Imagine walking down the street. You see a shop, you're interested, and you walk in the door.
Only you find another door just inside, and it's locked. You try the door in frustration - I mean, why would they have an open front door, but be locked inside? Then you turn to leave, and find the door behind you won't open, either.
Trapped!
Not a nice feeling, really. And that's why "Don't trap the user" is one of the basic rules of usability. Given that, it's surprising how often you find users trapped in software cycles of misery.
I encountered one of those today, and it was a doozy.
My son decided he wanted to play DC Universe Online, as he'd discovered it was now free to play. Fine, no issue, I found the site, downloaded the software, and installed it. Apart from a weird error that keeps telling me I've got out of date Flash software when I don't, all works well.
The software starts up, and offers me the choice of logging in, or creating a new account. I create a new account, and it asks me to enter my date of birth.
Now, I'll digress slightly, and state that one of the most obvious signs you're getting old is when you have to scroll WAY down the list of years to select your date of birth. So there I am, scrolling down, when the mouse falls off the scrollbar - and for some reason, the form processes automatically, with 2002 selected. So now the software thinks I'm only 9 years old, and tells me politely that I can't sign up, as I'm under age. It also tells me if I'm seeing this error by mistake, I can contact Support.
Nice. Remember, I didn't process the form with the wrong date, I simply clicked off the listbox by mistake and the smart software did the rest. And now I'm stuck. There are no options to go back and re-enter the date of birth, you can only cancel and quit.
I close the software, and re-open it, but the smart software has remembered the incorrect data - again, I'm told that I'm under age, so I can't sign up.
In frustration I quit, uninstall the software, then reinstall it (ignoring the 'you've got out of date Flash' error messages), and discover that the game makers have been a little smarter than that. Again, I'm too young, and I cannot sign up.
So, now I can choose to do one of two things - give up, or contact support, and wait several days to see if they bother to respond. You can probably guess which option I chose. And given that the game is supposedly suffering from a lack of players and looking to expand, that makes it a double tragedy.
I can see why decisions like this are made - somebody somewhere decided that they would close the door on kids creating false accounts, stating they are older than they are. Kid tries to sign up, sees he is too young, so falsifies his date of birth. I can understand that.
Equally, I can see that kids are way smarter than that, and would mostly choose to enter an older D.O.B. to start with. And the cost of putting this child-trap into the software is losing customers who are completely valid. You can put bear-traps all around your building to keep away burglars, but don't be surprised if you take out a fair few paying customers, too.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Why UX is becoming UR
When I first started working in this industry back in 1997, we were a Usability company. Pretty much everyone we met asked what that actually meant, and we had to explain that we were about making things easier to use.
Nowadays we are a UX company (with UX standing for User Experience), and little has changed. We still have to explain to many people what that means, and we still say it's (mostly) about making things easier to use. Sure, the 'experience' is sometimes not about easier, it's about faster, or more exciting, or more rewarding, or less error prone - but mostly, it's about making things easier to use.
What has changed though, is what many people are seeing as the role of UX in a project.
Let me start by explaining, in very simple terms, what is needed to craft a positive user experience:
Nowadays we are a UX company (with UX standing for User Experience), and little has changed. We still have to explain to many people what that means, and we still say it's (mostly) about making things easier to use. Sure, the 'experience' is sometimes not about easier, it's about faster, or more exciting, or more rewarding, or less error prone - but mostly, it's about making things easier to use.
What has changed though, is what many people are seeing as the role of UX in a project.
Let me start by explaining, in very simple terms, what is needed to craft a positive user experience:
- Identifying who the user is (sometimes multiple segments)
- Identifying what they need
- Designing/prototyping how that could work
- Testing that design
- Improving if necessary (and repeating this process, if necessary)
- Building and launching
Now it is often the case that the budget for this full process is not available - in fact, the full process only occurs a fraction of the time, in my experience - but the central tenet of the concept is that the user is at the centre of this picture. We are designing a positive experience for the user.
However, increasingly UX is being used as a badge, the safety and authority of that process placed onto any design project, no matter how small the actual input. In these cases, it's less UX and more UR - Under Resourced, Under Researched and 'Under the Radar'.
It is not uncommon to see projects where the entire UX effort consists purely of designing wireframes. Yes, technically that is crafting a User Experience - but crafting is only part of the process! Where is the research, to validate the needs of the end user? Where is the prototyping, to knock out the design flaws early on? Where is the testing, to ensure you got it right?
I'm not saying that UX has to always be part of the process - budget alone will often exclude that - and I'm equally not saying that the full process must be used every time. What I am saying is that when the 'light' version is used, sans research and testing, this should be made extremely clear.
