Pleasure and Pain » Customer Experience

What I learned in 2011 and my predictions for 2012

whitney — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:38:01 +0000

It’s a funny thing — the more you share your opinions openly, the more people ask you for them. As the year is coming to a close, if you’re thinking about starting a blog next year or writing more frequently on the one you already have, don’t just make an empty resolution. STICK TO IT. I’ve been writing here for almost four years, and I am evidence of the fact that amazing things happen when you’re devoted to putting yourself out there.

Recently I was asked to contribute my thoughts to a few year-end articles, and have been quoted alongside many web practitioners who inspire me every day. You can read my excerpts here, but I encourage you to go to the full articles for a lot more wisdom:

A List Apart: What I Learned About the Web in 2011

CONTEXT IS KING
The most important thing that 2011 taught me about web design is that physical context of use can no longer be assumed by platform, only intentional context can. For the past couple of years, we have gotten into the habit of presuming that mobile means on-the-go, desktop denotes a desk, and tablet is on the toilet. But increasingly the lines are blurring on where devices are being used and how they’re being used in unison. This year I have learned to see devices as location agnostic and instead associate them with purpose—I want to check (mobile), I want to manage (desktop), I want to immerse (tablet). This shift away from objective context toward subjective context will reshape the way we design experiences across and between devices, to better support user goals and ultimately mimic analog tools woven into our physical spaces.

Webdesigner Depot: Web Design Predictions for 2012

The rallying cry of the web community in 2011 has seemed to be “make stuff.” My prediction for 2012 is that we’ll soon realize that that was rather shortsighted, and instead will encourage one another to “make stuff that matters.”

I have seen so much incredible talent squandered on designing products that only meet the needs of a small, homogenous, insular group of friends. While this can be fun and challenging for a side project, it is a fleeting satisfaction.

In 2012, mastery of the tools and a cool idea will no longer be enough to get attention. I predict that there will be a widespread movement to uncover and understand deep-seeded, life-damaging problems for sizable communities across the globe, and our efforts instead will be put towards improving their lives and work in ways that empower humanity. Productivity and entertainment tools have their place, but I suspect that we won’t continue to pat each other on the back so vigorously for continuing to crowd the market.

Design is the problem. The social, economic and political environments we will find ourselves in in 2012 will push us towards asking questions before devising solutions, equip us with a longer-term vision, and ultimately deepen our greater purpose.

The Next Web: The Future of Web Design

I hope we come to have a greater understanding of the various target audiences that our products have and that we deliver them content more intelligently. Right now, different content is appropriate on different platforms. But users tell us so much about themselves through their repeated use of our product and we haven’t done enough work to create customized content experiences for them as a result of all of that intel. Instead, we’ve only created custom, functional experiences but not custom, content experiences.

What did you learn about the web in 2011 and what do you predict we’ll see next year (or are just wishing will happen)? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

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The Neighborhood Business Experience

whitney — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:19:38 +0000

It was 7:19pm. There I was, standing outside of Tarzian Hardware, its gate down and locked, the lights turned off. The store hours sign read Monday – Friday 8:30am – 7pm. I knocked on the window. I rattled the gate. I called the store from my cell phone with 8% battery remaining and could hear the ringing inside. No answer. I planned to leave a message in desperation in the hopes that someone would check voicemail overnight, but the mailbox was full. I was screwed.

The only copy of my apartment keys were inside.

I had brought them in an hour earlier to get dupes made, then left to run other errands. In my attempt to be efficient, I had made a fatal mistake: I never checked to see when the store closed. I’m accustomed to stores being open 24/7, certainly not closing at 7pm. Toto, we’re not in Manahttan anymore.

As I stood there hopeless, planning to ride the subway 45 minutes to stay overnight in my parents’ empty apartment (yeah, I had those keys!), I gave it one last ditch effort by Googling the store owner’s name in an attempt to find a home phone number. The store had only been closed for 20 minutes; the closing manager couldn’t be too far away, right?

Google turned up dry. I was out of options.

