Scott Porad

If you own a restaurant or a retail store (such as the drugstore, fitness club, barbershop, etc.) here’s a tip: 99% of the time I visit your web site I am going for one of the following three reasons:

• To determine what hours you are open, so I can decide when to go to your store
• To find out your location, so if you’re open I can go to your store and buy something
• To get your phone number, so I can call you to find out if you have the thing I want to come to your store and buy

That being said, your site will be extremely more effective if your address, phone number and store hours are on the homepage.

As a potential customer, it starts my shopping experience off poorly if I have to hunt for these things.  Please, I beg you, make it easy for me to shop with you from the outset.

Recently, I have started using Chrome as my regular browser.  When it was released originally, I used it as my default browser, but then I switched computers and got in the habit of using other browsers.

One of the things that I’ve really come to like about Chrome is the address bar.  Unlike IE, Safari or Firefox, Chrome doesn’t have a separate search box—if you want to search, you just type directly into the Address Box.

This is a huge usability improvement.  As a user, when I want to find something in my browser I don’t have to think about where I want to go—Address Box or Search Box—I just start typing.  It’s like Chrome has turned the Address Box into a command line.

With that in mind, I thought, “What else could I do from this command line?  I wonder if I could send a status update to Twitter?”  And, the answer is yes, I can!

In Chrome, this is done by adding a Search Engine, although we’re not really searching…we’re populating the Twitter status update field.  (Click here for instructions on how to add a search engine.)  Here’s how you do it:

• Click the Wrench
• Click Options or Preferences
• Click Basics tab
• Click Manage (which is next to Default Search)
• Click Add
• Enter the following values:
  • Name: Twitter Status Update
  • Keyword: tweet
  • URL: http://twitter.com/home?status=%s
• Click OK and close out of all the dialog windows

Now, here’s how it works: simply type “tweet” then a space and your status update, like so:

then press enter, and Chrome will load Twitter in your browser with your status message.  To complete the update without having to take your hands off the keyboard, simply press Tab and then press Enter or Return.

Suddenly, Chrome has become even more usable because through “Search Engines” I can use the Address Box as a command line for any web page that uses a single querystring parameter.

UPDATE: This same thing can be done in Firefox by adding a “keyword” to a bookmark.  I bet it could be done in IE and Safari too, but I have not tried.

As I was strolling through the New York Subway earlier this week—I think the 42nd Street/Times Square station—I was moved by this advertisement.

Seen in the New York Subway

As someone in the business of building online services, essentially my job is to build stuff that meet people’s needs.

Often, small, subtle and non-verbal interactions are the cues that allow people to understand the needs of others.  Yet, unlike an ordinary store, those of us working online don’t get the opportunity to interact with our customers very often.  The result is that we end up making a lot of assumptions about what we think our users want, need and value.  And we’ve all heard the expression about what assuming makes out of you and me?

The bottom line is that this message touched me so strongly because, for those working in the online space, it reinforced the importance of user research and understanding.

For example, today at Cheezburger, we were considering an update to the navigation on one of our sites.  It felt like too many our insights were based on personal experience, anecdotal data, and assumption.  Yes: there is room in product design for instinct, however far too often we actually don’t really know what our users, customers and communities value.

As the ad says, we can only meet people’s needs by understanding what they value.  We have big plans for Cheezburger in the coming year, and my hope is that we will put extra effort at understanding our community’s values in order to better serve their needs.

The main tweak I made to this theme when I downloaded it was that I made the main column more narrow than the original designer. Let me explain why.

Have you ever noticed that newspapers and magazines use narrow columns?  There’s a reason for that, and those lessons should be applied when displaying text on the web.

Narrow columns are faster to read because the reader’s eyes don’t have to scan as far back-and-forth, and can rely on peripheral vision to take in words at the beginning and end of the lines.

In addition, narrow columns are easier on the eyes, so the reader can read longer before tiring.  Each time the reader’s eyes perform a “carriage return”–moving from the end of a line and move back to the beginning of the next–they get a little rest.

The net result is text that is both faster to read and easier on the eyes.

P.S.  Tangentially related, when I was trying out the iPhone Kindle recently, one of the thing that made it a real delight to read was that the text is very narrow in on the iPhone.  Notwithstanding the brightness of the screen, I was able to read very quickly for a long time without eye fatigue.I really enjoyed that.

1 hour 8 minutes.  That’s how long I just spent on the phone with Verizon Wireless.  (Thank goodness the entire wait happened while I was in the waiting room at the doctor’s office!)

Let me tell you why: two weeks ago I bought a Verizon mobile Internet card: $59.99/month with $0.05/MB overage charges.  However, when I logged in the device gave a warning that there is a $0.25 overage charge.  Yikes, big difference.

Headed over to Verizon.com and tried to login to “My Verizon” to check my plan.  Turns out I’ve already been registered–must have done that when I bought the device, but forgot.  So, I need to reset my password.  No problem.

Oh, wait: the way this is done by is by sending a text message to the device.  Well, my device is a little USB thumb-card type of thing…no way to receive text messages.

