Bad Design

This is a great deal* (*actually it isn’t)

Some stunningly awful usage of the evil asterisk by three.co.uk for their X-series package (The UK mobile operator) – Actually, if you dig into the Ts & Cs, the limit is 1GB a month. This is a big difference from … Continue reading

OLPCs: if you were leader of a 3rd world country, would you buy them?

Imagine you are the benevolent leader of a small fictional country somewhere in the third world. Your resources are limited. While your country isn’t as poor as some other third world countries, many of your citizens can’t read or write, … Continue reading

Disinformation design: parking signs that trick you

Imagine it’s 4.30pm on a weekday. Are you allowed to park here? if so, how long for? This is a great example of disinformation design from Haringey council in North London. Because the council profits from poor information design, this … Continue reading

Amusingly indecisive dialog box in Windows Vista

Interesting piece of copy in this Windows Vista dialog box. Basically it’s saying: Type your product key in now. But you don’t have to. But if you don’t, you could loose everything. And you might have to buy another copy … Continue reading

Newsletter subscription on Iwantsandy.com

“Oh shucks Sandy, you’re such a card! I wasn’t going to, but since you said it was going to be delightful, I think I diddly-will sign up to your newsletter.” … For the record, when you want to entice newsletter … Continue reading

A passing thought regarding Office users on one grey morning in November

How many people are being sent .docx files every minute of every day only to find themselves unable to open them?

Press the ESC key to cancel saving the …

In Office 2007, you sometimes get shown this funny little dialog box when saving a large document. Have you ever noticed it? So what happens if you click cancel – does it cancel saving the document? Or does it just … Continue reading

Zune.net: 8 serious design mistakes, and how they could have been prevented.

Before I start I’d like to say I’m not a Microsoft Hater. I’m actually very, very impressed with Office 2007 – the UI design is great. And when I saw today’s splurge of blog posts about the new Zune, I … Continue reading

An example of deliberately obtuse industrial design

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 … Continue reading

A great example of bad dialog box design – Part 2.

Douglas Karr pointed out that I should put my money where my mouth is and explain how it should be redesigned. Having given it some thought, I’ve realised this is a particularly tricky dialog box – the problem does not … Continue reading