Just when I turned around to leave, I saw a man with a dog approaching the apartment building above the store. I had a game-time decision to make, and I went for it: “Excuse me,” I asked to his back as he put his keys in the front door.

“Yes?”

“I’m so sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you know the owners of this store.”

“I do.” Wow, Park Slopers are tight, I thought.

“Well do you happen to have their phone number? I didn’t know what time they closed and the only copy of my house keys are inside.” I was embarrassed to say it out loud.

“I have the keys to the store,” he said, and blood started coursing through my veins again.

“I can’t believe you have the keys to the store,” I exclaimed. “What luck!” He tied up his dog to a hydrant and got down on the ground to unlock the gate and the door.

As he undid the last lock, he looked up at me. “I’m the owner.”

Dumbfounded. Seriously?! THIS is Brooklyn.

Once inside, he found the copies of my keys under the counter along with the several screwdrivers I had put aside earlier to buy when I came back. When he was ringing me up and the cost was rising, he generously asked, “Did you mean to buy this brand? These are professional grade tools.” I thanked him for his honesty and told him that I was replacing some of my old and broken stuff, and a salesperson had helped me find these. “And these are the ones he told you to get?” He almost seemed upset that the guy had upsold me.

“I’m fine with these. I’ll never have to replace them again,” I said, grateful that he had been there to save me and eager not to shortchange him now.

As he finished up, I asked him his name (John) and his story (family business since 1921 that he now runs). I told him my name, said I was new to the neighborhood, and assured him that he’d be seeing a lot of me.

As we walked out and he closed up, I was struck by something: in 29 years, I’ve never introduced myself to a shop owner before. I’ve never cared to. I have greatly treasured my anonymity in the big city and have rarely engaged in small talk anywhere I’ve shopped. I’ve valued getting in and out quickly, silently, and mechanically. I truly don’t know why.

But I chose to move, chose to leave my native Manhattan with its deadly consumerist march and its Disneyfication and its hordes of tourists and multiplying big box chains. I wanted to live in a cozy neighborhood, to support its small businesses, to know its history and to become a part of it.

I’ve always wanted to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. Where customer service is a moral obligation, not a business tactic.

I am home.

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Nationwide Insurance demonstrates user research with NationPam

whitney — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:00:03 +0000

As an independent consultant, I pitch my services a lot. I consider myself fortunate that I get the opportunity to chat with so many great companies (okay, and some not-so-great ones) about what user experience is and what value it could provide to their businesses.

Without a doubt, the most difficult service for me to sell in to a new client is user research — and not only is it my favorite part of the process, I also think it’s the most crucial part. Most companies don’t fail because they chose a checkbox when they should have used a radio button; they fail because they didn’t take the time to listen to their customers.

The other day I caught the Nationwide Insurance commercial in which “The World’s Greatest Spokesperson in the World!” visits the home of a prospective customer, Pam, and interviews her on her porch about her experiences buying insurance.

Take a moment to watch it now:

Spokesperson: “Nationwide Insurance, I’m all ears.”

Pam: “I bought my policy online, and I haven’t heard from the company since.”

Spokesperson into his company telephone: “When Pam switches to Nationwide Insurance, we’re not going to treat her like Policy 413. We’re going to treat her like Pam — get to know her, be proactive. Oh, and rename the company NationPam.”

Pam [Cooing]: “Ooh.”

Spokesperson: “Done. [Singing] ‘NationPam is on your…Sam…’ We’ll make that work.”

Fine, it’s a silly commercial, over the top. But there’s a significance to its message: they want to show that they recognize the value of listening — understanding their customers’ frustrations — and care about making the customer experience more pleasurable.

Here are my takeaways:

He goes to her house to talk to her — on her turf, not in some sterile focus group
His posture, tone and word choice demonstrate his eagerness to listen
He reports back to the company both the problem statement and the intended solution
He goes beyond the call of duty to make her feel special and appreciated
He demonstrates that maintaining a long-standing brand identity while adjusting to meet customers’ needs isn’t always a graceful process, and it takes iteration (“We’ll make that work.”)

