90 percent of everything : Usability Blog

Written by Harry Brignull

I’m looking for a flight at the moment. I know the following:

• Where I’m going from (well I’d actually like to see results for all London airports listed in an order of my choosing)
• When I want to go (give or take a few days)

What I don’t want to specify:

• Destination – I want to scan the list of results and see what catches my eye
• Price – let me sort by price or set a ceiling though

If someone gave me to access to the underlying data I could figure this out in Excel or by writing a few lines of code but of course I have to access the data through various web interfaces. None of which give me the flexibility to search the way I want.

The main sticking point is destination. All the sites I try want this specified upfront. Am I the only person using the internet who knows they want a flight before they’ve picked a destination?

I was in Finland a few weeks ago, and this was the control panel of the lift in my hotel.

Imagine this scenario: you get in the hotel on the ground floor, you press a button, nothing happens. You try pressing all the buttons. Nothing happens. What are you meant to do to make the lift work?

In a way I kind of respect the designers who steadfastly stood by their beliefs in minimalist brushed metal aesthetics.

During my stay I watched a funny scene where a loud pair of American tourists completely floundered with it, while the reception staff pretended to ignore them.