Rubberband Wound

I came across a couple annoying functionalities yesterday that got me thinking further on consistency and making things easy for users. These are things that made my life more difficult when the company was trying to encourage my business.

Rent.com 

I’m working with a friend to create a new site for a rental property management company. He’s been doing the coding as a chance to learn the Model-Glue framework and I’m going to be doing the front end work. He wanted me to check out Rent.com to see how they were doing things with feature lists and photo galleries.

To even begin viewing a list of properties on Rent.com you have to supply quite a bit of information -  move-in date, city, state, price range. These all make sense, though the move-in date could possibly be handled better. What got me was that they demand you provide an email address to view any listings. Do they really need my email address right now? I understand why you’d want it from a business perspective, but from the user’s perspective, it’s probably not something they want to give up yet. My first inclination was to provide a fake email address, but no@thanks.com and nowayjose@email.com were already taken by other users! Something tells me that I’m not the only one not anxious to give up their email address right off the bat.

Once you’ve proven to me that you have worthwhile information, ask me who I am. Take that time to offer a way to contact the building management, read more detailed information, do a deeper search, and make my contact information the requirement for those features. You know that I have something you want in my personal details, prove to me that you have what I want before you try to get it from me, or you’re probably going to end up with a lot of useless demographic data and email lists.

As for the move-in date, there were a few things here that got to me, though they weren’t deal breakers like the email address. First, the date field defaults to blank values; why not use today’s date instead? This is especially nice for the user as it discourages them from selecting a date in the past, which I did on my first time through because all I wanted to do was see the listings. On that same note, a simple javascript that checked the date set in the boxes to see if it was earlier than today and highlighted the field and popped out a tooltip or error message would save a fair bit of time for the user as they were told right away that they did something wrong, instead of having to wait to see if they got it right this time and you’re finally going to show some properties.

Starbucks.com

Someone at work found a Starbucks gift card and, since she doesn’t like to go there, asked if anyone else wanted it. I enjoy the occasional Chai, so I snatched it up. I wanted to verify the balance on the card, so I checked the back of the card. Sure enough, I could check my balance online or over the phone. I had a tab open for Starbucks.com in seconds and was ready to find out my balance. However, before I could get my balance, I had to create a Starbucks.com account. I didn’t want to do that, because this was going to be a one time thing for me - I don’t expect to have many more Starbucks gift cards in my future.

I couldn’t imagine how Starbucks could make me create an account over the phone, so I decided to give the number on the back of the card a try instead of the website. After navigating a few levels down the phone system in to the Starbucks Card section I entered my card number and was read back my balance. The card was still full with $5, just enough for that Chai on the next gloomy day or reading excursion. It was quick, easy, and got me just what I needed - exactly what the website should have done. I may have even been inclined to offer my contact information if there was a compelling reason inside: coupons, promotions, contests, who knows?

One other concern I’d like to raise about the registration process is the length of the process. After being told that I need to register my card I am sent to a page that explains the benefits of registering my card. After clicking continue I am presented with a login form or a link to create a new account. I’m new, so I click again to create an account. From here I have to fill in three pages, providing such information as my specific coffee related interests, and which of three types of communications I’d like (email, postal mail, and third-party mail).

Also, if my email address is already taken, it appears that all three of the communications boxes are checked when the page reloads, despite the fact that I had unchecked them earlier (this didn’t happen every time, but did at least once - I didn’t test enough to know why).

I am now invited to fill in my card number and move on to the next page with all my contact details. Since I don’t have the card on me right now (I think it’s in the car) I have to stop at this point. At this point I realize that my account has already been created and I’m logged in to the site; those final two tabs weren’t even necessary to create an account. My suggestion for how to better handle this would be to not show the three tabs in the header, and don’t collect all that information right away as well - if you absolutely need to get user information then get the minimum necessary. When I saw three tabs across the top I was immediately turned away - all that data entry and all that time just to find out the balance on a gift card? I’ll just take my chances at the store and be done with it.

If I just want to do something simple, don’t make it complicated and don’t draw it out. If it’s a minor activity for me, I don’t want to put a lot of time in to it.

The same idea is in play here as in the Rent.com situation - I just want to get some information and get out. My contact information is not relevant to that process at all from a user’s perspective. Once I’m in you’ll have plenty of chances to get me to stay, and if I’m really interested in what you’re offering I probably won’t mind giving up my details. If I’m not, what good will my email address do you? Convince me first, sell me with what you have, then sign me up.

You wouldn’t ask a customer for their name and phone number before selling them a cup of coffee in the store, would you?