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at least the coffee’s pretty good.

My bank*’s website and the Shaw’s supermarket in our neighborhood have both been undergoing sweeping redesigns.
The common denominator is that both broke designs that weren’t broken (at least from a customer perspective).
The Bank
The bank’s former website was ugly by the standards of the modern web, but its interface was solid — clearly organized, and […]

In Blink, Gladwell devotes a chapter to exploring what he calls the “Warren Harding error.” He contends that the primary reason for Harding’s political success was that the man looked presidential.
Gladwell doesn’t apply this line of reasoning to politicians of the current era (although later he does quote Paul Ekman — who, with Wallace […]

it’s all about the penguins

Sunday December 5th was my second day tracking with The Hyphens at Appleman. We got there shortly after noon. I did all my bass overdubs (unless we find something later that really needs fixing) and John got well into his (he finished up his parts the following Monday).
Two things really stood out for me about […]

Here’s a screen capture from on-line retailer’s registration form. The red asterisk indicates that these elements are both required.

I’m specifically picking on barnesandnoble.com, but many other web commerce sites have similar problems. These questions and their answers can be divided neatly into two equally unsatisfactory categories:

Questions that are too easy for a would-be identity thief […]

(less stress)

This is one of a pair of identical signs at a standard four-way traffic light with left turn arrows:

Interpreted literally, it seems to say that bicycles should only proceed on a red (or yellow light). That’s clearly insane. My best guess is that it’s really a “No right turn on red” sign specifically directed at […]