Show HN: I redesigned the USPS package delivery slip
medium.com
medium.com
Side 1 has the relevant info time/date/what/etc
http://cdn1.alphr.com/sites/alphr/files/images/blogs/wp-cont...
Side 2 has contact information for your nearest post depot. Note that date/time is simply changed to 'hours' which saves space.
Fees to pay is actually a separate form (it's rare for most people to get this, so why waste space on form 1?):
https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/fee-to-pay-10-...
I think it's pretty clean and it's normally obvious what's happened/what you need to do. They follow a lot of the suggestions in the OP, for instance the who/what/where/when is obvious and at the top. Payment is another form, as above, and the options for getting your item are on the back. There's enough room for large entry boxes and nice whitespace/branding.
It seems like that the USPS form is trying to handle every single possibility in one form which leads to a mess.
http://i.imgur.com/pqmUdYE.jpg
I hate getting these, if I'm waiting for a package it means I have to wait another day and pick it up myself, if it's addressed to another family member and they're not around, the package is basically returned as they refuse to hand it over at the post office (understandable but inconvenient).
But generally the post is fascinating, I order lots of stuff from China and while it does take a few weeks to arrive, nothing has been lost/stolen yet, I can track packages half-way around the world and it costs me almost nothing. Logistically it's amazing.
//EDIT: these things: https://www.post.at/en/personal_receive_mail_collection_box....
In the actual, the fields where the poor guy/girl actually has to write are large spacious to allow the delivery person to write quickly (and sloppily).
Also, notice how Final Notice is bigger than the rest of the text? That's because it's important. This is one example of confusing typographical priority.
I'll just stop there.
For example, in your comment here, to make it less downvotable you could say:
* What do you like about the redesign? There must be something positive you can say, even if it's just "it definitely looks more visually appealing" or "I understand that you were trying to improve usability by putting more information on the same side".
* Do you have any evidence that supports your counter-argument? If not, you're just two people with opinions, and since you're not a well-known authority on usability it's just noise.
* What would you suggest doing to fix the problems you've said here while also fixing the problems that the OP identified? Or do you not agree that those problems are really problems?
I don't think intentionally trying to write in a way that doesn't provoke downvotes is helpful to a healthy discussion.
The post in question was direct, that's it.
While it is fair to suggest that the parent post highlight the positives, I don't think it is necessary always. Especially in light of 45 hearts on the medium post in support of the word. I'd say your last two points were addressed in the post as well...
So it shouldn't have mentioned voting at all.
If someone writes something without thinking about whether they'll be upvoted or downvoted, then that's great, even if I disagree with them. But writing with the explicit assumption that you'll be downvoted suggests that you're being contrarian.
As an example, I had a post where I said the concept of payday loans is not a bad one while simultaneously denouncing the predatory practices that payday loan companies employ. You borrow a small money for 15 days, pay back the loan plus 20% ($200 + 20% in fees and interest = $240), and call it a day. All it took was one post to say that I'm siding with the payday loan companies. The highest I saw was +3. It's currently sitting at -7. I think prefacing the post would have helped the vote count.
Prefacing a post acknowledging possible downvotes is a forewarning to readers that the poster is going against the grain - contrarian if you will - but not in way that's purely devil's advocate. It says to me, "I know what I'm about to say disagrees with you guys, but please hear me out." It's probably not the most eloquent way to express that idea. I have never seen it as a challenge though.
I would downvote my own comment if I could.
1. Entry spaces are now much smaller and requires smaller writing, particularly for names and addresses. I actually doubt that many addresses will fit.
2. By putting the checkboxes closer together, it makes it harder to tell them apart. The delivery person now has to be more precise when making marks, leading to reduced efficiency.
3. One of the biggest points is that everything the delivery person fills out should be on the same side, so they don't have to flip the sheet over, especially when they may be carrying a package in one arm.
Royal mail have got it down to a pretty good art:
http://cdn1.alphr.com/sites/alphr/files/images/blogs/wp-cont...
and earlier:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZKsGEgLdzMc/S-kztysmnJI/AAAAAAAAAL...
