Thorntons Chocolates - not so sweet

I've been a member of the Thorntons Chocolates website for many years now. It's a UK based site, and I joined whilst living there - but since I've moved back to Australia, I've found it incredibly useful for sending presents to family members still there.

This week though, I've requested that my account be cancelled, and it's all down to terrible usability.

I receive the odd special offer from Thorntons, but as Christmas has gotten closer the number of emails I receive from them has started to increase. Instead of one a month or so, it now seems as if every couple of days a new email appears. That made me think carefully about how often I've ordered from specials, and in turn that made me realise that in fact I never have. My usage profile is pretty simple; on my mums or sisters birthday I order chocs and send them, or alternatively order flowers from another site. Specials have no effect on me.

Therefore I decided to unsubscribe. And this is where it all went wrong...

As a user, there is nothing I love more than a simple unsubscribe process. Click here to unsubscribe, confirm your address, and wham that's done. It shows respect for the user.

Equally, there is nothing more frustrating than the opposite. Thorntons has a link to unsubscribe in their email, but when you follow it you simply end up at the front door of their website. Great.

So, I log in. Now I'm being forced to trawl through the site and try and figure out how to unsubscribe. Wonderful. I start by going to my account, and straight away I see an opt in question. It reads:

"If you do not wish to receive future e-mail communications about special offers and products from Thorntons please untick this box"

So do I tick it, or untick it? Reading it twice I figured unticking was the right thing to do. Only problem was, it was already unticked...! Sooo, what next?

There were no other options relating to email, but eventually I spotted a list of other menu options for my Account area. I could change my address, change my payment method, review and set alerts for birthdays, change my pasword - but absolutely nothing relating to email offers.

By now I'm getting a little steamed. When I received the email I was a happy customer who simply wanted to stop receiving special offer emails all the time, but by now I'm seriously looking to kill my account entirely. Only there's no option for that, either...

In final desperation I go back to the original email to see if maybe I clicked the wrong link. Nope. However, I do spot another link relating to unsubscribing. It reads:

"or click here to email us. (This may take up to 14 days)"

So, I can email them and then wait two weeks for a response. that's the power of the Internet working for you... Needless to say, I did email and this time I definitely asked for my account to be removed.

As a (hopefully now former) customer of Thorntons, this entire process left me feeling extremely under-valued. I was left with no choice but to think that Thorntons didn't care what I wanted, it only wanted it to make it as difficult as humanly possible for me to stop receiving their spam.

I'd love to think that Thorntons would realise how easily this loss could have been avoided - but then again, I'd love to believe in Santa, too.

*UPDATE: Six days later I still haven't received any form of response, and I've received two more unwanted emails. Thanks Thorntons...

Website usability: Hyundai

Recently, I've had the pleasure (or not) of shopping for a new car. Our family seems to be forever growing larger, and the hassle of travelling everywhere in two vehicles is finally starting to wear a little too much.

I'm a big believer in reviews, so I checked out several and armed with those and a good idea of my budget, we quickly settled on the right car for us - the Hyundai iMax. This isn't a review of that vehicle, but instead a moan about that age old problem of 'heavy websites'.

Whilst we had a good idea of the vehicle we wanted, the colour was something we still had to agree on - so we hit www.hyundai.com.au. We did this in the evening, on a couch, on a relatively small laptop with a relatively slow wireless connection.

First problem; we saw the home page, we saw a large slow-loading Flash movie, and - well, not much else. We had to wait. And wait.

And wait....

Finally, 'Rodger' appears and starts telling us he's our guide to finding the right vehicle for us. He gets a few words out, but then stutters to a stop. And we wait...

Now, I (and MANY other people, from my testing experience) absolutely detest movies that load up and play without my choice or control - especially when I can't easily turn them off. Fortunately for us, Rodger had a minuscule - and I mean minuscule - 'off' switch, top right of the screen. Once we saw it he stopped stuttering and explaining the menu to us - but unfortunately didn't stop pointing at the menu's and explaining. The off controlled the volume, but not the movie. Therefore the page continued to slowly load and choke the laptop, whilst we struggle to see where to start. Great.

I won't go through the entire site experience, to be honest it wasn't horrendous but like the home page the rest of the site is heavy with visuals, animation and 'pomp'. It was in effect a very slow and painful process, not helped by the fact that the one decision we needed to make (colour) couldn't be made as the colour name we were given by a salesman doesn't appear.

Now I know I'm not the same as every other customer out there, but for me the rich, vibrant, deeply emersive experience I want is in the showroom, where I can touch and smell the car. On the website I want facts, pictures yes, and maybe even movies - but at my choice. I don't want long boring useless movies frustrating me before I get anywhere near the car page I want, and I definitely don't want Rodger explaining that I need to click on 'Latest offers' if I want to see what offers are available - I'm pretty sure I could have worked that bit out for myself.

