The above is a photo of an automated text message I got when I landed in Bangkok. (Free pie at a Bangkok Burger King?!) Unfortunately, my phone failed about 4 days later, so I’m not going to be able to provide much of a follow up for these apps. I’m not sure what happened to it- it was working one minute, and about 350 degrees the next. It never came on again after that. I lost a few pictures and video from the trip, which I am sad about, but luckily had plenty of other devices on which to capture the trip.

My experience trying these apps was limited, therefore, but I’ll give my impression nonetheless.

Skype: Tried the calling feature a couple of times using wifi from Kanchanaburi. It never connected. Could have used this several times if it had actually worked. Didn’t get a chance to try it in multiple locations.

Convertbot: Missed this app the most. Tip: add all currencies for any country you are traveling through before you leave. That way, if you are in an airport taking a connecting flight, you won’t need wifi to get the current conversion rate for the country you are in.

ReadItLater: The notes I had saved were missed, but I managed without. I still think this is a good method for finding previously saved trip info – though I do remember that searching was a bit tricky at first.

Wifi Track: I tried to use this, but it didn’t work as I believed it should have. It never notified me of networks when I tried that feature, and required so much fussing that you might as well use the built in wifi detection.

uTalk Thai: I had played with this several times before landing. It would have been a helpful reference, and several times I wished I could look up a pronunciation for a word or phrase that I knew was in there.

I never had the chance to use the BoA app or Pano before the phone bricked. Thanks Apple for quickly and simply giving me a replacement.

Self serve grocery scanners

I saw these at a grocery store in Provincetown, MA, while visiting. Using your grocery card, you check out one of the scanners from the wall display, and grab some empty grocery sacks. As you shop, you use the scanner gun to scan each item (the big yellow button) as you put it in the bag. When you are done, you put the scanner in the checkout machine and pay.

Scanner in the cart holster

While I’m sure the novelty of laser-shooting your groceries (pew! pew!) would wear off, what I liked about this system was the ability to see a running total on the scanner. (Shown in the photo as $1.00) It also shows sale items via ads displayed on the scanner, and I have a feeling I’d be susceptible to that as well. The scanner with its few buttons is easy to learn, and offers the ability to scroll your items in the list and remove them. I wasn’t playing close enough attention to see if the checkout system verified weight to reduce theft, but I’m assuming it did.

I’d use it.

Panel displaying elevator positions

I snapped this picture in the lobby of the Frost Bank building in San Antonio. The panel, nowhere near the elevators, was designed to give the fire department a view of what floors the elevators were on.

I love the look of this display – the lights behind the numbers, the movement going up and down, and also the ability to compare. By comparison, a simple digital number display would be faster to read probably and infinitely more scalable, but not nearly as fun and charming.

This way of packaging parts, though, made it a bit easier. Clear labeling prevents you from wondering which screws go with what part, and you’re only opening what you need when you need it. Nice.

Front of parts package

Back of parts package

What amuses me about their survey is its sadistic blend of attempting to be user friendly while simultaneously deflecting actual ease of use.

Take the status bar, for instance. Here they’ve provided feedback for the user on how far along the user is in completing the survey. Thoughtful, no? We all like to know where we are when inside processes. But guess what? Each little blue box represents a page. Not a question, but a page of radio selections to make. Eighteen glorious pages in all. I didn’t actually notice this until it was too late, and I felt trapped by all the selections I had already made.

I forged ahead, determined to find the text field that surely awaited me in the end, a place where I could be free of the constraint of likert scales. A place where I could really, sincerely but firmly explain how irresponsible and back-asswards their wireless log in process was.

And there it was, finally, on the 14th page. My chance to be heard. I began eagerly to type. But wait, what’s this? Suddenly I see a red number advancing on the page. I stop to read the text above the field. (click graphic to see full size)

Neat! They’re actually going to help me complain less! How thoughtful! Imagine all the work they put into that form to let me know how little feedback I could actually give with clear instructions on how to avoid the error of over 3 sentences of comments! Why, that was probably about the same amount of effort it would have taken to actually give me, oh I don’t know, an grossly extravagant 1024 characters with which to pen my feedback.

Truly, brilliantly awful! And extra points for the subtle meanness in actually making the form look like you can write more, when bam! Sucker. That’s what you get for not reading that big hunk of instructional text.

In the end, it’s so perversely duplicitous it’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad. They probably are truly interested in providing great service. But acting interested in providing great service isn’t the same as providing great service. Think they know their form is torturous? I’d tell them, but I’ll for sure need more than 256 characters.

While I remodeled most of my kitchen about two years ago, I have not yet replaced the built-in oven. The oven still works, but it’s clock and timer was set with a plastic knob which over the years grew brittle and broke off. I’ve come to rely on the timer on my microwave — an over-the-cooktop model — to conveniently track goodies in the oven, on the stovetop, and even for non-cooking tasks like napping.

Unfortunately, the folks at Maytag have unnecessarily limited the timer function to four digits. The actual display is six or seven digits long, but the timer can’t be set for longer than 99 minutes, 99 seconds. If I’m slow-roasting garlic, then I have to set it twice. Or use my iPhone’s timer.

It’s frustrating, but a good lesson. Customers may use your product differently than you think they will. Their particular context may create uses for your product which you very likely will not anticipate. If you want your product to have maximum usefulness, then take the time to talk to your customers and visit them where they are using your product. It’ll be time well spent.