STUCK ON AMBER

Ticketless

My first steps with easyJet.

"a ticketless airline"... That sounds pretty cool and smart. Yes, after all, why would we need a ticket, in 2011, when the airline already has everything they need to let you board?

I've boarded many times with a so-called "electronic ticket" that I never had with me, and that was never an issue. When everything is in the system already, having an electronic ticket or having no ticket at all sounds like the same thing to me. Or am I missing anything?

But I never realised that saying "We are a ticketless airline" would make it sound cooler.

Too many artificial concepts in this world, maybe. Don't bother people with 'implementation details' when they don't need to know details.

Upside Down Design

Rio Karma MP3 player (2004). 

This was before touch screens, when we had to rely on hard keys provided somewhere around the screen. The huge majority of hand held devices come with the controls at the bottom, below the display.

The Karma did the opposite, and that was daring. It was surprisingly comfortable, as the thumb would effortlessly meet the wheel and buttons located at the top, making the player very natural to use. But not everyone liked how it looked.

An example of product that didn't sell as much as it deserved, just because we're usually not ready to buy things that look too unusual, even if they're a delight to use. To be fair, the Karma was probably not ideal for lefthanders!

Overkill?

   

This application looked decently serious for a minute; needless to say it was a bit of a shock when that sexy hand suddenly stepped in to show me how to slide a slider (the same as the one I use 50 times a day to unlock my phone). I guess a bit of humour never hurts. Why not.

More seriously, if you need things like that to explain every element of your interface, you'll run out of memory soon. Make buttons look like buttons, sliders look like sliders, and it should be fine. Relax.