I was recently invited to work on a project where there was no time or budget for anything except wireframing - in the words of the agency, I had to "just build it - there's no time for anything else". Which I may well have done, if they hadn't also asked me to tell their end client not to worry, since we were building UX into the project from the 'ground up'.
The label 'Made in Australia' has received a lot of criticism lately, because of the duplicitous use some companies have put it to. It can mean made overseas and packaged here, made here from source ingredients made overseas, or worse. It lost all credibility.
The label UX is in danger of losing credibility in the same way.
To my mind, UX has become a convenient label for any aspect of the design and build process that uses terms such as 'wireframe' or 'specification'. In covering everything that the user experiences, it has come to be associated with anything done to create that.
So it's time to understand that there are four aspects to good user experience, and that all four are required to really deliver the best possibly outcome. Just like supermarket labelling, it's time for clarity in project delivery. These elements are:
- UX: Research
- UX: Design
- UX: Test
- UX: Build
I don't think we need to get to the point of food labelling (contains 2g of Research per 100 users), but I do think we need to be clear about what elements are included in any project. I think this is key for providers, for agencies, but most importantly for end clients paying for these services.
It's time that the term UX was - well, easier to use.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Welcome to ME Bank
This month we welcome ME Bank as the latest customer to join the Fore.
ME Bank is an online banking service built on the same principles as industry super funds, a bank that provides a real alternative to the profit-driven big banks. We're proud to be helping ME Bank identify and deliver leading user experience in their online services. Welcome aboard!
ME Bank is an online banking service built on the same principles as industry super funds, a bank that provides a real alternative to the profit-driven big banks. We're proud to be helping ME Bank identify and deliver leading user experience in their online services. Welcome aboard!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
One good example: Beautiful usability
I often write about poor user experience, so today it's a pleasure to write about a wonderful experience in gaming, a pure example of getting it right.
This week I picked up a game on the iPad, called Contre Jour. The game is an excellent example of crafting an experience that is wonderful to look at, engaging, fun and so simple to learn that you never feel too challenged.
Visually the game breaks some rules - mostly black and white or sepia with limited content and not much going on, it still manages to present an exotic, interesting and engaging environment perfectly. Emotionally it engages instantly, evoking a sense of nostalgia and sadness that's hard to ignore. Aurally this is backed up by a lilting soundtrack that tugs gently at the heart-strings. A sad, unmoving main character focuses that emotion, and before you know it you're drawn in to see what's going to happen next.
From a usability perspective, there is a challenge here - although the main aim of the game is to make this character move around the screen, you can't affect him directly. Instead you must morph the landscape and use various swing and sling devices to get him to where you need him to be. So, how is that communicated to the user?
Expertly, as it happens.
Small, clear hints appear as needed, one step at a time, in context to the element you need to learn. The first time you need to morph the landscape a finger appears with text asking you to slide your finger to modify the ground - with an arrow, confirming the direction. Move your finger, and after a few seconds the note disappears. As you morph the landscape, an outline appears around it so you can see just how far it will deform. Across the screen a flower grows next to the exit point, it's tip a black arrow pointing towards the exit.
Simple, clean, visually hard to miss. And emotionally incredibly pleasing to play. As you deform the landscape the character - who consists of a small ball, a cape and one blinking eyeball - makes noises that suggest emotional responses to your actions - he laughs when he swings, gets angry when he falls, looks bored when you do nothing.
The menu system consists of just a few icons - rewind (to replay the level), FastForward (to move to the next one), and a series of squares (to see the list of levels and choose).
More hints appear as you move through each level, each only when needed, and only until you've taken note and used them. The game proceeds on a wonderful curve of difficulty that has you deeply engaged before it starts to become difficult enough to slow you down.
In my opinion, this is a perfect example of getting user experience right. The game is so simple my five year old understood it instantly, and yet is challenging enough that both adults in the house are stumped halfway through. It's emotionally engaging enough that you love the experience, and feel a connection to the 'little round dude'. It's unique enough that it brings great interest to the table, and it uses interface communication perfectly, to the point where it almost doesn't feel like there's an interface there at all.
Great game, great experience.
This week I picked up a game on the iPad, called Contre Jour. The game is an excellent example of crafting an experience that is wonderful to look at, engaging, fun and so simple to learn that you never feel too challenged.
Visually the game breaks some rules - mostly black and white or sepia with limited content and not much going on, it still manages to present an exotic, interesting and engaging environment perfectly. Emotionally it engages instantly, evoking a sense of nostalgia and sadness that's hard to ignore. Aurally this is backed up by a lilting soundtrack that tugs gently at the heart-strings. A sad, unmoving main character focuses that emotion, and before you know it you're drawn in to see what's going to happen next.