So, I call Verizon customer service.  First, I explain to the customer service agent my 5-vs-25 cent problem, but she really doesn’t have an answer.  Nor does she know if anybody there has the answer.  Hmmm.   So, I sort of gave up.  Then move on to explaining my login problem to My Verizon.

Oh, not a problem, she says: the software that runs your card has a text message inbox, and that’s how you can get the message.  But, my version of the software doesn’t seem to have the inbox.  Okay, let’s transfer you to tech support…

…oooooohhhh, you’re running a Mac.  The software on a Mac doesn’t have the inbox.

Now, what the very kind woman on the phone is going to do is disconnect my device from my account.  Then, hook her phone up to my account, send herself the text message, and reset my password for me.  Finally, she’ll hook my device back up to my account.

Not a bad plan, a kluge, but a plan.  From this point, it takes about 30 minutes because there are various setbacks to the plan.  Nevertheless, it works, I thank the agent, and like all helpful agents, she asks, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”  As a matter of fact, yes: the whole reason I want to get into My Verizon is because of this 5-vs-25 cent problem…can you help me with that?

Well, see, if you look carefully you’ll see that it says “$0.25/minute” and what that really means is that if you’re using voice services on your plan that would be the overage.  But, of course, since your device doesn’t do voice, that’s irrelevant.  If you look over here, you’ll see where it says “$0.05/MB” which is what applies to data.  Oooohhhh…well, thankyouverymuch for explaining…makes perfect sense.

And, with no further adieu, let me recount the very simple ways Verizon could have prevented wasting roughly 90 minutes of my life, roughly in order of sequence:

1. If your device can’t do voice, they could suppress the voice overage charge warning. [Relatively simple software design problem.]
2. If they must have the warning, then they should clearly identify the difference between voice and data overages. [Very simple software design problem.]
3. The first customer service agent could have known the answer to my question.  [Training problem...training can be tricky, so they get a break here.]
4. The first customer service agent could have transferred me to a more knowledgeable agent when she didn’t know the answer.  [Business process problem.]
5. The web page where you reset your password could have said that Internet devices can receive text messages, and have included an explanation of how to receive them.  [Extremely simple software design problem.]
6. Unless you’re on a Mac, in which case you’ll need to call Verizon for 1 hour and 8 minutes.  [Very, very lame software design problem, and one that is not terribly hard to fix.  If the Windows software can do it, then so can the Mac...it's just development time.]
7. In My Verizon, like #1, if I don’t have voice services then don’t show the voice overage rates. [Relatively simple software design problem.]
8. In My Verizon, like #2, if you must show the rates, then clearly identify the differences. [Very simple software design problem.]

Long story short: it’s not hard to have a good user experience.  There are 8 places where for a relatively low cost the UX could have been improved.

I Know the Secret to Selling a Your Product…

Over the weekend, poked my head in to an art gallery.  Inexpensive art ranging in prices from $25-250.  Art that I liked and would have hung on my wall.

Was the only person in the gallery for between 7-10 minutes.  Sales person at the desk must have known I was there because the there was an auto-doorbell when someone entered.  I dropped something in the doorway, so I came in and out twice.  Sales person didn’t say a peep…didn’t acknowledge my existence…didn’t ask if I wanted to buy something…and I left without any engagement when just saying “hello” would have been so easy.

Pro Tip: if you have a product that you’re trying to sell, the very easiest way to increase your sales conversion rate is to ask your potential customers if they would like to make a purchase.  There’s a reason the Gap and Walmart have greeters…it’s because they work and they pay for themselves dozens of times over.  The same applies to the web: if you’re selling something, make sure you’re asking your customers if they want to buy it.

I Know Another Secret…How to Sell Your Service:

On Saturday, I needed to send something overnight for Monday arrival.  The reason is unimportant.  I called information to get the phone number of my local FedEx location because I needed to know by what time I needed to drop off my letter.  That location is probably 4 miles from my house.

I called information, got the number for my local location, but was forwarded to the general all-in-one FedEx automated phone system.  Oy!  Had to go through a whole ton of prompts to find my location again, but gave up after a few minutes because I couldn’t find the exact one.

Turned on the computer, go to FedEx.com, use the store locator…same problem, but ultimately I find the store…doesn’t seem to have the info I need.  Or, at least, it’s not obvious.

So, I go to Google, do some Googling, find the actual local phone number.  More prompts, but finally I get to “Press 9 to speak to a store representative.”

“Hi, FedEx Office, this is Kevin, how may I help you?”  I proceed to to have a 45-60 second conversation with Kevin who tells me that I need to get my letter there by 4pm.  Problem solved, thank you Kevin.

Pro Tip: Good customer service and good customer experience starts with treating your customers like humans when they’re in the information gathering phase of deciding whether or not to use your service.  Maybe FedEx saved a few dollars by having a giant automated phone system, but they wasted a ton of my time.  In other words, they reduced their cost, but not the actual cost of their service…my total cost was the same.  To boot, if I hadn’t been a creative Googler I probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out if their service solved my problem.  Same goes on the web: design your web site for humans and it’s much more likely they’re going to buy your service.