For my money this is a clear case of getting the experience online completely wrong, based purely on brand and market research.

Unless of course I'm nothing like the average Hyundai purchaser...

No alarm, no foul

I wrote recently about an alarming experience I had with an Ipod alarm clock from Sanyo and poor usability.

Basically, it sucked donkey butt.

Two positives came out of the experience; firstly I got to talk to Sanyo (albeit briefly and via email) about their process, and hopefully they are more aware now that usability really does count. Secondly, they very kindly and very quickly offered a full product refund.

I took that offer, and somewhat more cautiously returned to looking for a usable alarm clock.

Enter the Sony ICFC1IPMK2BC - a catchy name, huh?

I'm not going to blog at length about this clock, but for anyone looking to choose a good solid Ipod-playing radio alarm clock, this might be for you.

The Good
This is a pretty good device, on several levels. As an Ipod player the sound is good quality, even at high volumes. It has a nifty remote that fully controls the Ipod player, and interestingly has a retractable support panel that provides just the right depth control to support any compatible Ipod device. This replaces the various little plastic doohickies you normally receive.

The screen is very clear and easy to read, and it's quite easy to see which alarm is set and what time for. Checking the alarm settings is a little tougher though, and takes a few clicks.

My main concerns with the Sanyo DMP-P7 boiled down to poor usability; you couldn't figure out what button to use in the dark, the alarm refused to let you set a quiet wake volume and the screen was way too bright and kept you awake like a halogen torch in the face.

After that, the Sony is a welcome replacement. the buttons on the sony are well spaced out and well designed. There is a large clear snooze button (essential, and missing on the Sanyo) and the off button is easy to locate, in the centre of a circular button set to the right. I haven't accidentally pressed the wrong button once yet, whereas I was regularly doing so on the Sanyo, a sure sign of terrible design.

You can set the alarm volume as quiet as you like, and of course you can configure it for Ipod, radio or buzzer. The screen is far better than the Sanyo, being larger and easier to read in the daytime, and nowhere near as bright at night. It has three settings, to adjust this - but it's not all good news...

The bad
The Sony does suffer from being a bit too bright on the lowest setting. It's not on a par with the Sanyo (which would literally wake you up when you turned over to face it), but it's still a tad too much - more like a nightlight in your face, rather than Sanyo's lighthouse. An inverse night function would be absolutely ideal, or at the least one level of brightness lower.

There's also a size issue, in that the Sony is a blocky device - it's more like having a stereo on the bedside table rather than an alarm clock.

Overall though, and especially in terms of usability, this is a dream compared to others out there - highly recommended.

Balsamiq with everything?

One of the questions that people in this field often ask is 'what is the best tool to wireframe with?'

As with most questions relating to usability, the answer is 'It depends'.

I asked this question this week on a group in LinkedIn, and received (as usual)
a wide range of responses. To summarise, the responses fell broadly into three categories:

1. Low-end visual programs, for simplicity and sharing (PowerPoint being a good example)
2. Mid level vector drawing programs, for flexibility and control (Visio and Axure being two of the most common, at least on Windows platforms)
3. High level graphics software (Illustrator, Fireworks), for more complete visual control and easier integration with the next steps.
   

All of them have advantages and disadvantages, and it really depends on what you are trying to achieve, how much you need to design/change, who you are working with, timeframes for the project and a dozen other variables.

In my case I was looking at tools best suited to rapid prototyping and testing, for which Axure is good but possibly not the best. Protoshare is one tool I'll be investigating next month, but another that popped out of the woodwork was one I'd never heard of, Balsamiq Mockups.

Tools such as Visio provide you with two real options for wireframes; simple clear architectural models (boxes, shapes and stripped-down text) or more realistic prototype displays that look like the finished article. Axure in particular is well suited to this, since it lets you generate pages and play as if it were a real website. Whilst this does take longer than architectural wireframes, the benefits of being able to generate and then use the prototype for testing - almost instantly - can be huge.

Balsamiq on the other hand, makes it very clear that you're not looking at the finished deal, and aims squarely in the middle of these two design choices.

Using a deliberately loose and hand-drawn approach, Balsamiq allows you to draw wireframes that are a mirror of the paper prototyping approach, but in a much smaller timeframe.


You can quickly create designs that are visually richer than standard wireframes and should be easier for stakeholders to understand, without getting into the visual layer and those arguments over colours/fonts/flaming, spinning logos.

The good
What Balsamiq does well is provide a drawing tool for rapid modelling of an interface. That's what it sets out to do, and I believe it does it extremely well.

I can envision this being an excellent tool for workshopping with stakeholders to create interaction models - in fact, I trialled this briefly on an interactive touchscreen, and it was a dream to play with.

Unlike the boxy wireframes you get with Visio or Axure, you can actually get a sense of the interface far more with this half-way house design. And users shouldn't be scared of knocking it and
moving parts around - something I believe Balsamiq is aimed squarely at.