From a usability perspective, there is a challenge here - although the main aim of the game is to make this character move around the screen, you can't affect him directly. Instead you must morph the landscape and use various swing and sling devices to get him to where you need him to be. So, how is that communicated to the user?
Expertly, as it happens.
Small, clear hints appear as needed, one step at a time, in context to the element you need to learn. The first time you need to morph the landscape a finger appears with text asking you to slide your finger to modify the ground - with an arrow, confirming the direction. Move your finger, and after a few seconds the note disappears. As you morph the landscape, an outline appears around it so you can see just how far it will deform. Across the screen a flower grows next to the exit point, it's tip a black arrow pointing towards the exit.
Simple, clean, visually hard to miss. And emotionally incredibly pleasing to play. As you deform the landscape the character - who consists of a small ball, a cape and one blinking eyeball - makes noises that suggest emotional responses to your actions - he laughs when he swings, gets angry when he falls, looks bored when you do nothing.
The menu system consists of just a few icons - rewind (to replay the level), FastForward (to move to the next one), and a series of squares (to see the list of levels and choose).
More hints appear as you move through each level, each only when needed, and only until you've taken note and used them. The game proceeds on a wonderful curve of difficulty that has you deeply engaged before it starts to become difficult enough to slow you down.
In my opinion, this is a perfect example of getting user experience right. The game is so simple my five year old understood it instantly, and yet is challenging enough that both adults in the house are stumped halfway through. It's emotionally engaging enough that you love the experience, and feel a connection to the 'little round dude'. It's unique enough that it brings great interest to the table, and it uses interface communication perfectly, to the point where it almost doesn't feel like there's an interface there at all.
Great game, great experience.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Dad = Technical Support
My household is, perhaps unsurprisingly, relatively loaded with gadgets. In fact at the last count we have one Mac, two PC's, four laptops, one netbook, two tablets (One IPad, one Android), three iPods, one iPhone, two Android phones, six standard phones of different kinds and a host of other odds and ends (including wirelessly connected Xbox and Wii game consoles). There are three different versions of Windows operating system, one Mac operating system, and two tablet operating systems (or four, if you count the flavours of Android on the smart phones).
Add to that one wireless network with Network Attached Storage, an ADSL connection and several large backup devices.
I'm betting there are small businesses with less I.T. to manage than that.
And I don't think my household is too far from the norm - add a few children to the mix, and many households would have a similar level of technology to deal with. Most importantly for me, this highlights a huge gap in our current technology marketplace - technical support.
Whilst some of those devices are relatively self supporting (the Wii and Xbox, for example), the majority of them need to go through a range of support steps every month. The laptops, PC's, Mac and Netbook all need to be regularly patched, and most of them also need to have protection software installed, updated and run. Two of the laptops run proprietary checking software suits which also need to be run. They regularly need to be disk checked and cleaned up, as the kids overload the hard drives or damage software with the 'instant off' button press of doom.
In my house, those tasks regularly fall to me. Usually, a child approaches with a sullen look on their face and a laptop in hand, saying something along the lines of "Dad, it's not working!" They pass the offending laptop to me, and I then start trying to figure out why.
On a good day that's a relatively short ten minutes of killing an app that might have locked up, or maybe just rebooting. On a bad day it might entail catching up on several weeks worth of Windows Updates, updating virus/spyware software, running virus/spyware checks, rebooting several times, installing new software, removing something dodgy, rebooting several more times, and finally surrendering the still non-functional laptop with a shrug of my shoulders and a promise to look at it again later.
And before you cry Apple, the iPods can be just as bad - missing apps and apps that once worked but suddenly stopped, accounts that mysteriously refuse to accept known passwords, and many more problems abide.
If you happen to work around technology or have years of experience, then you have some hope of getting around many of these issues - but when you have a home fool of kit that all needs attention and a bunch of kids who all press the 'later' button when updates appear, then hope seems to fade.
Ease of use isn't just about the interface, it's about the entire experience. If you can start up a laptop and do everything you need to do, that's great. But the entire experience with that laptop includes supporting it and integrating it into your home. It includes fixing it when things go wrong, and getting that MP3 player to work with it seamlessly. It includes figuring out how to back it up to an external hard drive in a way that you can restore easily, and it includes helping you recover when things go wrong.
