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When “No thanks” means “Okay”

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Today someone tweeted a link to their friend’s Etsy shop. I clicked on the link, landed at the Etsy shop, and noticed an overlay in the footer that said:

Hi! We'd like to set these regional settings for you: English (US), $ United States Dollar USD, United States : (Okay) (No thanks)

I saw this and thought to myself: I prefer English (UK) when I have a choice, I prefer $ Australian Dollar AUD, and I’m in Australia. I tried to click on the text but it wouldn’t let me change any of the options so I clicked “No thanks” and expected it to go away. Instead the overlay was replaced with another letting me know that my preferences had been saved. What?! I’d said “No thanks”!

Your preferences have been saved. You can always update these regional settings later at the bottom of any page.

There are a couple of flaws here:

  • Etsy gave me the impression that I had options.
  • Etsy gave me options that did not match my needs.
  • Etsy offered me a choice to decline the options and then ignored my choice.

What Etsy could have done:

  • Not shown me an overlay and defaulted the site to English (US), $ United States Dollar USD, and United States. If I had reached the point where I was interested in buying I may have noticed the options to switch over to $AUD, or I could have been given a specific option when I was about to make a purchase. This isn’t ideal because I could be put off browsing products if I don’t have a good sense of the exchange rate.
  • Shown me the overlay without a “No thanks” button – it would have forced me to click “Okay” but at least I wouldn’t have felt like I had any other option.
  • Shown me the overlay and allowed me to adjust the settings in-line with the message.
  • Shown me the overlay but matched my IP address or browser settings to have a better guess at which settings I might like to have. This can be a problem as there are many reasons why an IP address/browser will not match a person’s preferences but at least it has a chance of being a little more accurate than defaulting everyone to be American. In combination with the suggestion above to provide in-line settings, I could have adjusted the options if they were wrong.
  • Shown me a different message when I clicked “No thanks” such as “We have left your settings at our default options of English (US), $ United States Dollar USD, United States. You can always update these regional settings later at the bottom of any page.”

From what I can see of the language, currency and region options that are available when you click on the link at the bottom of any Etsy page, Etsy appears to be in the process of rolling out new options for different countries and languages. It takes effort to provide that level of service on a site, however not providing clear instructions in the overlay they currently show is missing the mark and is failing to promote the options that are available.

All in all this is a minor gripe as taking a bit of care with small interactions like this isn’t going to save the world, however attention to detail can impact brand perception and the roll-out of grand plans.

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First thoughts on the Ozaki iStroke-L stylus

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

I’d been thinking about getting a stylus for my iPad for a few weeks and since I’m not as adventurous as some in building my own, I was struggling with my options. I asked around but didn’t receive any strong recommendations, the computer shops seemed to be a little bewildered by my want to use a stylus with an iPad, and I googled a bit but apart from some flimsy looking stylus’, the brands I was reading about didn’t seem to show up anywhere I went in Sydney. I wasn’t keen to buy online because I wanted to be able to easily return it if the product was a dud.

Yesterday I ended up going to a Mac reseller and they had a few to choose from including ones by Bamboo and Ozaki. Although name-wise Bamboo seemed a good idea, I opted for the Ozaki iStroke L [at the time of posting, their site seems to have fallen over.. oops!] because it was a little cheaper (it was still AUD$34 which feels like a lot to me for effectively a pen with a bit of rubber on it!).

My thoughts on the styles after a short amount of playing:

  • it feels like a pen! The size and weight makes it easy and familiar to hold.
  • it has a pen on the other end – considering I usually carry a pencil case I don’t know how handy that’ll be.
  • the packaging (a big hunk of hard plastic box) is pointless but at least it’s re-usable so I will use it for storing something. It looks like their iStroke-L+ version, which hadn’t been in the store I went to, has less packaging.
  • the stylus doesn’t have a carry case – I don’t think I’ve seen any stylus’ that include one but I’m sure that the rubber tip will get dented if I store it in my pencil case. I’ll create a small box for it but a lid for the rubber end would have been useful.

When it comes to using it with an iPad, some programs seem to work better with a stylus than others. Some programs have a reaction lag and don’t compensate for a little bit of wobbliness.  My favourite so far is Sketchbook Express and it looks like it’ll be my app for practicing due to its adjustable brushes, layers, and finger-swiping for menu items such as undo.

I’ve also found that a long sleeve pulled up to the ball of your hand prevents accidentally drawing on the edges of your screen with other parts of your hand and arm.

What this will need is practice, practice, practice.



First drawing with a stylus on the iPad



 

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Fiskars design

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Fiskars is Finland’s oldest company at over 360 years in business. They’re “the world’s number one scissor brand” with their orange-handled scissors being sold since 1967 and their style and colour being copied regularly by cheap immitations.

These days they create “consumer products for the home, garden and outdoors” from sewing scissors to rotary trimmers to cultivating tools, and they also own a number of other companies such as Arabia Finland and a favourite of mine, Iittalla – makers of beautiful glassware, tableware and kitchenware who have a philosophy, “Against throwawayism“, where “everyone has the right to expect design that will last a lifetime”.

I have a pair of well-loved probably 25-year old Fiskars scissors, and my mother has some that are even older so I went on a little journey of re-discovery when I found an article about the Easy-Pour watering-can:

Video: Passion and the power of self-expression: the artisans of Fiskars, Finland

“The most important thing is that the product is really good, that I’m a hundred percent satisfied, and I would work a hundred hours more if I wouldn’t be satisfied because it’s a part of me.”

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