Drop Dead Simple

The London Science Museum has an exhibit that showcases the simplicity in design and function that has stood the test of time. Some of these objects are so mundane but amazing in its simplicity and use that when you see it, you know how to use it. Most of these have been basically unchanged for decades and in some cases over a hundred years

Here are some of them:

Clothes Hanger, Rubber band, egg carton, paper clip, umbrella, tea bag, zipper, band-aid, pencil.

There are 44 objects that are on display at the museum. These are dubbed the “hidden heroes”.

Let us know about other products that would worthy of this exhibit

Hint: It isn’t the iPod, iPhone, iPad, or the iMac.

This product is not even electronic and yet it is the simplest one from a functional standpoint and yet a very elegant solution.

What’s your guess?

“Use it or Lose it!”

All the music has already been ripped in our household and we haven’t bought a CD in at least 5 years - probably more. Same with DVD’s. Although, ripping DVD’s take a lot longer. The ones I have ripped, I have taken them to my sister’s house but that won’t last long either. 

It’s amazing how much space and clutter gets eliminated when you purge this. Unless, you are die hard collector, it is not worth keeping any of these any more. 

The one thing that I want to do is digitize all the old pictures of my family before they are gone but it is hard to find a place that will do it for a reasonable price. If you know places in the bay area, let me know.

Groupon Ad: See the below ad and see if you can figure out what is wrong with it. Focus on the word “class”. What is one information you would like to see if it says “class” in order to make a buy decision? It took me 4 mouse clicks and I still could not be sure about the answer to the above. 

Look forward to your response.

The reason I like this product is due to its simplicity, elegance, and design. The thing that would make this a buy it now product, is to put some electronic counter behind the product that moves the hands for you automatically.

From a Merchant Perspective:

As a business owner, we are always looking at costs of processing transactions so now that there is a new startup on the scene that reduces these costs, we need to evaluate it carefully. I don’t intend to go into every detail of these 4 ways to receive funds. The most important thing for a business is to be able to get the money as fast as you can with the lowest cost for the transaction and it is with that perspective in mind one should evaluate Dwolla.

Definitions:

ACH - Automated Clearing House - Bank to Bank electronic funds transfer:

• Received payment directly from the payer’s bank to the receiver’s bank (+)
• No transaction fee (+)
• No Gateway or processor fee (+)
• No Report fee (+)
• 2-3 days to receive funds (-)
• Limited online payments (-)
• Exposes your routing and account number to payer (-)
• Not simple (-)

Credit Card

• Payments are guaranteed (+)
• Easy online payments (+)
• Easy for payer - using borrowed funds - 30 days to pay (+)
• High Transaction fee - 2%-4% (-)
• Gateway processing required - fee (-)
• Payer is borrowing money - (-)
•  2-3 business days to receive funds (-)
• Not simple to setup from a merchant’s perspective (-)

Paypal

• Payments are guaranteed (+)
• Easy online payments (+)
• 3-4 days to receive funds (-)
• High Transaction fee - 3%-4% (-)
• Relatively simple (+)

Dwolla - An Iowa based startup is a new company on the scene

The main advantage of Dwolla is the transaction fee is free for micro payments (<$10) and a flat $0.25 for transactions above that. It works just like ACH but removes the exposure of account numbers and routing numbers. It does have online shopping cart support but right now it is limited but growing. The main downside is payment is NOT guaranteed so you have to wait 2-3 business days to ensure that you have received the funds before processing the order. This will not work for retail establishments. The payment has to be guaranteed. I hope they figure this out quickly. When they do, I will JUMP on board. Payment MUST be guaranteed IMMEDIATELY or it won’t get traction.

Received payment directly from the payer’s bank to the receiver’s bank (+)

• No transaction fee (+)
• No Gateway or processor fee (+)
• No Report fee (+)
• Online payments (+)
• Simple (+)
• Payment NOT guaranteed MAJOR (-)
• 2-3 days to receive funds (-)

It is best to use the following rules for making product and code names easy to remember and brand:

1. Simple - no more than 3 syllables
2. Simpler - no more than 2 syllables
3. Simplest - no more than 1 syllable

The best brand for tech - Apple. It still has to be easy to pronounce when you see it. If it is phonetic, even better.

As Steve Jobs would say “This is sh**” and I would have to agree with him

Here is an example:

Groupon sends me this email. Most of it, most of the time, is just plain “sh**”. This one like many others are also deceiving. The top ad for carpet cleaning looks like it is for San Francisco but when you click on it, it is for Marin County only. Now, why not put that at the bottom of the deal like with the other. I know they paid more of the big ad but don’t like to your potential customers or try to deceive them.

“The Daily Deal for

San Francisco”

BTW, most of these carpet cleaning services are not good deals unless you are in a 1 bedroom or studio apartment. For any normal house in SF, you are still going to end up paying a couple of hundred dollars. That’s what you need to judge on whether it is a fair price.