Those helpful 'gummint' people

They say that, as a rule, you should design web applications for use by the lowest common denominator – the morons, cretins etc – so as not to have your call centre inundated with people wanting to know which one is the ‘any’ key.

When I went to renew my car registration online yesterday I found our friends at the LTSA have well and truly taken this concept on board. Check out the ‘Quick Tips’ accompanying the Family Name and Date of Birth fields. Should I feel slighted? Or just proud that I didn’t need to check my license?

On a related (just) note, two nice little tidbits to help soak up the 70-odd working hours remaining until Christmas:

Call centre terminology: EBKAC defined (some of you will no doubt be pissed when you find out what this means)

Required reading for any Help Desk user or operator: Simon Travaglia’s ‘The Bastard Operator from Hell‘

Merry Christmas.