Gridded wrapping paper

Khoi Vinh has a great post on an innovation introduced by Hallmark: gridding on the back of their wrapping paper.

this is a marketable and genuinely helpful innovation that, all told, can be summed up as almost purely a product of design thinking. Hallmark took a very simple product that had been in use continuously and without complaint for decades, identified a problem that everyone encounters and yet no one has taken seriously, and then created a wonderfully elegant solution for it.

Considering how crooked my cuts were last time I wrapped gifts, I know I could use this myself. Congrats to Hallmark on this one.

Driver install from hell

David Pogue has a great post detailing the user-hostile driver install experience for a Netgear USB network adapter. Some choice quotes:

Screen #3: Now a second installer launches ON TOP of the first one–yes, we’ve got superimposed dialog boxes. What the heck?

Anyway, this one says “Welcome.”

One of the trademarks of Windows configs and installs: stacks of dialogue boxes. And they usually hijack your system too.

Screen #7: Uh-oh. “The Software you are installing has not passed Windows Logo testing. Continuing your installation of this software may impair or destabilize the correct operation of your system… Microsoft strongly recommends that you stop this installation now.”

Here it is, on one screen: everything that’s wrong with Microsoft and the Windows software industry. I’m sorry, but you would NEVER see this kind of idiocy on the Macintosh.

Microsoft is essentially interrupting the install to argue with Netgear on what's best for the user. Just imagine how this looks to the typical computer novice: "Oh noes! What will become of my system if I dare install this! But if I don't... how do I use my new network adapter?" Really, who benefits from this? How is a user supposed to tell the difference between a Netgear and a genuinely shady install?

[after being instructed to plug the adapter in]

Screen #9: “Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard. Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software?”

Screen #10: “If your hardware came with an installation CD or floppy disk, insert it now.”

Now we've got what appears to be Microsoft's brilliant plug-and-play driver install routine, interrupting Netgear's install. And the "Windows Logo Testing" warning came up a second time after this. And there's still more. Check the full article for the gory details.

All these years to refine the install experience, and some companies just don't get it. All effort is put into advancing networking technology, without ensuring that Joe Average will actually be able to use it.