There are lots of useful pre-built controls, and you can import your own images. In addition the people behind Balsamiq and the community supporting it seem to be very active in adding in missing controls and developing the product further. A site exists (mockupstogo.net) for users to share and download mockups, which should develop into an excellent resource.

In addition controls can be modified, ordered, grouped and configured, with the basic configuration options all being there - for example you can quickly drop on a menu, edit in the options (or paste them from text), and then set one to be selected.

There are various plug-in versions of Balsamiq, and an online demo to try it out. Balsamiq say they are working on an online model for the future; good, in that it would be easier to share and collaborate on projects and potentially test, but personally I hate the subscription pay model unless the price is reasonably low (and I MEAN low).

Basically Balsamiq offers a wonderful tool to take paper prototyping into the digital age, and I'm looking forward to using it in anger sometime soon.


The bad
What Balsamiq doesn't do well is the prototype testing stage, something that Axure excels in - and a direction I'd love to see Balsamiq move in a little more. Balsamic lets you link various mockups together in a simple fashion, and use the keyboard arrow keys to move back and forth between them. This is similar to the linear prototyping you get with PowerPoint, okay for very basic user processes but not ideal for more complex models. It's a good start, but I think it should be developed further.

There are a few niggles with the design of Balsamiq too, most (for me) around the use of the UI library. The library scrolls horizontally along the top of the screen, taking up valuable screen real estate when you're trying to design. It forces a lot of scrolling, especially as you don't have options on how to display controls so they take a lot of space. It would be good to see options for placing the library on the left or right, and switching to labels or small icons to save screen space.

There are also some niggles with the placement of controls - for example you find comboboxes and a date field under 'Buttons', but a textbox under 'Text'. It would seem to make sense for all 'form' controls to be grouped together.

The final gripe I have with Balsamiq is it's lack of a freeform tool - something that Axure suffers from too, although Axure's variant box shaping does make up for that somewhat. If you want a triangle shape within Balsamiq, you need to draw it elsewhere and then import it.

Overall
But considering the primary purpose of the tool, these are relatively minor gripes. Balsamiq provides an excellent early prototyping tool, and at just $79 per licence, it is definitely worth picking up a copy.

The Usable Planet

The usable planet, By Gary Bunker

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far – well, actually not so far away, I wrote a short story that was meant to take a humorous look at a future where technology and usability parted ways. Recently I found it again, and for anyone interested, here it is. Don’t take it seriously – unless you’re planning on designing a voice activated TV, that is...

Recording 1

Day 1.

I've been asked to keep this journal, and to record everything that happens to me each day. I've had some problems figuring this little device out, but I think it's working now. Let me... yes, I can see the text coming up on the little screen. Okay.

Um, let me see, well, I woke up this morning in a glass tube. The last thing I remember I was in St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, England. Waiting to die from the illness that I'd been fighting. This morning I wake up in this bizarre cylinder...

I couldn't get out at first. There was a button on the inside, just above my head, but my arms were locked at my sides so I couldn't reach it. It was hours until someone walked into the room and I got their attention and they let me out.

This is going to sound crazy - at least, it sounds crazy to me - but they told me that the year was 2367! Apparently I was cryogenically frozen back in 1999, and I've been in that tube ever since! They say they've cured the cancer and that I'm going to be fine - I can hardly believe this, but it's true - I'm just going to lie down now, I feel exhausted.

Recording 2

Still day 1, I think. I'm in a room now, it looks like a hospital room though I don't recognise any of the machines. There's a machine that looks like it serves coffee over there, boy I could do with a good coffee - hold on a sec...

***Beep*** Ow!!! Oh you ***Beep*** machine!

Damn! Sorry, I touched the front of the machine and it spat boiling hot coffee all over me! Jeez, it's scolded my chest, it must be broken or - hold on, here comes a nurse. ***Paused***

***Resumed*** That's better. She put some cream on it and the pain is going away now. She laughed when I told her what had happened. Apparently you have to set the direction of your cup and the type of coffee you want before you touch the panel on the front. There's buttons on the top for that, but I didn't see them. I told her that was a dumb design and pretty dangerous, but she said it was just because I haven't been around since the big change. When I asked what she meant, she said that back in 2022 there was a revolt. The programmers and designers of the world executed all the HCI and Usability experts, and since then there had been nothing standing in the way of designers building the best products. She said I just had to get used to things being a little different.

Oh well, I'll be more careful next time - I guess I've got a lot to learn here! I still can't get over the fact that it's 2367...

