In software development user interface and interaction design gets a lot of attention. The basic idea is that you want your software to be easy to learn and use. Clients should be able to use it confidently.

The same principles apply to other kinds of interaction – restrooms for example. At a new (and mostly magnificent) medical research facility poor interface design for the restrooms makes using them confusing and frustrating.

The main problem is that you see this sign...

...and make a hard turn to the left, expecting to find restrooms for both men and women.

The problem is that you are greeted with this....

There is tile (on both the walls and the floor), and plumbing... all of which indicates that you are now in a restroom. Unfortunately the only sign visible indicates that it is for women only.

Only if you proceed much farther into this area, which turns out to be a kind of vestibule, with restrooms at either end, do you get any indication that there is also a men's room:

Several software developers meet in this building a few times a year (often to discuss user interface and interaction design) and the restrooms always cause no small amount of confusion. There are some videos that document the typical interaction patterns on my personal site.

Unless of course you saw this driver, who simply drove down the street and simply stopped, got out and left their card their for hours. Yes, unbelievably, they considered this an adequate attempt at street parking.

A quick look at how order gathering works, how much it takes from flower buyers, and how much it hurts flower buyers.

An order gather tries to come between a flower buyer and a flower shop. They effectively masquerade as a real local flower shop, convince the customer to place an order, then try and get a real florist to fill that order... but only after they have skimmed off a profit of 30% or more.

This pie chart shows some of the story. The customer pays $65 for flowers and delivery, the order gathering operation skims off almost $20, and passes along the bare minimum to the flower shops that prepares and delivers the flowers.

It might seem crazy but there are companies, known as order gatherers, that want to trick you into thinking they are real local florists. They'll promise you something like this...

...and deliver something like this:

How does that happen?

The order gatherer takes your money, as shown in the receipt for the flower shown above:

They then try and get a real local florist to fill the order for them, but for a lot less money. This is what they actually sent to the filling florist – the florist that would do the work of preparing and delivering the flowers.

The order gatherer charged the customer almost $50 for the product, but they only passed $35 along to the real flower shop that actually did the work. Please note that this is in addition to the standard industry share that they would have received.

The shop that prepared the order didn't have a chance. They were told this was a $35 order as opposed to a $50 order. They didn't even get a picture to work from. The customer gets upset, the recipient gets upset.... nobody wins except for the order gatherer.


Learn more about order gathering and choosing a real local flower shop.

Just heard that the Society of American Florists will be presenting three new entries in their WebBlast series of short, informative webinars. These sessions will focus on pricing techniques that are relevant to retail florists.

Each session will be thirty minutes long – a twenty minute presentation followed by ten minutes of questions and answers.

More information can be found on the Beyond Cost Plus website.

I'm a Citrix client and I absolutely love their products but is this really necessary?

Earlier in the week a friend and colleague had her Mac lock up, displaying an official looking alert stating that the machine had been compromised and was now locked for her protection. It also urged her to call Apple Support, at the number provided, immediately,

She did, and it was immediately confirmed that her machine had been hacked. She was shown a diagnostic report indicating that foreign hackers were observing her activity, stealing passwords and more. This was now an emergency. She happily paid $499.99 to this Apple support partner to have this fixed.


Soon later she realized it had all been a scam. The company that hacked her computer, locked her out and urger her to call were the same people she paid to fix it. Fortunately Apple helped her fix her computer (and remove all of the spyware and malware that was placed on it during the initial paid "repair") and she is pursuing a chargeback with Visa.


These scams are very convincing – in this case it happened to a very smart, sophisticated individual. Read more about this Delvelogic LLC Mac ransomware scam and how to protect yourself.

Six years ago I watched a relative leave a job and start a relationship with a predatory educator that continues to this day. Along the way his savings have been drained, his hopes dashed and earning potential squandered.

When it started he was in his late forties and gainfully employed as a laborer. Probably not the path he or his family had planned but, after many years of not working at all it seemed like progress.

He left this job to take a course in bricklaying despite the fact there was no possible way he could ever get an apprenticeship at his age. But the predatory educator was happy to see his dip into his savings for the tuition, and help him complete the forms that would allow them to access additional government funds. Funds that presumably the government intends to help provide training for jobs people might actually be able to get, benefitting themselves and society.

Of course there was no job to be had (he couldn't even get his old job back) so in addition to losing a year of potential earning he squandered still more on a fruitless job search.

An almost universal truth in business is that it's easier to sell more product to an existing customer than to acquire a new customer, and this predatory educator was quick to exploit that. Over the next several years they would continue to sell him increasingly useless education, and encourage him to follow career paths that were increasingly preposterous.

Someone who was working, saving, and contributing to society has become a career student, squandering the few years of earning potential they have left and draining their savings even as the ridiculous "college" misuses government funds. This system is hideously broken.

Recently a few friends and colleagues have made a point of saying that they simply do not do overnight flights.

That always surprises me a little. Yes, absolutely, the experience is shitty and the next day is almost as bad. But, rather than lose a day? That seems like a good trade.

I'll often have to go to stuff on the West coast for work, and usually want to get back as soon as it is over. That means flying at night and being back at my desk or home with my family the next morning, or staying out there another night and losing that day. I'll happy suffer through the overnight flight every time.

Earlier in the month it was announced that ownership of Canadian Florist Magazine – an outstanding publication that has long served the Canadian floral industry - has changed hands. Annex Publishing, the owner of Canadian Florist for more than twenty years, has sold the publication to Strider Media.

Strider Media, run by fifth generation florist Ryan Freeman, has an outstanding reputation in the floral industry. Ryan was the founder of the incredibly popular FlowerChat. Now known as the Florist 2.0 Community it has been the best and most popular online meeting place for florists for more than a decade.

Strider is also responsible for the very powerful and popular Florist 2.0  e-commerce websites. Long the favorite of the best and most successful florists these websites raised the bar in the floral e-commerce. Things got even more exciting for Florist 2.0 clients when, in late 2014, Strider partnered with Epic Flowers to bring even more powerful conversion and marketing features to more florists.

Strider is an excellent company run by great people who are truly committed to the floral industry. They are sure to do amazing things with the addition of Canadian Florist to their portfolio.