Fun was never a requirement

Once in a life before Mzinga I heard those exact words in a meeting when I asked why the user interface and experience of an application was so boring and uninspired. I was told this is a real business application – fun was never a requirement.

Then I wondered – why did people feel fun and work had to be mutually exclusive? They don't have to be! Having some fun at work doesn't make people less productive; in fact, I would argue it does just the opposite. To me great user experiences are: Fun, Simple, Easy and Relevant.

Several years ago I designed the UI to a web application – I had used color (not like a circus, but I had a liberal use of color) and icons to give visual cues to the user what was going on. I thought it looked pretty slick (design is always subjective though) and had a rich enough feature set that the geeks were happy too. To me, it was kind of like a pair of Cole Haan heels with Nike Air – sure it's a slick and stylish patent leather heel, but it functions well too.

I showed some folks the mockups I had made in addition to the detailed functional specification I wrote to back up the pretty face. Many thought it was great and ready to move forward, but then there were others that were hesitant. They said it had too much color and too many icons. That it looked great for a consumer product, but for a business product... well to be taken seriously there I was told, I needed to have an all gray color scheme and text only menus. No one would take an application seriously with a menu of icons. No business would buy that kind of application. I said but it has all the functionality one would want, why wouldn't they buy it?! I can understand that argument if it looked really slick, but then didn't have any decent functionality – but that wasn't the case here at all – it was packed with great functionality. Wasn't it an added bonus that it looked nice too? It didn't matter. Nor did it matter that it was PEOPLE not businesses that used this software, and at the end of the day all people are consumers. I lost the argument and we ended up with a colorless, boring UI with text only menus. *sigh*

When was it decided business applications had to suck to be taken seriously? Can't something look fantastic AND function? Anyone who still believes it can't hasn't walked into an apple store lately. They are proving users can really have their cake and eat it too. And with social media tools proliferating into businesses it's happening to web applications too – people want tools that are easy and fun to use, can be configured to how they work, have slick user interfaces, and function well. And contrary to some folk's beliefs – you can really have that!

How to Piss of your Customers / Users

I decided to set up Poland Spring water delivery service to my home. I drink a ton of water, it's nice to have the dispenser that gives hot and cold, I use less (if any) small water bottles, and I don't have to go to the store and get it. All good stuff.

But try to figure out your friggin bill. Good luck! Here's what the screen looks like with my billing information:



It appears to me that my bill each month will be $31.96. But I look at my credit card and I've been charged $58.70 - UM WTF is going on?

I call and get a representative that tells me - for your first delivery there is a $20 deposit, there is tax on each delivery, and a $2.00 a month rental fee for the water cooler. Ok fine I say, but you should really be more clear on your website. There is NO WAY for me to find out the information what my bill will REALLY cost me. She says yes that information can ONLY be found in the email we send when we first confirm you as a customer. HUH so the only way I can EVER know my full bill is to search and find this email. Wicked helpful. Thanks.

I mean if it's more each month include that on the page with my billing info! Why only show me part of my bill? Then I realized upon further reading (clicking the click here for details) in the pop-up window that there's also a fuel surcharge - which from calculating the charge on my credit card and subtracting the other fees is about $5. The woman on the phone didn't mention anything about a fuel surcharge for each delivery.

Then she kept explaining that there was a $2.00 fee for the cooler and tax. I GET THAT - REALLY I DO. What I am trying to tell you folks at Poland Spring - your site is ineffective. You do not clearly show the user what their bill will be each month. Clicking the more details just says there are fees, but doesn't tell me what they are for my bill.

Wouldn't it be so much easier for me as a customer and user of your website to say here's your monthly bill:
Water $31.96,
Tax $0.10,
Water Cooler $2.00,
Fuel Surcharge $5.00.
For a total of: $39.06.

I mean cuz that would be... um.. USABLE???

Oh and one may think 'hey I will just click on that My Billing link there, that's going to show me my real bill'. If you thought that - you would be wrong. This is what I got when I clicked that link:



I've never actually been able to get my real billing info by clicking that link. All I ever get is an error. Don't know if it never works, or only when I want to see my billing info?

Also BTW I should add the woman on the phone either wasn't aware of the fuel surcharge, or somehow can't figure out exactly what my monthly bill will be (if that is true why is it so variable!??) because she said my bill would be about $35 a month. But by my calculations of the bill I just got for the first one that's incorrect it's going to be $39.06. And why can they only say around, why can't I get an accurate quote of my bill? And I get if I add something to my order one month it goes up, but if I don't and I get my standard order - can't they give me the exact amount it will cost me?

