ux – Change Meme

16 January, 202312 February, 2023 Louise McGregor design, Just Stop It

Just Stop It – don’t make me scroll

I was making a purchase online this week – new wine glasses, don’t judge. The site required my phone number to complete the purchase. And they needed me to select the international dialing code.

Here’s the form, you’ll note that I’ve already told them the country to ship to, it would be a reasonable assumption to default the international dial code to that country. But they didn’t. It gets worse.

Once I opened the drop down menu it turns out that the company had decided to list the international dialing codes in a cute way, little buttons of the country’s flag next to the international dial code.

There is no way to type the actual code or country, so the user has to scroll to find the right flag/code.

Some flags are distinctive, but the top two shown are Ireland and Italy, and I would not be surprised if someone with colour vision deficiency could not distinguish between the two.

I was looking for the flag of the Netherlands, the Dutch flag is three horizontal stripes from top to bottom they’re red, white and blue. Look at the image can you match the flag? Nope, that’s Luxembourg.

Please just use a country list with predictive texting. Illustrate the list with flags if you like, but don’t make the visual ID of a flag the primary search tool.

5 January, 20189 February, 2018 Louise McGregor Just Stop It

Dark Patterns

I go through Schiphol airport most working days, just as a commuter, don’t get excited. Happily there is free wifi at the airport until I head underground to the train platform. Here’s what the login screen looks like for wifi.

Very simple interface, with clear instructions. But wait! That little box neatly positioned between “accept & connect” and ” terms and conditions” looks like you need to check it, until you read the text next to it. The first time I used the free wifi I checked the box in error and was taken to a purchase screen for premium wifi. I had to turn off wifi and turn it on again to connect to the free access wifi. I wonder how many people pay without realising they didn’t need to.

This is what is known as a dark pattern, a part of user interface designed to trick the user into making a decision that benefits the business. Many cases involve tricking you into opting into subscriptions, or buying extra services.

Computer users scan rather than read content on websites, and we are all used to the standards that have emerged online, we expect to have to tick that we agree to terms and conditions for example. Designers rely on us behaving predictably and design sites using those patterns.

But this predictability can be exploited by designers to generate dark patterns to trick us into buying something we don’t want, or sharing or email address, or preventing us from unsubscribing. In one great example cited on the Dark Patterns site the text explaining how to unsubscribe was in white, on a white background. Sometimes it’s a deceptive check box as in the Schiphol wifi example, so far 11 types of Dark Patterns have been identified.

Many companies are guilty of exploiting dark patterns on their e-commerce sites in deliberate and dodgy attempts to up-sell. Some of the most egregious examples of bait and switch cross into the territory of illegality. Most of the practices aren’t illegal – yet.

As a consumer it’s a good reminder to read carefully, as professionals in the digital world it’s a reminder to treat our customers fairly – the way we’d like to be treated in fact.

Image: Texture | Engin Akyurt via pixabay | CC0 1.0

14 July, 20166 October, 2018 Louise McGregor Just Stop It

Mobile Customer Journey

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Just stop presenting desktop sites to mobile users.

The use of mobile phones has risen and for some uses has overtaken the use of a desktop. Companies have taken advantage of this in a big way, including online retailers. I’ve produced and translated screen captures to demonstrate the issue.

Firstly I received an SMS, telling me I could, via a link, choose a delivery time.

I clicked on the link and got a internet site with all my order information displayed and the proposed time of between 8am and 10pm. Well as I’d like to leave the house sometime during the day I clicked on the link to change the appointment, and here’s where it went a bit wrong…

… because a new page opened that was impossible to read.

I could stretch the screen and make the change I needed (delivery between 9am and 1pm).

If you’re using mobile for customer service – particularly if you’re directing customers to use mobile – you need to make sure that the whole experience works on mobile. Just stop thinking it’s OK to expect customers to navigate desktop sites on a mobile screen.

Postscript; my order was delivered at 12.53, and set up in my terrace garden half an hour later.

Image: Stop | Kenny Louie | CC BY 2.0

9 March, 201527 September, 2018 Louise McGregor design, Just Stop It

Just Stop It: Website Overlays

I hadn’t even seen the article and the site wants me to sign up and to contact them. If this were a date I’d be sneaking out the back door, escaping the overbearing demands of my date. On this site it wasn’t clear how to get rid of the overlay, it took some random clicking to find that it’s removed by a click on the far left of the screen.

I’ve also seen overlays that whoosh into the middle of the screen if you move the mouse towards the upper tool bar, where the book-mark function is, the overlay attempts to entice you back to read more. But it often comes of as begging for your attention, in dating terms it’s the clingy boyfriend/girlfriend of the internet.

Have these been tested for usability? Am I the only person in the world that resents the interference with my reading time?

Please internet; just stop it.