When will all hotels replace their thermostats with the Nest?
I’m currently traveling in the Bay Area and staying at a hotel. On the first night here, it was cold so I tried to turn up the heat. I pressed the “up” button and the temperature on the display increased. After a few minutes, the room didn’t seem to be heating up though so I tried the other buttons. There’s an icon on the screen – I switched it from frost to sun, hoping that would do the trick (it didn’t).
The on-call technician came and explained that I should’ve used the auto mode, which is represented by a square icon with little arrows (like a poorly designed “refresh” icon). Aren’t poorly executed icons frustrating?
Left: What I had to deal with. Right: Nest.
Confusing icons aside, the bigger problem here was a lack of feedback; that most basic design principle that we’re all familiar with but often neglect. As a user, we look for feedback to answer the simple question of “did it work?” In this case, I wanted to know if what I did with the thermostat worked. I was looking for a “got it – I will now give you some heat” kind of confirmation. For example, the thermostat could’ve turned red, or displayed the word “heat”, or sang me a tune – anything.
More importantly, beyond the thermostat interface, I wanted some kind of physical feedback to tell me that the room was heating up. In a car, this feedback is literally in your face: you turn up the heat, and can feel the warm air coming out of the vent. That can be harder in a room where the vent could be out of reach. Personally, the feedback I’m used to is the clinking, mechanical sound of the heating system in a house or building. However, that audible feedback seems to be disappearing with better technology. I don’t know the mechanics of it, but it would be nice for the thermostat to receive information from the overall heating/air conditioning system and tell me what’s going on.
Disclaimer: I don’t own a Nest, and I cannot speak for its usability. I was thinking about my little problem with this hotel’s thermostat and thought of the gorgeous new thermostat. From everything I can gather from their site, it looks to be an amazing product, and I love its dial input.
Recently, Google released an updated Gmail look which affected the interface pretty drastically. My gut reaction to the change was not good. People tend to be fairly averse to sudden, dramatic change and it’s very easy to have a knee-jerk reaction of “I hate this” whenever something you’re familiar with changes. With that in mind, I decided to use the new design for awhile before I gave up and ruled it a disaster. Sure enough, I’ve grown to appreciate many of the choices the Gmail team made and have found some of the changes to be quite an improvement.
There is one facet of the new design, however, that I cannot get past. Whenever I view an email, I am presented with these controls at the top of each message:
Gmail’s new message toolbar
Can you tell me with certainty what each of those buttons will do to the message? I can’t and I have to stop and think about what these icons mean every time I try to do something. Icons that aren’t instantly and naturally understood slow me down — and getting slowed down for no good reason makes me cranky.
In my opinion, these new button styles are a giant step back from the previous version of Gmail. Is there any doubt about what most of these buttons will do?
Gmail’s old message toolbar
When you see icons that aren’t intuitive, it’s often because the software team chose their convenience over making things easier for the user. Designers like icons because they are prettier than text and they more easily fit in a confined space (you don’t need to worry about text overflow on a 16×16 graphic). Programmers like icons because there’s no need to translate an extra label.
The best icons express crystal clear functionality with their simplicity and context. A trash can or an “x” next to an item in a list is a good indicator you’re about to delete or remove something. A lock graphic next to a disabled form element helps emphasize that an item is not editable. A partially shaded battery on an electronic device is a clear way to express remaining charge.
Icons in software can be a beautiful thing when executed properly. Given a choice between an ambiguous icon and a text label, however, text is the clear choice for conveying a buttons’s function quickly and clearly. Your users will never have to guess what that stop-sign exclamation looking icon means when they want to mark their 1000th viagra email as spam.
Gmail’s buttons when composing a message
Frustratingly, Google uses text labels when you’re composing a message. I wish they would be consistent and apply this style to all of their buttons in the new Gmail. How about you?
Other things on our brains, as evidenced by our link swapping in Co-op:
It was TJ’s birthday Wednesday, and the whole Harvest crew pitched in to make him a special website to help him launch his “side business.” We knew he had discovered it when he posted the link in Co-op.
Many of us at Harvest are fans of Louis CK. We were super impressed with everything about his recent internet special – from the comedy itself (the $5 is well worth it!), to how simple the purchase process is, to this statement below the purchase button:
To those who might wish to “torrent” this video: look, I don’t really get the whole “torrent” thing. I don’t know enough about it to judge either way. But I’d just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without “corporate” restrictions.
I found myself actually reading every single word on the purchase form (and re-reading it). I did that, not because I was confused, but because I actually enjoy what Louis CK has to say. He’s genuine, saying things that make sense without any buzzwords or corporate language. It wasn’t crafted by an ad agency figuring out the tone and stuffing words in Louis’ mouth. There wasn’t a consultant urging him to be be a certain way in order to boost conversions. I’m sure he wasn’t even thinking about SEO or A/B testing when he was writing for his online store. It was just Louis CK, acting as a (somewhat!) reasonable human being, speaking directly to us.