Sure, I can train everyone in the home to learn how to run updates and how to connect to the NAS - and believe me, I try - but that's not the point. The point is, our lives shouldn't be made ever more complex by a wide range of devices. Technology should enrich our lives, not drag us into the mire. There is a need for a layer of smarts between us and these many devices, that simplifies and manages for us. And it's something I'd love to design.
Add to that one wireless network with Network Attached Storage, an ADSL connection and several large backup devices.
I'm betting there are small businesses with less I.T. to manage than that.
And I don't think my household is too far from the norm - add a few children to the mix, and many households would have a similar level of technology to deal with. Most importantly for me, this highlights a huge gap in our current technology marketplace - technical support.
Whilst some of those devices are relatively self supporting (the Wii and Xbox, for example), the majority of them need to go through a range of support steps every month. The laptops, PC's, Mac and Netbook all need to be regularly patched, and most of them also need to have protection software installed, updated and run. Two of the laptops run proprietary checking software suits which also need to be run. They regularly need to be disk checked and cleaned up, as the kids overload the hard drives or damage software with the 'instant off' button press of doom.
In my house, those tasks regularly fall to me. Usually, a child approaches with a sullen look on their face and a laptop in hand, saying something along the lines of "Dad, it's not working!" They pass the offending laptop to me, and I then start trying to figure out why.
On a good day that's a relatively short ten minutes of killing an app that might have locked up, or maybe just rebooting. On a bad day it might entail catching up on several weeks worth of Windows Updates, updating virus/spyware software, running virus/spyware checks, rebooting several times, installing new software, removing something dodgy, rebooting several more times, and finally surrendering the still non-functional laptop with a shrug of my shoulders and a promise to look at it again later.
And before you cry Apple, the iPods can be just as bad - missing apps and apps that once worked but suddenly stopped, accounts that mysteriously refuse to accept known passwords, and many more problems abide.
If you happen to work around technology or have years of experience, then you have some hope of getting around many of these issues - but when you have a home fool of kit that all needs attention and a bunch of kids who all press the 'later' button when updates appear, then hope seems to fade.
Ease of use isn't just about the interface, it's about the entire experience. If you can start up a laptop and do everything you need to do, that's great. But the entire experience with that laptop includes supporting it and integrating it into your home. It includes fixing it when things go wrong, and getting that MP3 player to work with it seamlessly. It includes figuring out how to back it up to an external hard drive in a way that you can restore easily, and it includes helping you recover when things go wrong.
Sure, I can train everyone in the home to learn how to run updates and how to connect to the NAS - and believe me, I try - but that's not the point. The point is, our lives shouldn't be made ever more complex by a wide range of devices. Technology should enrich our lives, not drag us into the mire. There is a need for a layer of smarts between us and these many devices, that simplifies and manages for us. And it's something I'd love to design.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Vehicle overload - the warning signs
It's not until you watch someone learn to drive a car that you realise just how complex the task really is.
I have a 17 year old daughter who recently passed her test - after many hours of nervous invisible peddle-stamping from me - and a slightly younger son who will be starting out on the same path in the not-so-distant future. Seeing the complexity of driving through their eyes is a bit of a - well, an eye opener.
And it's soon going to become even more complex.
Technology is available today that adds layers of augmented reality to the driving experience - HUD overlays being just one example. Forward-looking radar, backward-looking cameras and augmented night-vision cameras can all help us to become more aware of what's around us. Automated controls can automatically apply breaks to avoid a collision.
This article on Cnet.com.au explains another angle being applied by Ford, inter-car communication to avoid collisions. In the demo that Ford gave, cars communicated with each other about dangers on the road - stalled vehicles in your lane, sudden breaking, cars approaching from the side in a junction, etc. These communications of danger alerted the driver with sounds and warning lights.
Teaching a 17-year-old to drive is complicated, because they have to learn:
I have a 17 year old daughter who recently passed her test - after many hours of nervous invisible peddle-stamping from me - and a slightly younger son who will be starting out on the same path in the not-so-distant future. Seeing the complexity of driving through their eyes is a bit of a - well, an eye opener.
And it's soon going to become even more complex.
Technology is available today that adds layers of augmented reality to the driving experience - HUD overlays being just one example. Forward-looking radar, backward-looking cameras and augmented night-vision cameras can all help us to become more aware of what's around us. Automated controls can automatically apply breaks to avoid a collision.
This article on Cnet.com.au explains another angle being applied by Ford, inter-car communication to avoid collisions. In the demo that Ford gave, cars communicated with each other about dangers on the road - stalled vehicles in your lane, sudden breaking, cars approaching from the side in a junction, etc. These communications of danger alerted the driver with sounds and warning lights.
