The Life of Kevin Hauge

As I was making an online payment for my auto insurance, I noticed an all-to-frequent issue with online forms: button placement.

Logic would tell you that to go forward or to the next step, you would click on the button to the right, and to go back you would click the button on the left. Apparently the person setting up this form decided to take logic out of the equation. It makes me wonder how many people have clicked on the “previous” button by accident when intending to click “next”.

I have actually seen this many times over when it comes to online forms. The worst scenario is a long form with 2 buttons on the bottom: submit and clear. First of all, I don’t see the need for a “clear” button on many forms. Who fills out a form and then decides they need to completely start over? But for some reason, they still show up at the bottom of many online forms. So in these cases, the logic of where to put the submit button is even more critical. If you place the “clear” button to the right of “submit”, you will have the occasional user clicking on it by accident.

If you have an online form (survey, order form, etc) that seems to be light on submissions, you may want to double check your form logic as well. You may have numerous people filling out your form once … but after clearing it accidentally, decide not to fill it out a second time.

As I was stocking up on some groceries (since the house was about as bare as the Jelly Belly factory after a Reagan visit) I stopped in the chip aisle to pick up some snacks for my lunches. That’s when I saw them …

The new packaging for Lays potato chips. The design wasn’t what caught my attention, instead it was the font! Helvetica Neue for Lays potato chips, really? I’m not sure if they were going for a cleaner, more sophisticated look or if the print house didn’t notice the “missing font” alert and by default selected Helvetica. Specifically I noticed some of the bags utilizing darker colors (like barbecue) would have black text on a dark red bag … not very good for legibility. Was this a universal decision that everyone agreed with in the boardroom? Did they actually get other opinions or did they hire the intern at the 2-year tech college to design it for 2 credits?

Now I will say that I’m not against the use of Helvetica in a design, when used properly it can be a very nice font. Lays, however, didn’t succeed in my opinion. Time for another re-design.

For all of those angry iPhone owners who sat in line and shelled out $600 for the very first iPhone, is it really a shock that they have now dropped in price?

Every “new” technology comes out of the gate at a premium price, specifically to capitalize on the eagerness of buyers to have what’s new. Anyone remember the iPod’s, the XBox and PS2/PS3 pattern? They had the same price-drop strategy as well. It’s all part of marketing. If you are still not aware of the patterns, it’s your own fault.

For those who just bought an iPhone, it is nice to see that you can get the $200 price difference back (if purchased within the 14 day window), while others are only eligible for $100. Personally, I don’t believe Apple owes anything to those original iPhone customers. They set the price and people paid.

Technology changes, productivity increases, prices drop … it’s how things go. If you haven’t noticed that pattern yet, read that sentence again. They say you remember things better if you repeat it 3 times … for all you technophiles out there, repeat it 12 times just to make sure. I don’t want to hear you complaining about how your [insert new innovative product here] just dropped in price after 2 months and you think it’s unfair.