radiant.matrix

security is an illusion. It’s a heuristic we draw from observing the coincidence of things not going badly for a while at a stretch. — Merlin Mann

A full coffee cup is a two-handed affair. The coffee must be blistering hot and a threat sitting three inches to the left of my keyboard. Reaching for my mug is a commitment. It is a reminder that, “Hey, we’re focusing elsewhere for moment. Don’t screw this up. I’m hot.” My coffee mugs are ginormous. My sips — carefully orchestrated. — The Coffee Mug Affair

The entire article is worth reading; this is a man who takes his coffee experience with the gravity it deserves.

I called [KitchenAid] to whine a little bit and to hear why they made a meltable teapot. I counted how many prompts I had to press in order to talk to a human being. It was NINE.

…

The last step was a recording that they were closed and I should call back after 10 am. Click.

…

If you’re not doing this or you are unable to do this, do not answer the phone. There is no middle ground on this discussion. — How to answer the phone, Seth Godin (2008-12-03T10:52CST)

A lot of attention (but probably not really enough…) is given to user-interface (UI) design in software. Far less is paid to UI design for other business processes, as Godin’s colorful story so clearly demonstrates.

The central problem is that businesses are slaves to two masters: the stockholders, who want everything to cost less and make more money so that their stock value goes up; and the customers, without whom the business simply doesn’t exist. Most business processes — even the customer-facing ones — are designed and implemented primarily to make the stockholders happy.

Put another way, when the designers should be asking “how can we serve our customers the best way possible without it costing too much”, they’re asking “how cheaply can we serve our customers without losing too many of them”.

A lot of value can be had by looking at software UI design principles. For example, what if KitchenAid had used the principle of “fail early” — that is, providing an error message as soon as possible when something happens that will prevent success — in their phone system? The interaction might have looked something like this:

• System: Thank you for calling [company], for service in English, press 1 [etc. for other languages].
• Caller: [presses 1]
• System: We regret that we cannot serve you at this time, as our service center is closed. Please try again during our operating hours: [times]. You can also find solutions to common problems, and submit comments or complaints, on our website at [URL].

This interaction provides value to the caller, while taking up a minimum amount of the caller’s time. The caller needs to only make one selection, their preferred language. After this, the “fail early” principle takes effect, letting the caller know that (a)they cannot be helped by phone now, (b)when they can be helped in this matter, (c)they have a possible alternative to get assistance.

Sometimes the comments are better than the article:

Extreme Christians call him a terrorist Muslim plotting to overthrow the USA. Terrorist Muslims plotting to overthrow the USA call him a Jew plotting to take over the Middle East. I think I just confused myself. — OneAegis, in a comment on an article in The Economist

Sometimes advertising can be so very cool:

Sea Orchestra from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Definitely pop over to Vimeo and watch the HD version!