Teaching a 17-year-old to drive is complicated, because they have to learn:
- How to move the vehicle
- How to stop the vehicle
- How to extend their awareness of 'me' to include a huge piece of equipment far wider and longer than they are
- How to communicate with other vehicles (indicators, etc.) and how to predict the movement of other vehicles in return
- How to obey road rules and control a vehicle within them
- How (and when) to use in-car control systems
- How to use, interpret and respond to augmented reality layers
- How to respond to and manage automated behaviours (breaking or steering)
- How to respond to and manage inter-car warnings and communication
I had an argument with someone recently on LinkedIn, about the future of cars and safety. My argument was that one day accidents should be pretty much avoidable entirely, he argued not.
I still believe I was right; car technology is approaching a level where vehicles can automatically avoid other vehicles and objects by steering, breaking and accelerating. Google has played with driverless cars to assist with mapping, and other car companies have tested similar technology. It is not going to be too long before commercially available cars have the capability to drive in a fashion safer than we as humans could manage.
But until that time - and I think it's at least a few years, possibly even a few decades away - we will have to manage an increasingly complicated set of feedback and safety mechanisms embedded in our family vehicle.
For that reason, usability and UX are going to become increasingly crucial in the applications of these technologies.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Don't you just love....?
We all have pet hates, something that makes steam come out of your ears. One of those, for me, is careless voice messaging.
You know the drill. Your phone tells you you've got voicemail. You dial the number, and someone chats away for a minute or two telling you who they are, and why they've called. Then, when it reaches the end, they leave their number.
Only for some reason, it seems they're in some form of competition where the winner is the person who can spit out their phone numbers as fast as is humanly possible. What you here is something like:
"...so if you can give me a call that will be great, my landine's ohtwofourdoublethreesixohtwo or mobile ohfourfourohsixtwothreetriplemumble"
Which might be so bad, if it didn't all come out on the short side of three seconds.
So, you grind your teeth, wait till the voicemail menu comes up - because if you're like me you can never remember what number rewinds the message, and guessing will only delete it instead - hit the key, then wait interminably as the message plays all over again. Pen poised, you listen to this long pointless message a second time, then madly start writing when the verbal diarrhea kicks in.
If you're lucky you get maybe half the number written down. So then you hit that rewind button again, listen the inane message again, and hope you can get the rest of the numbers this time. And if you're anything like me, it often takes a third replay before you get it all.
Spending five painful minutes trying to catch the telephone number of someone who you probably don't particularly want to call anyway is amazingly frustrating. How hard can it possibly be to start your message with a clear "Hi, my name is Charlie, my number is oh, two, nine..." etc. If you were stood in front of someone and they had a pen to hand you wouldn't scream it out as one nine syllable word in half a second, you'd never be so rude - so why do it in a message?
From now on, the 'last-minute-number-blurrers' are getting deleted from my message box instead of getting called back. Maybe if we all do they same they'll learn and stop.
So, what are your pet hates..?
You know the drill. Your phone tells you you've got voicemail. You dial the number, and someone chats away for a minute or two telling you who they are, and why they've called. Then, when it reaches the end, they leave their number.
Only for some reason, it seems they're in some form of competition where the winner is the person who can spit out their phone numbers as fast as is humanly possible. What you here is something like:
"...so if you can give me a call that will be great, my landine's ohtwofourdoublethreesixohtwo or mobile ohfourfourohsixtwothreetriplemumble"
Which might be so bad, if it didn't all come out on the short side of three seconds.
So, you grind your teeth, wait till the voicemail menu comes up - because if you're like me you can never remember what number rewinds the message, and guessing will only delete it instead - hit the key, then wait interminably as the message plays all over again. Pen poised, you listen to this long pointless message a second time, then madly start writing when the verbal diarrhea kicks in.
If you're lucky you get maybe half the number written down. So then you hit that rewind button again, listen the inane message again, and hope you can get the rest of the numbers this time. And if you're anything like me, it often takes a third replay before you get it all.
Spending five painful minutes trying to catch the telephone number of someone who you probably don't particularly want to call anyway is amazingly frustrating. How hard can it possibly be to start your message with a clear "Hi, my name is Charlie, my number is oh, two, nine..." etc. If you were stood in front of someone and they had a pen to hand you wouldn't scream it out as one nine syllable word in half a second, you'd never be so rude - so why do it in a message?
From now on, the 'last-minute-number-blurrers' are getting deleted from my message box instead of getting called back. Maybe if we all do they same they'll learn and stop.
So, what are your pet hates..?
