I downloaded the Canon LIDE scanner software. The file was a StuffIt (.sit) file.
After I decompressed that, I was faced with “CSToolbox_OSX_v4130X.app.” That installed … another installer. The “CanoScan Toolbox Installer” actually installs the software.
Ideally, this would have been a drag install from a mounted disk image. They could have at least used the Apple installer.
Yuck.
after i launched my house concerts site, i sent out emails with customized RSVP links to everyone.
the next day, i got a bug report that RSVPing “no” wasn’t working. well, it was — sort of. the problem was that even if you clicked “no,” you were still expected to enter the number of seats you wanted. the workaround, was, of course, to enter “1″ seat and click no. but only one person figured that out. everyone else just gave up, including otherwise technically savvy folks who work for a computer company.
it’s long been known that poor usability is bad for e-commerce — Nielsen’s 2001 study showed a success rate of around 56% for purchases.
what i didn’t realize was just how much this stuff matters.
anyway, the bug is fixed, i email the five people who ran in to it, and three of them have re-visited the web site.
so, once again, usability matters. a lot.
Jeff Veen, asked to judge an interactive design competition, rails against those still not on the cluetrain:
User-centered design vs. marketing and image Most sites had no sense whatsoever of how to engage a potential customer through the Web. Of all the consumer electronics sites I evaluated, for example, not one compared to sites like dpreview.com, a deep content web site dedicated to digital cameras. The focus was consistently on “hip and cutting-edge” music and imagery of attractive people having fabulous lives because of their recent purchase. When I buy a camera, I want to download the user manual and see sample photos taken at different qualities and resolution. Who on earth is doing marketing at these companies? Certainly no one who has taken pictures.
i just came a cross a kickass design and usability blog, signal vs noise. how am i the last person to know about this?