The main issue I have is that there is too much space devoted to telling you stuff you already know. You know the destination address because thats why you have the card. More importantly there isn't a space for a tracking number. (I assume the USPS has some sort of tracking.) surely that's the most important thing?
Dear _______ We missed you,
Your package __________ was:
[]too big []needs payment
[]needs signing for
and is now back at the post office.
[] I will try again AM/PM
[] The package will need collecting
Date_______ Time_______
Notes:
_______________________
_______________________
Much more simple, readable and compact. The flow of information is from top to bottom, most important who its addressed to, next why its not been delivered, then when its being delivered (if at all) Date and time of attempt, extra notes.
1. Particularly in apartment buildings where postboxes are next to each other, the slip may not be placed in the correct box. If I receive a slip that's intended for a neighbor, it would be helpful to know the correct address (since I probably don't know all my neighbors' names)
2. If the address is my address but not my name, then it's either a mistake by the sender or it's intended for a former resident, and I can inform USPS. If the address wasn't on the slip, I would just assume it was meant for a neighbor.
And here is the new one: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRR5bTwUYAE9Tkm.jpg:large
Additionally I like their email service: Get a mail as soon as somebody sends any package to your address. Get a second mail as soon as it is delivered.
https://www.post.ch/en/customer-center/all-online-services/b...
The key issue is that it seems busy. I think the form could sacrifice the increased font size (and generally standardize the font size and the font styles) and instead add more lines and shading that would help separate the different parts of the form. I think using lines, like the original document, is a stronger and clearer organizing tactic than font size. For example, more obvious headers (all caps? white on black background?) would help people break down the steps of what needs to be done.
But yeah, this is definitely an improvement, particularly on the UX side. Nice breakdown.
The redesign is much cleaner and easier to look at. Therefore being easier to process. This is something that is much less intimidating to look at and I would have no problem filling out while the original is daunting and seems like more of a chore, if not torture.
I really don't think that the OP's redesign does anything new, it just seems to be "I removed some stuff that's there for some very specific edge cases and wrote a Medium post about it".
Maybe it's because I'm used to Royal Mail's parcel slips, I don't know. But it looks just as confusing as before.
Ouch :(
Give it another go, take on board what people have said here about it looking to busy and get the form to have function and look good!
You can do the bit that some manager would hand over to a designer, that designer not necessarily as good as you at understanding the task, or the 'how it works' bit of design.
I've had a few dealings with CBP, IRS and such, and every time I try to read and comprehend a US government form, I notice that they all seem to be designed to have as little spacing as possible. They're very fond of using lines as dividers between fields (rather than around just the response box) and then putting them as close together as possible so it becomes a confusing, uneven mess. Sure, the form takes up fewer pages, but it's ugly as heck.
In Australia, OTOH, while the questions on one's paperwork are still just as tricky, at least it's usually clear which question you're answering and how the form is meant to flow.
I would just make the form say, "You can get this thing at the post office tomorrow. If you don't pick it up by XXX, it will be crushed into a cube."
Not exactly sure how this made the top 30.
Their budget has been destroyed over the years by Congress so there is no money for things like redesigning forms and reprinting them.
I've watched my main post office slowing implode on itself because all of USPS income is going back into funding future imaginary employee retirement funds (due to congressional law designed to destroy them).
It's the equivalent of your credit card company saying "we think we'll end up lending you $1m over the lifetime of the card, so can you pay us back all of that up front?"
Congress wants to force USPS to allow private corporations access to your mailbox and replace USPS entirely with privatized services.
Then congresspeople can use their re-legalized inside trading to invest in those private corporations ahead of time with the knowledge they are about to pass the law to make it legal.
For instance USPS should know what type of delivery it is, customer name, sender, addresses and whether it's a final notice or not. Why can't the postman / postwoman press a button in their car that prints a sticker with everything already filled in (without labels even; just a custom made sticker without all of this busy text).
