Simplicity is the Essence of "User Value"

Sometimes some gadgets are built so complex that it's hopeless. Take my microwave for example, with 20 buttons and a number pad.

All I need is TWO buttons and a number pad to enter the amount of minutes and seconds I need to heat up my food.

Here is what the manufacturer gave me:


And here is what I really would love to have:

Great Companies Respond Quickly

I always believed that speed is an essential part of many successful projects in life. Sylvester Stallone wrote his classic “Rocky” in four days. Jack Kerouac wrote his unforgettable “On the Road” in three weeks. Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the benzene ring in a dream, over a single night.

Yes, “haste” also leads to “waste” but the kind of “speed” I’m talking about is not haphazard, disoriented, Brownian motion. It is a disciplined, focused, sincere movement forward towards a target with no reservations, no inertia. It’s an arrow flying at mach 2.

Recently two companies impressed me by the speed with which they’ve responded to two postings on this very blog. Given the fact that this is still a relatively new blog with not even 100 postings on it yet, I was delighted with the response. I found myself meditating about the serious care with which these successful companies monitored their brand image.

The companies are FeedBlitz (the RSS and Blog-to-E-Mail company) and Jajah (Internet phone company). They both quickly responded to either a complaint (Jajah) or a piece of inadvertently missing information (FeedBlitz).

Their responses was an inspiration for me in my own line of work to treat my own clients with the same speed and transparency that they all so richly deserve. Jajah and FeedBlitz light the way to our corporate future in this age of instant communications and 60-second news cycle. Kudos to them both!

Consumer Alert - JAJAH Charges Even When the Call is NOT Connected!

I love JAJAH (www.jajah.com) Internet phone service. You do not need to download anything and when you call, your physical phone rings which you pick up and start to talk.

JAJAH is very cheap, has great voice quality and also has many other useful features.

Top two I like:

1) You can have your one one-click-call phone book so that you do not need to enter the frequently-called numbers from scratch every time.

2) You can also save the shortcut of any call on your desk top, or send it to your cell phone so that you can initiate the call by just clicking the icon! Smart.

However, lately I have discovered a nasty feature:

You call someone. The phone rings and nobody picks it up. Or, your call cannot be connected for one reason or another.

Well, JAJAH still charges your account for it! The amount is not that much. Just nine cents. But still -- WHY?

I have written to JAJAH about this obvious software malfunction and haven't heard from them yet.

If you are using JAJAH, I'd also recommend you to do the same and get in touch with the company. If they hear from enough number of people perhaps they would correct it.

And if you are not yet a JAJAH member but consider becoming one, do so while being aware of this serious billing issue.

Importance of Designing Simple Things Well

Good design is invisible. It works beautifully, seamlessly, does the job without a whimper.

Bad design, on the other hand, is everywhere! It sticks out like a pair of brown shoes under a black tux. It is in-your-face obvious.

The PT Cruiser that I have rented for the week made me realize once again how our daily lives get complicated for no other reason than bad design.

First, the window power buttons. Everyone who gets into a PT Cruiser searches for the window buttons in vain. Why? Because the designers of PT decided it would be a really “cute” idea to place all four window controls on the center of the dashboard!

So when you approach a gate toll and when you need to roll down your window in a hurry, don't panic. Just think about all the time and energy that went into an “innovation” that neither works nor is needed, and have some compassion.

Second, if you need to pop open your trunk lid from inside for easy loading and unloading of your grocery bags, forget about it. There is no pop-up button like you would have in 90% of all cars these days, that little and very useful button somewhere in the lower left side of the steering wheel.

You need to get down and insert your key into the trunk lock and open it manually every time you need to open your trunk. How's THAT for convenience?

And thirdly, watch out for the key itself because the PT designers placed the PANIC button right on the key, exactly where you would be grabbing it to unlock your doors and your trunk.

The result? On various occasions throughout the day you activate your car alarm without intending to. And if that is happening inside the tight space of an underground garage, the effect is all the more embarrassing and ear-splitting of course.

As American car manufacturers are wondering why Japanese and South Korean car makers are taking over the American market they should really pay attention to all these small things that either don't work or work with unpleasant results.

It's time they realize that “cute” is not always “friendly.”

Perhaps by taking such “design risks and challenges” they are trying to take a road less traveled and discover some new “aesthetic ground.”

Yet they should also remember what Jerry Seinfeld said about the matter: “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”

QR Code Revolution is on its way

A sample QR Code

Barcode, move aside! QR CODE is here.

Soon we will be pushing flash movies, coupons, MP3 files, good-old text and god knows what else to our cell phones by pointing their tiny built-in cameras to a QR Code, taking a snapshot, and then pressing the SEND button.

The revolution is already well underway in Japan and it's just a matter of time before it reaches the American shores.

Imagine, you are at the supermarket. You see an odd looking bottle of something on the shelf with a QR Code on it.

You point your cell phone camera at it, take a snapshot and push SEND and presto!

Soon you are watching a video about how to use the product, its benefits, complete with a 15% discount coupon that you can use right there at the same store!

Welcome to the 21st century and make all your marketing plans accordingly.

Click here for an excellent article on QR Codes

Sales Receipt - Printing the Full Credit Card Number is Against the 2003 Law

My local Sears store may get sued one of these days because it is still printing the full credit card numbers on their sales receipts.

According to the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which went into effect on December 4, 2006, the retailers are not allowed to print their customers' full credit card numbers on the sale receipts in an effort to prevent consumer fraud and identity theft.

Some claim card expiration dates should also not be printed but the law is not clear on that point.

Big merchants such as Rite-Aid, Wendy's, FedEx, TJX, and Ikea are already being sued for doing exactly that.

100 class-action lawsuits are already filed at the federal courts and district courts (in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas) for continuing to print full credit card numbers on sales receipts.

The lawsuits contend that the retailers are "wilfully" violating the law, which carry a $1,000 penalty per transaction (not per person). So, if a consumer has bought 10 sandwiches from a store with 10 different receipts displaying the full credit card number, the penalty sought would be $10,000.

To prevent the onslaught of these new lawsuits, VISA started to demand its vendors back in 2003 to accept new machines that print only the last four digits of a credit card number. That still remains the legally accepted practice but I personally see quite a few stores still printing their sales receipts the old fashioned way.

I guess it's time to have a friendly talk with the Manager of my Sears store...