Usability grumbles

We’ve all come across some sites that have frustrated us, and I’m sure you’ve recounted this to your friends. Maybe you’ve even gone as far as not using that site again if it’s frustrated you that much. That’s all well and good if there’s an alternative available, and even then it might not be any easier to use.

This post was motivated by some recent use of an Apple store site and the Transport for London site. It just so happens that in both cases I have had some bad user experiences with them and I have no alternative site to turn to in hope of a easier life! What a shame! What makes it more annoying is that with just a few simple tweaks, these issues could be resolved.

What’s got my goat with the Apple site?

Your online reserve system for the Genius bar! Come on Apple, you do everything else on your site so well, please think about changing how people can book a place at the genius bar… My scenario:

I have a problem with my MacBook Pro and I want to book an appointment at the Genius bar in the Apple Regent street store, London.

1 - I hit ‘Reserve�? under the genius bar heading.

2 - I am presented with a screen asking me if I am a guest or member. “Hmm… Guest or member… what’s the difference? I guess I am a guest?�? So I click that.

3 - I am now presented with a Sign in screen. “I have to sign in?�? I read the information under the sign in heading. “Please sign in with your name and email address. Also please include a phone number where you may be reached regarding your reservation.�? “ok, I guess this makes sense�?. So I fill in my details.

4 - Now I am presented with 3 options… “Technical Support / Genius bar�?, “Personal Shopping�? and “Workshops�?. Well now I am thinking “Didn’t I already make this choice?�? So I click Technical support anyway.

5 - Now am being asked which product I need help with. I chose Mac.

6 - Now it asks me to choose a day. Now depending how lucky you are; you get either a day where you can click and see available times, or you get no days available!

I have been going through these steps frequently for the last 3 weeks trying to book a convenient time. I’ve had no luck so far and have had to endure this back to front & unnecessarily long process with no appointment made yet!

Suggestions for improvements:

Once I have selected that I want to book an appointment at the genius bar, you should be presented with the available times that you can book. Once you have chosen an available time, you should then proceed to give more details and secure that booking.

The steps could look more like this

1 – Reserve genius bar
2 – Calendar of dates (If no dates, provide details on alternatives, ie, can you book by phone? Do you have to wait until the next dates are released? When is this? Etc. )
3 – Register details along with which product you need help with
4 – Confirm booking

These steps ask for the same information, just in a more useful order and only once. I think Apple have forgotten to consider that the user may not be able to complete this task first time round. It’s very possible you won’t be shown a date and time that is convenient, if any date at all. So streamlining this process as much as possible is essential to making it a useful tool. Apple, please reconsider this design. At the very least, once you have taken my details, save them so when I want to check times again I can go a little faster.

Onto managing my Oyster card

I live and work in London and I want to manage my Oyster card on a monthly basis (it was weekly not long ago!). In my eyes I am a power user and I feel that I represent a large portion of the London Oyster card internet users! As a daily tube user I usually want to do one of two things when I visit the Transport for London website.

1 – Check a route for times and changes
2 – Log in to my oyster and top up my card

The first one is nicely addresses on the homepage with this handy search box:

The second one I always have to fight for. I never remember how I got to the login page on my last visit. So I start to quickly scan the page and look for the first thing that suggests I will be able to log in. Scan, scan, scan… I can’t see the word “log in: or “sign in” anywhere. I see the Oyster card image, so I just click that hoping I will come closer to my goal.

Nothing happens… If you look closer the url has changed to https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do but nothing new on this page.

Arr, already… I am annoyed.

So, I scan some more and try to concentrate. I must be missing something surely? It’s my fault, I am stupid! So I decided to try the Tickets button at the top of the page; after all that’s what I want isn’t it? To renew my monthly tube ticket.

I am now on a page with more Oyster information. I must be on the right track now! Scan, scan, scan and still no login or sign in. [Pulls hair out] By this time I am really annoyed and decide I may as well do it at the station!

This is a real dead end and if it wasn’t for the fact I have to travel on the Tube and buses I would never return to this site. I usually come back and struggle on because I forget to do it at the station, or there is a queue. But even so, managing my Oyster card at the station is not something I want to do, so I battle on with the TFL site. (For the time being)

Currently, to get to the login page, you need to click “Top up pay as you go�?. What a limited label. I wanted to renew my Oyster monthly season ticket, so I was not looking for anything to do with Pay as you go. Why not just “Sign into Oyster account”?

It seems the TFL Have failed at addressing the thousands of people that return to the site to log in and GIVE THEM MONEY! Why there is not a sign in area on the homepage directly, I do not know. They could very easily do something like this to bring this key returning user task onto the homepage:

Click to enlarge:

I think it is time the TFL realigned the content on the homepage and though little bit more about their terminology throughout the site. It is very much geared towards educating and encouraging people to have an Oyster card. Now there are many people who own an Oyster and they need to cater for people who want quick access to their account. Another point to note is the complex password system they have in place forcing you to create a password that is impossible to remember and resulting in you forgetting it every time, or having to have it written down somewhere! Which totally defeats the object!

I hope anyone reading this has learned some lessons on how not to approach a problem and how to think about your users goals. Putting sets of redundant screens in front of them ad setting them up for a failure 90% down the process is a sure way to frustrate users and turn them away. Even if you are the only website in your field!

[end rant]