Suggestion for improvement / 
) we have: 
In the silk route
Tuesday, 30. May 2006, 15:07:04
In the "labour week" in China I was able to take vacations and go to Xinjiang, a region in the north-west of China (that does not feel like you are in China anymore).
It was an amazing experience and a very fun adventure, for the great people, for the interesting places and for the funny situations we encountered in the way.
I have gathered some pictures about those amusing, unusable, un-understandable or just funny items:
More chinglish, should it be read like "again ast"?
The emergency instructions:
And the winner for the "Hard of using"
award is: "The security instructions on the plane".
Two comments about this:
1. Usability serious error here.... TEXT IS HARDER TO READ IN UPPERCASE. When people is already demotivated about reading something long and boring, the worst you can do is to write it in upper case.
2.
My friend Sheila reading the manual of her new fancy digital camera. Yes, people still reads user manuals... they just need to have the correct
motivation!!
This picture (left) and the one above are from the map in the entrance of the Urumqi airport. I had a very hard time trying to find out my location on it until, after a while, I realized they had marked it with a blue spot. Very far away from my expectations...
I got this towel for the trip because it was very light. By the pattern I would guess it is for babies... why do they write:
I wonder if the "Coca cola" people is OK with this?
Sorry, if you are looking for the
From all the gadgets and electronic appliances I found in my trip, remote controls were the most challenging ones. How do you operate a remote control filled with buttons that do not have the simbols you recognize but their translation in Chinese characters? Anyway, in hotels they were kind enough to give us remote controls with latin characters... I just wonder what does the "CALL" button do. I tried it but could not make it work... That is why the winner for the "Junk"
award is: "The CALL button in the remote control"
People in Xinjiang writes with their own character set based on the arabic alphabet. The people in the bank decided that it was better to keep the system in chinese characters and put instructions of use in Uighur on the entrance... but of course, they could translate the system to english.
The "Setting an example"
award goes to: "The time-counter on the Xinjiang semaphores"
This was very cool! Not that people in the place cares much about red or green lights but, at least it tells you how long you have left to run for your life in green light.
More chinglish.... well, with that background I almost did not notice anyway...
This is a lable in the Jiaohe ruins.. it is the first tourist spot I have seen that says loud:
This is not a trash can, it is a "dust bin" ... I find it cute..
Among the many uses of this "Vertical Well" you can do something very useful:
"INTO" where?
I found this label on the plain's toilet. How do you "taxi" in a plane?
Very useful sign!!! This is one of my favourites on the trip... what is it supposed to mean??? I decided to understand it as:
This is not hand soap... it is a "cleanser"
The only frase book I could find for Uighur language was the very expensive "Central Asia - Lonely Planet". Instead of buying it, I found in the net this webpage with very useful frases to break the ice with locals in Xinjiang. That is why they deserve the "Highly usable"
award.
It was an amazing experience and a very fun adventure, for the great people, for the interesting places and for the funny situations we encountered in the way.
I have gathered some pictures about those amusing, unusable, un-understandable or just funny items:
More chinglish, should it be read like "again ast"?
The emergency instructions:
"B737-800 JUST IN CASE"
And the winner for the "Hard of using"
award is: "The security instructions on the plane".Two comments about this:
1. Usability serious error here.... TEXT IS HARDER TO READ IN UPPERCASE. When people is already demotivated about reading something long and boring, the worst you can do is to write it in upper case.
2.
If they cannot read the content how are they supposed to find it out?"Passengers assigned an exit seat may request reseating if they: ... cannot read or understand the content in this card."
My friend Sheila reading the manual of her new fancy digital camera. Yes, people still reads user manuals... they just need to have the correct
motivation!!
This picture (left) and the one above are from the map in the entrance of the Urumqi airport. I had a very hard time trying to find out my location on it until, after a while, I realized they had marked it with a blue spot. Very far away from my expectations...
I got this towel for the trip because it was very light. By the pattern I would guess it is for babies... why do they write:
in a towel for babies? Will they wrap the baby with it and expect this to motivate parents to play with the baby?..."Let's play with me"
I wonder if the "Coca cola" people is OK with this?
Sorry, if you are looking for the
you got to the wrong place.."Agricultural bank of China"
From all the gadgets and electronic appliances I found in my trip, remote controls were the most challenging ones. How do you operate a remote control filled with buttons that do not have the simbols you recognize but their translation in Chinese characters? Anyway, in hotels they were kind enough to give us remote controls with latin characters... I just wonder what does the "CALL" button do. I tried it but could not make it work... That is why the winner for the "Junk"
award is: "The CALL button in the remote control"Are you supposed to boil the water and, in case of need, boil it again with a different button? What if the water was boiled yesterday? What if you add more water to the "already boiled" one?How do you use the "BOIL AGAIN" button?
People in Xinjiang writes with their own character set based on the arabic alphabet. The people in the bank decided that it was better to keep the system in chinese characters and put instructions of use in Uighur on the entrance... but of course, they could translate the system to english.
The "Setting an example"
award goes to: "The time-counter on the Xinjiang semaphores"This was very cool! Not that people in the place cares much about red or green lights but, at least it tells you how long you have left to run for your life in green light.
... then the rest!!"Safty first"
More chinglish.... well, with that background I almost did not notice anyway...
This is a lable in the Jiaohe ruins.. it is the first tourist spot I have seen that says loud:
"No visiting, Keep off"
This is not a trash can, it is a "dust bin" ... I find it cute..
Among the many uses of this "Vertical Well" you can do something very useful:
...whatever that means..."Catch Local"
"INTO" where?
I found this label on the plain's toilet. How do you "taxi" in a plane?
Very useful sign!!! This is one of my favourites on the trip... what is it supposed to mean??? I decided to understand it as:
"If the white sign is turned on please go to your place. If the red light is turned on the flight attendant will bring you a glass of water"
This is not hand soap... it is a "cleanser"
... no idea what the result of pushing will be but it might be worth trying...Just "PUSH"
The only frase book I could find for Uighur language was the very expensive "Central Asia - Lonely Planet". Instead of buying it, I found in the net this webpage with very useful frases to break the ice with locals in Xinjiang. That is why they deserve the "Highly usable"
award.
WIDGETIZE