I remember when missing a TV show meant that I had to scour the TV guide for months waiting for the re-run to come back on, and if it was a serial TV show like Twin Peaks, I’d have to call my friends to see who had watched and could catch me up. Trying to watch a serial TV show before Tivo and the web was a real act of courage.

No longer, of course.

I never watched LOST but was always interested. [Spoiler alert: if you haven’t watched the finale of LOST, you may not want to read further.] After the finale this May, I decided I would plow through the series, as it was available via Netflix streaming.

I got through Season 5 last week and was very excited about Season 6. It was after midnight but I decided I would just watch the season opener and then go to bed. To my chagrin, episodes 1 through 15 of Season 6 were not available. Seasons 1 through 5 were all available and the last 3 or 4 episodes of Season 6 were available (on abc not netflix), but 15 episodes of Season 6 were not. Perhaps in one of Lost’s alternate universes this makes sense, but not mine. As someone who was as invested as a fan could be, putting in 100 hours over the last month into the show, it was to say the least a bad experience. I ended up going to the Lost Wiki and read Alan Sepinwall’s reviews of the episodes not online.

To see the last episodes I used the ABC player on my iPad. Now, when you watch Netflix you are paying a monthly fee for the service, so you do not have to watch commercials. On the ABC site the service is free, but they have commercials.

And here’s where we arrive at my questioning title for this blog post.

I’m a sap when it comes to this type of television show. There’s not many things that can make it misty in the man-cave but a tugging-at-the-heart-strings-finale is one of them. When I watch shows like this I really WANT to immerse myself and suspend my disbelief. So I am sitting there watching a Sawyer and Juliet reunite, or Jin and Sun see their baby, and I’m getting a little teary-eyed, and the scene fades to BLARING CHEEZ-IT commercial.

It was a jarring experience. It pulled me completely out of the experience of watching characters I cared about, to watching a made up show with actors and cameras, and commercials.

I’d humbly like to suggest that for a future series finale that has impacted TV and culture, that the execs be forced to watch these shows with the commercials. Perhaps they could find a way to put commercials that fit more stylistically with the content.

Links:
Lost Wiki
Alan Sepinwall
Cheez-it

One answer to this question is that companies require a signed copy of a form and therefore require a fax. If there is a contact name on the form, I will often contact the person to see if I can scan and email. But this is an arduous process requiring me to print the document, sign the form, scan back into my computer, and email. And, most often the company requires the entire document to be scanned and sent, not just the signature page.

Until now.

I discovered Zosh. It is an iphone app that allows you to sign pdf documents with your finger on your iphone and email back. I tried it on my iphone and really struggled signing with my finger as the form factor was just too small for me. But, with an iPad, this becomes a must-have app for anyone who has to sign and send documents.

How does it work? You download Zosh and create an account using your email address. From this email address you can send a pdf document to mydocs@zosh.com. You receive a reply when the document is ready. Open the document within Zosh, find the signature area and insert your signature. You can insert other text as well, including dates. With the 2x zoom on an iPad the size is no longer an issue and is quite easy to write a signature. I’ve done this three times in the last week and it’s been terrific.

The UI for this is quite simple. The list of documents is the home page. Select the document and click on the Insert button. You can insert a signature, text, date, or image. After that, click Transmit (they should have called it email) and send the document.

That’s it. It’s brilliant in its simplicity and purpose.

View the Zosh website.

Loved this quote from Steve Jobs today at the WWDC

“Everybody loves to talk about the things that are tangible when it comes to photography, like megapixels. But we tend to ask the question: how do we make better pictures?”

Apple recently stated they sold two million iPads in the first two months of the iPad release; and, it seems, half of those buyers have posted reviews, but I’ll add myself to the list nonetheless. Today will be about the purchase of the iPad.

My wife and kids and I went to New York for spring break and were there on launch day of the wifi iPad. Knowing this, I had reserved an iPad at the 5th Avenue Apple Store (an amazing store architecturally by the way.) We walked through Central Park and arrived around 11:00 am. There was a long line so my wife decided she and the kids would go to the FAO Schwarz store (home of the life size piano keys from the movie “Big”, a reference everyone within 10 years of 40 should get, and ten years in either direction might not.)

I walked back over to the Apple Store, a scant 20 yards from FAO Schwarz. I asked where to go if I had a reservation. I was pointed to an alternate line than where I had been looking. Turns out, the really long line was for the general public release at 3:00pm that day. The reserved line was much shorter. I asked the Apple employee standing at the entrance to the line how long he thought my wait would be. “Thirty to forty minutes before you’ll be out with your iPad.” In classic under promise and over deliver style, I was in the Apple Store within ten minutes. The employee got me my iPad and I was out of the store in another five.