Does your company make the effort to listen to your customers? Do you approach prospective customers to understand their frustrations and devise ways to alleviate their pain? Is an image of caring part of your company’s brand promise?

What are you personally doing to help your company better meet people’s needs?

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Photo of the day: Brand Transparency

whitney — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:30:15 +0000

Headed back home from Heathrow Airport after a lovely vacation, I stopped at the Pret A Manger for a quick pre-flight bite.

When I got to the cash register, I noticed this awesome sticker — concise, honest, and, best of all, empathetic.

VAT NIGHTMARE

We’re legally required to add on
VAT when you eat in. Nightmare.

They’re legally required to charge VAT (value added tax), but they aren’t required to be dicks about it. Yet most merchants are. The staff feels that it’s out of their control and they’re sick of getting blamed, so they shrug their shoulders and keep it quiet, hoping you won’t notice.

I admire Pret for taking a different route: being upfront, noting it prominently, and identifying with the customer. Now that they’ve set my expectations and repudiate the blame, my distaste in paying it doesn’t negatively effect their brand. In fact, I like them even more now. It’s kind of genius.

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Photo of the day: Back in 30 minutes

whitney — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:42:36 +0000

Time has always bothered me; I don’t really believe in it. It’s a human invention, a representation of reality. Now the passage of time, that’s something I can believe in. You can feel it. You can measure it. But it’s always, ALWAYS, relative to something else. Like when you’re in the train station waiting for the train to leave and you don’t know if your train has started moving or if the train next to you is moving — you don’t always have a constant to base it on.

I was at Philly’s 30th Street Station recently, and I was hungry, but I only had 5 minutes before I had to get on the train. I saw the sign for Ben & Jerry’s — perfect, quick.

As I approached the counter, I saw this sign:

Be Back in
30 minutes.
Just milking
the cows and
churning the
butter!!!
:)

While I am a big fan of their ice cream, and their determination to stay on brand, this sign was completely useless.

When did the sign go up? Would the cashier be back in a few seconds, or in the full 30 minutes? Should I stand there patiently, or walk away to find other food?

Ben & Jerry’s signage might be cute, but it certainly isn’t informative.

Social activity streams use a combination of relative time (30 minutes ago) and absolute time (12:20pm). Relative time can be very useful, particularly with short intervals, because it helps us to understand the recency of an event without having to do the mental calculation. But it only works when the system is able to continuously update the indicator with the passage of time.

Unfortunately, a piece of paper taped to a sign does not have this capability.

The jars of toppings on the back counter taunted me, and I stood for a minute or two furiously looking around for someone in a smock and visor. Then my train number was called over the loud speaker, and I sulked onto the train, ever hungrier for a delicious scoop.

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Undercover Boss: Just How Badly is Your Company Screwing Itself

whitney — Sat, 15 May 2010 00:53:40 +0000

Undercover Boss is one of my favorite new shows. Why? Because we desperately need to encourage upper management to get in touch with what’s really going on inside their companies. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, and it’s harming employees just as much as customers, if not more.

I was introduced to it on an episode of Oprah in which she highlighted the executives in the first two stings of the season. When I first heard the name of the show, I assumed it was about bosses going undercover to discover the negligence of their employees; instead it’s about discovering the negligence of themselves.

The series premiere featured two major corporations: Waste Management and 7-Eleven, both multi-billion dollar annual revenue companies. [Watch full episodes at CBS.com]

Posing as a regular dude, Larry O’Donnell, President and COO of Waste Management, worked alongside his lowest-level employees — sorting through waste, collecting garbage from a landfill, cleaning Porta-Potties — and was even fired for the first time in his life.

