There Are No Stupid Users, Just Stupid Systems

I've been complaining a lot lately. Well, I've been in kind of a pissy mood but that's for another post.

I went to a local coffee shop this evening. Not the one in my neighborhood; one a little farther away for a little bit longer of a ride. I was going to get a cuppa joe, then sit outside and read my book. But first, I needed to use the restroom.

That's the problem. For the second time in four days, both the women's and the men's room were closed for cleaning. I understand that; the restrooms need to be cleaned. However, there was only one person cleaning both restrooms. Like me, she can only multitask in the vitual world. She cannot split herself in two and clean both rooms at the same time. Then why were both restrooms closed? (If the women's room is closed or occupied, I have no trouble using the men's. I just ignore the extra fixture.)

Well, long story short, the babe got a little snippy with me and I decided to send a note to the corporate headquarters of the coffee shop. I went to their website and started filling out the form. Name, no problem. email, no problem. Address, no problem. Then I ran into this:


"date of visit" Two things wrong here. Exactly what format should I be entering the date in? Is it "mm/dd/yyyy" or "mm/dd/yy"? Secondly, why am I "cleaning" your data for you? If I enter 8/16/10 and your database requires 08/16/2010, why can't you just parse the input text and format it for me? It is possible to do that - I've written code that parses text myself, and I'm not even a code monkey. (I'm a User Experience Professional - we don't write code, we just draw pictures of software. Hence the usability rant here.)

"time of visit" I'm not in the military, but I respect those who are. I admire them and not just because they know what time 21:00 is. I always have to do the math, and I don't do math well in my head. I always get it wrong. So why should I enter the time in military time?

I'm already rippin' mad, don't tick me off any more with your poor usability.