There is an ongoing and tedious debate at the pedantic end of the usability engineering community about how many ‘titles’ to include in a DDL listing. Three? Mr Mrs Ms? Or maybe we should add Dr? Maybe Professor? (etc. ad infinitum…)
Me, well I’m less bothered about this minutiae of detail, I think a decently inclusive short list will probably be good enough, and I’d rather concentrate on the bigger aspects of design - models and ideas thinking - rather than these details which frankly will never be perfected. So I’d leave it to someone else.
But sometimes, some bloody idiot will make a wholehearty mess by listing every title in the book, including HRH! In this case, it is Bupa International who take the booby prize with 57 (count them!) varieties of title. And they spelt Commodore wrong!
So, HRH Queen Elizabeth , would you like your heath insurance to cover all your family, or just your husband?
RSS Feed
Tsk, I can’t believe they don’t even have ‘High Priestess” or “Mafia Boss”.
Comment by Jim Amos — August 28, 2005 @ 8:37 pm
What?! They included “Brigadier” but not “General”? “Commodore” but not “admiral”? Well, in their defense they did include an “other(free format)” option… so admiral James can make sure he has a proper title on his individual quote e-mail.
Comment by Nick Lewis — August 28, 2005 @ 10:54 pm
Dear goodness, that’s hilarious.
(Though I would point out that Queen Elizabeth II is not HRH (His/Her Royal Highness refers to a Prince or Princess), but rather HRM, ie. Her Royal Majesty. You’d think they could have fitted that title in too, surely?
)
Comment by Sepherenia — August 29, 2005 @ 1:05 am
LOL, classic!
I love the “THE” title… I’m going for that one whenever possible.
Comment by THE Bruce — August 29, 2005 @ 8:19 am
“And they spelt Commodore wrong!”
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
:)
Comment by Baldo — August 29, 2005 @ 3:14 pm
Alas, the Pope and any Sheiks will have to use the ‘other’ field.
Comment by James — August 31, 2005 @ 3:24 am
Another thing, I notice the have “executors of” in their list. Does this mean they’ll sell health insurance to a dead person!?
Comment by Damien — September 1, 2005 @ 12:58 am
Not just that, but their site is horribly broken if you don’t allow cookies:
Comment by Faruk Ates — September 1, 2005 @ 10:30 am
“The Very Reverend”???
Comment by Daniel — September 3, 2005 @ 3:07 am
[…] BoxCar Headlight ‘Error’ DialogThe Vision of Good User Experience Redux - The Nod from The DonJohn Lewis Gift List - 37 Varieties - A Title Challenge!Bupa International - 57 Varieties of TitleThe Flying Spaghetti MonsterPanlogic - IntelligentMarketing? - Oops!Jakob say "Amazon No Longer the Role Model for E-Commerce Design" September 5, 2005 […]
Pingback by Form Function Emotion » John Lewis Gift List - 37 Varieties - A Title Challenge! — January 11, 2007 @ 9:59 pm