Over the last couple of days, I have done some online shopping and been pleasantly surprised by a couple of small interface behaviors that made my life easier as a shopper.
Amazon [http://www.amazon.com]
When presented with the login screen – the information is already pre-filled (I saved it in my browser) – but the radio buttons for Do You Have A Password is set to No by default. I ignored it and hit the Sign In button. Instead of throwing an error saying I had to select that I had a password (the password field was pre-filled), Amazon just proceeded with the login and took me to my account.
They knew I had a password, and just automatically selected the radio button for me without giving me an error.
Very nice.
Mimobot [http://www.mimoco.com/]
In the process of finishing a sales transaction, they ask for traditional info – shipping info, billing info – and then give you a recap of what’s in your cart for confirmation. The site gently prompts an upsell saying that if your cart is over $150 then you get free shipping. I bit, and went and added one other item to my cart.
Clicking back into the check out process, I was delighted that the site had remembered all the information I had previously filled in about shipping and billing even though previously, I had not finished the process.
These guys got it – a nice nudge for upsell with a payoff for free shipping and then a pleasant surprise of all my data still being held mid-stream. I happily finished my transaction.
These two things are not big deals, but they make the difference in whether or not an interaction is seamless and delightful or a chore or even worse a cart abandoned mid-stream and a transaction never completed. Good things to remember when designing.
