Brain Freeze

While messing with a Google Apps setup I have created for my volunteer group I found some interesting things about entering events. Not sure they’re features given the circumstances but they’re interesting nonetheless.

First of all, I selected 1pm to 3pm on a Thursday and entered the term “Kayak Thursday” (no quotes). The calendar application then entered an event for me for the Thursday after the Thursday I had selected.

Then I tried entering “Kayak-Thursday” (again no quotes) and it then scheduled the event for the Thursday prior to the Thursday I had selected.

Putting the title in quotes makes it work the way I want.

I’m not sure this is a feature I really like. When I select a specific day put the event on that day. Don’t try to guess what I want. The behavior with the “-Thursday” was even more odd even though it sort of makes sense. Well, it makes sense now. It certainly didn’t make sense then.

I can understand these things for the quick event feature but not given the context I was in while entering events.

Updated!!!

I’ll keep updating this page as I find more tools since this seems to be one of the more popular pages on this blog.

Thanks,

Jason

One thing programmers don’t generally know is good design techniques. You can usually tell when a programmer has created a UI because they’re ugly and difficult to use. There are exceptions to be sure (Romain Guy for one). For those of us that aren’t as blessed I present here a list of color pickers that allow you to pick harmonious color combinations for web sites, etc.

• Added 03/06/2007:
  Kuler
  From Adobe and pronounced “cooler” this is a fantastic color chooser. Not only can you create your own color scheme using a very intuitive color wheel but you can also search on the hundreds of color schemes people have already generated to find something quickly. This is a fantastic resource.
• ColorJack Sphere or more generally ColorJack.
  This is another fantastic color resource. Sphere is another easy to use color wheel with options for both the traditional RYB color wheel as well as the standard RGB model. There are many algorithms to choose from (triad, complementary, etc) but the really unique thing about this tool is the ability to see how color blind people interpret colors. Very cool stuff. ColorJack also offers a service similar to Kuler where you can see color schemes others have created using the Studio tool on the website.
• Colors on the Web
  This site is more than a color chooser (one is available from the Color Wheel menu option) as it also gives user-created color schemes, forums, writing on color theory, etc. It’s a fantastic resource for those who want to learn more about color.
• Color SynthAxis
  OK. This is a real designers tool and complicated but damn is it cool. I believe it is best explained by the tutorial.
• Added 11/25/2007:The Color Wizard

The interesting thing is that tools such as these are coming out of the woodwork these days. At one time Harmony, a Photoshop plugin for the Mac from Hot Door, was the only thing available. They now recommend Kuler and their own application hasn’t been updated in years. My how things change.

The other night I was ordering some clothing (a new coat and some slip-on moc shoes if you must know) from Lands End and had a fantastic experience…for most of it anyhow.

I have to say that they have done a wonderful job in the shopping experience. The site is quite easy to navigate and finding the color, size, etc. you need is really easy. They have also done a fantastic job in the support of the buying process when you need help on such things as what the definition of Tall means, etc.

Great. But they have totally failed after the sale is over (an area I believe that Amazon.com has done wonderfully). Where do I see my orders? Where are the easy to click links for tracking those orders? Come on guys. This stuff really is not that hard.

Listing my orders

If I sign in to the My Account section of the Lands End site nowhere to be found is a listing of my orders currently in process. In fact nowhere on the site can you find such a listing. Again this stuff is not hard. Have a page that shows my in-process orders, the stage at which they are in whole process, etc. When the order has shipped have a link to the proper shipping site that already has the information embedded so that I don’t have to input it. Lots of other sites that are a lot smaller than Lands End/Sears are doing this.

They are relying on my to use the email that is sent when the order is placed. Really poor design guys.

Tracking my orders

OK so I still have the email with my order number. Wonderful. I can track it that way. Oops. Not so fast. The link provided takes me to the right page on their website for order tracking but it doesn’t have the number populated in the text input. I have to copy and paste it in. Clicking the button then forwards me to the UPS tracking page with my information already input so that the tracking information comes right up.

Yeah. Rewind just a bit. They know how to do this on the order tracking page but they haven’t figured out that a clickable list available right my from account page would be good too. Odd.

The other thing I don’t get is why not just have a clickable link in the email that goes directly to the UPS site with the relevant tracking number already set up?

Wrap Up

So kudos to Lands End for most of the experience because the shopping experience itself is fantastic. They really need to work on the follow-up though. They have great customer service but it isn’t showing there.