How Google or Microsoft can transform email

When you review your email, there are several categories that email typically falls into such as FYI, Task Requests and Status Updates. For each email, the sender must compose the information into writing and the receiver must read the message and then perform other tasks such as updating a task list. Google can simplify this process by having the sender enter the information into standard format when the email is composed so the reader does not have to waste time translating the information.

Here is how it would work. Suppose you want Jeff to send you a file on sales for the month. Instead of writing the email and sending it to Jeff, you would enter the request directly into Jeff’s task list with all the pertinent information such as the due date and what kind of reminders that you want to see. Now instead of reading through his email trying to figure out what you want, Jeff would see that he has a new task. He knows who created it, what is expected and what reminders that you are looking for. This saves Jeff the hassle of adding the task to his list and makes ensures that the request does not get lost in all of Jeff’s other emails.

At the same time, your request list has been updated and you see that you have an open request with Jeff. When Jeff has completed the file with the monthly sales, instead of sending an email to you that could get lost with your other emails, he would upload the file to the open task. He would then close the task and the status of your request list would get updated to show that the file has been uploaded. This would cut down on people’s email and allow people to focus on their jobs rather than reading and writing emails. Status updates could also be added to the task with a time stamp rather than by sending out emails.

From a productivity point of view, this would also allow companies to identify areas for increased process improvement. If someone gets 30 requests a day for the same information from different people then the company should consider making that information easier to obtain for the interested parties. Similarly, if one person has 100 open tasks then this would provide a good justification for increased resources.

This method would also work for calendar invitations, directions to an event and forwarded URLs. Any information that requires the receive to enter data into a standard format should be done by the sender ahead of time. This would be simple for both Microsoft and Google to implement because they not only have an email platform but also a task list and a calendar function.

By having the sender enter information into a standard format, people’s inbox would have fewer emails, information would not be lost reading and writing emails, and new tasks and task requests would be easier to track.

How Valley Fair can improve the kids playground.

On rainy days, the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose California is a great place to take the kids to get some exercise when they start to get cabin fever.  Since other parents are also feeling claustrophobic on these days, the play area can get pretty crowded and it can be hard to keep track of your children in all the chaos.  There are two things that the mall could do to make it easier for parents to watch their children; lower the wall by the slide and put a gate on the entrance.

The picture below is a representation of the play area.  The entrance is at the bottom and the play area is surrounded by a bench like you find in booth seats at a restaurant with a high back.

Several times while watching my own children, I have watched other small children leave the play area and head into the busy mall. Parents near the entrance usually stop the child and eventually the child’s parent will come looking for them.  This usually happens because the parent has two children and while the parent is watching one child, the other slips away.  It is just a matter of time until one child escapes without being stopped.

To solve this problem, Valley Fair should install a small gate at the entrance.  This will keep small children from walking off on their own.

The other problem stems from the large wall by the slide.  5 year old boys can climb the wall quite easily and usually take the fast route of jumping down.  Each day the older kids narrowly miss jumping on top of the smaller kids playing below the wall.

Another problem with the wall is how it blocks the vision of parents.  Because of the wall, there are only a couple of seats where you can see the whole play area.  If you are not in those seats, then the wall creates a blind spot where you cannot see your children.  As soon as you kid enters into a blind spot you need to stand up to walk around the wall to see your child.   See the picture below.

As you move left and right from the seat behind the wall, the blind spot also shifts.  The same blinds spot exists for parents sitting on the right hand side of the wall.

The only place that you can sit and see the entire play area is marked with an "X" below.

By removing the wall and adding a gate to the entrance, Valley Fair can greatly improve it's play area.  This will allow parents to see their children at all times and prevent small children from wandering off alone when parents are distracted.

How to improve ordering lunch for a group.

Many times someone has to set up lunch for a group.  Typically they will send out an email to everyone with a link to the restaurant and ask everyone to reply with their order. The organizer then has to re-enter the individual orders into the website. Often times there are errors and clarifications have to be made.