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Video media - how to wake the baby
I'm a bit of a news junky, and I have several sites that I tend to visit - prime amongst these are the BBC News site, and the Sydney Morning Herald. I've been wondering lately just how high the price for online media should be, when it comes to news stories on sites such as these.
There was a day (oh, Glorious day) when you would visit a news story containing embedded video. You'd hit the button, the video would play, you'd watch it, and the transaction was done. Media consumed, transaction completed.
Nowadays we're all becoming conditioned to seeing a three-stage process. Your media now comes after an advertisement, followed by a short 'channel brand' message. Watch the ad, the message, and then you can watch the media.
It delays your media by 30-45 seconds, but nothing too onerous - unless, of course, you're trying to watch a number of media items altogether; something I have, unfortunately for me, tried. Imagine tv with an ad break every 45 seconds - fun, huh?
But even this isn't enough, it seems.
Some time back, the Sydney Morning Herald began running the media embedded on pages automatically. You'd view a page, start reading, then within a few seconds a loud and intrusive ad would begin to play.
The only way to stop this was to learn a new behaviour; if you opened a page with embedded media you needed to wait a second or two until the 'click here to NOT play' message appeared over the media, hit it, and then you could safely move down the page and read. This is far from good user experience. There is a clear transaction occurring when I do decide to watch. It's not ideal, and some would argue it's weighted far too heavily against us, but there is a clear transaction involved in watching one ad to see one piece of online content.
But it gets worse.
Recently, the SMH.com.au website has started playing ads that can't even be paused. That means if you forget to hit the Don't play button, you're stuck with an ad playing for 30 seconds or so, with zero control over pausing or stopping the sound. Remember, that can happen after you've scrolled down a page and you're in the middle of reading the article itself.
So now not only do we not get control over watching the media directly, not only do we not get control over whether to actually watch it at all, but we also don't get control to stop the media if we don't manage to head it off at the pass.
And it gets worse still - because the Herald site also doesn't want you to turn the audio down - I mean, what's the point in forcing you to see an ad you don't want to see if you go and mute it, right? So although the volume and mute controls are there and can be used, they are as effective as - well, as an ad you are forced to watch at gun point.
As happened to me this week, this leads to potentially nasty viewing. You're quietly surfing with the baby sleeps, you're skimming stories, and all of a sudden a guy starts shouting about the benefits of the latest Holden car. You scroll up and desperately try to hit the pause, but nothing happens. You reach for the volume controls, but nothing happens, you hit the mute but still nothing happens, so in desperation you hit the Back button, and a couple of seconds later the audio finally stops. Five seconds after that the baby wakes, and your night is completely wrecked - thanks to an ad you didn't want to see attached to media you didn't even request watching.
Personally it's causing me to switch news sites. I love the content at SMH, but I'm getting pretty fed up having to outfox intrusive ads for media I don't even want to see. Reading the news shouldn't be as painful as this...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Event Cinemas - shame on you!!!
There's nothing like poor user experience to really wind me up - especially when I encounter it as a customer, and feel the full force of stupid design / poor performance slapping me in the face. This week, it's the turn of Event Cinemas.
A few weeks back I received a newsletter from Event, offering tickets at $7 if you pre-purchased. You could then use them during February and March. Being a regular popcorn muncher at the local Greater Union, I bought a few.
This week I tried to use the tickets to book into a movie with the kids - and got slapped in the face with some poor usability.
Everything proceeded with my purchase pretty well, until I reached the critical payment stage. I had two pre-purchased tickets (with codes that needed entering), one free ticket I'd had stacked up for a while, and had to buy the forth one. But when I reached the payment stage, the site inexplicably asked me to enter 112 pre-pay ticket codes - and refused to let me proceed unless I entered them all. Only having two codes, that was a bit of a problem.
Even worse, when I tried again - reasoning that the problem was either the browser or the session - the seats I'd chosen were all blocked out, and I couldn't choose them again. I had to wait ten minutes, and try again.
On the third attempt I finally realised that neither Chrome nor Firefox was going to get me across the line, and there was a serious problem. By this point though there was only an hour or two until the movie, and others coming with us had already purchased their tickets. It wasn't looking good.
I needed help.
And of course, like all terrible web user experiences, help was anything but close at hand.
There's a Help section - which is good - but no obvious links to get help now, which is bad.
There's a Website category for help - which is good - but it has zero topics in it, which is bad.
I can find out about refunds - which is good - but not about how to get help actually buying tickets, which is bad.
There's a Contact us link - which is good - but it's buried at the bottom of the page, in the same font as standard text, with no visibility, and it leads only to a bog-standard email form, from which you would reasonably expect a response within two to three days, which is very, very, VERY bad.
