Hiding from actual contact
In my previous post I wrote about information missing from a website, or at least very difficult to find. The information was absolutely crucial to the organization and to the users of the website. It was missing not so much because the information wasn’t important, but because the website owners assumed that everyone already knew the answer.
Their mistake. Not only did I not know the answer, but the first person I asked, and who gave me the correct information, later began to wonder and went to the same website to (try to) confirm what he’d told me.
That was unfortunate, and probably not all that uncommon. After all, a similar website in a different country also managed to hide the same information four levels deep.
But there are a great many sites that leave out or obscure important information, and sometimes it seems to happen on purpose. All too often the hidden information is the very reason users have come to the site in the first place.
How to contact the business. Phone numbers. Email addresses. Contact forms.
It’s a simple question of usability. I would guess that contact information is one of the most common reasons people visit a website. As such, a link to contact info should be clearly provided up front—ideally near the top of the home page. Sort of a sincere way of saying, “Your visit is important to us and if you want to get in touch, damn it, we want to hear from you.”
In reality, what happens? If a company doesn’t already have your business, they make it easy to contact them. Links, phone numbers, forms, whatever you want. On the other hand, if it’s a situation where the company is likely to already have your business or they’ve already sold you their product, well, it’s perhaps not quite as important and so maybe you have to jump through some hoops.
That’s the way it is on many sites and we’ve all run into the problem. And as lowly consumers there may not be a great deal we can do about it.
Except this—be aware, be very aware that businesses do give at least some thought to their websites and if easy and useful contact information is not clearly provided, it’s because the business designed it that way. A conscious decision was made.
When is Tax Day?
Everybody makes assumptions. But sometimes you’d think they’d know better.
Of course, I might be the only person who isn’t already sure of the answer, but what do you do if you want to confirm when your income tax return has to be filed? I’m a Canadian who has been living and working in the United States for several years. The only thing I was fairly certain of was that the deadline for filing taxes is different in the two countries. April 15th rang a bell, but was the bell Canadian or American?
I asked a co-worker. He said April 15th. Sounded good, but when it comes to getting your taxes done, it’s good to be paranoid—especially if you’re an “alien”. No problem. I went to the IRS website, thinking that the due date would appear prominently on the home page.
No.
The home page does tell me that “Form 4136-Fuels Credit… Farmers, Fishermen can e-file and pay between March 3-10″. Good to know, but there’s not even a link on the page that offers an obvious path to the answer I’m looking for. I.e., there’s no FAQ link and the “Help” page really wasn’t any help. There is a link to “Individuals” but I don’t see anything helpful there either.
To be absolutely fair I checked the equivalent site in Canada—The Canada Revenue Agency. I would be happy to report that they have the relevant date front and centre, but no such luck. I had to go from the home page to “All about your tax return” to “Important dates for 2007 (Individuals)” to “Filing due dates for the 2007 tax return”.
Back to the US. On the IRS site I finally found the “Due Date/Deadline” page in the “Frequently Asked Tax Questions And Answers”. Even there, believe it or not, there was no clear answer to my question. The closest they came was the statement more than halfway down the page that “Some forms and entities have due dates other than the well-known April 15th due date.”
In the end I went to Wikipedia and entered “tax day” in the search box. There I learn that “Tax Day is the common American slang term for the day that income taxes are due from most employed American residents, usually April 15th.”
Thank God for Wikipedia. Unless you’re wondering about Canada’s tax day (it’s April 30th).
But tell me—why does it so rarely seem to occur to anyone in government, or to anyone in business, to wonder (a) what are the very basic questions people want answered and (b) can we make sure to provide the answer on the home page or at least show what should be a clear path to the answer?
My co-worker who told me the American due date was April 15th? He was right, but then he started to wonder and he too went to the IRS site. And didn’t find the answer.
A Twitter experiment — part 2
I started with 20 names—people whose books and sites had some influence on my own development as a Flash and website developer. Just over half of them were Flash people. Of the 20, how many would I find on Twitter?
