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Previous: Best Western e-mail unsubscribe | Main | Next: St. Peter's Basilica sign
October 31, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Oil company mug
Maite Montoya writes in:
PEMEX, Mexico's national oil company, gave a promotional mug to their employees and friends. It is one of those mugs that changes color when it gets hot. When cold, the mug displays a landscape with trees and a hill of some kind in all black, as if covered in black oil.
When you pour some hot liquid in the mug, the trees disappear and an oil rig and some tankers at sea appear with what looks like a black oil spill in the water. Also, the trees are still partially visible on the background, but now they look like heavy brown smog. Disturbing!
When you put it that way, it does seem rather disturbing.
But its not very nice to be picky about something that is free. If it bothers you, don't use it, simple.
I'm fairly sure that both the "don't criticize it because it's free" and the "if you don't like it don't use it" arguments have been soundly trounced as invalid in the usability industry.
It sounds like someone has never heard of a silhouette. The color-changing technology isn't perfect, but that doesn't make it broken. With enough spin, anything can be bad.
My old company had a load of mugs made with a similar effect:
The company name was written on the side, but when you added hot water, the company name disappeared.
We always thought the metaphor to be inappropriate.
"Not to mention a helicopter going after the oil rig 9/11 style."
Airplanes have to move to stay in the air. Helicopters are able to stay in the air without needing to move quickly. And anyway, how do you know it's at the same depth as the oil rig? It's not 3D.
----
"I'm fairly sure that both the "don't criticize it because it's free" and the "if you don't like it don't use it" arguments have been soundly trounced as invalid in the usability industry."
The image printed on the mug does nothing to make it unusable.
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Fine, reason: I'm bored and feel like arguing about something.
Well, it's pointing out:
a. The government is corrupt
b. oil companies don't care about the environment
c. The government also doesn't care
d. none of the above and they think they are clean and effiecient oil company. Right?
I agree with DavesBrain that ultimately this site is all about showcasing usability failures, and after all, the mug's graphics had to be designed. I also agree with Maite that the transformation of the mug is disturbing. More thought should have been put into the emotional message that the graphic would express.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Best Western e-mail unsubscribe | Main | Next: St. Peter's Basilica sign
That's fun, not really disturbing, and not broken. Hey, it's a free mug anyway.
Posted by: Trent Chernecki at October 31, 2006 03:22 AM