In the end I figured it out. I took a punt that trying to use the two pre-purchase tickets at the same time as trying to buy another was throwing the system a curve ball, even though it patently said this was okay. I bought the four tickets in two separate chunks, and everything worked well. It cost me a couple of hours of messing around, but eventually I got there fine.
I can excuse bugs. Even the best designed websites and the most frequently tested systems can go wrong, especially in strange conditions. I can even excuse a lack of customer awareness; I've spent, at a conservative estimate, well over $600 at this local cinema in the past year - hey, five kids and two adults who occasionally get time off can consume a fair amount of Hollywood, let me tell you. I'd love it if the site recognised that, and tried in some way to make me feel my problems were slightly more important to them than a first time visitor - but I can live with the fact that rarely happens online.
What I can't forgive is a web service that fails to deliver a core function it is clearly designed for, and then makes it impossible to get help or recover in any way. Error text and 112 requests for codes I didn't have is not exactly a good impression to leave customers with.
Shame on you, Event Cinemas, shame on you....
A few weeks back I received a newsletter from Event, offering tickets at $7 if you pre-purchased. You could then use them during February and March. Being a regular popcorn muncher at the local Greater Union, I bought a few.
This week I tried to use the tickets to book into a movie with the kids - and got slapped in the face with some poor usability.
Everything proceeded with my purchase pretty well, until I reached the critical payment stage. I had two pre-purchased tickets (with codes that needed entering), one free ticket I'd had stacked up for a while, and had to buy the forth one. But when I reached the payment stage, the site inexplicably asked me to enter 112 pre-pay ticket codes - and refused to let me proceed unless I entered them all. Only having two codes, that was a bit of a problem.
Even worse, when I tried again - reasoning that the problem was either the browser or the session - the seats I'd chosen were all blocked out, and I couldn't choose them again. I had to wait ten minutes, and try again.
On the third attempt I finally realised that neither Chrome nor Firefox was going to get me across the line, and there was a serious problem. By this point though there was only an hour or two until the movie, and others coming with us had already purchased their tickets. It wasn't looking good.
I needed help.
And of course, like all terrible web user experiences, help was anything but close at hand.
There's a Help section - which is good - but no obvious links to get help now, which is bad.
There's a Website category for help - which is good - but it has zero topics in it, which is bad.
I can find out about refunds - which is good - but not about how to get help actually buying tickets, which is bad.
There's a Contact us link - which is good - but it's buried at the bottom of the page, in the same font as standard text, with no visibility, and it leads only to a bog-standard email form, from which you would reasonably expect a response within two to three days, which is very, very, VERY bad.
In the end I figured it out. I took a punt that trying to use the two pre-purchase tickets at the same time as trying to buy another was throwing the system a curve ball, even though it patently said this was okay. I bought the four tickets in two separate chunks, and everything worked well. It cost me a couple of hours of messing around, but eventually I got there fine.
I can excuse bugs. Even the best designed websites and the most frequently tested systems can go wrong, especially in strange conditions. I can even excuse a lack of customer awareness; I've spent, at a conservative estimate, well over $600 at this local cinema in the past year - hey, five kids and two adults who occasionally get time off can consume a fair amount of Hollywood, let me tell you. I'd love it if the site recognised that, and tried in some way to make me feel my problems were slightly more important to them than a first time visitor - but I can live with the fact that rarely happens online.
What I can't forgive is a web service that fails to deliver a core function it is clearly designed for, and then makes it impossible to get help or recover in any way. Error text and 112 requests for codes I didn't have is not exactly a good impression to leave customers with.
Shame on you, Event Cinemas, shame on you....
Monday, January 31, 2011
My alarms are rubbish
I have a problem, and it keeps happening to me in bed. It's quite embarrassing....
It starts out early in the morning, I wake up in shock and realise - as I hear the rumble of an approaching truck - that I've forgotten to put the bins out. Queue the embarrassment as I leap from my bed and streak to the street, desperately trying to get the bins in front of the truck, before the truck moves on. More than once I've not only had to dodge falling debris from the trash as I make my mad sprint, but also the smirking faces of neighbours and garbage truck drivers, as I hurl two bins towards the street dressed in a pair of PJ's. Not fun.
It doesn't help that we're near the start of the street, so you can't hear the truck till it's nearly on top of you. It helps even less that we're obviously near the start of the run, so the truck puts in an appearance pretty damned early - normally around 6am.
But the real problem is a usability issue...
Bedside alarm clocks are made to work on a small time-scale. According to mine - and to most, currently - every day is the same. If I set the alarm to wake me at 7am for work, it wakes me at 7am, whether it's Friday or Saturday. If I turn it off because it's Sunday and I need that sleep-in, then it lets me sleep in on Monday too, unless I remember to change it.