Press button, slap the print out to the mailbox / house and you're done. Let the user call a number, text or go to a web site to setup the redelivery stuff.
It would also need to interface with their daily operations "out for delivery" db which likely is also proprietary and extremely expensive to modify, and already under an existing long term licensing contract they have no intention of changing.
Disclosure: this is how it worked at Postes Canada when I once worked there. All technology was long term licensed, through crony corps I had never heard of who only seemed to exist to receive money from CPC to sell extremely expensive systems that merely passed plain text to a db.
But progress isn't made when we sit there with our thumbs up our butts either. Essentially you're saying USPS can never be improved because contractors suck and because it's hard. That's unacceptable. It's hard yes but it's possible.
As far as body-worn printing of adhesive labels, I'm not aware of any product for that. Thermal print (on thermal paper, not thermal transfer printing) tends to fade very easily in sun or rain and would also be a problem.
When you give them a package (you don't have to bring it to the post office, you can give it to delivery people as well), they scan the label and print you a receipt (which also has the tracking number on it so you can track it).
The nice thing about that is that adding new features to the print-out (e.g. the opening hours mentioned before) is just a software update.
Some delivery services here also give you very accurate tracking with a delivery window that's just 15 minutes or so and you get the option to re-route the package online if you know you're not present during that time – or tell them to drop it off in a certain place (I have asked for non-fragile things to just thrown on our balcony in the first floor before; it's secure enough and I'd rather have a package instead of having to wait for redelivery or pick it up), or let them deliver to a neighbour.
All in all I think there are numerous possible improvements here and not all of them revolve around designing a better form that may be obsoleted by some of the better options.
First, we need to gather data regarding the frequency of leaving these notes. I suspect this is practically exceptional given the required costs associated with requiring a signature (only anecdotal but even more expensive purchases I've made almost never need a signature).
Once you collect data that's your baseline for the printer's reliability. It must work at a minimum that many times per delivery route (in practice it probably doesn't). There are dozens of options for small, portable printers that are relatively inexpensive. So even before you start custom designing a more reliable printer get the costs of purchasing them in bulk and pilot them in an area attached to mail carrier bags.
Fading / inking coming off would be an edge case; the vast majority of these notes are going to be basically warnings that you need to pick up your package or asking them to redeliver it and you have a very limited amount of time to do this before it gets sent back.
Packages have barcodes, have the printer scan that to instantly generate an appropriate label.
It's not the easiest thing in the world but I could put together a pilot for this inside of a week with proper USPS API access. Get into a fast iteration cycle, increase reliability of printers and prints, automate changing of ink and paper upon delivery route completion through some docking mechanism.
I almost want to just start building this thing, ha!
"Why did you come to this post office?"
"Because your form says to come to this post office. See right here on the slip..."
"This isn't your post office you need to go to (post office a few miles away)"
"OK, so why did you guys tell me to come here?"
"Sir if you want your package you have to go to the other post office."
"Whatever, thanks"
It's constant screw ups and interactions like this that generally cause me to avoid the USPS whenever possible.
You could do this with anything.. Facebook, HN, my kitchen, a newspaper. Some things could be better but don't need to be.
I decided to place all these sections at the top since you want to know this information first. I made it more readable by putting them within a single Mad-Libs style human-readable sentence. This is the main section the mail carrier will need to fill out, too, so it should also make her job quicker to have all the writing in one place.
Devious. I don't think I've come across a personal URL like that before.
It took me carefully looking at both sides for 10 seconds..
As the attempted re-design and the commentary shows, this is not an easy problem. It takes some serious effort and consideration of many use-cases.
Instead of someone trying to "Steve-Jobs" a redesign, perhaps the best thing to do would be to devise a process for coming up with a new design. To do something like this "right" requires actual study with users-- not just a designer applying his/her talents.
FWIW, I think the OP's redesign is more clear, but that's just my limited viewpoint, it doesn't mean that it would be successful over all possible use-cases.