Recording 3

Sorry I've not recorded for a whole day, they've been testing me and asking me questions all day. It's now day 3 But the good news is that they've said I can walk around the hospital now. I'm not allowed to go outside just yet, not until I've acclimatised and they are sure there are no further problems, but just getting out of this room is going to be great! ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Well, my first outing was less than successful. The floor I'm on is pretty much empty, but there's a lift at the end of the hall. It looked pretty much like lifts from 1999, but there's no button to call it. I was stood around waiting for it when it just kind of arrived, so I got in - but there were no buttons inside.

I thought it might be voice activated, you know, like on Star Trek, but no matter what I said it just sat there. In the end the doors opened again, and red lights started to flash. I was pretty embarrassed so I just came back here to my room. I feel like an idiot in this place...

Recording 4

Okay, day 4. That lift isn't going to beat me. I asked the nurse, and she said that it was activated by a personal navigator. She gave me one, it's this tiny little pad that interacts with the building you're in. It shows you where you are, lists what's in the building and you can use it to tell the lifts where you are going. She said it's great, because you don't need to worry about floors any more, you just need to know your destination. I'm going to try it today. ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Well, I'm ready. I've set the personal navigator to take me to the rooftop café, it's a lovely day out there - I'm off!

Uh, okay, I'm at the lift and waiting. I guess it just - oh! Here it is, okay, stepping into the lift now... The doors are closing... And we're off! This is so cool!

Going up, going up...

Ah. The lift has just stopped and the doors aren't opening. I must have done something wrong. Let me just... No, I've set the destination again. I think I've got the right button, but nothing's happening. No emergency telephone. Oh ***Beep***...

Okay, don't panic, don't panic. I'll just keep pressing buttons. There's no labels or anything, just funny little squiggles on them. I wish they'd tell me what all these do! I'll just keep messing around until someth- Oh! Jeez, it's going up again but it's moving pretty fast, oh way too fast! Hoooolllyyyy craaaaaaaa- ***Beep*** Ouch, Oh my ***Beep*** "Violent motion will damage this device, please refrain from throwing it to the ground"

Recording 5

I am not happy.

That ***Beep*** ***Beep*** personal organiser somehow crashed the lift into the roof of the hospital! They had to call the Police!!!

How the hell do they expect people to use those things? The nurses had to do some fast talking to stop the police from dragging me away for criminal damage, then they had to fix me up again -I bounced off the roof of the lift when it hit! My head still hurts... I'm not going to let it beat me though, I'm going to get that lift working if it kills me.

Recording 6

Day 7. They've told me to stay put in bed while they teach me the 'basics' of life in this new world. They look at me like I'm backward or something. I hate it. But I'll prove them wrong today. They didn't take away my personal navigator, and I've been playing with it. It's hellishly hard to understand but I think I have the gist of it. I'm going to use it today and get that damn lift to take me down to the gardens. I want to be out in the open air again.

Wish me luck.

Recording 7

Okay! I'm in the lift and it's going down. There's no counter so it's hard to say, but I think we must be getting near the ground now. It's slowing down. Slowing down... the doors are opening!

Right! Oh... ***Beep***

You're not going to believe this. I didn't quite get it right, I ended up in what looks like a basement level rather than at ground. Close, but no cigar.

The lift had already closed behind me before I realised. I've been waiting for it to come back, but it must be busy. ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Haven't got a watch but it feels like half an hour since I got here, and still no lift. What's keeping the damn thing? ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Jeez! It's been hours and the damn lift won't come back! I've had a good look around the place but there's no other way out, and nothing I can figure out that will help me, no phones. I banged on some pipes for a while, but nobody came. I'll just have to wait for the lift. I have to remain calm.

Recording 8

***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** you ***Beep*** lift!!!!

Recording 9

Two days!!! Two DAYS I was down there!!! I hate that lift so much!!! I'm NEVER going in a lift again till the day I die!

Recording 10

Okay, I'm a little calmer now. It's day - 15, I think. They've taught me a lot of the basics, as they call it, and they say I can now go out into the world. Apparently I don't need to work and all food and services are free, so I just need to find a place to live. They're organising an apartment for me today and I should be able to go there tomorrow. I've asked them to make sure the building has stairs.

Free at last!!!

Recording 11

Today is the day! I'm now in my own apartment! It has a fantastic view out over this city - they say it's London, though it doesn't look like it to me. Wow this city has changed...

They showed me around but it's pretty basic - a small kitchen area, a bedroom and a large living area with a picture window looking out over the city. I'm a long way up, I think it was the 69th floor but it's hard to tell, because of these damn personal navigator things they don't think floor numbers are important anymore and took them all down.

So, I have a home, and I don't need money - apparently they've done away with money and taxes and everything else, everything is free. I just need to figure out what to do next...

Recording 12

There's a TV here! I didn't think they'd still have TV, but there's a huge one hidden in the wall. I found it when I tried to turn the lights off. Now how do you turn it on..? Ah.

Hey, lovely picture! Oops. Volume is going up, I must be standing on the remote or something... it keeps getting louder... Damn! How do I..?