This was my first time in line for a first day launch and I must say it was fun and odd. After I walked out someone asked if they could look at it. Realizing the improbability of this person running off with my iPad, I showed it to her. Moments after that, a reporter asked if I cared to be interviewed. It was all very surreal.

Apple did a great job at creating a good experience for me. I got the feeling of being rewarded for having a reservation by having that line separated and around the back from the main line. They over-stated my wait time so I would be pleasantly surprised when I was in and out in fifteen minutes. And they had plenty of employees there inside and outside the store to answer questions and keep things orderly yet fun.

Over the coming days / weeks, I’ll post about my impression of the iPad as well as specific apps that I enjoy. Several of us at Gomoll have iPads and like many others believe the tablet, whether from Apple, Google or others, will represent a shift in how people experience the web, and computers. And we’ll be there to help design the apps for it.

Note: Of course one of the great things about this experience, and one of the themes of using my iPad, is that by going so quickly I was able to enjoy some family time, namely, my kids playing on the giant piano.

I am becoming more enamored of single purpose web sites, probably because the single purpose apps for the iphone are so handy. One service that fits the bill on the web is Write or Die. This service is aimed at people who want to write but find themselves easily distracted. In the age of twitter, facebook, blogs, email, IM, etc. that is a wide net to cast.

You simply put in a goal for your writing, either word count or a time count, or both. For instance, perhaps you want to write a blog post of about 200 words in 15 minutes; you enter those goals in the window. You can also select the mode of ‘corrective behavior.’ Gentle mode presents a pop-up message if you haven’t typed in twenty seconds whereas normal plays annoying sounds. The killer mode for now (since electric shock doesn’t work) is kamikaze mode. In this mode, if you don’t type for twenty seconds, the words start to auto-delete. There is a brief youtube clip on the service here.

A single purpose site, done well, helps you, the user, to get something done. Write or Die does just that.

The team from 37signals has a post from The Getting Real series entitled Embrace Constraints. It’s a short article and a good read.

My family just returned from vacation, visiting national parks/monuments: National Arches, Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands. The trip was wonderful, the sites powerful and majestic. The sites vary in their size and stature, but we enjoyed each one for its own unique reasons.

One aspect that did not vary was the quality of the Park Rangers. I am still amazed at this. No matter who we interacted with or where, Rangers at the visitors center, Rangers giving walking tours, Rangers emptying garbage, to name a few, they were pleasant, knowledgeable, and made us feel like they were thrilled to have us in the park.

What were the traits that made the interactions so positive? It’s not rocket science, yet, it is rare enough in the service industry to be amazing when they come together:

1. Be Happy


We did not interact with one ‘grumpy’ Ranger. Think about when you interact with a salesperson, cashier, customer service rep on the phone, etc. and how you feel when they treat you as a bother. The Rangers either are, or act as though they are, happy in their jobs. And not every Ranger is doing glamorous work; there is garbage to be emptied, rude people to deal with, etc. Yet, we were always greeted with a smile and genuine interest.
 I believe some of this comes from the fact that the Park Rangers are allowed to have a personality. Southwest Airlines is always used as an example of a company doesn’t want their employees to check their personalities at the door; I would say we can add Park Rangers to the list of good examples.

2. Have a story to tell


The history of the national parks, both collectively and individually, is a great story. Just as important though, the Rangers know the stories. We had a wonderful Ranger at the Grand Canyon who gave a 20 minute discussion on the natural history of the Grand Canyon, including his humorous 2-second explanation “The river cuts in and the sides fall down.” 


3. Be Informative


The Rangers know their parks. They know where the bison have been spotted, when the next Ranger program is, or where to find the next gas station. I could have called this item ‘be engaged‘ because if you don’t care about your job you are not going to take the time to know all the little things. We never left with a question unanswered. 


4. Involve new customers


The National Park system has a Junior Ranger program for kids. Each park is a little different but usually involves learning at the visitor center, then something involved in walking around the park. When they are done they get a Junior Ranger badge. My kids are already talking about going back to parks. 


5. Meet my needs


Most people come to the visitor center with similar questions. Yet the Rangers listen to your specific needs as if it’s the first time they’ve been asked. Have a young child and want a short trail? They will tell you. Want to go off the beaten path and see some wild life? They will point that out. When we arrived at a park, we found a Ranger, told them our timeframe and what we liked to do, and each time the Ranger gave us recommendations.

Take these attributes, apply them to your people, your service, even your software or website. Are you leaving your customers thinking about your service in the way I’m thinking about the Rangers? Why not?

Yesterday I attended Minnewebcon, a one day conference held at the University of Minnesota. The event was a success: great speakers, ample networking time, terrific food, etc. One item that stuck out for me as a positive was the strong wifi reception.

Last year I attended Minnebar, an unconference, also held at the U, and the wifi was spotty, marring (for me at least) an otherwise great day. This year, whether because it was a different building, different conference, or just the fact that it was a year later, the wifi was wonderful, and I could focus on the conference and not my frustration with wifi access.

