cup
Mark Crummett writes in:
We carry this car cup at our store. It seems to be a hot beverage cup for use in a car, but according to the label, it can't be used for hot beverages! Go figure.
Broken: Apple and Eve juice label
Greg O'Neill points out:
On the Apple and Eve Tropical Mango Passion juice label it says "100% juice," in big, bold letters.
However, if you look on the upper right corner of the label in really small skinny letters it says "Flavored blend of 4 juices from concentrate and other added ingredients."
This label is broken!