Instead, delis that serve deliver lunch like Specialties should update their website.  The organizer should be able set up a group meeting at the website. The organizer then sends out a group ID that has a link to the website. People follow the link, enter their name then enter the sandwich order. The organizer can quickly look at who has ordered and what their order is. This would eliminate double entry, minimize mistakes and sandwiches would arrive with the persons name on it. No more asking who ordered the ham and cheese.

How to design a healthy refrigerator.

Think about the last time you were hungry. If you are like most people you open the refrigerator and look to see what you have.  The top shelf may have eggs, meat or cheese. The middle shelves may have unlabeled Tupperware with aging soup from several days ago. You may even find take out Chinese food or a doggy bag. Now look at the bottom of your refrigerator, this is where the food that you should be eating is stored. Inside of the two drawers is where you keep your vegetables. Lettuce, tomatoes, celery, onions and carrots, for some reason all of these vegetables are the hardest to get to. Not only is the healthy food hard to reach, but it is also hidden behind drawers creating a further barrier to choosing these foods.

In a typical refrigerator, the unhealthy foods are at eye level.

Given this arrangement, it is no wonder why the food that you choose to eat is the meat or cheese when you are snacking and you ignore the veggies until they become a rotting mess in their bag and you have to throw them out.

Behavioral science has an explanation for this type of behavior called Availability Bias. You encounter this bias the day after you buy a new car. As soon as you start driving your car, you realize how many other cars there are on the road that look exactly like yours. You notice things that are familiar and ignore things that are out of sight. Grocery stores have this down to a science. Foods that they want to sell with higher margins are placed on the top shelves while generic brands and non-impulse items are placed lower. Most people with children make frequent trips to the store just to purchase milk. Rather than make life convenient by placing the milk near the front of the store, it is placed in the back of the store causing people to pass all the isles of food. If you really want something, you will find it but it is hard to pass up the other foods that are at eye level.

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their book “Nudge” share an example from school cafeterias. One cafeteria changed the location of the food in the cafeteria line and recorded what foods where chosen. They found that they could directly influence what foods people ate merely by changing the order of the food. Foods that were placed first were chosen over foods that were placed near the end of the line regardless of teenagers’ natural aversion to veggies.

If a manufacturer really wanted to make a healthy refrigerator, they would make it easier to find the healthy foods. Instead of placing the veggie drawers at the bottom of the refrigerator, they should be placed on the top shelf at eye level. Furthermore, the crisping drawers should be eliminated. Instead some sort of automatic opening mechanism should be created that opens a door when the main refrigerator door is opened. This way, the food would be fresh but still easy to access. 

The veggies should be placed at eye level in your refrigerator.

Next time you open your refrigerator, think about where things are placed and try to keep your healthy food at eye level and hide the unhealthy food in the drawers at the bottom.

An Ergonomic Blackberry Keyboard

When you look at the keyboard on a Blackberry smart phone, you see that the keys are arranged in a Smile pattern.  This pattern is ideal for full-size ergonomic keyboards because people have broad shoulders and their hands rest on the keyboard at an angle but it is not ideal for handheld smartphones.

In the layout below, thumbs have to move in and out as they trace a single row of keys.

The Frown layout below is even worse.  In this pattern, the thumbs need to stretch to reach the T and Y.  However, to reach the Z and M, the distance is much shorter which causes your thumb joint to bend and lift up while the whole lower part of your thumb moves back.

While a curved pattern seems ergonomic and definitely is helpful for full-size keyboards, thumbs follow a different pattern.  If you make a fist and wiggle your thumbs you will see that the thumbs move in an arc left to right.  To make your thumbs follow a smile pattern like the Blackberry, you need to pull your thumbs in for the middle of the arc and push your thumbs out at the end of the arc.