Now, apply that to your product or web site. What ‘thing’ of seemingly minor importance is ruining the experience for people who use your product or visit your site? I’m not talking about lack of features here, but minor distractions that frustrate people.

How is your login process?

If you are a restaurant, do you have your hours and address on your home page, and can people view your site on mobile devices?

If your application is internal, what steps in the workflow of your employees makes them want to pull their hair out (hint: it’s usually something small in importance but high in hassle)?

Watching people use your site/product will reveal these items of seemingly minor importance to you or your marketing team but of major hassle to your users.

Over the holiday period, my wife and kids and I and traveled down to Columbus, OH from Minneapolis. We drove back two days before New Year’s. With less than four hours left in the trip, we hit a whiteout near Tomah, WI. I don’t know if you’ve ever driven in a whiteout but the name is as apt a name as any weather related name can be. We could barely see the taillights in front of us. There was an accident ahead of us, a truck swerved in our lane, and before you can say ‘move to Florida’ we were in the median ditch between eastbound and westbound I-94.

The kids were shocked and a more than a little scared (we all were) but the van was upright and we had heat. The state troopers picked us up and took as to a truck stop and told us it would be several hours before a tow could get us out as there was a slew of cars already in the ditch ahead of us. Five hours later the tow truck got the van out (it was fine) and we drove for another hour before stopping off at a hotel.

The next morning we had several options, one of which was to get in the car, get breakfast on the go, and get home. But my wife and I decided to take another approach. We had a nice big leisurely breakfast in the hotel, then noticed that there was an ‘Action City’ next store. Action City had mini-bowling, laser tag, rock-climbing, go-karts, bumper cars, and video games. Without hesitation, we ponied up the cash and bought a day pass for us all, and had a blast. Later in the week when the kids were talking to the grandparents, my daughter said, “I’m glad the car went in the ditch, we had a great day and I’ll have a great story to tell my kids some day.”

Whether you are a customer service department, or a 404 error page, or a family on a vacation, you can choose how to deal with a bad turn.

November 13th is World Usability day this year, and the theme this year is on transportation.  I’ve written about some travel experiences here and here tangentially.  In Minneapolis we have a terrific UPA chapter, and the chapter is engaged in some fun and interesting activities around World Usability day.

Business is good right now, so I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to participate in the local event, i.e. I do not think I will have time to make the poster.  That said, I thought I would write in this blog post my idea and contribute to the discussion in some small way.

My thoughts on transportation relate to airline travel.  There are two ways to tackle what is for most people a consistently poor, and sometimes horrific experience.  One way is to look at the large systemic issues the airline industry has and attempt to resolve those, e.g. getting a state of the art Air Traffic Control system that will more efficiently manage air traffic.  Some of these issues are massive and will require either billions of dollars or thousands of hours in committee to resolve.

The other view is to acknowledge that delays and cancellations are going to be here and look at how to make people as comfortable as possible at the airport.  From a user experience approach, there are many opportunities here.  I recently was in the DFW (Dallas Fort-Worth) airport.  They’ve done a wonderful job of upgrading some sitting areas with new chairs, tables, and TV’s for viewing.  Yet, where do you find many business travelers?  Sitting on the floor, back against a wall, near a power outlet.  And if there are flight delays and cancellations, people huddle around these outlets the like the survivors in the movie Titanic huddle in their lifeboats.

If an airport were to engage a user experience designer to observe people in an airport, the layout would be much different, but some of those differences can be accommodated today with little expense or infrastructure change.

1. Add as many outlets near seating areas as possible where this can be done.

2. For any new construction, outlets should be accessible from any chair.

3. Free wifi: while this will definitely has a cost, the upside to the user experience would be amazing.  I used to fly to Moline Iowa and everyone would talk lovingly of this airport because of the free wifi.  The ramifications of free wifi are many, from allowing people to do work (who wouldn’t pay for wifi) during delays, to bringing people earlier into the airports prior to flights (since they can continue working).

4. Provide power strips.  When I travel I often have my laptop, a phone, and an ipod.  Others have four or five devices, and they cannot always charge via the computer.  Allowing usage of power strips at gates is also a stopgap to numbers 1 and 2 above.

5. Go Green.  I am not certain about the feasibility here, but this should be easy to do as a test case.  Virtually every gate at every airport has plenty of window space.  Airlines should put up solar chargers with various input interfaces for people to use to do a quick charge on their devices.

People will occupy themselves during delays and waits, if they can access the internet, talk on the phone, watch movies, play games, and listen to music.  If their devices are dead or dying, watch the anxiety rise.  You only have to go into the Airline Club lounges where outlets abound (as well as comfortable seating) to see the difference.

What are your thoughts for improving the user experience of transportation?  Leave a comment here, or go check out the World Usability day site and get involved.