A little (more) levity

Well, aren’t we all glad that’s over? Goodbye 2016, hello 2017, let’s start with something a little on the light side huh?

Remember a long time ago back in September when I moved 11 tons of bricks? Remember how one of the primary goals was to keep the terriers from climbing things?

A four foot tall pile of bricks to keep my dog from climbing the wood pile, with my dog standing on top of it.
Yeah, that worked out.

Next up, some form failures:

There are so many things wrong here…

Cuisinart blade recall form. It says "Does your model begin with FP? End in Y? Is model DLC-6?" and then provides 3 options: "yes", "no" and "do you live in canada?"
From now on when someone asks me a yes/no question and the answer is “maybe” I’m answering “Do you live in Canada?”

 

There are some good ways to pick a state for an address, and many bad ones, and then there’s using an autocomplete search…

This state picker for a shipping address uses an autocomplete form field so when one enters P for Pennsylvania the first choice is Mississippi because that state has a P in it first.
My state starts with P, of course I meant Mississippi!

 

There are no data forms so good that a data entry person with a text entry field can’t mess them up.

A line in a listing of medical lab locations. The "Days" column lists Monday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, but the "hours" column list Monday through Friday 7:00 am through 6:00 pm and 7:00 am through 12:00 pm. I give up.
This is how you invite your users to call for your hours.

How about some marketing content?

Sometimes we words out if we shop wine.

A-frame sign at a Wegman's supermarket that reads" New! Enjoy the convenience of shopping wine at our store".
I hope this means we’re “shopping with wine” not “shopping for wine”, because that’s my kind of convenience.

 

We live in a miraculous time.

A four GB router on Amazon's site is listed as claiming it is a "socially-conscious skin cleanser serum that cleans without disturbing the skin's natural barrier." Now that's a firewall!
Technology’s come a long way if my router can cure acne.

 

That’s Mister Hydra to you.

A plastic hydra at a toy store. The product is listed as "MR HYDRA" on the tag. Mister Hydra?
Unfortunately, Mrs Hydra did not appear to be available.

 

Tasty chips here! No really!

Kellogg Special K Sea Salt Cracker Chips are labeled "Now tastier than ever!" which, honestly, makes me suspicious.
Because someone shot down “No longer tastes like the bag!”

Finally, some false parallels.

Because you can never have too many of those.

The Keureg coffeemaker wants to know whether you want "english", "french", or "hot water".
Where do they speak “Hot water” exactly?

May your new year be happy, healthy, and full of reasons to laugh.

Author: Anne Gibson

Anne Gibson is a Senior Staff Product Designer and General Troublemaker working on design systems from outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She's an editor and writer at The Interconnected. She is also published at A List Apart and The Pastry Box, and publishes short fiction when she's not persuading the terriers to stop wrecking things. (The terriers are winning.)