“Compressor on”, how to label your reports more clearly

I just poured myself a cup of water from the water chiller. I noticed that it helpfully offers two temperatures of water and has a little light with “Compressor on” next to it. Why would you put this on a customer facing display?

What they really mean is “this water cooler is working and cooling water”, which you might shorten to “cooler on”. The person who wrote the original label clearly knows that a compressor is required to make the chiller chill, but does the customer know or care?

How many of your graphs, charts, reports and dashboards are labelled in a less than helpful way for the end-user?

1 Comment

  1. Avatar James Lawther on January 14, 2012 at 15:16

    A point very well made Bernie

    There is nothing quite like walking in your customers shoes, but if you can’t do that you could at least try to imagine what it would be like.

    James

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