Won't turn off! It's GETTING TOO LOUD! I CAN'T ***Unintelligible response, please rephrase your statement***... "Mary, I love you, can't you see that?"..."But Hank, I love Starla and I'll always be hers, you must know you can't tear us apart! I'm going to live with her on Mars and raise..." [unintelligible] / [unintelligible]... ***Paused***

***Resumed*** If I ever meet the guy who designed that TV, I'm going to ram a personal navigator so far up his ***Beep*** he'll be going up and down in lifts for months! That damn TV wouldn't turn off and wouldn't turn down, in the end the guy from next door burst in and turned it off for me. Apparently you turn it on by touch, and then the volume goes up until you say a command - 'Level' I think he said. I didn't know the command, so it just kept getting louder and louder. You then operate the thing completely by voice commands. Stupid! Absolutely stupid! What the HELL were they thinking when they designed the thing?

No more TV for me. I'm going to bed.

Recording 13

I hate this place already. I found the shower, but can I get the hot water to flow? No.

Can I find towels? No. I had to have a cold shower and then dry myself with the bed clothes. I'm not asking for help though, I've made myself look stupid enough already. I'm going to figure this century out, it can't be much harder than this, it really can't. If I can just understand how their designers think... ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Next challenge. Breakfast. I'm calm, and I'm thinking rationally. There HAS to be a design process here, something that makes it obvious if I just think like them.

The food dispenser is stood in a corner in the kitchen. A little glass door similar to the one at the hospital, but they never showed me how to work that. I've tried voice commands but so far no luck. I've felt all over it, but no buttons or controls I can see.

Stay calm, stay calm... ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Two hours. Two hours I've been working at that thing, trying to get food out of it. Not a word, not a beep.

Then it gets up, rolls across the room, and starts hoovering the floor.

I'TS A GODDAM VACUUM CLEANER!!!

Recording 14

I haven't eaten all day and I'm starving, I'm going out to eat. There must be somewhere to eat in this city. Let me see... no key or lock on the door, I guess it just recognises me like the doors at the hospital. Okay, it's a warm day, don't need a coat. I'm off!

Ah. ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Okay, I asked for a building with stairs and this one has stairs.

Only they put me on the 69th floor, didn't they... Oh ***Beep***.

Alright, I'm not taking the lift, I'll walk it. I'm pretty fit, and I've got all day. It's not a problem... really... ***Paused***

***Resumed*** ..... ooooh.... I......I can't walk anymore.... Got to..... stop....

Ah! Hey....! Hello there... Can you... can you tell me what... what floor...this is? Oh ***Beep***... I'm only on 31, I've still...got 31 floors to go.... And then I've got to climb back up 69 floors to get home..! ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Right, this is silly. I've got my breath back, though I don't think my legs will ever work right again. I have to learn how to use that lift, there's nothing else to do.

Okay, I'm at the lift. Waiting... it's opening, right, now my personal - oh no, I didn't bring it! Damn damn damn damn!!!!

NO! The lift's going up! NO!!!!! ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep***...

[unintelligible]...no, it's okay, I'm getting out... what floor is this? 82... thank you... ***Paused***

***Resumed*** I'm back where I started. I'm back at the apartment. But the ***Beep*** ***Beep*** door won't open for me!!! Oh man I hate this place!!!

Recording 15

Next morning. Don't ask me what day it is, I've lost count. I haven't eaten in two days and I've just had a cold shower. Didn't bother to dry off this time. What's the point?

I had to get the neighbour to call the police for me. They did something to the lock and spent a long time laughing at me. Didn't I know that I had to set a password before I left? Didn't they have doorway passwords back in the 'stone age'? Would I like them to arrange a babysitter for me?

The one slightly positive thing I got out of it was that I do have a food dispenser after all - it's the weird picture thing over the thing that looks like a washing machine but probably isn't. One of the cops made a doughnut and coffee while the other was fixing the door. Some things never change.

So this morning I'm going to get my breakfast at least... Now, how did he do it..? ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Okay, I'm getting somewhere. When I touched it the front went black and lit up a numeric pad. I guess I must enter the code for the food I want. Now all I need is a list of codes. There must be one around here somewhere... breakfast here I come! ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Okay, no codes. No ***Beep*** codes. But that''s okay, I can do this. I'll just keep typing numbers in till some food pops out. Right about now I don't care what comes out, I'll eat anything. ***Paused***

***Resumed*** I got it!!! It's lighting up inside, it's making something!!! It looks like, like.....

***Beep***

Recording 16

Cat food.

Of all the codes I could have hit, I hit cat food. I've got three bowls of it so far, different flavours but all cat food. Nothing else.

