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Is it just me or does it seem strange that there is no Sign In on Amazon.com’s homepage?

Each time I visit amazon.com, and I visit too often, if I’m not already logged in, I stumble looking for the Sign In link. I would expect the “Sign In” text at the top of the page to be a link taking me to a Sign In form.  Or even better to automatically display a Sign In form on the homepage.  But instead you are required to click on something that would only be available to you once you ARE signed in – e.g. “personalized recommendations”, “Your Lists”, “Your Account”, etc.

This seems like such a fundamental flaw that it had to be done on purpose.  But why?  Why break with convention and force people to take an extra cognitive step? Did they conduct usability studies and find that this was superior somehow?  I’m very curious…

The first thing is figuring out how to print. Users are used to seeing a print icon in the upper left corner of most common desktop application and will tend to look for it there when browsing the web as well.

Problem is, depending on how the browser is set up, that familiar Print Button might not be in the toolbar. If you’re lucky enough to find the Print Button, you’d better make sure you have a full pack of paper in the printer, because you’re never quite sure how many pieces of paper your one little page could take to print.

Any ads and images on the web page will be printed along with the text, which is probably what you were really interested in to begin with.

If you’re printing at home on your inkjet printer, you probably cherish your color ink just as much as I do. Those cartridges are expensive and we hate having to replace them.

That’s where the Print This button comes in. Most often, you’ll find it on articles or news stories or other pages you might want to share with someone else. By clicking the Print This button, you can usually eliminate all ads and you’re left with plain old black and white text.  If you’re using a map site, they’ll usually even give you the option of adding in an image of the map along with the directions.

We’ve recently added a Print This button to the purchase and refinance articles on QuickenLoans.com. This way even if you don’t have a Print icon button, you can still print the article and pass it along.

Do yourself a favor and make sure you always look for the Print This button before gravitating towards the Print icon button in the toolbar.

Here’s the problem. The readout only told me the engine temperature without giving me the context of the range. If it tells me 35 degrees, I don’t know if that’s too cold, acceptable or too hot for an engine. I’d be better off with just a range that looks similar to my gas guage without knowing what the exact number is.

Poor usability strikes again.

Check out this picture of a paper towel dispenser, sent to me by one of our engineers:

Unfortunately, I don’t have a larger picture, but it says: Please Try to Touch ‘No Touch’ Sensor Without Touching It

Now, I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t exactly seem easy or pleasant to use.

So you tell me. In your everyday experiences what kind of products do you come in contact with that lack usability?