06 March 2008

For the most part - surfing the web is a fun experience for me (as long as I'm on a hi-speed connection of course). I'm typically on sites that are clean, function well and are easy to use. But every once and a while I find myself on a website that just doesn't work well.

My temperature starts to rise and my blood comes to a full boil. I want to be locked in a room with the people responsible for the site and be able to ask them:

What the @%$!()*!! were you thinking?

This happened to me today at lunch. A friend of mine got a new phone so I was chatting with my wife about it. This led me to go online and see what the latest cool phones were for our carriers. Once there I quickly came up with a short list of ways to REALLY frustrated me:

1. Give them the unexpected: I went to sprint.com and clicked on 'View All Phones.' Now you'd expect the page to refresh with a list of Sprint phones for sale right? Wrong! Instead, I'm presented with a full listing of all Nextel phones. Now I know Sprint is 'together with Nextel' but I didn't ask to see Nextel phones, I wanted to see the Sprint phones. Update: I still can't figure out how to view the Sprint phones...
2. Use technology that doesn't work: The next thing I tried to do is access my wife's online account (currently with Nextel) to see how much it would be to upgrade her current phone. You login, choose your phone number from a drop menu and then the system asks you for a zip code so it can determine which phones (Nextel phones I'm assuming) are available in your area. Here's the problem: the system doesn't recognize any of the zip codes I put in! Apparently I'm living in an 'invalid' zip code area [see screen grab]...

These are just two of the things a website can do to REALLY frustrate me. But it's also a learning experience because it makes you rethink the way you design your sites.

Is it simple?

Does it give them what they expect?

Does it work?

Great questions that MUST be answered 'Yes' if you're to be taken seriously...