Loads of web experiences out there attempt to make things easier by using services to source data and populate fields with information on the users behalf. In principle this is a great idea - ask the user to provide one or two bits of information and then return multiple populated fields back, sounds great! In reality even simple #PAF look-ups often take an age to return addresses or there are silly little mistakes in the #UX which mean that users still have to sift through a huge drop down to find the information that relates to them. Worse still the wait for the information to return takes forever and then sometimes only a couple of additional fields are populated leaving the user asking - 'was it worth it!'
These problems are still common and with some #UX planning these can be avoided. I think E-business professionals need to start or more often identify user thresholds for these sort of things and take a lead in driving the system / operational planning as well as optimising the front-end experiences.
The key here is to maintain user momentum, if something acts as a stumbling block or takes time and means the user is likely to start up another online activity you have increased your chances of losing them significantly.
Reference: #UX = User Experience
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I think there is still an issue with systems/sites not trusting what the user has entered.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of things like delivery addresses, a site might want to make sure an address is valid before they send the stuff out. The site doesn't trust users to enter the delivery address correctly 100% of the time, and thus try and full-proof the process.
There has to be a trade-off here between customer experience and the cost of a miss-typed delivery address.
In the case of address look-ups I think you are correct in suggesting companies want accuracy, and there is indeed a trade-off here. However, the UX and how the address is returned can still be optimal with a little thought. Also, with other types of look-ups this perspective isn't so relevant and there are in fact no excuses.
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