As a response to the last post about questionable design regarding the external lift buttons, I thought I’d counter that with some good design from a set of mugs found on FireBox.com, a coffee or tea mug with colour charts for the drinker to specifically request a strength of drink. Brilliant. Clever. Gimmicky, but clever.

I think the clever bit about this product is that it’s taken a normal everyday item, analysed how people use it, identified certain issues or common scenarios, and then designed a solution for it. I like the way the colour chart is on the inside which makes it easy to compare (and fine-tune) the drink’s colour with the colour marker.

Whilst moving across the Sky campus I ran into a rather interesting bit of industrial design. This lift has its buttons on the outside of the lift. Once you’re inside the lift you’re only given buttons to open / close the doors. That’s a rather intriguing / daring design. Except I can’t think of a single instance where this design works better than the traditional ‘floor buttons on the inside of the lift’ design.

For instance, what happens if you pressed the wrong button? What happens if you change your mind? What happens if you don’t know which floor it is and you need to open the doors at a few floors to poke your head out? Not only can you not change your selection whilst you’re inside the lift, but you also can’t see which floors you’ve pressed.

All-in-all, I can understand why this design isn’t widespread. It’s an interesting alternative design but I do wonder how this design was researched, conceived, and tested.

This would be funnier if I wasn’t doing the same thing last night – almost.

Last night was possibly the worst commute I’ve ever had. I feel like I should note it down here so I remember just how bad it was. I blame South Eastern Rail but of course I’m totally ignorant of their issues and how much more they could have done. Another part of me thinks it snows every year and still the same issues arise. How is it that we can fly people to the moon, we can even clone human beings, but we can’t run a train service in the snow?

So this is how my journey played out last night. As a reference, the normal journey from my office – BskyB in Brentford, West London – to Hayes in Kent is normally made up of two train journeys of about 35 minutes each from Syon Lane to Waterloo then from Waterloo East to Hayes in Kent.

My journey from work to Waterloo was fine. Then the Waterloo East to Hayes leg was where things went a bit belly-up. First, we noticed the distinct lack of trains. All the trains were either canceled or delayed. Or worse, they’d suddenly disappear off the ‘next to depart’ screens – a form of commuter roulette where not until the last minute do you know if your train is arrive, has left, or changed platforms. No-one knew what was going on, particularly the station staff, who I do feel sorry for as they’re right on the front-line with regards to angry passengers.

So after a while of waiting for this seemingly-non-existent train (on a platform which must have been below 0 degrees celcius and with an arctic wind bellowing through) the station announcer told us to just get on the next train for London Bridge (where we should be able to get a train home). Ok, then. Sounds like a plan, we thought. We got on the next train. Incidentally this was a train that was on its way to Sandwich, and was already over 2 hours late. After having squeezed on the train, we soon realised this train wasn’t actually stopping at London Bridge at all. It went all the way to Sevenoaks. Where’s that you may wonder. I pulled out my iPhone and booted up Google Maps. When I saw where Sevenoaks was I almost cried. It’s outside the M25! And if to make things worse, one of the tightly-packed in passengers started to sing. Incidentally, this morning I heard that some unlucky passengers were stranded overnight in Sevenoaks. That could so easily have been me. Now I did enjoy the spirit of the people in the train, the camaraderie, the humour, the British spiri ….. actually, who am I kidding – I JUST WANTED TO GET HOME!

Aaaaannyway. So the train trundled along to Sevenoaks, passing loads of stations, which I knew were painfully close to home (that I wished they’d just stop at one of these and let me off). Finally we arrived at a desolate Sevenoaks station. Realising that trains were now becoming scarce we jumped on the first London-bound train straightaway. It was heading back to London Bridge, almost back where I started – a few hours later. Mindful of the crowds at London Bridge, I then jumped off this train at Orpington – a few miles from home. I went out looking for taxis. No taxis. Then the bus. No bus – although we didn’t realise this until having being stood there for 20 minutes. At this time, it’s dark, cold, still snowing, and getting late. The last thing on my mind was building snowmen. Snow is like rain – best enjoyed from inside your house, looking at it out the window with a warm drink in your hand.

