Innovation (and how to not overuse) and the Web Experience
It wasn’t too long ago when we were patient with the response times and overall experience when accessing and using the Web. This is absolutely no longer the case – at least not with me. As broadband speeds increase, so does the customer expectation for speed and ease of use.
For technology and service providers the challenge comes from the fact that every incremental increase in customer expectation demands a marginal increase in the performance of the next iteration of a web site, product or service. In essence, one is always behind the customer perception, as it were.
In my view this is the way it should be. It challenges us to Innovative- always. That said, in doing so Web designers and service providers need to be aware of the “permanency” of evolving expectations and outright intolerance for certain web-site functionalities that detract from the overall experience.
This insight was brought to me courtesy of my less-than spectacular-experience utilizing the Ticketmaster web-site to print my concert tickets. In order for me to print my tickets, I had to create an account and the process of printing the tickets was absolutely Byzantine. 10 years ago I would have said, awesome, I can print my tickets. 5 years ago, I would have said, ok, I can deal with this, Now, I say how obnoxious that I have to: 1) create an account and say no to participating in their “social network” and 2) go through this torrid process to print what I had overpaid for.
Lessons for Ticketmaster here: 1) the more pressed for time people are, the more they expect from their web experience to include intuitiveness, ease of use and speedy processing. 2) Some services ought to abandon efforts to wrap a social network around what is basically a commodity purchasing experience. You are one of them.
It is bad enough that there is perception of dealing with a monopoly. To further damage the customers experience by unnecessary encumbering the user, is just dumb.
For technology and service providers the challenge comes from the fact that every incremental increase in customer expectation demands a marginal increase in the performance of the next iteration of a web site, product or service. In essence, one is always behind the customer perception, as it were.
In my view this is the way it should be. It challenges us to Innovative- always. That said, in doing so Web designers and service providers need to be aware of the “permanency” of evolving expectations and outright intolerance for certain web-site functionalities that detract from the overall experience.
This insight was brought to me courtesy of my less-than spectacular-experience utilizing the Ticketmaster web-site to print my concert tickets. In order for me to print my tickets, I had to create an account and the process of printing the tickets was absolutely Byzantine. 10 years ago I would have said, awesome, I can print my tickets. 5 years ago, I would have said, ok, I can deal with this, Now, I say how obnoxious that I have to: 1) create an account and say no to participating in their “social network” and 2) go through this torrid process to print what I had overpaid for.
Lessons for Ticketmaster here: 1) the more pressed for time people are, the more they expect from their web experience to include intuitiveness, ease of use and speedy processing. 2) Some services ought to abandon efforts to wrap a social network around what is basically a commodity purchasing experience. You are one of them.
It is bad enough that there is perception of dealing with a monopoly. To further damage the customers experience by unnecessary encumbering the user, is just dumb.
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