How tall are you, pumpkin
If you have children, you have been to zoos and theme parks. If you have, especially when you are abroad, the Internet is your friend: getting an eagle-view of what's on store on location, knowing about bars, restaurants, picnic areas, and toilets in advance is invaluable. Not to mention the evenings of fun and anticipation that printing out a map where x marks the spot can offer, thanks to the magic of PDFs.
1" Short from Getting it Right
Let's get banzai on KLM. They have this plain sandwich package they serve to passengers on European flights. It's a decently tasting line of sandwiches, and they even manage to have a fair turn-around so if you travel frequently you actually get to taste a number of different recipes, but that's not the point.
Taxing interfaces
In Italy, like in most other countries I believe, we have what is called the bollo auto, in the English speaking world car tax, or road tax, or even vehicle license fee. That is something you pay on a half-yearly or yearly base because you own or drive around a car. In darker ages you had to suffer time-consuming queues in some murky and crowded place where after showing handful of dubious-looking papers to a bored clerk you ended up paying the wrong amount, but this is the Internet Age: we have the Web, we have automated procedures, we do it online, we do it better.
So climb in, ladies and gentlemen, let's go pay some bollo auto.
So Little So Much
So far, this is probably my preferred example of what could often be used as the official usability motto: so little, so much.
This is your run-of-the-mill ice-cream freezer stand, the one with the long glass window and plenty of ice-cream flavours behind to choose from.
Just take a look at what stands on the floor, directly in front of it: if you can't figure it out, let me explain that this is a small podium much like those used say for the Olympics or any sports event.
