I think that the easiest way to guess if a company or organization will succeed or fail is by using its products.
Today I went to the USPS website to track a package. The receipt I am holding has a tiny tracking number (I have changed some digits below, so don't they to run it - it will not come up as mine :) :
Tracking Number: 9400111108036467868990
I am expected to type this in, exactly, to get the information I need.
No wonder the USPS is a s--t-show! How hard can it be, with the Billions of dollars in funding to make the most used feature easy to use?
The USPS has put in place a system that allows them to assign a unique number for every package, if every person on earth (assume 9 Billion or so), sends 400,000 (yes that is four hundred THOUSAND) packages EVERY DAY for the next 100 years...
Talk about government excess :)
Even if for some reason we DO need that many digits - my tracking number can be at least made easy for me to enter - a direct substitute, using both numbers and letters would look something like this:
A01-WSP-089-WTR
Yep - believe it - I did the approximate math - in base 36 (uppercase letters plus digits), all we need are 12 symbols...
So yes - it is easy to spot a poorly managed organization by the crappy usability of their products. (Note to self - ALWAYS taste what you are cooking!)
