I had a strange experience yesterday when I attempted to buy a replacement lighting-to-headphone-jack adapter on Amazon: Literally every single product for sale was massively utilizing fake reviews. For instance, the reviews of one adapter I was considering – which had 5-stars and over 700 ratings at the time of this post (link) – looked... Continue Reading →
Reaction: A Good Samaritan?
“Dear whomever finds this cup, may you please recycle me. Thankya so much.— a negligent neighbor” There was a recycling bin maybe 20-30 feet away, but I was so amused by the note that I took a photo and left the cup so other people could experience the same joy. While the note failed at... Continue Reading →
Reaction: Unintended Usage
(Originally published June 2013) How mobile payments might be the global money-laundering machine criminals have dreamed about Designing for ‘Jay-Customers’, ‘Negative Personas’, and Service Abuse Reading this article, I realized that service designers, myself included, often design optimistically– that is to say, we design for all kinds of users, but we naively assume that whatever... Continue Reading →
Reaction: A glimpse into Emotional Labor
(Originally published in June 2013) Service with a Smile Wonderfully deep insights from the lives of front-stage staff Of course service design strives to be holistic, gestalt, empathetic, deep, etc., etc., etc. – and of course we use great models and tools such as service blueprints, stakeholder maps, service ecology pyramids, etc. to help us... Continue Reading →
Reaction: Design vs. Engineering
(Originally published in June 2013) A Surprising Barrier To Clean Water: Human Nature : NPR “Getting clean water to people in the developing world isn’t just an engineering problem. . .An upside-down bottle of chlorine with a dispenser. . .is free to use. . . [but] if you test the water in people’s homes in... Continue Reading →
Reaction: Positive Outlier Airport Security
(Originally published in July 2013) The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Toronto Star “That’s the process — six layers, four hard, two soft. The goal at Ben-Gurion is to move fliers from the parking lot to the airport lounge in a maximum of 25 minutes.” Simple service solutions for international security problems–... Continue Reading →
Reaction: Individual User Profiles on Netflix
(Originally published in September 2013) Netflix Makes Recommendations More Personalized By Adding Individual User Profiles | TechCrunch “Netflix is rolling out its long-anticipated user profiles, allowing multiple members of a household to create personalized accounts and get personalized recommendations based on their own individual viewing habits, rather than the habits of an entire household…” Whether... Continue Reading →
Reaction: Tipping
(Originally published in June 2013) New York Sushi Restaurant Eliminates Tipping Because It Pays Waiters A Salary With Benefits: Changing the relationship between customers and front-stage staff.Studies have already shown that tipping has very little to do with the service actually received– could removing tips altogether lead to a better and simpler experience for everyone... Continue Reading →