Alex Poole

User experience consultant

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Tag: Bad UX

Examples of bad user experience I’ve seen on websites, mobile apps and the real world

Poster or stamp? Use sensible defaults for product previews

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Alex Poole

I love the London Transport Museum shop, especially the classic posters. I love how they provide a preview pane with an everyday object so you can imagine how the poster might look in your home. However, I don’t love this ridiculous default size when you first arrive on the page – makes me think I’m […]

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Plan ahead when designing semi-transparent overlays

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Alex Poole

This is a web version of the common problem you see in subtitled films – white text on a white background is going to be very hard to read (see Gaîté lyrique). I always prefer automatically overlaid text to have a dark mask behind it to guarantee sufficient contrast. The consumerist website tries to avoid […]

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Use sensible defaults on forms

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Alex Poole

This search form on iLounge seems to have archives going back to the birth of Christ, either that or they’re not using a sensible default start date.  

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Don’t ask, just do it!

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Alex Poole

Yes, I’m browsing from a mobile – just give me the mobile version by default please.

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The New Yorker has a great new responsive design… shame the adverts spoil it

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Alex Poole

Update – Only took them 2 days to fix it – well done New Yorker! The New Yorker unveiled its new responsive redesign today, and was reviewed positively. It’s true that it is very nice, but I think the adverts pollute the clean aesthetics, and worse, they think responsive break-points don’t apply to them!

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UX is for the whole life of a site, not just the design stage

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Alex Poole

This is the branch locator page for BNP Paribas on the French island of La Réunion. As you can see, the default zoom level in the Google maps widget is set a little bit too low! I’ve adjusted it to a more useful zoom level below. This is a good example that shows why UX […]

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Eurostar – please don’t use misleading advertising, it damages your brand

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Alex Poole

Spotted what I thought was an amazing offer the other day on the Guardian : Turns out it was €1 per child – and children under 4 don’t pay anyway. Thanks for nothing Eurostar!  

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Lazy Eurostar confirmation message with 12 conditional clauses

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Alex Poole

I just chose my seats for a trip to London – but despite the Eurostar site knowing the exact number of seats, passengers, and journeys involved, it was too lazy to show an appropriately worded confirmation.

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Google Wallet email looks like a phishing attempt

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Alex Poole · 5 Comments

I just received this email apparently from Google asking me to update my some of Google Wallet account details. Turns out that’s it’s genuine, but why did they make it look so much like a phishing attempt? There are 3 classic signs: The subject line doesn’t have my name in it: “Important Information about Your […]

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Facebook wants to know your political views before it gives you a birthday card

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Alex Poole

How can you tell if it’s worth trading your personal info for something online?

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Featured articles

  • How Agile and UX can work together
  • Avoid jobs advertised as “UI/UX Designer”
  • Playing Top Trumps with UX
  • Good UX should bridge the divide between online and offline worlds

Original research

  • Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?
  • Fighting bad typography research
  • Eyetracking metrics (book chapter)
  • How do people find and recognise browser bookmarks?

Good vs bad UX

  • Poster or stamp? Use sensible defaults for product previews
  • Plan ahead when designing semi-transparent overlays
  • Use sensible defaults on forms
  • Supermarket receipt with categories
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