Copyright ©1997-2008 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Copyright ©1997-2008 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Turning technology from mumbo-jumbo into rich tasty gumbo
� Pumpernickel | Main | CAPITAL IDEA �In reading the honorable and esteemed David Weinberger's latest Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization, I encountered a snippet about Jakob Nielsen's latest book, E-Commerce User Experience (order via Amazon.com). Mr. W. cites a few of the rules that Nielsen enumerates, two of which are:
11. Don't show products that customers can't buy.
51. Show total cost, including taxes, shipping and
handling, as soon as possible.
Without articulating it, I have done both of those things (if not others) at isbn.nu in the refresh I gave to the programming in September 2001. The old site displayed results even when the book was unavailable that a user was trying to find prices on, and couldn't show details like sales tax and shipping. The new version only displays entries from stores that claim they can ship the book, and users can select their shipping state (in the US), country, and even exchange rate to get the full price for a single book.
Nielsen trafficks in hard-won truths, many of which are counter-intuitive but are based on direct observation of individuals. Most of us work anecdotally not empirically, and thus substitute personal preference for research. (Look at Steve Jobs and the color white.)
Posted by Glennf at March 15, 2002 10:47 PM
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The simple yet powerful logic of this point was driven home yesterday when, in a desperate attempt to avoid walking through glue to book airline travel -- i.e., using Orbitz -- I skated over to the Delta Air Lines site. Where I discovered that before I could preview the cost of any potential air travel, I had to first supply my name AND CREDIT CARD. Someone at DAL needs to redeem their frequent flyer miles for some clue coupons.
Posted by: TV Barn at March 22, 2002 6:28 PM
In regards to the Steve Jobs comment, I thought I'd mention that while market research is a powerful tool for fine-tuning and improving existing products/services, it rarely has the ability to aid in true innovation. Laugh if you like, but I'm sure Steve Jobs thinks he is the Calvin Klein of the personal computing industry, and if we've got some guy's name written on the back of our briefs, who are we to talk?
Posted by: Carter at March 18, 2002 1:55 PM
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