I then log out and go to the website to see if I were to create a new account - would this information all be clear to me? This is what I get - still different amounts than what I was charged - although they do point out tax, deposit, and fuel surcharge.



So then I think where the hell is this first bill that I got in an email explaining all this? I have to search for it because they only send that once. The email to let me know I have a delivery is just that - no billing info is contained in it. So I find it... and shock #2 - apparently it's also a 24 month service contract. That's not on their site ANYWHERE when you sign up... well anywhere one is actually looking for the information!



I found the information at the bottom of the screen, then had to click a pop-up to figure out how long the service agreement is (seriously WHY wouldn't you put this information right where I'm reviewing my order in the same font size!?????) Maybe because you know I may rethink that order if I knew I was locked in for 2 years? I hate those service commitments! However the website says it's only a 12 month commitment!!!! Not 24 like the email says. So which is it!? I want the 12 of course.



I mean I like the convenience of the water delivery and all, but don't make me a detective to figure out what my bill is going to be each month and how long my service contract is!!!

Wow

I'm *slightly* impressed. The USPS seems to have gotten at least one thing right (well usability wise). Shocking - I know.

Yesterday I went to their website to set up an address forward. Oh yea.. moving in with bf at the end of July. YEY!! :D Sooooo.... I have to forward my mail among many other things. I went onto the USPS site to see if they have ability on their website to forward mail so I don't have to actually go down to the post office and stand in a 2 hour line while all the folks at the post office take breaks and have one person behind the counter. Well turns out you can do it online. AND the form is really user friendly to boot. Who would've thunk it? I like the conversational prompts and simple pages/steps.

I meant to

post my shoe of the day yesterday and forgot to take the pics off my camera (which of course is no small task with vista), so I will have to do that tomorrow.

Spent an entire day at a Usability Conference @ Bentley with the UPA of Boston today. Lots of good info, some not so good info (perhaps not good isn't right, just not info I was particularly interested in - I felt there are some newer technologies out there than were presented in some of the talks), and good conversation.

I think I need a day to really digest all I've heard today.....

When less is more

Not my usual topic on this blog... but it's been on my mind at work.

When dealing with a User Interface sometimes less is truly more. Just because you can give your users 100 different options doesn't mean you should. Perhaps you have the ability on the back end but you don’t expose all 100 options to the user. It’s up to us as user interface designers to try to make a best guess at how many options are enough to give users some flexibility, without overwhelming them.

What prompted me to think about this recently were of all random things: my allergies. I went to the doctor about my allergies – she gave me a prescription and told me to also pick up Claritin. Simple enough I thought.

I went to my local pharmacy and attempted to pick up Claritin (which is now behind the counter and you have to provide ID to buy) and the clerk said which one? I said Claritin. She said yes- which Claritin do you want. Well I don’t know. My doctor said Claritin - she didn’t specify which one of the 20 choices behind the counter. Why are there so many choices? There were 3 rows of choices at CVS!! They had 12 hour, 24 hour, allergy, allergy and congestion (how is this really different?), allergy reditabs. And all of these came in a myriad of sizes: 5, 10, 15, and 30 tablets. I can see why the sizes are helpful, but the other choices are just too much and add confusion (to me anyway). Why would I buy 12 hour and have to take the pill twice in a day instead of the 24 hour one? What’s the advantage? I looked at both boxes and there was no clear reason why one was better than the other. In this case I’d really be happy with less choice. And it got me thinking about usability.

Users definitely want choices and flexibility, but they don’t want so many choices they get overwhelmed and can’t use a product (or buy one). I like having the most simple options in the UI – basic ones that will be used frequently. Then have a way to get to some more advanced options – this way users can choose to go to there or not. And if they do go there, they know they clicked on advanced so it may be complicated - if it's too much the user can cancel out of them and be on their way. If they never click on the advanced options, the user is none the wiser. Ultimately doing some usability tests with average users can help determine what is an acceptable amount of options and which ones are the most important to have.

It would have been so much easier and saved a bunch of time had Claritin come in one kind: 24 hour allergy and congestion - with two options: 15 or 30 tablet pack. I would only have had to make 1 choice 15 or 30, and not the plethora of choices I had to make to buy the medicine. All this when I already felt terrible with my allergies and just wanted relief!