Solving the “Repeat Email Address” Form Issue. Maybe.

Written by Russ on September 9, 2009 – 10:37 pm

One of the mailing lists that I’m on had a question posed today about using “Repeat Email Address” in form validation.

I actually cringed as I typed that just now–that particular part of form validation is pretty annoying (to me, at least). I find it amusing that shift-tab, copy, tab, paste as a method for handling doesn’t cross anyone’s mind when creating these types of “validations” in forms.

There were a number of responses to the thread, but Steve Krug (yeah, that Steve Krug) put out the notion that he suspects most of the email address typos may originate in hasty typing, and they end up getting submitted because the user doesn’t realize that they’ve made a mistake.  Krug identifies that it’s possible, from his perspective, that the font used in many forms is fairly small and that makes it so that errors don’t actually jump out at the users.

Krug also suggested that it may be possible to help users catch the errors by displaying the email address in larger, clear monospaced font–possibly next to the or below the field where the typing occurs.

This stuck with me, but I wasn’t quite sold.

I pinged my friend Jonathan “Yoni” Knoll to see if he’d loan me about 15 minutes of his time to prototype something.  Lucky me, he had just that much time to spare.

We (and by we, I mean Yoni) put together a really quick prototype form–it’s important to note that we didn’t put much more than 15-20 minutes into this, and this is only to see how the form “feels”.  It can grow a number of different ways, styles and placements of elements can certainly be shifted around to your heart’s content.

The form looks pretty, uh, form-y:

Note at the bottom of the form the tiny little text letting you know that you should check your email address. In reality, I’m pretty sure most of us wouldn’t read it.

Also note that there was no “Repeat Email Address” text field in the form.

Instead, once you fill out your email address and tab away from it…

Notice that now my email address appears right before the Submit button.  Krug initially suggested that the re-display of the email address might work best in a larger font next to the field where you entered in your email address.

The way this placement works now, in the prototype version that Yoni and I worked-up, the last thing you see before you submit is your own email address.  I think this works particularly well in longer forms–it gives you the opportunity to re-check the most important piece of information in the form (to marketers, at least) right before you hit submit.  The little “edit” link jumps you back to the field where you can make edits quickly and continue on with the submit action.

See this live in action here: http://infinityplusone.com/form-test.html

Remember: this is a prototype.  One of the reasons that the edit link is to the left of the email address is because, after a couple attempts at placing it, this made the most sense to Yoni since email addresses are variable and that could cause the placement of the link to not always be in the exact same place.  Your mileage may vary; something may work better for you.

The important piece of this prototype is seeing how it works in action, and how it potentially solves for having the “Repeat Email Address” field in your forms.

Tinker with it–and let us know what you think!

Posted in User Experience, User Experience Design | 61 Comments »

A Letter to my Lover Netflix

Written by Russ on September 5, 2009 – 6:35 am

Dear Netflix,

I like you–a lot. The service you provide is pretty simple in concept, and it’s great–to a degree. I no longer walk through the video store and get distracted by all the extra stuff that’s be offered up, especially now that I have kids. That’s pretty great.

Maybe.

I miss taking a look at the video library in the store and the New Release Wall that generally surrounds the store.  I miss seeing the goofy employee picks and the random surprise flick I would have never found otherwise.

I don’t miss the realization on a Friday night that the new movies came out on Tuesday and I have to choose something else because all of the hottest pick is out.

Wait–there’s something else I miss:

I miss being able to EASILY FIND THE NEWEST RELEASES!

Really. Quite a bit, actually.

I Can’t Keep My Eyes on YOU, Netflix

Netflix, I get it.  I get that you make more money if I check out movies from your massive library. I get that you sometimes throttle your approach to certain customers depending upon how many movies they view in a month and sometimes I don’t get my primary picks because of that.  I get that you have to make some money. In fact, I’m cool with that, especially in these economic times when we’re all looking at the extras we can afford to do without.

But, see, here’s the thing.  I don’t like that, as of right now, the best way that I have found to track down new and upcoming releases is to open another tab in Firefox, browse to Amazon.com’s DVD section, click on “New and Upcoming Releases” and then browse through all of their lists and then tab over to your website and manually search for those titles that I’m interested in.

What a serious pain in my backside.

Yet, I do it to prevent me from making the obligatory trip to one of the few remaining dingy and dank video stores in my suburban area. Of course, there’s competition for those fun stores, too, now that Red Box has been littering the Chicago suburbs with their $1-a-night, uh, red boxes (and yes, they have a downside, too, as they are either located outside of a well-trafficked retail outlet, or even worse, on the inside).

Interesting, right?  I mean, here’s the simple summary for you, Netflix:

• I supplement my 3 Netflix DVDs at a time per month from you with Red Box—and probably to the tune of an extra $5 – $10 a month.
• I search for the movies that I’ll “rent” from the Netflix at a website that is probably going to be a competitor of yours (which for me might require the ability of getting my stuff out of the cloud as an option)
• I frequently end up making purchases from the other website while I’m browsing for New & Upcoming releases to check-out from Netflix
• I pay Netflix $15ish a month
• I feel that your browse-ability is painful, incomplete and manipulating me away toward the titles that I want–and instead toward titles YOU want me to watch. A healthy relationship involves a compromise that gives us what we both want, right?

Wow.

That has to sting just a little bit, right? I’m spending a lot of money getting some action in other places because you won’t put out content in a way that makes my life easier.

Doing A Lot of Things Right

Let’s face it, Netflix, you’ve got the mechanics down! Your automated centers with 250ish employees–including the stealth one in Carol Stream by my house–are awesome.  The people that work for you enjoy some great benefits–as seen in your HR presentation–and we could all learn from that.  I, along with so many others, no longer pay late fees, or make the 11:59pm dash to return a movie, and that’s pretty cool, too.

