Archive for the ‘Usability’ Category
Many retailers sell via multiple channels, such as their catalog, website, and local stores. It’s also no surprise that people tend to use the retailer’s website to research in-store purchases, and vice versa. But despite the anecdotal and research data supporting this behavior, some serious usability problems make it very hard to shop across channels […]
Filed under: Usability, User Experience | Closed
An ounce of prevention
Once your website grows to a certain size, you’re going to end up with a few broken links. Other sites tend to change their filenames, move to new domains, or take certain pages down entirely. This is especially true with smaller sites that don’t understand how to use a redirect when a URL is changed. […]
Filed under: Testing, Usability, User Experience | Closed
Shortcuts that slow you down
On most travel and trip planning sites, you can enter an address to find nearby hotels, restaurants, etc. In many cases, they also provide a drop-down menu listing popular attractions and destinations. But I’ve noticed that a lot of the locations in these lists don’t work properly. This leads to a variety of not-so-friendly errors, […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
I’m really sick of websites that make it impossible to figure out the company’s phone number, office address, and other contact info. And I’m not even talking about sites that intentionally hide this data, like some shady online stores tend to do. Rather, my ire is directed towards those sites that have all the info […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
I reported a power outage for one of our offices last night. The utility company has an online form for doing this. Although the info they ask for is very basic (zip code and phone number), it took me three tries to get it right. Why? Because every time I tried to go to the […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
Yes or No
I bought movie tickets from one of those automated ticketing kiosks last weekend. While the user interface certainly won’t win any design awards, it seems pretty functional. But one screen always sticks out to me: the part where it asks you to swipe your loyalty card. This would be fine, except I don’t have such […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
I have a new pick for the most useless error message. Some web-based apps are using the phrase “Your browser is not optimized”. What they actually mean is, “We don’t support your browser so you should switch to another one.”. Why can’t they just tell you that? Beats me. Maybe they don’t want to come […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
Phantom options
Ever come across a Preferences or Settings screen that shows you things you can’t change? This might be a text box where you can’t edit the text, a checkbox that you can’t uncheck, or a drop-down menu that only contains one item to choose from. In each case, the software makes it look like you […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
Ancient history
In a lot of programs, you can sort lists by date. But when salesforce.com finally added a sort feature to their search screens, they did something pretty silly: the list shows the oldest items first. Granted, you can click the column header again to show the newest entries at the top, but this is a […]
Filed under: Usability, User Experience | Closed
Too many choices
I booked a flight on the United Airlines site today. After confirming my travel times, I was presented with the option to pay for a seat with extra legroom. When I declined that, another screen appeared offering a “special deal” for upgrading to first class. On this second screen, I had to wade through a […]
Filed under: Design, Usability, User Experience | Closed
MicroExperience 
You must be logged in to post a comment.