I type wicked fast. My fingers sometimes bang away at the keys at a rate faster than I can think.  But for all my mad typing skizzles, I’m a horrible speller.  And for all my speed, I’m hampered by habitual use of the delete/backspace key.  I’ve used it probably seven times in this sentence alone. And there are some errors I miss because I’m typing so fast I’ve already long since moved on.

Today when I went to register for a new Alltop account I misspelled my own email address.  (I know!  I’ve had it like 5 years now. You’d think my fingers would be on auto-pilot.)  Here’s what I entered instead:

Unfortunately, I didn’t notice my error and waited for almost an hour for my confirmation to show up. Of course, it never did and, impatient to get started, I went back to Alltop in search of answers. I clicked around on the website until I found a page that would send me a new confirmation email.

Good news: Alltop will send me an new email.  And they take out all of the guess work about what I’m supposed to do next on this page. I’m supposed to click “Yes, please.”  Indeed, I did send myself a second email before I realized the underlying issue.

Bad news: It’ll do me as much good as the first email.  Alltop doesn’t allow me to recover gracefully from my email address entry mistake.  There’s no option to say anything other than “Yes, please.”  (At least they’re polite.)

To their credit, Alltop does give me contact information on the preceding page.

Of course, I’d forgotten all about that by the time I got to this page.

So, what would make this user experience better?

1. The easiest – something that can be done today in less than 5 minutes – is just to move that contact us link over to the page.

(Note, I reformatted it as a text link rather than the url link.  The url is inconsistent with the style for the rest of the links on website.)

Estimated level of effort: VERY LOW

2. Add the ability to change my email address, starting with something like this:

Of course, this will require presenting back the original information to be edited by the user.  I don’t see any reason why the original registration modal window can’t be presented to the user and resubmitted.

Estimated level of effort: LOW/MEDIUM

3. Suppose changing my email address isn’t technically possible. That’s cool – sometimes there are technical limitations that can’t be easily solved.  I get that.  Just tell me about it and don’t keep me hanging.  Something like this:

Of course, there are a few limitations to this solution.  First of all, it’s a hack.  A really bad, somewhat shameful one.  Secondly, I lose my username. What if it’s the only username I ever use and I’m lost without it?  Finally, Alltop ends up with a bunch of abandoned accounts on its servers.

This is the worst of all the solutions. Still, it’s better than leaving me hanging.

Estimated level of effort: VERY LOW

4. Avoid this kind of error to begin with by running basic email validation during the registration process.

Really, this is a no-brainer. Think offensively rather than defensively, avoiding problems before they really even begin. Validate email addresses on the front end programmatically or by asking the user to enter the email address twice.  The former only ensures that email addresses are technically correct, but would have caught my error.  The latter is a more diligent approach, but the burden falls on the users who mostly hate entering their email address twice.  And, of course, the solutions can be used in tandem to hopefully eliminate all problems.

Estimated level of effort: MEDIUM

Conclusion

Everyone makes mistakes, and Alltop’s not the only website out there who’s fumbled a bit in the area of error messaging.  This doesn’t mean the Alltop website isn’t a good – some features, like the introduction video, are great.

This is just a standard user experience weakness.  (For me, a pretty big one.)

Building in the ability to fail gracefully and recover quickly creates a compassionate user experience and keeps customers engaged. As we’ve seen here, there are multiple ways to handle this sort of error recovery, some better than others.  We can even build successive levels of handling by pairing things like proactive form validation with reactive recovery measures.

]]> http://www.normalmodes.com/blog/2009/09/17/failing-gracefully-four-solutions-for-wrong-registration-email-addresses-on-alltop-com/feed/ 0 http://www.normalmodes.com/blog/2009/09/03/an-analogy-on-well-built-websites/ http://www.normalmodes.com/blog/2009/09/03/an-analogy-on-well-built-websites/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:00:02 +0000 angela http://www.normalmodes.com/blog/?p=1567

Let’s say you’re new to Houston and you need a place to live. You’re in Texas, so you don’t want any old house – you want a ranch. A palatial homestead that’s guaranteed to be the envy of all your friends and family.

A plot of land secured, you head on over to Home Depot to assemble the materials to build this Texas oasis yourself. Architects? Overrated design snobs! Building contractors? What do they know that you can’t figure out for yourself!

At Home Depot, you buy a bunch of lumber in various shapes and sizes, a few fixtures that are all the rage today, and a whole host of azaleas that are on sale. Everyone else in Houston has azaleas, and you’ll keep these alive in their containers for the next few months while you build.

Back at the ranch, you pile everything up in the middle of your plot of land. Free from the shackles of architectural plans and city code focused building contractors, you can get started building right away. You nail together a few 2×4s, pull a tarp over it for now (it’s gotten too late in the day for walls or a roof), and declare the place home.

Six months later, you’re still living under the same tarp covered 2×4s, your fixtures are dated, and your azaleas are dead. And you don’t understand why your family doesn’t want to live there and your friends never visit. Can’t they see how great it is?

How many websites are built the exact same way? Way, way too many.

Just a quick housekeeping notice for all my fabulous clients:  I’ve updated the scheduler for September- November 2009 website coaching hours.

Tuesdays – 2pm-4pm

Wednesdays – 8am – 11am

Thursdays – 2pm-4pm

Of course, other times are available by prior arrangement, so no worries if those times won’t work for you.  As a reminder, be sure to schedule your website coaching call at least one day in advance.

Not yet a coaching client? You can also schedule a complimentary 30-minute introduction at your convenience.

Fresh eyes for your website.

You need someone to bounce ideas off. Someone outside your organization. A person with experience to validate assumptions, provide a new perspective, and re-invigorate web efforts.

Someone who won’t cost a fortune. This is no bull market, so you need honest feedback with measurable results at an affordable price.

Normal Modes offers website coaching services that fit the bill.

Action Oriented

Website coaching is generally constructed around specific objectives:

• Determine if your present website fits your organization’s needs
• Resolve a known user experience problem
• Identify new revenue streams to offer online
• Choose a strategy to economically update your web presence
• Figure out the steps necessary to take your website to the next level
• Prioritize feature enhancements
• Develop an action plan to maintain web content
• Define necessary work to launch a new website
• Clarify your brand, target market and niche

Some clients also find value in an ongoing “retainer” relationship where Normal Modes provides an outside opinion on projects developed in-house. We’re happy to help in this capacity too, at the same affordable prices.

Cost Effective

(Prices good through 9/30/2009.)

The Process

• Define the specific objectives that you hope to accomplish with website coaching.
• Schedule a Complimentary 30-Minute Introduction where we decide if we’re a good fit for each other. If not, I can recommend other resources for getting what you need and accomplishing your goal.
• If we’re a good fit, we’ll make payment arrangements and you can schedule times that are convenient for you. Schedule appointments as you go, or all at one time – whatever works best for you.

Let’s do it!
If you are serious about coaching and want to see if we are a good fit for each other, you can make an appointment online. I look forward to speaking with you!