Spam, Spam, Spam I am… Not

With the volume of emails I receive in my Inbox, easy access to the Spam button is a feature I appreciate.  I can quickly remove over-achieving Spam emails that have snuck past the layers of spam filters and still managed to land in my email Inbox folder, with the click of a button.  The design is efficient and intuitive.

Inbox Folder Design

So why not apply that same intuitive design to the Spam folder so I can easily select and click on email that didn’t make it past the Fort Knox of spam filters, but should have?  Then I could quickly move those Not Spam emails into my Inbox folder where they belong.

Spam Folder Design

With the current Spam-handling design, I’m unable to indicate whether an email accidentally caught in the web of filters is from a sender I actually want to hear from in the future.  And, in order to locate future emails from the wrongfully spammed sender, in addition to checking my Inbox folder, I’ll also need to check my Spam folder.  The current design adds extra steps to the process that could easily be improved. 

How can this customer experience be improved? 

Two simple steps will improve this customer experience. 

·       Design consistency.

·       Gather customer feedback to make sure it’s designed right for your customers. 

Design consistency enables customers to feel in control knowing how to complete a task, and anticipate how the system will respond when they interact with it.   Leverage the design of the Spam handling in the Inbox folder and apply it to the Spam folder.  For example, a button labeled Not Spam would be visible on the top navigation bar and the same steps to transition the selected email into the Inbox would apply.  The design consistency will help your customers feel less anxious and more in-control while they interact with your system.

Paper-prototyping is an easy way to obtain customer feedback during the design process and understand what your customers are thinking while they use your product or system.   It’s simple, low cost and done right, consistently provides unexpected insights that reduce design, development and maintenance costs in the short and long-term.  The end result is a more pleasurable experience for your customers while they interact with your product.

Applying these simple design principles reduces the need for your customer to wonder what to expect from your system.  Instead they’re able to focus on the real reason for using the system, which in this case, is communication.  

  

Design with the Customer in Mind: A Matter of Positioning

I had to drop by my favorite office supply store last week to snatch up a few ‘back to school bargains.’  Spiral bond notepads fifteen cents each, composition notebooks ten cents each, and 500 sheets of printer paper 25 cents.  Great deals, easy to find in the perfect sized store whose employees were eager to please.  

Within seconds of asking for help locating the replacement media reader for my Sony Cybershot, I had what I needed in hand and was heading toward the registers.  The Cashier was friendly, and inquired whether I’d found everything.  Of course I had found what I needed, and then some!  I was using a Rebate Credit Card I’d received as a result of purchasing a printer last spring, to pay for my loot.  I wondered if the alternative form a payment might complicate the transaction, however, it was seamless. 

Because it was a credit card type transaction, I needed to add my signature to the LCD device next to the register displaying the total of my transaction.  The screen contained few words however, it was quickly noticeable that the words displayed on the LCD were out of sequence with the actions requested. 

LCD Device Screen 

The first action requested that I indicate to the device if I was Done or wanted to Clear the transaction.  However as I read further I realized I needed to sign the screen before selecting Done or Clear.   If I need to sign the screen prior to pressing Done or Clear, why not position the Done and Clear buttons below the signature box?  I wondered how many customers attempt to press Done or Clear before signing?  And if so, does that require the transaction be re-entered? 

Then I noticed the display was telling me to hand my card to the Cashier.  Hmmm, at the start of the transaction I had handed my card to the Cashier.  I thought that was how we got to this point in the transaction.  Why is the screen telling me to hand my card to the cashier now?  Is there a different card I need to hand her?  I was quickly reassured that I didn’t need to provide any other card in order to complete my transaction.  

In this situation, the office supply giant’s efforts to deliver a positive overall customer shopping experience were evident.  However, the interface design mismatch is quite obvious and could have easily been avoided by obtaining even a minimal amount of customer feedback during the design phase of the project. 

The benefits of obtaining customer feedback, especially during the design phase of a project, are generally far greater than the cost of finding out post- implementation your design isn’t in synch with your customers thinking.   If your staff needs some direction developing or executing an effective approach to obtain customer feedback, there are plenty of interaction designers and usability specialists willing to work with you who can easily gather the answers to validate your design decisions.  Business case after business case have shown that done right, even a small investment in obtaining customer feedback, especially early in the design process, yields hefty ROI and your efforts can too.  

A Customer Experience Moment: Specifically Seeking Sandals

Taking a day off from work in the midst of a challenging project requires, what I refer to as, ‘vacation agility'. I’m out of the office but I carry my blackberry and check email at regular intervals during the day. I schedule conference calls early in the day and utilize the business center at the hotel so the family can sleep in.  It works.  Following this course of action during a recent get away to the Mid-Atlantic, I was unexpectedly able to exercise my usability research skills to gather some interesting design data. 

Here’s what happened...

I headed for the hotel business center at about 7AM, stopping only to grab a cup of java from the complimentary coffee urns boasting Starbucks brews. I was lucky enough to find the corner seat vacant placing me in front of a hotel-supplied computer to check personal email and to the right an open desk area to set up my work-supplied laptop. Through my laptop I could also access all my work files via the technical magic the smart people at my company perform. (Hocus-pocus if you ask me, but I try not to ask too many questions.)

During the second hour of my stay at the business center a friendly man I estimated to be in his late 60’s sat down at the computer next to me. As he browsed the Yahoo news he rattled a few headlines out loud.  My comment on one of the headlines broke the ice and we began to chat.  As I worked, I enjoyed hearing about his company, his family and some of his recent travels.

I also learned that one of his goals that morning was to order a pair of sandals designed specifically to be worn in the water.  He was able to quickly find the online store where he wanted to make his sandal purchase.  He spoke out loud as he navigated through the transaction.  He found the style, color and size sandal he wanted and the price was right.  He added his selection to his shopping cart and pulled out his credit card to seal the deal.

As he proceeded to the on line register the system presented a screen indicating it was a secure transaction and he seemed pleased to learn that.  He entered in his address and credit card information, clicked on Submit button and expected that his sandals were successfully on his way to his home.  Instead, a screen displayed indicating there were errors on the page he had just completed and he needed to resolve those issues.  The challenge was that the issues that needed to be resolved were not specifically identified in the ‘error’ message the system presented.

As I read the error message, I could deduce which fields likely needed attention but based on his talk out loud approach the fields in need of correction were not as evident to him. The trainer in me wanted to immediately respond by suggesting how to resolve the issues.  However the usability researcher in me won the brief internal debate and observed how he navigated through this poorly designed purchasing transaction and attempted to resolve the issues.

There were about five tense minutes filled with trial and error.  And I have to admit at one point, when he seemed to be caught in a looping scenario, the trainer in me did emerge to ask him a slightly leading question to facilitate his progress.  Although after several attempts he did successfully complete the sandal purchase, observing the transaction forced me to question how many other potential customers have had a similar customer experience and how many, unlike in this case, abandon the purchase transaction.

This is a case where reviewing web analytics on abandon rates during the check out process would likely provide insight into the potential value of redesigning the purchase transaction and clarifying how 'error' messages are being interpreted.  In addition, integrating actual customer feedback into the redesign process would provide simple answers to design questions and likely yield significant revenue increases for this online store.