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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: Listerine label
Nathan Allen points out:
In big large letters this Listerine label says, "As Effective As Floss," but below in smaller print it says, "Floss Daily."
If Listerine is as effective as flossing then why would one still need to floss?
Broken: Universal Export dog decal ordering
Mark Nicely points out:
Both in their print ads and website, Universal Export arranges their dog breed decals by their order codes instead of what would be useful to a buyer - which would be alphabetically by breed.
Broken: Floor numbers at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay
Bob Sifniades submits a picture taken in Las Vegas, Nevada:
When I arrived at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, and was told to go to the 61st floor, I was quite amazed that this building had so many floors, as I hadn't noticed any exceptionally tall buildings on the Vegas Strip.
But when the elevator took just 1 second to go from floor 38 to floor 60, I was quite un-amazed. It turns out the building only has 43 floors, and they had employed wishful numbering for the top 5 floors.
Broken: Quizno's store hours
Emily Tomkins submits a picture taken in Torrington, Connecticut:
The text on the door describes the hours to a Quizno's restaurant -
Monday-Thursday: 11:00am-9:00pm
Friday-Saturday: 11:00am-9:00pm
Sunday: 11:00 9:00pm
What is the reason for having three lines of text to describe the store hours when each line gives the same information?
It would have been more efficient and easier to read if the text said:
Open everyday, Sunday - Monday: 11:00 am - 9:00 pm.
Also, they forgot the "AM" and the "-" between 11:00 and 9:00 pm on Sunday.
Broken: Hotel map
David Brown submits a picture taken in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico:
This is the evacuation sign in the room I was in at Hotel Playa Los Arcos in Puerto Vallarta.
Can anyone looking at this map determine where I was supposed to be located?
Didn't think so.
Broken: Dell keyboard-failure error
A reader points out a keyboard-failure error that instructs the user to type F1.
Uhh, striking a key doesn't work. That's why it's called a keyboard failure!
Broken: New York Aquarium website
Laurie Kalmanson writes:
I went to the website of the New York Aquarium in Coney Island and read that "times are posted at the aquarium main entrance and plaza area."
So I imagined my visit to the aquarium going like this:
"Oh, look -- the sign says the penguins were fed two hours before we got here."
This is basic information a visitor would want to know, and should be available on the website so you can plan your visit accordingly.
Broken: HP's non-underlined links
On this page, HP shows black text (non-clickable) and blue text (non-clickable).
Only if you look really closely, or hunt around by dragging your mouse around the page, can you tell that the text in between those colors, the blue-black text, is clickable. Since it's not underlined, there's no other way to tell that it's a link.
I know it's declassé for Web designers to underline links these days. (Heck, I should just be glad the text is black, not light gray.) But underlining does have that small benefit of allowing users to see where the links are. Users... remember them?
Broken: Desk assembly warning
A reader named Chris points out:
This warning came with a desk that I got from Target:
Cautious: Please do not worry if still some smell from this fresh product when open it. As it is non-toxic and no dangerous while using. It will be gone in a few days after exposure in the air.
Not only was the English poorly translated, the desk smelled.
Broken: Chinese restaurant sign
Eric Ford submits a picture taken in Globe, Arizona:
This is a picture of a sign I took of a Chinese restaraunt in Arizona.
Since when did Chinese food become "New York Style?"
Broken: Hammersmith traffic lights
Paul Adams submits a picture taken in London, England:
The mapping and information design on these traffic lights in Hammersmith bus station in London are broken.
Broken: Hotel's Internet login
Erik Dahl writes in:
There are two things going on here:
1. On the left side there are three service types to choose from, all of which are free.
2. On the right side, the place holder text is still there:
<------------- Hotel text begins here-------------->.
Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate the free internet access, and I worry that next time I go back to this Liberty hotel that there will actually be text on the right side of the page and the internet access will be something other than free.
Oh well, I don't mind jumping through a few usability hoops now and again if the result is free internet access.
Broken: Hotel air conditioning unit buttons
Ian Chard submits a picture taken near Edinburgh, Scotland:
In our hotel room at Dalhousie Castle Hotel near Edinburgh, it was extremely hot, since there was no ventilation in the room and it was above a heated spa.
For our "comfort", the pictured air conditioning unit was supplied.
At least I presumed that's what it was. It had no identifying marks, and the control panel in this picture didn't help much. What do the buttons that read WMW and W.SP do?
Whatever it was, it just blew warm air around the room.
Broken: (Just for fun) Rest area sign
Joseph Fuoco submits a picture taken in El Paso, Texas:
I saw this sign at a rest stop in El Paso that said "Award winning rest area" and underneath it, a sign that said "Beware of Rattlesnakes."
Broken: American Express logout
After logging out from American Express's website, it tells me that if I'd like to log back in, to "please lect the appropriate option from the LOG IN drop down at the top of the page."
Anyone have a guess where that might be?
There is a "log out" link, which does absolutely nothing, but there is not a "log in" dropdown.
For a global corporation like Amex, and for a common item like a logout screen, a mistake like this shouldn't happen.
Broken: KFC "Bowls"
Ben Thoma points out:
I received this direct mail piece from KFC. I don't think that KFC can claim that these bowls are both "New" and "Famous."