Some do have weekday and weekend settings, but that's relatively rare. What's even more rare is something that would actually help me. What I would need is something that work me at 7am every workday, but at 6am every second Tuesday, for the bins.
Of course, calendar apps are made for this. It takes just a minute to put a repeating two-week reminder on my phone, to put the bins out. Equally I can set a wake-up event on the calendar for every two weeks to get me up in time to dress for the garbage truck, for once.
Again though, there's a problem. My phone (A HTC Desire running Android) reminds me every time an email arrives or new social media content is posted - which can happen all through the night. Therefore I turn it to silent mode or switch it off, to avoid getting woken up constantly.
And in silent mode, it won't wake me up at all, and I'm back to racing half-naked for the bins. Yes, I know, I could set a reminder for the evening before and avoid the whole waking up thing - but again, I have a tendency to switch off my phone in the evenings, as I have a few customers who regularly ring me late if I don't.
What's needed is a little intelligence.
With my phone (as with most) you can set an event and how often it repeats, you can customise when it will remind you, but you can't customise how, or how important the event is.
There are lots of different ways this could be solved. For example, the phone could allow for a 'make noise if ignored' setting, globally or for certain events of importance. If the phone is in silent mode and one of these events occurs, then after a certain period of inactivity - say, 60 seconds without me switching it off - it makes a rising alarm sound, to alert you.
Alternatively, there could be a level of importance setting on events. Standard events make the normal soft 'bing' of an alarm, or no noise in silent mode, whereas high level importance events make a longer, louder sound no matter what setting the phone is in.
Either way, the technology is easily there, it just takes applying it to one device or another to make our lives easier.
Because I'm sure I'm not the only one racing for the bin at 6am in his PJ's...
It starts out early in the morning, I wake up in shock and realise - as I hear the rumble of an approaching truck - that I've forgotten to put the bins out. Queue the embarrassment as I leap from my bed and streak to the street, desperately trying to get the bins in front of the truck, before the truck moves on. More than once I've not only had to dodge falling debris from the trash as I make my mad sprint, but also the smirking faces of neighbours and garbage truck drivers, as I hurl two bins towards the street dressed in a pair of PJ's. Not fun.
It doesn't help that we're near the start of the street, so you can't hear the truck till it's nearly on top of you. It helps even less that we're obviously near the start of the run, so the truck puts in an appearance pretty damned early - normally around 6am.
But the real problem is a usability issue...
Bedside alarm clocks are made to work on a small time-scale. According to mine - and to most, currently - every day is the same. If I set the alarm to wake me at 7am for work, it wakes me at 7am, whether it's Friday or Saturday. If I turn it off because it's Sunday and I need that sleep-in, then it lets me sleep in on Monday too, unless I remember to change it.
Some do have weekday and weekend settings, but that's relatively rare. What's even more rare is something that would actually help me. What I would need is something that work me at 7am every workday, but at 6am every second Tuesday, for the bins.
Of course, calendar apps are made for this. It takes just a minute to put a repeating two-week reminder on my phone, to put the bins out. Equally I can set a wake-up event on the calendar for every two weeks to get me up in time to dress for the garbage truck, for once.
Again though, there's a problem. My phone (A HTC Desire running Android) reminds me every time an email arrives or new social media content is posted - which can happen all through the night. Therefore I turn it to silent mode or switch it off, to avoid getting woken up constantly.
And in silent mode, it won't wake me up at all, and I'm back to racing half-naked for the bins. Yes, I know, I could set a reminder for the evening before and avoid the whole waking up thing - but again, I have a tendency to switch off my phone in the evenings, as I have a few customers who regularly ring me late if I don't.
What's needed is a little intelligence.
With my phone (as with most) you can set an event and how often it repeats, you can customise when it will remind you, but you can't customise how, or how important the event is.
There are lots of different ways this could be solved. For example, the phone could allow for a 'make noise if ignored' setting, globally or for certain events of importance. If the phone is in silent mode and one of these events occurs, then after a certain period of inactivity - say, 60 seconds without me switching it off - it makes a rising alarm sound, to alert you.
Alternatively, there could be a level of importance setting on events. Standard events make the normal soft 'bing' of an alarm, or no noise in silent mode, whereas high level importance events make a longer, louder sound no matter what setting the phone is in.
Either way, the technology is easily there, it just takes applying it to one device or another to make our lives easier.
Because I'm sure I'm not the only one racing for the bin at 6am in his PJ's...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)