And you know, I'm starting to actually look at that food.... ***Paused***

***Resumed*** Come on, come on.... please!!! Give me something, anything but cat food!!!!

***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** ***Beep*** I HATE THIS WORLD!!!

Oh I've got to stop for a minute, my finger is killing me from poking random numbers into this thing. If I just have a cup of coffee, maybe I'll be a bit fresher, maybe I'll be able to ***Beep*** oh OW!!!!! ***Beep*** ***Beep*** you damn ***Beep*** machine I'm going to ***Beep*** your ***Beep*** right out the window! I forgot the buttons on the top again! That's it... you're going out the window you little piece of junk... where's the window catch.... Oh come on! Just open you - / ***Beep*** [Unintelligible]..."Violent motion will damage this device, please refrain from throwing it to the ground"

Addendum - London Local News

"...And on a lighter note, a man was found dead in South London today, after apparently throwing himself from the 69th story attached to his coffee machine! I guess some people just can't handle going without that first cup of coffee in the morning!"

"Well, that's it from us. Goodnight..."

Self-serving: time for pain

This weekend I tried - for the fifth time now - to use the self-service checkouts at a well-known store. I've used them at Woolworths, Kmart and Target previously, this time I was in a Big W store.

if you've used them before, then you probably know the drill.

You come up to the checkouts, and spot a huge queue for one of the few hapless operators floating amidst a sea of un-manned isles. Whereas off to one side there's a set of self-service checkouts, with a sprinkling of customers working their way through. You figure 'what the hell', and you give it a shot.

Then it goes something like this:

1. Press Start.
   
2. Scan first item. Smile smugly as the price comes up, and place item in a bag, as directed.
3. Scan second item. Think to self 'This is a piece of cake!' as you place it beside number 1.
4. Frown, as 'Computer says no'. Apparently you've removed an item from the bag. look down at two items, behaving themselves within said bag.
5. Scan item 3, then growl as the computer tells you to fetch help.
   
6. Wave at the overworked assistant trying to help the old lady who's started throttling her own self-service checkout in an explosive fit of undisguised frustration. Wait till she can break free, amusing yourself by counting the people who queued for a human as they march through one by one.
7. When assistant arrives, complain that you didn't remove anything. The assistant knows this of course and doesn't even bother to check (she's used to the computers and their continuous paranoid delusion on the contents of bags). She scans a card, presses some buttons, and you're back to item 3.
8. Scan item 3, 4, and 5. Convince yourself that apart from one small hiccup, this isn't going too bad after all.
9. Scan item 6, remove full bag and place item 6 in the new bag. Feel that creeping sense of dread as the computer, finally proved correct in its theory that you're trying to steal, gleefully shouts again that you've removed items from the bagging area and demands staff come immediately.
10. Swear never to repeat this exercise again.

It happened to me, and it was happening to just about everyone around me - the hapless assistant was dancing from one machine to another, desperately trying to guard both the machinery and the customers from a complete nervous breakdown.

It's not rocket science, and this is exactly what User Centred Design is there to protect against. Design this around customers and it would work in a completely different way. So just in case someone is listening, here are my top five tips for improving self-service checkouts:

1. Don't assume the customer is a thief. The only reason I can see for measuring the bags is to validate that they haven't slipped something extra in there to steal it. Let's be honest, I could slip something into my pocket at any point whilst walking around the store. I don't, because firstly store security might well be observing me, and secondly because I'm honest. Both of those are just as true at the checkout, and there are extra cameras and staff to observe clearly. Why treat all honest customers like crooks?
2. Explain the process up-front. Most of these systems don't tell you key bits of information, such as the fact that you have to place items in a bag so they can be measured, and that you can't remove a bag till you press a certain button.
3. Provide more space - I know they want to cram in as many of these devices as possible, but giving people a tiny space to try and juggle armfuls of goods whilst balancing bags for weighing and removing at the right time is insane. Three times now I've had the 'item removed from bagging area' message just because something shifted slightly in the bag and some weight shifted off the scales.
4. Provide more assistance - when something goes wrong, there's very little help in here. Basically it's like a car that is driving fine one moment, then explodes into flames the next with no warning or chance to pull over. Give the user some hint of what to do, and some ability to avoid the embarrassing "Miss, miss, I've broken it again..." plaintiff call for help.
5. Make me feel good about doing it. And for me, this is key. When I check in at an airport it knows my name, it welcomes me, and makes the choices simple, it makes me feel valued as a customer, and then it sends me on my merry way. When I self-service in a store, it assumes I am a criminal, it doesn't welcome me or know me from Adam (even though I might have a store card and shop there regularly), it regularly spits the dummy and demands I go get help, and does absolutely nothing to make me feel valued.

Right now, I'm only using these systems at all because firstly I'm a geek and I want to see how they work, but secondly because these stores are starting to reduce staffing levels on the operated checkouts in order to force customers through these channels. And already I'm beginning to consider switching to stores that don't force me into a terrible user experience, just because it saves them some bucks.

