Show Me What's Available, Not What's Not

Many people love watching movies in large groups, especially college grads and families. In group booking, users mostly prefer sitting side by side. If the user needs to book 8 tickets and only 4 seats are remaining, what does the app show?

The app above shows the seatmap with remaining seats.

Is there a better way? 

Yes!

Can we engage the user by suggesting them to the immediate next show where the tickets are avaiable? 

Yes!

Why wouldn't the app do that? 

Because it's hard.

The difference between failure and success is the effort it takes to work on the hard stuff.

Web Re-direction

Talk about any passport/visa application website and people start to sweat with stress. The trauma of using these websites stems from the fact that some of them were built as lower school summer projects. At least, that is how they appear.

Here is one visa application website.

This website appears to have many fabulous features (read as traumatic features).

1. Registered users can remain registered only for 30 days. The account is deactivated thereafter. A frequent business traveler will hate this feature, given the mind-boggling revenues that business travel generates in travel domain.
2. Registration website is a different website, although it appears to be the same until you realize it's not
3. Once registration is complete, the user cannot proceed with visa appointment. There is not even a URL. User has to re-type the visa appointment URL and proceed

Web redirection, if broken, is a nightmare for non-tech savvy users.

Web redirection, if seamless, encourages users to spread the word about how wonderful it is to use it.

Which website are you?

Cross versus Tick Symbols for Checkboxes

Sometimes, checkboxes can be funny. It looks simple on the outside with just two states - cross or tick symbols. Yet, based on the label associated with them, it eases or complicates user's perception.

Consider visa application form for Schengen Visa. Earlier, visa applicants saw 'X' symbol when checkboxes were selected. Does 'X' mean that option is included or excluded? It can be confusing.

In recent form, they changed 'X' symbol to tick mark. Does tick mark mean that the option is included? Hell, Yes!

One Click One Tap One Eye One Thumb

Luke Wroblewski conceived the One Thumb One Eyeball heuristic. People use their smartphones on the couch, in the toilet, while walking along the hallway, or even while standing and waiting. Such contexts force one hand, one thumb and one eye use rather than using two hands, multiple fingers and a pair of focused eyes.

Busy people crave for one tap check-ins, one click signups, and faster goal accomplishments in general.

Browser extensions are painfully time-consuming to install. Product Hunt designed a 'One-Click Install' that speeds up this process.

How delightful and fast!

What's Your Secret Question?

Secret Questions feature a second layer authentication method followed only by the infamous Password as first layer. The usual questions are, Which is your birthplace, What is the name of your first pet, What is your mother's maiden name, What is your favorite color and so forth. If you are like me whose taste changes often, it is difficult to remember right answers for questions related to color for example. Depending on my mood and seasons, my favorite color changes. 

Image Credits: A forgotten twitter user

As if Secret Questions feature wasn't complicated enough, some website spent their innovating thinking on creative secret questions.

How many cousins do you have? 

Oh, the last time, I counted, there were 39 cousins 

What is the fastest speed you have ever driven?

40 Kms/Hr. Isn't it fast enough for an unskilled driver like me?

What is your ideal weight, in your view?

Well, I would love to be 58. Oh! 66 is my lucky number :)

God, screw the secret questions!

Facebook misses you

Facebook loves you. Facebook misses you.

Facebook misses you so much that when you decide to leave, it asks for feedback. If you say that you didn't find facebook useful, it points out that you are not doing a great job finding friends and hence use 'Friend Finder' feature to make it useful. Oh! The Help Center is useful too, in their view.

What you do when your users are leaving your product/platform tells a lot about whether they'll come back or not.

What do you tell your users, when they are about to leave?