Instead Blackberry should organize the keys in a windshield wiper pattern that follows the natural arc of your two thumbs.  This will allow more keys to be accessed by simply moving your thumbs left and right.  Your thumbs will still need to move in and out but this motion will be reduced with the new keyboard layout.

The graphic below shows the improved keyboard layout that uses the windshield wiper pattern that follows the arc of your thumbs.

Windshield Wiper Keyboard Layout

By adopting the new windshield wiper layout, people can reach more keys by simply moving their thumbs back and forth and minimize the amount of in and out motion of their thumbs.  This should decrease typing fatigue and allow Blackberry users to get more value out of their smartphones.

How Solyndra can improve its marketing.

The solar manufacture Solyndra has recently opened up its new manufacturing facility in Freemont along Highway 880, which is a vital artery for Bay Area traffic.  While the building does have the company name in big letters, the roof is not visible and we are left wondering whether there are solar panels on the roof. 

Now we all know what solar panels look like but Solyndra has a unique tube design hence the name, which is visually different from any other product.  

By not showing the roof and any solar panels that may be up there, Solyndra has missed out on a golden opportunity to show their product to the world.

How big is this opportunity? Lets do a little math to estimate the missed impressions.

Assume the following:

Average speed of cars on 880 is 50 mph including traffic or about 73 Feet per second.

8 Hours of daylight.

The freeway has five lanes of traffic each way and cars are separated by about 100 feet.

Calculations

73 Feet per second / 100 feet per car = .7 cars / second.

Five lanes for each direction = 5*2*0.7= 7 cars / second

1 day = 8*60*60*7=201,600 cars per day.  

If the average cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) is $1.00 then Solyndra would have to spend $200 a day to get the same exposure or $73,000 per year.

How to beat jet lag.

I recently flew from San Francisco to Zurich on a non-stop flight and realized that airlines are missing a golden opportunity to improve customer value. Currently airlines feel that their only responsibility is to transport you from A to B in the most economical and comfortable fashion. I argue that people feel the impact of the flight for up to three days after the flight in the form of jetlag and it is here where airlines could improve their service. By implementing an anti-jetlag program, airlines can create differentiation and improve the value offered to their customers with no additional costs.

Time: From the second that you step on the plane, everything should be done as if you were in the new time zone. If it is dark at the destination, the lights on the plane should be dimmed and the blinds drawn. Soft music will also help remind people that it is quite time. The old time zone should not be displayed anywhere and only the new time zone used. For the rest of the flight, everything should be done according to the new time zone such as lights and meals.

Food: Meals should be referred to by their name in the new time zone. The 9:00 AM meal should be called breakfast even if it is served at 10:00 PM at the origin. Also, save the pasta or chicken for the dinner and use the egg dish for breakfast. A nutrition scientist may even be consulted to find out what foods are more conducive for encouraging sleep or to wake people up.

Chemistry: could also be used to regulate people’s circadian rhythms. Chamomile tea or other calming beverages should be served in the evening to promote sleep while coffee should be served with the morning breakfast. Even if people fall asleep for a nap later, their body is starting to receive signals about the new time zone.

Behavioral Science: In additional to physical things such as light and the timing of food, Airlines should apply behavioral science, namely framing. Passengers should be told prior to boarding that the airline is executing an anti-jetlag strategy and reminded periodically during the flight. People who are aware of the program and looking forward to it will be more receptive to the techniques. Pre-flight jetlag tips can also be mailed out prior to the flight to help people start the program early. One tip is to have people wake up at 5:00 AM the morning of a flight East. Not only does this help people get used to waking up in the new time zone earlier but it also helps people to fall asleep on the plane quicker at the new time zone.

Anchoring is another behavioral technique that can be used. By encouraging everyone to set their watch to the new time zone at the beginning of the flight people will quickly forget the old time zone.

By using light, food and behavioral science, airlines can improve the value for their customers by helping people fight jetleg. While the length of the flight will be the same, people will have more effective time on their trip because they will adjust the new time zone quicker.