I just felt compelled to share something that bugged me today on three different occasions. I found myself hurredly attempting to complete online tasks that had a definite timeline and in doing so became increasingly frustrated with redesigns or new procedures. I go to do research on a topic and the site I bookmarked a week ago has all of a sudden undergone a major re-design and I now cannot find the information that I had thought would be there when I went back. In my search of it, it turns out that content past a certain date was not brought over to the redesign and I thus had to do further searching for related and relevant content.Secondly, I go to a bank site to gather information only to find that instead of the original process of logging into an account, I now have to re-verify, wait for an email, authorize, go back to the site, and leap through four, yes I said four, landing pages just to finally get to my information.
A lesson for all companies out there that are considering re-branding, re-designing, or re-doing any of their processes, please keep the end user in mind and keep it simple. Overly complicated processes that keep me or anyone else from getting to what they want only frustrates us and drives us away.
Just because it makes sense to you, does not mean that will translate to the user.
If you've had a similar experience today, this week, or even this year, share that with us. How would you have handled it had you been the company?
Photo Credit Sybren A. Stuvel