I think you’re doing great job with all of that.  It’s impressive; you’ve forced a lot of evolution in your industry, and I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t taken advantage of streaming online movies and TV shows on one monitor while I’m cranking away on some wonderful User Experience for clients, community and conferences.  Between that and the spiffy little Roku box I bought last year to bring us closer together, it’s made me rethink my relationship with my cable company on more than one occasion, I cannot deny.

…With Room For Improvement

Here’s the thing: I don’t think you’re doing quite enough.  You’re losing out on a huge opportunity to go from “just dating” me to becoming “totally engaged” to me.

And I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t come to you with a way that would help you surprise and delight me.  In fact, you might even say that I’m trying to get you to make the proposal–with a proposal of my own.

Here we go.

The movie industry spends bajillions of dollars advertising their new movies that are released every single weekend.  This sends droves of folks into theaters to view them–from the artsy talk-alongs to the big budget smashes with more special effects than dialog.

That’s also a bit of a risk for them, but I see an opportunity for you.  At least in my naive eyes as a consumer in this whole scheme.  Hey, the movie companies are spending some big bucks, and there’s no reason that you can capitalize on their ability to generate massive awareness, right?

Right.

But let me be clear about something before I tell you what I’m suggesting next–I hate SPAM and time-wasting emails.  I don’t want to feel like I’m being sold something—I’m already sold.  We’re good together.  I want us to be better, but I don’t want to feel like I’m always being asked to give more (without a really compelling reason, of course). I’ve quite a bit already, really.

Room for Improvement

You and me, Netflix, we’re friends—heck we’re more than friends—and I think you understand I’d like to make that relationship better, so as long as you can keep the SPAM bit in mind, I’d be willing to hear from you more.  No, wait.  I want you to do that–I would like for you to send me some really pertinent, timely information about movie selections.

So, how about this:

Every Sunday or Monday, you send me an email that tells me all the cool stuff that hit the movie theaters this past weekend?  Better yet–maybe even wrap in some sales figures so I can see who was top in the box office to help me make some decisions.  See, I’m a parent with two kids under 6, and going to the movies is a pretty rare treat for me.  In fact, most of my movie-watching time happens after the two lights of my life have but shut off for the evening.  And then, you’ve got to compete with my DVR-watching time.  Just saying.

So, I’m asking you to let me set my selections–and forget about them–without even having to remember to visit netflix.com to update my ever-dwindling queue.  Send me that email and base it upon movies that were just released, if not all of the movies playing in theaters RIGHT NOW so I can get to watch them in 3-6 months when they’re finally out on video and I don’t have to worry about it.

Or, I can keep on searching over there at Amazon, which almost always ends up in some sort of a purchase from them. There’s no reason that couldn’t be your money, right?  I’d love to give it to you, if there was a compelling enough reason. But, you know, right now there isn’t anything very compelling to upsell me in to. Oh, and Amazon also pumps content to that Roku box now, and I initially bought that so you and I could be closer.  Oh, and I’d certainly prefer not to go to the Red Box and see that the New Release movie I wasn’t aware of nor able to easily find on your site is available there.  I’d much rather we were in an exclusive relationship, you know?

Oh, and while you’re at it, you’re in the movie business. You really should surprise and delight me sometime by just sending along a cool bag of microwave popcorn or something to celebrate my continued commitment to you. Again, just saying.

I’ll summarize this for you Netflix, because you should be able to scan this blog post and get what I’m talking about:

• You send me an email that tells me about the new releases in the theaters so I can add them to my queue while they’re hot and on my mind.  I won’t have to wander around online or in the real world to other places to find these titles. I’ll rest comfortably that you’ll take care of me. (of course, there are some logistics to working out the interactions of managing what items go where in my queue, but you’re smart, you’ll figure it out–or hey, I can help you with that, too!)
• You gain some insights into the amount of new releases you’ll need to purchase to meet demand based upon figures that you get MONTHS in advance. We all like predictive maths, don’t we?
• Speaking of that queue, I might even pay you a premium to ensure I get those new releases the SAME WEEK when they come out! Oooh, money-making opportunity by selling an exit pass to get on a ride more quickly! (this is borrowed from Six Flags & Disney)
• You’ll show me you appreciate me by throwing me a surprise every now and then. You may not be able to buy my loyalty, but you can still appreciate me by doing small things, and that may just keep me from noticing the next guy who saunters up wearing his Ed Hardy hipster outfit offering up some cool new video service, for a little while, at least. You should probably do something like that now while you don’t have to, instead of later when you’re fighting to keep me with you. (just a thought)
• You’ll go visit Zappos in Las Vegas. Take the tour. Grab a copy of The Culture Book. Meet everyone and fully understand why they all are customer service people–many of whom have talents in other areas. Find out why going the extra mile is a part of THEIR culture and make a part of yours. Understand why your opaqueness could be a detriment whereas their opacity seems to serve as a huge beneift. There might just be an opportunity there for you.  Sure, sure, I just got back from Zappos and I’m under their magic spell–but they do a lot more right than wrong and they’ve got themselves positioned to do some pretty amazing things. You should be amazing-er, too.

Bring the Ring

I don’t think I’m throwing any deep science on you.  This is just simple stuff, and it’ll make me happier in our relationship. It’ll make me not think about the monthly fee that I pay you every month whenever I visit  Amazon and browse through their new and upcoming releases.  You should have my eyes on you during that time–or at the least, keep my eyes from wandering over there and checking out what they’re willing to show me.

We’ve been dating a long time, Netflix.

I’m ready to be engaged.

Love,

Russ

Posted in User Experience | 2 Comments »