The results surprised me:
- 13 of the 20 are currently on Twitter. Of these, only 1 has his updates “protected”, meaning that his updates are only accessible to his selected group.
- The 7 who are not on Twitter are all from the Flash side of the group.
- Of the 12 whose updates are publicly accessible, 11 had posted something on Twitter in the previous day. So almost all of the 13 are currently active.
What does it mean? If nothing else, it shows significant participation by people whom I’d describe as knowledgeable and influential in the world of website design and development. God knows there are many more options online than any of us have time for. A lot of folks might play with Twitter for a few days or weeks, but most of my test group who are on Twitter seem to be regular users.
I’d call it a pretty strong show of support from a group that knows the Internet intimately.
And, yes, I did sign up as a “follower” to the 12. A few of them are now following me. The experiment continues.
A Twitter experiment — part 1
Right. I was saying Twitter turned out to be surprisingly useful. Lately I’ve been following a few people who have a sincere interest and involvement in advertising and every day they come up with a few links or observations that I normally would have missed.
So I began to wonder about other people I might like to follow. Would it be as easy as thinking, “Ooh, [insert name of well-known person here], I bet s/he’s good on Twitter”? Face it—most people probably couldn’t be bothered. Then again, there are probably some interest groups with a much higher likelihood of taking part.
I’m into website development and standards, Internet usability, and Flash programming. I’ve been following some thought leaders in these areas for years. How many names can I list right off the top of my head? How likely is it they’d be on Twitter too?
Here’s the first set of names I came up with:
- Eric Meyer—CSS
- Colin Moock—Flash
- Jeffrey Zeldman—Web Standards
- Grant Skinner—Flash
- Simon Collison—Web Design/Development
- Joey Lott—Flash
- Andy Budd—Web Design/Development
- Keith Peters—Flash
- Lee Brimelow—Flash
- Dan Cederholm—Web Design/Development
- Douglas Bowman—Web Design/Development
- Guy Kawasaki—Entrepreneur/Evangelist
- Brendan Dawes—Flash
- Hillman Curtis—Flash and Video
- Joshua Davis—Flash
- Phillip Kerman—Flash
- Dave Shea—Web Design/Development
- Dunstan Orchard—Web Design/Development
- Branden Hall—Flash
- David Stiller—Flash
That’s 20. Seemed like enough to start with. And so far I’ve checked the first 10 on Twitter. How many did I find there? Are they active?
Tomorrow.
Hey, I just noticed. All 20 of the people listed up there are male. What’s up with that? I don’t think it’s me. Is it?
“Left Vs. Right” — how do you measure success?
Patrick’s behind the desk on the left with a blue background and Britt’s on the right with red. They’re waiting for me to ask a question or suggest a topic. Finally she starts flossing.
“Don’t do that here,” he says.
He looks straight out at me. “Please type something.”
It’s Left Vs. Right, a clever, good-looking Flash site promoting Microsoft’s Live Search. You can type in a topic and if it has any relevancy at all to the current political scene in the US, Patrick and Britt will have some witty dialogue in response. At the same time, you’re presented with a selection of more prosaic and useful search results in three categories—”Web”, “Images”, and “News”.
As a Flash developer myself, I have some idea of the amount of money, time and effort that goes into a site like this. All too often the result is not as usable nor as satisfying. Many, if not most, of these sites are little more than a parlour trick. You visit, you try it, and if it’s better than most, you pass on the URL to your friends and co-workers. Then you move on.
Left Vs. Right is good, but is it worth the investment? Beyond the design and technical development, there was considerable investment in copywriting, performance, filming, etc. I wouldn’t dare to guess, but they must have had one hell of a budget. Ultimately however, I don’t find myself terribly encouraged to use Live Search as a result.
On Left Vs. Right your topics have to be “political”. I entered “live search” and they obviously didn’t have anything prepared.
Britt takes the lead with, “If we told you that, we’d have to kill you.”
“And that’s not really our policy here on Left Vs. Right,” continues Patrick.
“Yet.”
“We could make some calls though.”