The moment that was the most poignant for me was when O’Donnell was on a garbage truck in Rochester, NY, with a female driver named Janice who visits more than 300 homes a day. At one point during their shift, Janice disappears for a bit while Larry was talking to the cameras. As they’re getting back into the truck, Larry notices that Janice is holding a tin can and offers to take it for her (she’s driving). She flinches and says, “No no no, this is my pee-can.” Larry first thinks, “Where I’m from we call it pee-kahn” — but then realizes what it is. Janice goes on to explain that while she enjoys working for the company, they aren’t very female friendly. Her manager hasn’t scheduled enough time for her to use the restroom along her route, and while the men just pull over to the side of the road to go, she can’t exactly do that. Instead she pees in a can that she keeps for the day and empties it out at the end of her shift.

Needless to say, as the President and COO of the company, Larry is devastated to hear this, but tries to keep his cool so not to blow his cover. In his interview with Oprah, he explains how eye-opening it was to realize how little of the process he truly understood. Here he is, running this company, and he doesn’t even think about the fact that someone, somewhere, is driving this truck, and there isn’t any policy in place to allow time for bathroom breaks.

Of course he says on national television that changes are being made, as anyone would. But it got me wondering about the companies I work with, and the antiquated and often inhumane processes that not only harm customers, but more often the employees who are trying to serve them.

All of the discourse around user experience is about the rights of the user — maybe because of what it’s called — but what if instead we focused on the human experience? Might we be able to extend our purview to all of the people affected by the systems we aim to improve?

I was very fortunate to work on a project with Reprise Media last year in which I helped to redesign a piece of software they use internally (I’ll leave it at that for confidentiality purposes). The best part the gig for me was uncovering some significant inefficiencies in the process that surrounded the software, some that even the department’s manager was unaware of. And this guy is very hands on with his staff, and very with it. But he doesn’t shadow them all day every day. He doesn’t sit and ask them about the difficulties they’re facing in getting their jobs done well — and even if he did, they probably wouldn’t answer 100% truthfully because he’s their boss.

It felt really wonderful to help meet the needs of users who are inside the company, many of whom had probably never felt considered before. I’d love the opportunity to do more work like this, but moreso, I’d love for more companies to start thinking of their own employees’ needs with as much gravity as they do their customers’.

The fact is, if your staff isn’t healthy and happy, your customers certainly won’t be. So take a moment to look inside. You might be alarmed at what you find.

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The NEW Frappuccino: however-you-want-it

whitney — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:46:27 +0000

From middle school through college, I was obsessed with Starbucks. Five-times-a-week obsessed. Then five years ago I realized that I was spending $1,500 a year on coffee, quit cold turkey, and haven’t had a drop since.

Part of me also hated the evil empire it has become. In middle school when the first Starbucks opened in my neighborhood, it was a big cool-kids hangout (and I was trying to be one of them) because of their big, plush seating and seeming encouragement of endless loitering while not requiring payment for anything. To the 12-year-old me, it was, along with Barnes & Noble, the paragon of anti-establishment. Oh, how little I understood.

In college, when Starbucks opened up across the street from a much-beloved proprietary coffee joint, Kiva Han, and nearly put it out of business (and got bricks thrown into its new glass windows because of it), I started to see the light. So when I quit the joe, I resigned from Starbucks, too.

But damn, did I miss those Frappuccinos.

Since going indie, I’ve stopped into the ‘bucks from time to time, for their ample seating and free wi-fi. And I’ve looked longingly at my icy sweetness, yearning for a sip. But alas, I refuse to go back to the caffeine teet. Last summer on a particularly hot day, it occurred to me to ask around for a decaf Frap — and got turned down at five different locations. Then when a Starbucks opened in my apartment building, I happened to get the general manager who, wanting to please, offered to essentially make me one using the base of a Crème Frappuccino (which is caffeine-free) and a shot of decaf espresso for the coffee flavor. His concoction was a masterpiece, and I savored every moment of it through that green straw.

Over the past year I’ve had a handful of really bad days where I felt the only thing that could cheer me up was such a Frappuccino. I’ve hopped into whichever Starbucks was nearby and asked for it not by name, but by recipe. Baristas, well-trained as they are, would look at me cross-eyed, but would oblige. I would walk away with my drink, satisfied but embarrassed by my off-the-menu order.

