This site’s like 70s porn for Mac fans. It shows all Apple’s print advertising from 1976 to 2002.
2 things particularly struck me:
Even in the early days, there was a clear focus on the end value and experience, rather than technical details.
The noticeable dip in the simplicity and clarity of the messages in the intra-Jobsian years. The contrast in particularly striking when you hit the iMac and iBook ads.
Common Craft produce delightfully simple explanations of tech concepts for the non-geek. The language is straight-forward and empowering and the simple illustrations show that you don’t have to get high concept and high production values to be effective.
Here are two good examples, but there are many others on their site.
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
That’s from George Orwell. Joshua Porter blogged that it applies to user interface design as well. To me, “insincerity” in interface design is when you don’t truly have the user’s best interest at heart. It will be clear enough.
Fog Creek launched the Mac version of their remote support software Copilot. In the blog announcement, Joel Spolsky does 2 great things with the copy: 1) have fun with “cheap” and 2) explain the discount/special offer (“free on weekends”) in terms that make his company seem reasonable and nice.
“Today, the Copilot team released the Macintosh version of the OneClick feature, so all the Copilot goodness is available on Windows or Mac, or both (you can control Windows computers from Macs and vice versa). And it’s cheap, by which I mean, inexpensive—I don’t mean that you can just buy it two drinks and take it back to your apartment and expect to be taking a bubble bath with it—most people get the $19.95 unlimited plan; it’s even free on weekends when we have lots of unused bandwidth.”
Hulu impressed with how they handled a stuff-up where they pulled episodes of a TV series without giving their users enough notice. Straight talk. Full responsibility. Sensible correction.
They’ve weaved straight, reasonable talk into their site dialogs too. Writing that sounds like it’s coming from someone you’d want to spend time with. You get the message below when you try to access their content from outside the US. It’s a great piece of copywriting. I particularly like how they make it personal with “Given the international background of the Hulu team, we have both a professional and personal interest in bringing Hulu to a global audience.” I believe you.
I offered Westpac some feedback on their process for temporarily blocking credit cards (note to self: don’t leave them in restaurants). I think they heard me, but I’m not entirely sure because they spent so much more time covering themselves than talking about what I’d suggested.
The online form to offer feedback is OK. It’s easily accessible from the site navigation. There’s a few too many fields; a bit too much disclaimer. But you can get about suggesting.
After submitted you get an auto-response ping-back. Yawn.
But the kicker is the real response received the next day. It’s below in its entirety. Look at the ratio of response to arse-covering guff.
Total email: 4,289 characters.
Actual response: 372 characters.
Quoted original feedback: 457 characters.
That’s 81% that’s all about them and nothing about me. If that was a real face-to-face conversation with someone in a branch, you’d would have already walked away.
Subject: 200907200096 - Credit Cards - Suggestion or comment from Collinson
Security advice: Before accessing emails or the internet, always update your virus, firewall and Operating System software. For more information on security, visit the Westpac homepage.
Dear Mr Collinson
Thank you for taking the time to send us your feedback.
We value your suggestion to allow an individual card to be blocked.
Unfortunately, at the moment, our system is limited to cancelling or temporarily blocking all cards linked to a single account number if any of the cards are compromised or lost.
Your feedback is greatly appreciated as it allows us the opportunity to address issues that are important to our customers. Please be assured Westpac will consider the suggestion you have provided.
Mr Collinson, we trust this information is of assistance. Should you have any further enquiries, please contact us by email or call Card Services on 1300 651 089 if you are calling from within Australia or on + 61 2 9374 7082 if calling from overseas (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) and one of our Banking Representatives will be happy to assist you.
Yours sincerely
Wayne Liew
Banking Representative
Westpac Banking Corporation
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[THREAD ID:1-14E4TSY]
——-Original Message——-
Sent: 20/7/2009 01:03:48 PM
To: online@westpac.com.au
Subject: 200907200096 - Credit Cards - Suggestion or comment from CollinsonfeedbackType : Suggestion or comment
feedbackDetails : I’ve got a credit card account with a Visa and AMEX
accessing the same account. I misplaced my Visa and got a temporary lock
on it. I wanted it to just lock the Visa because I still have my AMEX and
it would be very convenient for me to still be able to use that. But
instead the whole account is locked and my perfectly good AMEX in my
possession is temporarily useless to me.
enquiryType : Credit Cards
outcomeSought : Change of systems and processes to block credit
cards, not credit card accounts, so that if you have multiple cards
accessing an account, you can still use the cards in your possession.
userTitle : Mr
userTitleOther :
userFirstName : Brett
userSurname : Collinson
userEmail :
userConfirmEmail :
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