Mark Wyner’s journal

Find me at Bunker

I like to talk endlessly about anything related to the design and development of websites and mobile apps, technology, and the creative industry, which may tickle your fancy.

Friday, September 7, 2012

A Week in Web Forms

I’ve had a particularly unusual week online. Not as a designer/developer, but as a user. Here is a roundup of those experiences, good and bad. And even the good came with a hint of bad.

The Bad

1) My bank updated their online-banking UI and it’s really slick. But before I could experience it I was presented with a highly-amibiguous decision: click a link to take a tour or “continue.” In answering “yes” am I’m continuing to the tour or continuing to my account? Turns out it was the latter.

Ambiguous web-form language/options

2) I was trying to purchase a pack of Coudal Partner’s Field Notes via PayPal (who is already enjoying vendor wrath for their ineptitude) when I was presented with invalid validation. This oxymoronic validation-message informed me that I needed to select a quantity of more than 1, even though 1 is clearly the value I provided.

Web-form validation that itself is invalid

3) Comcast, who’s web experiences have definitely improved over the years, still exhibits a number of usability issues. I was in the middle of paying my bill when I was interrupted with a survey pop-up. This literally stopped me from giving them money so I could answer some questions about my web experience. I have your web experience right here.

Pop-up survey window that interrupts my bill-payment flow

The Good

1) Playing soccer on an indoor league has gifted me some shin splints. I followed a link to a Harvard Medical article about exercises to help repair them at which time a modal window asked me if I wanted to join an email list. The modal itself inherently aggravated me, but they’re offering something unique for a decline link. In addition to being able to decline permanently (a decision remembered via a cookie) you can select “maybe later” which doesn’t remember your decision and enables you to think about it after you have visited the website.

Harvard Medical newsletter opt-in form

2) After I worked my way through the PayPal invalid validation above I was returned to the Field Notes thank-you page which is quite crafty. I was presented with an image of a thank-you note, hand-written on the very product I just purchased. Cool. Then the subsequent message about a factory coming to life for a pocket-sized product was a nice touch. I did, however, notice that they either combined a newsletter/purchase thank-you pages into one or wrote copy which isn’t quite clear. They thanked me for my purchase or for subscribing to their email list. It seems like if I subscribed to a list the “machinery” message isn’t valid.

Field Notes thank you page

Thank you, internet, for helping me complete tasks and for making me a better web designer en route. Have a good weekend, y’all.