That all changed today. Though it’s a gray, rainy day in NYC, I was craving a Frap hardcore, so I came into the Starbucks where I’m still sitting right now. Ready to shame myself for the sake of the drug, I looked up at the menu board and saw this:

The *new* Frappuccino however-you-want-it

Choose your:

Milk: Whole, 2%, Nonfat, Soy
Coffee: Decaf, Extra Coffee, Add Espresso
Calories: No Whip, Light–1/3 fewer calories

I took it all in…and then I squealed.

“Is this for real?!” I asked the cashier.

“Yes, darling. What do you want?” he replied.

I went on to recount my entire journey up until this moment, all the way up to the cross-eyed part. Then he said, “I won’t look at you cross-eyed. What do you want?”

And I told him, quite simply, with exultation: “I would like a Nonfat, Decaf, With Whip, Grande Caramel Frappuccino please.”

And he smiled, and said, “Of course.”

And I rejoiced. Triumph.

Decaf: check. Milk: N (nonfat). Custom: +WC (whipped cream). Drink: CRF (caramel frappuccino).

I will ultimately take the credit for inspiring the However-You-Want-It Frappuccino (officially released May 4 according to Starbucks), but that isn’t why I wrote this post. Instead I felt it was important to commend a company, whose brand I’ve pretty much disdained for years, for taking it upon themselves to take customer feedback (whether direct or observed), and use it to turn one of their flagship products into one that is more inclusive, more flexible, more mindful of the varying needs of its “users”.

And above all else, to transform what was once an embarrassment into an encouraged behavior.

Thank you for your willingness to listen, willingness to change, and willingness to help make me much more comfortable within your walls. Cheers to you.

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Photo of the day: Penn Station, Charging Station

whitney — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:00:48 +0000

I’ve found myself at Penn Station quite a lot lately. You see, I’m working on the project of a lifetime with Happy Cog Philadelphia, so I visit by train from time-to-time.

A few weeks ago I observed some unusual behavior:

I’ve passed by this column dozens of times when I walk into the Amtrak area from the subway — and I have previously noticed the power outlet at the rather unusual height. But I didn’t think much of it until I saw a guy charging his phone there the other day.

A few things immediately came to mind:

Is it considered “legal” for Amtrak customers to use this power outlet for their own purposes?
If not, what is the purpose of that power outlet?
Is this an example of an opportunity to pave the cowpaths? Should Amtrak recognize a customer need and install a mobile charging station?

What comes to mind when you see something like this?

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Domino’s Pizza: Be Inspired By Your Harshest Critics

whitney — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:30:29 +0000

We all know that Domino’s Pizza isn’t exactly a New York slice. But when Domino’s finally realized just how many people hate their product, they did something drastic about it. Watch the video below.

Whatever you think about Domino’s Pizza, whatever you feel about the brand, you have to admit one thing: it takes a lot of guts to expose your shortcomings to the world. While the cynic in me sees their Pizza Turnaround “documentary” for what it is — a marketing campaign — there are still many customer experience lessons to learn from their story.

Remember your roots

Patrick Doyle, president of Domino’s Pizza, walks us through the history of the company, from its modest beginnings in Ypsilanti, MI, just outside of Ann Arbor.

“Two brothers had a great idea. They said they wanted to get it delivered within 30 minutes — and that was something that no one said could be done.”

That was their vision. Remembering who started the company and why helps you to focus on the problem you’re trying to solve. It’s your purpose for being. As you start to grow you can lose sight of your larger goal; the day-to-day becomes more about running the business and less about the initial ambition. But taking a step back can create renewed perspective and help you change your course.

Solicit customer feedback, and listen

“You can either use negative comments to get you down, or you can use them to excite you and energize your process.”

No one enjoys being criticized. It hurts, but the pain has a purpose. It’s growing pains, really. When the going gets tough, it’s wonderful to be surrounded by people who encourage us and support our endeavors — but are they really the people who force us to be better?

