Realistic marketing

There's a healthy dose of realism in the marketing slogan of this regional newspaper: "Take a good fire starter with you."

Good guidance can patch bad design - into some extent

Bar Balls in Kajaani earns a honorary mention of this explanation how to get the hand dryer working. But the thing is that the design should either implicate the place of the sensor or the sensor should have been placed else where..

This carefully made guidance also tells a clear story how big problems products can create for the users and companies on service branch.

Celebrating tacit knowledge through service design

Even a simple service product or infrastructure -like rail transport- forms an information system including hidden knowledge and inbuilt need for learning.
It took me some 15 years of intensive railroad usage to learn that after the announcement "Train leaves from gate 2", there is exactly 3 minutes time. Today, after 18 years, I learned that there is a yellow color coding in the timetable posters for leaving trains in opposite to arriving.

These information bits are examples of tacit knowledge, which would be useful if know, but is either difficult or considered less important to communicate. In modern world, consumers do not necessarily have time or will to start learning. -Experience should be readily available in full extent.

One task for service design is to find ways to communicate these service and company specific information bits, celebrate those and build a better brand and user experience through those.

-After all, you would like the customer to see your product as excellent as you see it, wouldn't you?

Tivoli

This is one cornerstone for a ~30m high ferris-wheel. Some how it was comforting to see this After we took the ride.
-Scenery over Oulu was nice though.

WHO illustrates A(H1N1) spreading

WHO has taken new actions to improve the understanding of A(H1N1) influenza. They have created an interactive illustration about the spread.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/history_map/InfluenzaAH1N1_maps.html



-I cannot help but thinkin why in earth they made it this difficult?! And what's wrong in a regular line-diagram like the one I made earlier.

Recycle your Ariel

I saw this on my parents garden last weekend (you remember Laihia and the stingyness). My father had recycled a washing liquid bottle as a feeding automate for birds. Don't know about style, but a delightful sight anyway ;D

Influenza A(H1N1) spread rate graph

Since this time next week I should be drinking my first strawberry margharita in Mexico I have been quite interested about the spreading of H1N1 (swine influenza).
Since I didn't find a graph about the issue, I made my own. -I'll be updating this at least for next week. After that there's no point since I might my right there on the spot..

The graph is based on the information on WHO Influenza A(H1N1) site.




Update 10.5.09
Since I have the data -thanks to WHO- here's a graph about the H1N1 cases in three main countries.

New VR website - keeping the good shortcut to mobile web

VR -public railways of Finland is my all time favorite topic.. This time it was a pleasure to see a new fresh website design they have.

At first use I didn't head into any problems. I was even pleased to see that they had kept the link for the mobile-optimized webite in top left corner, where it is convenient to select in case of mobile browsing. Basically there is only two good ways to provide mobile web access:
- I appreciate most the approach that does not guide you directly to mobile website, but gives you an uncompromized experience with a freedom to choose visely if you wish.
- Second good approach is the one that Facebook is using. Guide user directly to mobile website and offer always a possibility to change into normal view, through a link at the bottom of the page.


Even the purchase of the tickets seemed to work better. Still there migt be the risk that you have start all over again if there is no places available.. ..don't want to try that again ;)

How much does Nordea value private customers

Web page design follows the same rules of placement priorization and click counts as mobile UI design does. For a bank web page, a netbank access might be the Most used feature for Most of the customers - which would mean that it should be highly visible and require only one click..

Todays example is from Nordea. If you try to find a netbank access from the front page of Nordea banking services, you can easily evaluate how important a private customer really is for Nordea.


Really. -Do find the right link from the first pic!

The second picture illustrates further, just How important you are..

Screenshots: Nordea website 14.4.2009

*Edit 15.4.2009*
As Nordea pointed out today, the site I'm referring is the business site as .com end should have told me.. Following picture illustrates how web access in private banking site (.fi) is shown. It still requires two actions..

iPod engravings cutting down the sales?

Already ten days ago I made an entry to Facebook that how difficult can it be to buy an iPod..

This time I didn't want to buy a black or aluminium, so I ended up having 7 more color to choose from. I some what decided that it should be the red. The red was only available through Apple store because it was a (RED) product buying from the webstore makes no problem but the webstore provided free engaving...

For me, born in the most stingy place in Finland it was way too hard to overlook the fact that I could get an FREE ENGRAVING, but didn't have a slightest idea what it should say!
For me it took ten days to figure out that it is perfectly alright to leave it without engraving. Finally I placed my order. And now I also have a bunch of interesting engravings for iPods in my notebook ;D

For more examples of engravings.

Quest after Jalas boots

I made a post earlier how my Jalas boots started to break in pieces after years of hard use. -It's only now when I realized that I really need to get those new boots.

I went to Jalas website, and tried to find the boots I've had. Result was that I lost my nerves with the product search and tried the product listing. List wasn't much better either. I know there's been good strive on marketing and R&D, but thistime the graphics designer should look into mirror. -Put a clear pictures of different shoe styles so that you can find your boots. And if you don't have photo to use, draw one.

"Do not ice-fish on the football field"

Probably one of the few places where a note like this is possible is Ukko-Halla in Hyrynsalmi.
Preparations for the annual snow football world championships is in contradiction with ice-fishers interests.

It would be interesting to know what kind of contradictions arise when the place is preparing for swamp football championships on summer..