Interface design and Tech03 Dec 2005 11:31 pm
Bad physical interfaces: Photo evidence
Those things I was complaining about in London? I’ve got documentation. I just started uploading the ten gajillion photos we took when we were overseas. There are more to come, but here are two fun ones involving British hotels and some baaaaad interface design.
The first is our web-enabled tv that showed a 404 page not found error whenever you turned it on. 
Someone installed something weird and Windows-based on it, and apparently it went all wrong. Like British TV isn’t strange enough.
And then there was the hairdryer, conveniently located and unmovable from the desk drawer.
December 5th, 2005 at 6:06 am
In the UK, there is very strict legislation about electricity in bathrooms, and standard electical sockets are not permitted. Hence hairdryers are almost always in a drawer of the table nearest the mirror.
You just have to know where to look!
(Actually, in every hotel room in Britain that I’ve ever stayed in there has been a booklet about the hotel, which tells you where they’ve hidden the hairdryer, and more importantly, the tea and coffee!)
December 5th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
Ellie! You’ve uncovered the secret behind the Mystery of the Hidden Hairdryer. Let’s call Bess and George and celebrate!
May 16th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
That’s not a 404 TV, it’s 403 - Access Forbidden! Someone set the webserver permissions incorrectly.