Observing
CategoryEvolving digital language, as seen on TV
‘As seen on TV’ is one of those phrases commonplace enough to feel like a natural part of our phraseology. It was new once, though, and there will come a time when it is old and its meaning obscured by the mists of time.
Walking past a superma…
Technology for an ageing congregation
This advertisement for a local congregation to avail themselves of ‘Rob the computer expert’s’ knowledge intrigues me on a number of levels. On the one hand, it implies we live in an age where access to technology is something under the purview o…
The scrappy reality of operators’ customer service
I’ll admit I was surprised and disappointed when she took out a tatty ring bound folder – the kind one might have used to hold one’s school notes in the 1980s – and ran her finger down the plastic covering of a printed spreadsheet. “£53 a month fo…
Experiencing the Apple Watch at retail
The Apple Watch occupied about 20 times more floorspace than the new MacBook when I visited the company’s Regent Street store in April 2015. The Watch’s display units stretch the full width of the store and are the first things a customer sees upo…
Understanding why the $17,000 Apple Watch is small fry
Mainstream media, understandably, has made much of the notion some customers may choose to spend $17,000 on an Apple Watch. However, this is a market which already exists – very profitably – for luxury goods companies. Indeed, there are customer…
UI lessons from urban design
Which part of this street is the most dangerous for the average pedestrian?
- The area with the bold, diagonal red lines
- The parallel, double yellow lines
- Or the path marked by the faint, blue dashed lines
The blue dashed li…
Connecting via an A4 printed page of explanation
How does one arrive at a situation where connecting to Wifi requires an A4 page of explanation, printed on dead trees?
No matter how well meaning an organisation, it is dangerously easy to fall into a trap of addressing symptoms rather than roo…
The experience, the whole experience & nothing but the experience
I was walking through my village the other day and spotted this sign taped to the inside of a neighbour’s front door. It read: ‘Parcel courier – please ring bell and wait (elderly lady – bit slow)’.
Think about that. Think about the whole chai…