DESIGN is Better than another SIGN

I am fascinated by service providers who try to shape behaviors with customer-facing job aids (like this one at the Westin Copley Place or this funny one in a restaurant bathroom). Service providers experience what they perceive as a stupid question or a customer not doing what "they are supposed to do," so the first solution they jump to is to create a sign to dictate behavior. Bravo to AMC Theaters which took a more customer-centric approach. Instead of a condescending sign, they added design redundancy on their butter dispenser with three different buttons making it easier and quicker for customers to figure it out.

Next time you're munching on some buttery popcorn, remember to consider design as the first solution as opposed to adding more instructions and directions. Michael Loop states it well in his recent post Two Universes | Design Well-Informed Improvisation.

What other customer-facing job aids or design solutions have you seen?

Easter Egg Job Aid

I love simple little job aids that give me the freedom to stop worrying about things I'm supposed to remember. After having to replace the motor in my wet-ice, under-the-counter ice maker (turned off the water but not the ice maker), I took a big Sharpie marker and wrote directly on the concrete wall next to the water shut-off value, "ICE MAKER!" Now, I always remember. We have plenty of other job aids at my house - there's the last gallon of milk job aid and my Christmas lights job aid. So it's only natural, and a little surprising that it took this long, that I finally created the Easter egg job aid. Traditionally on Easter, I hide 100 eggs in our yard (25 for each child). We write their initials on each egg, and the children have to find their specific eggs. I make the older children's eggs more difficult to find.

Every year, we lose a few eggs. Maybe I get too aggressive with making the hunt challenging; or maybe our yard is too overgrown with flowers, shrubs and weeds; or maybe we really should get the kids eyes examined. Whatever the reason, whatever the cause, we have a consistent performance problem.

So this year, the kids suggested I take pictures of all the eggs as I hide them. That way we could go back and see which where the missing eggs are. I get their point, but that wasn't a practical solution. How would you categorize those 100 photos for easy search? Or know which ones were found or not? And really, one egg in the grass looks just like another egg in the grass.

So my solution...

STEP 1: Grab a quick screen shoot of our house from Google maps. Then copy it in a Noteshelf notebook four times (a separate page for each child).

STEP 2: Use the pen tool to mark the location of each egg.

STEP 3: When it's time to look for the missing eggs, grab my iPad and walk the yard with each child. The joke of the morning was, "There's an app for that."

I thought it was brilliant - truly one of my better ideas, but here's the thing: three days later, there are still two eggs missing. Maybe I should just make the eggs a little easier to find next year.

What's one of your crazy Easter egg stories? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

OSCAR QUEST | The Ranking

My Oscar night plan of attack has worked. With 4 days to go until the Oscars, I've watched 17 of the 18 Movies to See before Oscar night. So here is my ranking so far (minus The Help which I plan to see tomorrow night) along with a Twitter-sized review for each. What are your favorites? I would love to hear in the comments below.

1. THE DESCENDANTS > Sad. Wonderfully sad. Clooney expresses emotional struggles with just 43 muscles. Sid gets cold cocked.
2. THE ARTIST > Dance scene retakes = pure chemistry. I would watch this again and again, "With pleasure."
3. A BETTER LIFE > Didactic title aside, Demián Bichir's performance as an undocumented immigrant father who keeps moving forward is brilliant.
4. WARRIOR > Best movie nobody is seeing. Rocky with two heroes and way better more intense fight scenes and Nick Nolte as Nick Nolte.
5. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO > Tried not to like it. Original had Mikael’s generous awe; Hollywood's Lisbeth is deeper, more compelling.
6. HUGO 3D > Stunningly beautiful, although charmingly predictable, and still wonderfully magical.
7. EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE > In this modern-day, cloying, epic quest, Odysseus is an 11 yo NYer with Aspergers. I sobbed at that damn answering machine.
8. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS > Classic Woody Allen, although these days he looks much younger, has blond hair, and wears contacts.
9. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY > Would knew such slow pacing could move so quickly. Methodical spy thriller.
10. MONEYBALL > Best sports business movie since Jerry Maguire. Flips the focus from "Show me the money," to player results - "He gets on base."
11. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN > Love the acting style contrasts highlighted between Marilyn and Sir Laurence Olivier, yet both prefer younger romances.
12. IRON LADY > A wonderfully told love story dressed up in pearls to look like a world leader bio pic. Touching, warm, and inspiring.
13. BEGINNERS > The costume party scene = most romantic pick-up ever. Arthur, the sub-title talking dog, as funny as Jon Hamm's uncredited Ted.
14. BRIDESMAIDS > Start with a base of raunchiness, add a dash of physical comedy, and warm until your heart says, "Ahhh."
15. WAR HORSE > If you get it on DVD, fast forward to the horse running through barbed wire. Watch the next 7 minutes of soldiers cutting him free. Eject DVD and return.
16. ALBERT NOBBS > Is a pathetic, unlikeable, genderless shell of human being which holds little entertainment value because we never connect with him... err, her.
17. TREE OF LIFE > Planet Earth with creepy voice overs and a dickweed dad as the apex predator.