nimbletoad blog

Yesterday, we ordered some desktop calendars from Staples online.  Two 10 inch by 17 inch calendars were delivered today.

At first all we could do was laugh at the enormous box used to ship these calendars, but we quickly began to appreciate the symbolism.  Ironically,  we were working on a calendar module for one of our clients at the time.

Imagine this box as your website with all the blown up bags symbolizing excess code and fluff when all that you want is an easy to use calendar.  If a Nimbletoad engineer packed this shipment, your calendar would be delivered in a nice package appropriate to its size and weight.

My wife and I ate at uWink, a Mountain View, Ca restaurant, last weekend. I have to say that this is one of the cases when the über functionality got in the way of the experience.

Everything is ordered via touchscreens adorning all of the tables. Touch the screen and boom a Grey Goose Appletini is delivered in seconds. A few more taps and I had a juicy cheeseburger.

So, what is the problem? It was dinner and I could not see my wife over the touch screen. We were at a table for 2. I shudder to think of the dining experience the table for 6 had with a pentagon circle of touchscreens in the middle.

However, I guess the usability is perfect for blind dates gone awry or dinner parties with Mountain View Google Geeks. In either case, it would be nice to hide behind a touch screen.