Slacker Returns

No good excuses from being asleep at the wheel for a couple of years. But some lame ones, including having quit in 2005 my job as UI Text Editor (due to lack of passion on my employer's part). Didn't mean I stopped thinking about this stuff, but I was off doing things like traveling in Europe, lah di dah. Anyway I'm back in the professional saddle and, having done quite a bit of prowling around, have noticed that mine is essentially the only UI Text-oriented blog on the whole Internet, figgered I might as well keep it going.

So, as a thin end of the wedge, may I present a humble example of unusable UI which could have been improved immensely by a more sensible textual element.

This is a package of frozen green beans. There is a small but fairly noticeable, if one is looking for such a thing, indication of how/where to open the bag. Unfortunately, the arrow points to nothing. There is no perforated tear-line, no notch, no tearable seam. When they say "Open," what the hell do they want me to do?



So, it's not the end of the world, not even on the order of software difficulty, but it's a symptom of poor customer-centric thinking, isn't it?

So. I promise to update more regularly.

Adieu till then.