I went to complain at Big W, and was told that they received very few complaints. When you see the red faced annoyed customers skulking off, I can't imagine why. But it's time to start.

Alarming design

Okay, so who's responsible at Sanyo?

I've had an old Sony alarm clock for a few years now, and it's served me extremely well - because 'it works'.

It has a large display of well light green panels, which can easily be read in bed, or from across the room (with contacts out, I need a little help at night). It has radio or buzzer, two alarms (I have a working partner with a different wake time) and it's pretty simple to operate. But, one of the time buttons was starting to fail, so it was time to go looking for a new one. And since I was shopping for a new one, I thought I'd look for one that supported my iPod touch.

Last week I was wondering through a K-mart store, and there on the shelf next to me was a Sanyo DMP-P7 alarm clock. It seemed to tick the boxes I needed - two alarms, buzzer, iPod playability. It didn't specify which iPods it supported, but I thought I'd give it a shot and try. It's a fair cop, I didn't research or review the product, I just picked up the box and paid.

Sure enough it fitted the Touch, so the old clock was ceremoniously retired and the Sanyo took pride of place. I figured out the buttons - of which there were a few too many - set the two alarms, and we were ready for the first night's road-test.

And here's where the problems started.

First problem was the screen. The Sanyo has a bright blue display with three settings of brightness and with a dark grey number format. In daylight this seems pretty cool - but at night, after allowing your eyes some time to adjust, even the lowest level of brightness is way too bright for me. With the clock sitting next to me on the bedside table I found it was a bit like having a mini torch shined into your eyes. In fact, it's so bright you can navigate the room with ease. Not exactly conducive to a good night's sleep, and by the morning I had a headache and a stiff neck, from sleeping facing the opposite direction all night.

In fact, the only solution I could come up with after a couple of nights playing was to switch off the display entirely, and to switch on a clock application on the plugged-in iPod Touch. Not exactly ideal, although it works.

Now the second problem. I'd set the radio alarm, and (unfortunately for me) I have a 5am wake-up. 5am rolls around - and the radio screams. Stupidly, I'd assumed that the radio would switch on at the station and volume I'd previously set. That happened on my previous alarm, it's happened in fact on every previous alarm I've owned - but not here. I checked, and sure enough the radio had been set low (volume 3) as I'm a light sleeper - but it had switched on at an ear splitting volume, waking half the house. Yeah, I was real popular....

After some investigation, it turned out that this clock has a feature whereby you set the volume you want when you set the alarm time. It had never occurred to me that this feature might even exist, so I hadn't set the volume. Now that I knew it did, I tried setting my alarm volume to three - and found problem number three.

It won't let me.

It seems that Sanyo, in their wisdom, have decided to save me from myself, and enforce a minimum volume for the alarm. Nothing less than volume 10 is allowed - which for me, is way too loud. Whereas previously I woke to a soft radio playing and would listen for a few moments before rising, now I wake to a blaring tune and have to leap for the off button, lest I wake the house again.

I can only guess that they've done this to avoid the user accidentally setting a too low volume. But that minor safety benefit overrides a basic core user freedom and need - bad design.

Which brings me to my final problem.

My old clock had a great layout. Control buttons for time on the right, massive sleep button in the middle, off button to the left. Waking up and reaching for the button, it was generally really easy to get it right.

With this Sanyo, there are three large wheel buttons, all designed to be quite similar. One controls fast forward/rewind/channel hopping, another brightness on the display, the third volume. There is a larger snooze button in the centre of the centre wheel, smaller buttons in the centre of the other two wheels. Between these wheels are seven other buttons, all the same size, controlling various features including radio band, mode, power and switching alarms on and off.

All of which means your chances of finding the off or snooze button on first try are pretty low. Twice already - and I've only had the thing less than a week - I've accidentally pressed the alarm button and changed settings, instead of turning it off.

Which brings me back to my opening statement - who's responsible at Sanyo? Surely even minimal testing would have shown that the device is difficult to use at night, overly complicated and unfit for the (seemingly) common tasks I've been trying to perform.

Shame on you guys, shame on you....

A great way to think

A couple of months back I sign I signed up to the free version of a service called MindMeister.

I've used mind maps for a long time now. For anyone who hasn't used them - you should. Basically they are a way to capture and then organise information, whether that be tasks, labels, web pages, a shopping list or anything else you need to figure out. They allow you to visually see your thoughts floating on the page, and then link and group and label them till they make (at least a little) more sense.

I'd previously used two different pieces of software to create mind maps, one of which was quite powerful and low cost, but went out of business, with the other being incredibly over priced in my view, at least for the use I needed it for.

MindMeister.com intrigued me, because firstly it offered this ability online, and secondly - and most importantly, for a skinflint like me - it currently offers a free version.

