1. 1

2. 2

3. It is commons in Rural India to see women folk carrying water on head for many
kilometers enduring immense hardship. In Africa, they created a cylindrical trolley
that carries water making life easy for women. This is an example of excellent design!
An example all of us know is iPhone. Phones used to be klunky. iPhone introduced
good touch, pleasurable display, camera and made it a “desirable” product rather
than a boring phone
3

4. In the stove, we don’t know where the knob for the which burner.
In the elevator button, it is not clear if arrows are associated horizontally or vertically.
People end up pushing both!
In water dispenser, we have cold and hot water. Cold water is really cold and hot
water is really hot. Most users of water fountain just want normal water – they end
up mixing both to drink.
Last one is microwave oven control. So many buttons. Most common use of
microwave is reheating, which is difficult to see in panel
4

5. This IP phone is from my office. It shows 5 missed calls, but it is not easy to find out
the details of the missed calls. It is the 2nd button in the left hand vertical array of
buttons. The UI for seeing missed call is convoluted. If the last missed call appears on
the screen, it would have been helpful
Who needs IP address (10.214.56.34) as a permanent display?
5

6. This is from HDFC ATM bank. When I insert a card, it reads information, and silently
chucks out card. I don’t know if it read the card or not.
After that, it wants to know the type of account – though it very well knows that I
have only one account – Savings account
Next, it wants to ask Rs200 can be saves as favorite withdrawal amount. Bank SW
knows my withdrawal amount history and it can show my most-used-withdrawal
amount value and ask me if that is okay.
Last one – it wants to know if an agent call me for housing loan. Who will decide to
take a housing loan when you taking money in a hurry. And housing loan is a decision
not taken by a person without consulting his/her spouse. I am sure most people
would have told Cancel to this option!
6

7. 7

8. First picture is like Krishnarajapuram railway bridge in Bangalore. Chaos. No order.
Just Functional.
Second one is Usable, improved and effective. There seems to be order, divider in
middle, markings.
Last one is in Sweden where they made staircase make music as you climb. The made
the staircase “desirable” and brought habit change from using escalator to taking
stairs . See the video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
8

9. 9

10. 10

11. This door will cause confusion as the message says PUSH. But a handle signifies
pulling the door.
The picture on right shows how it can be addressed.
11

12. 12

13. Example of bad signifier in software.
Most people thought NEW CUSTOMER and EXISTING CUSTOMER as buttons and
pressed it, saw no action and left website.
Actually it was just a header which designer wrongly put in the form of a button,
causing confusion
13

14. A company went for fashionable looking tea cups. The main persona in the usage is
drinker.
But there is another persona – the person who cleans the cups. Since the bottom of
the cup was narrow, cleaner could not clean the cups properly. Ignoring a persona
and usage caused this
14

15. 15

16. 16

17. Some of the industrial world products are installed in harsh conditions. The users
could be wearing gloves. The touch screen and buttons should be big enough and
bold
17

18. Though all 3 pictures signify HOME, most users identified 3rd one as the HOME button
without mistake. Use the most popular icons and don’t create your own version.
18

19. This is the microwave oven from our office.
The reheat button is called EXPRESS. Most people don’t notice it and don’t try it. If it
was called as REHEAT, which is the most common name, it would have attracted use.
Use terms that are most popular, don’t call it by another name
19

20. 20

21. 21

22. This banner is example of visual pollution. Too many elements, too much details.
Human mind will be put off at first sight
22

23. So many fields and parameters to be set. Also cursor is not staying in any text-box. So
user will be wondering where to start!
23

24. Simple, functional screen of Outlook mail
24

25. 25

26. Group 4 related elements together. Like cut, copy, paste, delete. Grouping helps brain
to process related information better
26

27. This keypad was part of petrol dispensing machine as self fill of petrol station.
HELP button, when pressed, will raise an alarm in office and an attendant will come
to help. The positioning of button was just next to ENTER. Most people pressed HELP
by mistake as it was just next to ENTER button, causing many false alarms.
The HELP key should be prominent and separately placed, not next to ENTER
27

28. 28

29. 29

30. Example of this – the HDFC money transfer option shows the balance amount in your
account as soon as you enter the account number. No need to go to balance screen
30

31. 31

32. Amazon work flow – it shows that there 4 steps in ordering, we are done with two
steps, we are in 3rd step and we have just one more step to go
32

33. Cleartax workflow shows that there are 5 steps in tax filing and shows progress as you
go through the steps.
Tax filing is a boring work and making it look in parts and showing progress, it makes
the experience better
33

34. Rome was not built in a day!
34

35. 35

36. New outlook shows the recently modified documents when you press Attach.
It is a nice gesture as most of the time, user is likely to send a recently modified file
and avoids the screens to browse and select the attachment file
36

37. 37

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. 41

42. 42

43. 43