Fellow bus-stop waiters turned and started walking. I asked them where. They said ‘Locks Bottom’. I asked how long that would take. They said two hours. TWO HOURS? In this weather? I turned the other direction and headed back to Orpington station.

At the station a handful of people were waiting for a London-bound train, including a family with young kids. Really felt for these guys. Hope they don’t get stranded in the cold. Anyway, after about 30 minutes waiting a train finally arrives. It went to London Bridge. I was just glad to be sitting in a warm carriage. Why don’t the stations have heaters or hot drinks for these types of events? Anyway.

We arrived at London Bridge. Loads of people. People who looked like they’ve been standing there a while. All cold and all waiting for train announcements. After about half an hour I went outside to see if there were taxis or buses running. Hardly any. Plus the queue for the taxis was pretty long. Took another look at the departures board. A train for Hayes! Actually running! Actually pulling in. Time to run. Got to the platform, massive crowds. Luckily Hayes isn’t a fashionable place to live so I got on the train and even managed to get a seat. Homeward-bound! I was so cold. You know sometimes when walking for the train you walk into a random bit of smelly but warm air (yes, that’s someone’s fart) at that moment in time I was so cold if someone came and farted on me, I’d have been eternally grateful. Despite wearing two pairs of socks, I was starting to lose feeling in my feet – ok, maybe a slight over-exaggeration but I was cold.

While on the train home, I had a thought. I thought ‘this is too straightforward – in fact this is too good to be true’. And it was. Then the driver came on the PA system. Rather sheepishly he announced that the snow after Elmers End (about 5 stops from home) was too thick for electricity to pass along the tracks. He said we’d have to stop at Elmers End, but don’t worry there’s replacement bus services to take us the rest of the way. Ah good. For once South Eastern have come up with a solution. So we get off at Elmers End. Still snowing, now darker and colder. We get off the train and go outside. One thing struck us. The distinct lack of buses. We searched all around the station and could not find a single bus. I’ve identified the lack of a bus as a fundamental flaw of a replacement bus service. With nowhere to go we started to walk … not even sure where. About 15 minutes later saw a cab, flagged it down in the style of ’24 Days Later’ and began crawling homeward bound. Was charged an extortionate rate for a few-mile journey. But let’s be honest, if he said £50 plus a naked bear hug, I would have agreed. We made it almost home – passing queues of abandoned lorries and cars along the way – when the snow got too thick. Got out and walked the rest of the way.

So there it was. The commute of champions. I’d done it. I now had the other issue of having to go to Heathrow to do a pick-up tomorrow morning. That was never going to happen in all seriousness …

We just watched ‘The Bucket List’ – starring Jack Nicholson an Morgan Freeman. It was quite a moving film about two oldish guys, two very different guys who are both told they have 6 months to live. They then create a bucket list of things they want to do before they die. Things like skydiving, see something majestic, kiss the most beautiful girl in the world, etc.

Have to say, the most moving bit – the most memorable bit – of the film for me was a bit where Morgan Freeman described how his marriage had become stale and all focused on the kids without them knowing. When the kids left he looked at his wife and couldn’t remember why he loved her in the first place. That scares me. It’s such an easy thing to happen. I’ve witnessed it happen first-hand. With our first child, now almost 9 months old, I can really understand how that can happen to a couple, and how I – as a husband – need to guard against that from happening. Before you know it 30 years have passed.

I and the guys who watched the movie made our own Bucket Lists. Most list items involved spending time with friends and family. We set ourselves the challenge of making a list of 3 things. For a long time I could only think of 1 – ‘to spend every single remaining moment I could with those who truly mattered to me. My family and friends’. At the time of writing the list, all I could think about were my wife and little girl. All the stuff about going to places, eating nice food … that didn’t really appeal.

None of our lists contained anything work or career related and I’ve kept hold of that piece of paper as a reminder. You don’t want to be making that list when time is about to run out. Identify what really matters to you and use your time wisely doing these things.