I've since used it on several projects, one of which involved me working remotely with team members in another State. It allows you to create your maps with simple drag and drop functionality, and adds some basic tagging and formatting options that provide simple ways to note and work with the maps. You can export or print maps, and importantly you can also work collaboratively to review and finalise them.

Once you progress beyond the free version (which I'm going to sort as soon as I find my non-bouncing credit card) you can work offline with the maps, for that troublesome train journey to work.

If you haven't tried MindMeister yet - go.

When fun becomes a pain

I'm pretty sure there is an algorithm you could use to calculate how much free time I get. Something along the lines of 'F=T/(K*N)', where fun (F) is a function of time not at work or cleaning (T) divided by the number of kids (K) times their relative naughtiness (N).

Whatever the true calculation is, that normally works out somewhere close to zero. But when my partner and I do finally get some time to ourselves, a favourite pastime of ours is to head off to the movies.

Now where we live there are three choices; a small independent cinema (which offers cheap seats, cheap popcorn but movies a touch behind the times), and a Hoyts and a Greater Union, both large multiplexes. Generally my experience starts on the web, as we look up what's on and when it's starting before making our choice of where to head. I rarely buy online, as I refuse to pay extra for the privilege.

Both the independent cinema and the Greater Union site offer simple and effective approaches. You can bookmark the page, and when you bring it up they list the movies that are on and the start times, with links to the previews/trailers for each. But Hoyts has taken a very different approach.

Recently, Hoyts revamped their site, and I was glad to see them do this. Their old site was painful to use, and refused to allow you to bookmark the cinema you wanted, since all pages used the same base URL - no matter what page you bookmarked, you always ended up at the home page when you came back. That meant selecting the state, then the theatre, then waiting to see what came up.

When the new site reappeared the same crime appeared to have been committed - as well as the more heinous crime of failing to support Firefox, which refused to load dropdown menus crucial to navigation, at least on my PC. Those faults do seem to have been corrected more recently though.

Let me talk you through the experience I had today, remembering that my simple task was to pick a movie that I could take my fiance to this evening, in the brief three hours of tranquility we will hopefully be allowed to enjoy.

First I click on my bookmark, and just as before, I arrive at the Hoyts home page. The home page offers me two core options - watch a trailer, or buy tickets. Now I don't necessarily want to do either, I'm trying to find out what's on and when, but since those are my primary options I choose Buy, since I rationalise this is the closest to my task.

Step 1 is to choose the cinema, so I click, and a dropdown appears (white against a white banner, although the options can be read okay). I choose NSW and another dropdown appears, with a long scroll-able list of cinemas - mine, as it happens, is right at the end. I scroll down and click it.

Next, it asks me to choose the movie, from another dropdown.

Now the problem I have is I don't know when any of them start. We'll be throwing our precious crew into the arms of grandma and burning rubber in the opposite direction around 6.30, which means anything starting before 7 is a rush, and anything starting after 7.30 will make it difficult to get back in time - so start time is crucial.

So showing me the list of movies with no start time doesn't overly help. I select a movie, but the start time is too early. I select another, and the start time is again too early. Again, with the same result.

By now I'm figuring this can't be the way to do this, especially since I entered the 'Buy' task, so I go back to the home page and take another look - there is no 'Home' option readily available, but luckily I guess that the logo will take me there.

At the top of the page, in a nice visible button (mid grey on light grey against mid grey background) is the word Cinemas, which I'd missed first visit, so I click. It's yet another dropdown menu, but cinema search is the first option, so I click again. Yet another dropdown, and I choose my state for the second time (why can't it remember???) and then see a long list of cinemas listed down the page - with mine again at the end. Several scrolls later I find it, with two buttons - More info, or Buy tickets.

Now since I've already found the Buy route isn't giving me what I want, I click on More info. Unfortunately it gives me exactly what I'd feared - a map of the cinema location, contact details and other descriptions of facilities - but no list of movies currently showing. That means there's zero point bookmarking this page.

I go back, and expecting to see exactly the same thing as before, click on the Buy tickets option. This takes me to a Session times page, which bizarrely asks me to select the state yet again, and then the cinema. I almost do, before I realise that actually the cinema is already selected, although this isn't shown in either controls. Finally though, I am seeing a list of the movies showing here on the page, rather than in a dropdown. That's the good news.

The bad news is, they still don't show start times....

So yet again it's a case of clicking on each movie, and waiting while the page reloads to see what time it is on. Eight clicks and eight page refreshes later, and I have the movie we're going to see.

Now, I know that as a usability guy, I have a tendency to gripe over design flaws more than the average customer, but still this experience is far from what I'd call ideal - Both competitors allow me to bookmark the cinema page and see all start times on a single page, with useful links to content from there. Hoyts on the other hand makes me load a new page for every movie, which is painful at best.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes I did write to them (nicely) and tell them what I'd found during my experience on the site - not today, but before Christmas when the new site first appeared.

I'm still waiting for my response....