It’s crucial that we be open to all sorts of feedback, positive and negative. The positive helps you to know what to keep in place, and the negative helps you identify what to move forward. Actively soliciting feedback keeps you in a state of momentum, without which you’ll never get where you’re trying to go.

This isn’t just about asking for help; we need to listen to what is said. It requires paying attention, having humility, and believing that there is value in what another person has to offer you. You can see the Domino’s employees sitting around the conference table watching the videos of their focus groups. “This is hard to watch,” they say, but they’re doing it anyway.

Accept the feedback as true

You might not initially agree with everything that’s said. “When you first hear it, it’s shocking.” These people didn’t think that they were putting out cardboard with ketchup on it. They thought their product was fine. But now they’re admitting that they were wrong.

“I hear what folks are saying about our stuff.” They’re repeating it back to us. They’ve internalized it. They printed out the comments and pasted them on the wall for everyone to see. To serve as a reminder for what people really think of them.

“Most companies hide the criticism that they’re getting, and we actually faced it head on.” You have to believe that the feedback is true in order to make any real use out of it. It’s not enough to listen and then dismiss it all as inaccurate, a fluke, a misunderstanding. The truth becomes the new baseline.

Create a culture of change

More than your opinion needs to change. Your whole approach to your product needs to change in order for you to get better. That means creating a “culture of change” within your organization. This isn’t just about adjusting a few people’s job descriptions; it’s a new philosophy that the whole company has to believe in. It’s a way of life. New principles, new processes, new thinking.

“We listened to our consumers and they want us to be better, and we want them to be happier. We want people to love our pizza.”

The new goal that Domino’s had to adopt was to make people love their pizza. That wasn’t their previous goal. If I had to guess, they were probably focused on using inexpensive ingredients and finding ways to make and deliver the pizza faster. The emphasis had been on efficiency instead of enjoyment. That kind of shift requires a whole new set of priorities from top to bottom. It’s about coming into work one day and doing everything differently.

Pay closer attention to the ingredients

“We had our best chefs working hard to find the best combination, looking at 10 crust types, 15 sauces, dozens of cheeses.”

What are the ingredients that compose your product? You need to reconsider every single one, not just the ones you think are the cause of the problem. Maybe one ingredient is wrong, maybe they’re all wrong. Maybe just the way you’re putting them together is wrong.

Cast a wide net and be willing to try anything. Pay attention to how they interact. Care about quality. Use all of your senses to determine what is best. Taste test! Try them out separately, together. Let other people test them. Focus on one piece at a time, and also on the whole. Micro, macro.

The Domino’s brand hasn’t historically evoked quality, it evokes expedience, convenience. Chances are their chefs hadn’t been keeping up on the latest research on cheese, sauce and bread. They probably had to do a lot of learning in a short period of time. They gained an appreciation for the ingredients.

“You can’t just add a little salt or add a little something to the recipe. We basically had to start over with a new recipe….We changed everything: the crust, the sauce, the cheese. And now it tastes better.”

They threw away a recipe that the company had been using for almost 50 years! They let go of what they thought they knew in favor of what they learned. That takes a lot of courage, and a lot of faith. But they knew it was the only way to make it good again.

Work tirelessly to improve

“And they were working day and night and weekends to get it done.”

This isn’t going to be easy. You’re going to have to work longer and harder than you have been, possibly than you ever have before — but you’ll be enjoying it. It won’t feel like work. It will feel like progress, like invention. When you have the end goal in mind, the fatigue fades away because you know how important your mission is, and why you’re doing it.

It can feel like the iterations are endless. This change for Domino’s didn’t happen overnight, and they had to throw away a lot of bad pizzas before they got to some good ones, and then they had to throw away some good ones until they got to some great ones. Just when you think it’s right, you find another flaw, and you have to start over, make another change.

And then…

When it’s right, you’ll just know it

“She put this in front of me and I said, ‘Dang, this is the real deal.’”

The lead chef had seen a million pizzas go across his counter, and yet when the one came along, he immediately recognized it.

There’s a lot of science and a lot of experimentation, but when it all comes together in the right way, you can feel it in your gut.

