Good design (and serial numbers)
Bosch puts the serial number for its dishwashers on the side of the door, not the top. Which means that 50% of the time, if the device is mounted in a corner, it's impossible to see the serial number.
Most companies use 0 and o and O in their serial numbers, as well as 1 and I. If they used nothing but letters, words in fact, there'd be no confusion. Make a list of 1000 short words, use each word twice and you have a million numbers. FISHY-LASSO, for example. Easy to remember, hard to screw up.
And there might be a reason to use really small type, but it's hard for me to understand why.
Of course, serial numbers are merely a symptom. I'm not particularly ranting about them. Design is about function. Everything we do has a job, and if it's designed properly, the job will get done well.
How to win an argument with a scientist
Make better science.
The act of being a scientist is the commitment to the scientific method, a series of hypotheses, tests and re-evaluations. When you make better science, the scientist's previous opinion doesn't matter, not if she's being a scientist.
On the other hand, if you want to win an argument with someone who refuses to act like a scientist, making better science isn't going to help you very much.
The person you're arguing with now (who might be a scientist during the day, even, but is merely being a person right now) is not going to be swayed from a firmly held opinion by your work to make better science. It's more likely that it will take cultural pressure, shame, passion, humor, connection and a host of unreliable levers to make your point.