Don't new things need some time to become famous?
Broken: New York Times search results
Why can't the NYT fix its search results? It's one of the most popular sites in the world, it's the year 2006, and its search is still broken.
Just today I searched on the article title, "A Food Website Spiced with Attitude"...
...and got a strangely worded error message ("in all fields returned 0 results"), sandwiched in between three other links, one of them asking me to "search paid death notices" (?!) for the article:
And when I removed a single space character, changing "website" to "web site", then it found the article...
When I search for "A Food Website Spiced with Attitude", the NYT's search engine should take a wild, off-the-wall guess about what article I might be looking for, and not return zero results.
For a site that can afford whatever search engine it wants, this is totally broken.
(Yes, I covered a similar issue in this post last June. And over a year later, it's not improved, so yes, I'm bringing it up again.)
Broken: Discount lunch special
Joel Adria submits a picture taken in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada:
I think what is most entertaining about this "0% off Lunch Special" sign, is that it has been that way for about 5 years.
Broken: ATM plaques
A reader submits a picture taken in St. Petersburg, Florida:
When I was downtown, I saw this ATM with six permanent plaques of information.
There has to be a better way to convey all the information in those six different plaques!
Broken: (Seth Godin at Gel 2006)
Here's a video of Seth Godin, speaking at my Gel 2006 conference in New York City. Seth gave me the idea for This Is Broken three years ago, and here he suggests how to categorize broken things. (Bonus, he even mentions the comments page on This Is Broken itself!)
Broken: Hawking book cover
Stephen Bedwell writes in:
It always aggravates me when libraries and bookstores put price tags or barcodes on the covers of books, often obscuring the title, author, or part of the synopsis on the back.
In this case, Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" becomes something entirely different.
Broken: Spreadshirt.com order status
Kris Arnold writes in:
I recently placed an order with Spreadshirt.com, a t-shirt retailer. The experience was mostly a good one, except for a small problem with their order status screen.
I am used to an order status like "Shipped" or "Pending," indicated with words. Here, though, status is represented with cryptic icons.
The yellow icon with white lines appears to mean "Pending."
and the green one with white lines and a red checkmark means "Shipped."
There is no explanation of these symbols via the FAQ or anywhere else that I could find on the site.
After seeing two of the symbols, I see what may be a yellow/green traffic light metaphor. (I suppose "Cancelled" is red with white lines. I wonder about "Back Ordered"...) But, before my order shipped, I saw just the first yellow status icon and I had no idea what it represented.
If they aren't going to use words for indicating an order status, then there should be a prominent key on the page indicating what each icon represents.
Broken: Psychic/medical center mall
Tom Davies submits a picture taken in Sherman Oaks, California:
Get your diagnosis and your prognosis all at once.
Broken: Ultra Nail advertisement
George McDougal points out:
I was looking through a catalog my wife got from Walter Drake and wonder why anyone would buy this nail product called Ultra Nail.
The nail looks much worse after using the product than before using the product!
Broken: Huahine bungalow sign
Michael A. Schulman submits a picture taken in Huahine, French Polynesia:
This was the sign directing us to our bungalow during our honeymoon.
Good thing there were only 40 rooms total. Why not just put them in order?
Broken: Cookie name
A reader writes in:
I came across these cookies in a local Osco Drugstore.
Maybe I'm missing something and not up to speed on confectionary lingo, but does this sound appetizing to anyone?
Broken: Dell Latitude USB ports
Ischai Cohen writes in:
I recently got a new Dell Latitude laptop.
It has two USB ports on the right side, but you can't put two USB plugs in at the same time because the plastic covering is too thick.
Broken: Pranked street sign
Jen Hough sends in a picture of a sign taken in Seattle, Washington:
I saw this modified parking sign on 14th avenue that had the word "questioning" pasted on top of "parking."
This was actually the work of a pranksters who occasionally modify city signs.
[Funny or not, it's illegal - don't try this at home, kids :) -mh]
Broken: Rite Aid shirts
Will Andre points out:
These shirts are on sale at a Rite Aid in Studio City, CALIFORNIA. However, the shirts say:
“Team USA, Studio City, New York”
I’m not aware of the existence of a Studio City in New York, so I don’t think they were simply delivered to the wrong store on the other side of the country. The shirts should say "Studio City, California."
Broken: "Non-smoking" hotel room
Terrell Jones writes in:
I entered the “non smoking” room at a Motel 6 in Sacramento, California, only to find an ashtray.
So I called the front desk to complain and was told, “Oh, just turn it over, now it's a non-smoking room!”
Broken: Logging off from Citimortgage.com
A reader writes in:
When you click "log off" on citimortgage.com, the site asks: "Do you wish to continue?" If you click "no", you stay on the site; if you click "yes" (as in "yes, i wish to continue"), it logs you off. Each button does exactly the wrong thing.
This site probably cost several hundred thousand dollars to build, maybe even millions. Is this really the best Citibank can do?
Broken: Computer mouse box
Colin Murtaugh writes in:
At work the other day we received a computer mouse which came in the box pictured above.
We'd like to start using the mouse, but we can't break the seal, which reads, "Do not break seal prior to usage"!