So, this story is from a year ago, but nothing has changed, and therefore I have every right to post it now. Plus, it's my blog. Last year, I was in Copenhagen to speak at the first CustomerSense conference, which was a real honor. Three things happened on that very short (less than 24 hours) trip that I can’t seem to shake. Two icky things which had nothing to do with the conference, and one lovely thing that had everything to do with the conference. Thing 1 is clearly icky.

I was exhausted. I flew to Copenhagen from London, where I gave the personas and getting from data to design seminars at the Nielsen/Norman Group conferences. The seminars went great, but it was two full days of being ‘on’ for big audiences, plus jetlag, plus sleeplessness…I was pooped. So I get on the plane to Copenhagen and spend my time worrying about giving the talk the next day (it’s remarkably hard to give a short talk on something you’ve just spent two full days talking about. That might qualify as a ‘Thing 4.’ We’ll see when we get there.) When I got off of the plane, I was dizzy with exhaustion. And when I’m tired, I’m incredibly susceptible to thinking the world is completely falling apart and nothing will ever be ok again.

Which is probably why I completely emotionally overreacted to my discovery that no, Denmark has not adopted the Euro. See, I HAD some Euros. I was all prepared. And then I get into the airport and see prices that were in the hundreds of thousands…and I realized I was actually totally unprepared. I had no idea what the exchange rate was. Which meant I had no idea how much a cab might cost. Which was enough to send me over the edge.

So I went to the cash machine—which offers only Danish as a language by the way. (And a note on that…why can’t my bank card remember that I choose English, oh, 100% of the time? Why on earth do I have to choose a language every time? And when I DO need a choice, like, say, in another country…I don’t get one?). After two attempts (I think I tried to get out the
equivalent of $5 the first time and maybe $5000 the second) I had a handful of Kroner. And still no idea what the exchange rate was.

And now you’re going to say ‘weren’t there those exchange rate boards that show what the exchange rates are?’ Yes of course there were. Am I the only person on the planet whose brain starts to spin uncontrollably when I look at one of those? Am I overthinking, or is it REALLY difficult to figure out how to read something that looks like this:

Figure 1: A typical currency conversion board–much like the one I encountered in Copenhagen. Source: jayex

And here’s an example from an online version that has some actual numbers in it (exchange rates as May 25, 2007):

Figure 2: Some real conversion numbers. Kroner are in the last row. Source: interchangefx

I have seen this kind of display dozens of times. And every time, it makes me feel intensely stupid. Or, actually, it makes me feel weirdly stoned, like the Necker Cube Illusion does:

Figure 3: The Necker Cube illusion. Is the blue dot on the front face of the cube or the back?

Why the comparison? Because I can’t figure out which way to read the first column:

• We will buy one dollar for 11.39 Krone AND/OR
• We will buy one Kroner for 11.39 dollars.

And let the spinning begin. If your conclusion, by the way, is that I’m an idiot, let’s remember for a moment the befuddlement of most weary travelers.

Why is this complex? Well here’s a reason. CORPORATE UNDERPANTS. “We buy” and “we sell” is the language of the currency conversion business, not the currency conversion customers. Is it REALLY so hard to make it clearer? Nope. I found some nice (not perfect, but nice) versions online.

Figure 4: A much better display of conversion rates. Source: xe

And look at this one

Figure 5: Aha! A wonderful, pocket-sized cheat sheet! Source: oanda

And maybe, why not a little helpful advice? Like:

Need a quick way to estimate how much things cost in another currency?

• Converting to dollars: Divide the cost in Kroner by 5. This will give you an estimate that is close but a little high.
• For example, 200KR/5 equals a little less than $40. (200/5=40)

Sure, the amount you divide by changes for each currency and perhaps every day. BUT, why not find the closest, easliy dividable or easily multipliable number and tell folks whether the result will be within a few dollars? And aren’t computers pretty good at figuring out how to update things like numbers on a daily basis?

I mean, we know the sentence travelers need to conjure every time they look at the price of something. Why can’t we finish the sentence instead of giving them raw data? I know that there are many currencies, and that most of the we buy/we sell boards show around 10 of them. I still think this is a very solvable problem (from a UI perspective). Convincing people to replace the conversion boards, which are fancy and full of LEDs, is where the real blocker is.

And yes, to finish this little story, it was basically that simple. Divide a Danish price by 5 and that number is pretty close—at least close enough—to the number of dollars the thing costs. Everything seemed just a little easier after i got a good night’s sleep.

Well, mostly. Stay tuned for ‘Thing 2,’ coming soon to a blog right in front of you.