Archive for June 14th, 2006
25 Worst Products of All Time
posted by Jes…
PC World recently released its 25 Worst Products of All Time article. While I don't necessarily agree with all of their choices, I think the 'worst' products tend to earn their status because of one (or more) of these things:
- Bad usability
- Sketchy ethical practices
- Poor customer service
- Trying to shoehorn a revenue model into a free product
- Buggy software
Much of what is often categorized as buggy software actually has more to do with the first item on the list: poor usability.
As I was thinking about my own personal choice for the worst products ever, most of the things that came to mind were products that had poor usability. Poor usability combined with items (2) and/or (3) above creates a powerful cocktail for a truly infamous product.
With that in mind, here are a few products with poor usability in my opinion:
- Yahoo's small business web site services
- Toyota Prius' bluetooth calling feature
- Almost all wireless print servers
Please post comments with your own products, and maybe we can compile the list of 25 Worst Usability Experiences of All Time.
Incidentally, if you need to improve the usability of landing pages or registration processes for your online e-business initiative, contact us here at Brooks Bell Interactive.
3 comments June 14, 2006
Show ‘Em the Money
posted by Greg…….
The other day I wrote that when it comes to newsletters, people only want to read about things relevant to themselves. Let me go one step further. Whether you are an individual employee answering to your employer, a business unit reporting to a division, a service firm with clients, or a corporation with shareholders – at the end of the day, it’s all about how you make or save them money.
Applying this to newsletters then: What’s more relevant to business people in decision making positions than how to save or make them money? Create content that squarely addresses this subject and you have a winner! MarketingSherpa’s case study, How to Create Email Newsletter Busy Execs Will Consistently Open, Read & Click On, covers going about this.
Add comment June 14, 2006
