Fryer's Blog in the Mountains

Comcast Redesign: Pretty but Hard to Use

Looks like Comcast shelled out some bucks for their new and improved TV listing website.
Pretty.

And pretty hard to use. Using teal (at least I think it's teal) against a white background is hard for me to read.   Even Trend Watching, which stays out in front on design, uses black on a white background.

Please pay attention to making it useful.

Count the Clicks

Our credit union offered a new product last month and I was talking to the person rolling it out.   I recommended they have a simple calculator to compare products.   He said they already did.   Which was great.  I then tried to find it.  With him on the phone we went through 6 pages before we came to the calculator.   

Now I'm a persistent guy, but 7 clicks?   So make sure you create scenarios representing your different customers and what they may want to do.  Then do it yourself and count the clicks.   For all the important things they should never be more than 2 clicks away.   Otherwise you will lose them.

And don't get me started on this *simple* calculator where I gave up after 6 pages of information I had to enter.  But that's the subject for a future post.

Lowes and Home Depot: A Tale of Two Websites

With gas at $3.50 I no longer just "pop out" to check out something.   I like to do a little research first.   So when I was looking at shelving units I checked out Lowes and Home Depot.   Lowes listed the item, told me if it was in stock at the local (well 25 miles away) store and if it wasn't, I could order it and have it shipped to the store for pickup for free.

Nice!

Home Depot listed the item, didn't and wouldn't know if it was in stock (check at the store) and you couldn't order it online.

I think I'll drive 25 miles.