Complete the feedback loop

“We’re gonna bring her the new pizza, see how she likes it.”

They felt it was right, but it didn’t matter unless it pleased their harshest critics. The was one woman in particular that kept them motivated. In the focus groups, she was honest and she was tough. But mostly she was just disappointed. It was obvious how much she cared. So when the Domino’s team finally had something they were proud of, they wanted to share it with the person whose opinion mattered most.

Better than just doing taste tests with another set of prospective customers, they went back out to the people who had initially participated. It’s worth underscoring the importance of this because it goes beyond the typical practice of “usability testing” so to speak. They needed to find out more than whether their new pizza was well liked; they needed to determine if it overcame the original complaints, and that meant going to the complainers.

The chefs hand delivered it themselves. They were ready to face reviews firsthand, and there was no guarantee that they would be positive.

The first video ends with them showing up at Adrianne’s house, with a teaser of more to come. More spots have been running on TV lately, showing people’s reactions.

At the Door of Our Harshest Critics, dated December 2009:

Watching this actually gave me chills. It’s hard to know whether it’s all real or if these people are paid; how could we really know? I believe it’s real, and I believe really they impressed the people who previously thought the worst of them.

Immediately after I finished watching the second video (20 minutes ago), I went out and got myself a slice of Domino’s pizza (I called first to make sure they were serving the new pizza — they said they switched over last month).

The verdict

It’s good!

I’m a particularly tough sell because I was born and raised in New York City, and pizza was my second word after taxi (after ma and da, of course). Truly nothing can compare to a New York slice, but the new Domino’s Pizza is actually pretty tasty. The crust has some nice herbs in it, and the sauce definitely has a kick. It’s not too oily, not at all rubbery or cardboard-like.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had Domino’s before, but I had my fair share of chain restaurant pizza in college, like Pizza Hut and Papa John’s. From what I can remember, this is way better.

In the last frames of the video, Domino’s says: “Special thanks to our loyal fans. Inspired by our harshest critics.” Inspiration is a stimulus, it awakes our imagination and helps us find our vision. Mentors and heroes can only bring us so far. It’s how we react to our critics that demonstrates our passion and makes us stronger. Even when it’s really hard to admit that they’re right.

Just remember: success is the best revenge.

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Photo of the day: LLUP to open

whitney — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:00:26 +0000

Peace & Love Café is one of my favorite local spots. They’ve got free wi-fi, amazing sandwiches, and lots of comfy seating. The perfect alternative to a Starbucks. And how can that name not make you feel great?

I’ve been going to Peace & Love for several years, and always noticed that their inner door was a bit rickety. It would get stuck on the floor if you swung it open too far because the floor is on a slight incline there. I used to see people struggling with it from time to time.

Last week I stopped by for the first time in a couple months and immediately noticed something amiss.

As I walked into the place I noticed that the PUSH sign on the door was upside down. I chuckled to myself, but didn’t think much of it. Then on my way out, I saw that the PULL sign was upside down, too. That’s when I took a step back and realized it — they had flipped the door upside down, and hadn’t re-affixed the stickers.

I did some investigation (while trying to remain inconspicuous) and I think I figured out what they did.

They wanted to change it from a left-handed door to a right-handed door. A “left-handed door” means that from inside of the café, the door swung open from right to left — meaning you would have to use your left hand to open it.
In order to change the direction the door swings open, they had to move the hinge from the left side to the right side of the door jamb.
Since they didn’t feel like removing the hinges from the door itself, they instead flipped the door 180-degrees vertically so that the hinge could be on the right.

There are a couple clues that indicate that the door actually is upside down besides the PUSH and PULL stickers:

The door closer (the spring dampening mechanism) can be seen at the bottom of the door when it’s always installed at the top
The height of the panels on either side of the bottom of the door is taller than on the door itself, but look up and you’ll see that it’s the same height at the top of the door

I feel like I’ve cracked the case on this one! Now maybe the next time I hang out there for the day I’ll switch around the PUSH and PULL signs when no one is looking.

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