It is incredibly inspiring and gratifying to see someone follow common sense, do the right thing, and make good money at it. Just in case you need another reason to pay Louis CK $5 for his “Live at the Beacon Theater” special, here’s a hilarious 4-minute outtake:
Some of us consider this the holiday season, but others are working overtime in December. We here at Harvest would like to give you a heads up as to what to expect between December 22nd, 2011 and January 3rd, 2012. We’re planning to take some time off to spend with our loved ones and we’ll be providing support via email only during that time. One or two of our elves at Harvest HQ will be manning support during our regular hours to ensure that everyone who receives the gift of Harvest this holiday season will get the help that they need.
Santa and his elves are hard at work -- mostly focused on the "Nice List" project, although the naughty list has seen some time logged.
Whether you’re planning on tracking your time against that very important project with a December 26th deadline, or on the relaxing by the fire with a book task, we’ve got you covered! Although I’m sure I won’t be the last to say it, thank you all for using Harvest in 2011. Have a great (and safe) holiday season, and we’re looking forward to working with you through 2012 and beyond!
Published December 14th, 2011 by Karen Schoellkopf
As a part of our daily ongoing #workbetter series, we’ve been suggesting articles that are relevant to running a small business and being productive. This month we’ve pulled together a few recent articles that focus on efficiency, and using your time wisely:
How to save an unproductive day in 25 minutes: How often have you had a work day when, as mid-afternoon races toward late-afternoon, you realize that you haven’t really gotten anything done? Here’s how you get back on track.
The best time investments you can make: 7 ways to smartly invest your time, including building in 5 minutes a day to keep to your time investment goals.
Follow us on Twitter to get #workbetter tips daily, and feel free to share your own suggestions by using the #workbetter hashtag! We’ll continue to keep you on top of the conversations and topics that are most relevant to you in the world of small business.
I’m in awe whenever I come across a physical object that’s been made by hand. I’ll often pick up the piece and study it, like a work of art. It’s easy to forget to appreciate handicraft, especially if your days are spent building for the digital world.
That’s why it was a pleasant surprise to hear about Brooklyn based Joel Bukeiwicz, a professional knife maker (not far from Harvest HQ) who does all his work by hand. Joel is one of only a handful of knife makers in the country to practice this art form. You can watch the video from Made by Hand below, or read on to learn more about Joel and his story.
Joel came to knife making from the unrelated craft of writing. After having a hard time selling his manuscript, he decided to take a 3 month hiatus from writing. He fed his desire to create by building physical objects — bookshelves, tables. Anything. For Joel, creating tangible things was a breath of fresh air. He eventually came to knife making and quickly became passionate about it.
After toiling in the shop for two years, Joel came away competent of his craft. He now sells handmade cutlery to fine chefs in Brooklyn and beyond out of Cut Brooklyn. Each knife gets 15 hours of attention, versus your high-end German knife which takes 10 robots, 15 minutes to spit off the line.
Cut Brooklyn’s mission is to make every knife the very best knife they’ve ever made. As Joel learns and iterates, the quality of the knives improve. This human element makes every piece unique and brilliant. It’s this level of care and attention to detail that we admire as software builders, and it’s why I continue to pick up the pieces made by hand.
Today we’re announcing a significant update for our Free official Harvest Android app, version 1.3. This update brings improved reliability with your Android phone syncing to your online Harvest account.
We launched our Android app in March of this year. This summer we overhauled the entire syncing engine in our iPhone app with brand new API calls, and now we’ve brought these new API calls to our Android app. They are a much more efficient and reliable way to sync time and expenses on your phone, even on-the-go!
Along with the reliability updates, this version also includes some new features and other improvements, including:
Sync button added to Pending tab
Project Codes are now displayed
‘Report Issues’ directly from the options menu
Various bug fixes
New icon
Enjoy, and let us know how the Harvest Android app is working for you. If you’re running into any phone-specific issues, let us know by writing into support.
Visit Android time tracker to learn more and download this companion app for free.
True story: Danny, T.J. and I saw Woz walking past us on Lafayette St. We thought it was him, but we weren’t sure. If we had done what we should’ve done, you’d see a picture of us, with Woz, for this Playback edition (he was in New York for the Gizmodo Gallery Opening Party).
Wednesday night we had our Harvest Holiday meetup, and we got to see many friends, family, customers, neighbors, and even one of our New Founders, Kristel, that swung by to Harvest HQ. It was great to meet and re-connect with so many people that rely on Harvest to run their businesses, and a wonderful chance for Harvest customers and the Harvest team to chat with each other. We had food to perk up the rain-soaked masses – savories and sweets were from two local establishments, Soho bakery Oro and Spanish specialty foods supplier Despana, and our drinks master Jae concocted large brews of mulled wine and warm spiced apple cider – yum.
Here are a few pictures of the festivities, and thanks for sharing such a great evening with us!Continue Reading …
Published December 21st, 2011 by Shawn Liu 
