The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda By Nic Price on 23 February 2007 — 1 min read Every now and then I read something that seems to coincide with my life so perfectly I imagine there must be an Amélie-like character who has placed it in my path. This is certainly true of John Maeda’s book The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life). Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, visual... More
Fast ticket? By Nic Price on 10 December 2006 — 1 min read The nutshell: buying rail tickets online still isn’t very joined up. TTL: “Thank you for calling thetrainline.com how can I help?” Me: “Hello, I accidentally managed to book myself two tickets using the website. Can you tell me how I can cancel one of them please?” [brief exchange of reference numbers and identification information] TTL:... More
Creating Passionate Users: Dilbert and the zone of mediocrity By Nic Price on 21 October 2006 — 1 min read Just read this brilliant and incredibly timely (for me anyway!) post from the always passionate Kathy Sierra. To avoid the Zone of Mediocrity, you must suspend disbelief. You must be willing and able to turn off (temporarily) The Voice inside that says, “We’ll never get away with this. People will hate it.” That doesn’t necessarily... More
Another reason why junk mail is bad for business By Nic Price on 21 October 2006 — 1 min read Apparently junk mail subsidises the cost of sending a bona fide letter, the price we have to pay, like Google Ads for snail mail (though less intelligently targetted of course). Every week I receive an inordinate amount of junk mail offering discounts, credit cards with huge credit limits, loans – presumably to pay back the... More
My train left early By Nic Price on 4 June 2006 — 1 min read My train to Leeds left five minutes early from Long Preston station a couple of weeks ago. I was lucky, I turned up ten minutes early, so had a five minute wait. But it must have really annoyed the rail replacement service passengers who were delivered by bus two minutes later thinking they had three... More
Your site may never get a second chance to make a first impression By Nic Price on 16 January 2006 — 1 min read It’s an aura thing. Internet users make up their minds about the quality of a website in the blink of an eye, a study shows. Researchers [from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada] found that the brain makes decisions in just a twentieth of a second of viewing a webpage. They were surprised as they believed... More
When is a photo not a photo? By Nic Price on 24 November 2005 — 1 min read When it’s of an illustration according to Flickr. Monkstyle.net who’s been posting illustrations to Flickr says: I noticed a while ago that when I searched for photos using tags on flickr, that my photos weren’t showing. After checking through the Flickr faqs I discovered that this is because I have been marked as ‘NIPSA’ [Not... More
Message to online insurance quote websites By Nic Price on 6 November 2005 — 1 min read If there are showstoppers ask them upfront! Don’t let me spend 10 minutes filling in personal details about myself and my other half only to be told that you can’t offer me a quote because of my other half’s profession. I was just trying to get a quote on behalf of a friend who was... More
If this sounds familiar, here’s a ready-made email By Nic Price on 5 November 2005 — 1 min read Hello I received a letter and voucher ‘wooing’ me back to [Insert company name]. Decided to have a go and the following happened: 1. Tried to key in voucher code when section came up in checkout procedure but was told I needed to book a delivery time first 2. Dutifully continued, booked delivery time and... More
Dodgy information design By Nic Price on 3 November 2005 — 1 min read Here’s something to mark World Usability Day. Boots does a thing called Meal Deal which means for a fixed price you can get a sandwich, drink and snack/dessert. There are two types of meal deal, one where the products are marked with a red circle and the slightly more expensive option which uses a green... More