A Letter to my Lover Netflix
Written by Russ on September 5, 2009 – 6:35 amDear 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 »
Peachpit Interview Transcript – A Project Guide to UX Design with Russ Unger
Written by Russ on June 9, 2009 – 12:34 pmPeachpit did a podcast interview with Carolyn Chandler and myself a couple of weeks ago, and I was fortunate enough to be able to transcribe my parts it. Below are my answers to the questions that were asked of us.
You can also listen to this online, or download a copy of the interview from Peachpit Author Talk.
What is user experience design?
In the book we define it broadly as “The creation and synchronization of the elements that affect users’ experience with a particular company (or product), with the intent of influencing their perceptions and behavior”.
That’s true–but I think that most people today tend to focus on the more digital aspects of user experience design; websites, software applications. But really, it gets down to considering all the pieces of the whole. That includes business goals and objectives, user expectations, desires and needs–oh, and what can be done within technical, time and budget constraints. All of this wrapped in the context in which the users would be interacting with it.
That’s not to say that we’re making trade-offs, per se, but that there’s rarely an environment without some degree of friction that presents you from doing what you’d do in a “perfect world”. It’s not just boxes and arrows, mind you. There’s a lot of thinking in the work that user experience designers do.
It’s almost never a perfect situation, but then again, that’s what makes it interesting!
What are some of the problems that arise when considering UX design? What challenges might other team members present?
The biggest problem that I see is when aspects of UX design aren’t considered necessary. In many cases, clients want an “expert on user experience design” to make all the decisions for them, and when they don’t agree with the proposed solutions, they sometimes may strongly suggest that a design behave a certain way–against the advice of the UX Designer. Good UX Designers know what opinions are like, so they’ll recommend that designs should be tested with users–and that step may get overlooked, resulting in a design that is either ill- or uninformed.
As far as other team members, the most frequent challenge that I’ve seen and hear of is lack of collaboration. User experience design doesn’t end when a designer is handed a wireframe, a developer is handed a functional spec and design files–it evolves. User experience designers know this, and they need to be engaged throughout the rest of the phases of the project–we’re flexible and we’re working toward the best end result, not laying down the law in document format. Collaboration helps us improve the experience and presents opportunities for us all to continue to learn from each other.
Who do you think really “gets” user experience design? Who is doing it right?
At the risk of seeming like a fanboy, I’d say that Jesse James Garret and Jared Spool really “get it”. I’ve been fortunate enough to speak to both of them over the course of the past year or so, and if nothing else, they really help me understand how far I have to go.
Jesse and Jared both have spent a lot of time observing and sharing information outward–if not pushing it to us–to pay attention beyond what’s directly in front of us. If you’ve been fortunate enough to see presentations from either of them, not only will it blow your mind, but you’ll find your way of approaching problems a bit different. Jesse and Adaptive Path have put together some pretty fantastic, well-thought and forward-thinking prototypes of web browsers and medical products and Jared has shared the findings of years of research to help us understand “real” behaviors, and the real value of research in the user experience design process.
For good measure, I have to throw in Stephen Anderson, who has given some pretty fantastic presentations around the influence and persuasion of design. He’s also a speaker at the IDEA Conference in Toronto in September this year.
You know who else? Dr. Temple Grandin. She’s written a few books that deal with her experience with Autism, but also how she puts into practice her visual thinking in order to be able to “test run” anything she’s designed. She has a great ability to put empathy into practice, and that’s something user experience designers should all strive to emulate.
Finally, Paul Arden, author of “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be“–it’s a quick and easy read and has so many tenants that are so simple and that just sort of smack you upside the head.
What is one of the most common errors people make when designing for user experience?
There are a couple of things here–for me, when I first started out, I spent a lot more time opening a tool and getting started and then revising the heck out of the product. Now, I’m notorious for walking around with pencils and paper–I sketch everything, several times, prior to even opening up a digital tool and getting to work. And, even then, I find that I make enhancements from my sketching when I’m transferring to digital.
I also think that we tend to forget that our work isn’t about US, but it’s about the work–that is, we should not be taking offense at criticism, but taking feedback that drives us to better designs for our users. I’ve been saying it a bit more lately, and Peter Merholz mentioned it a few years back: The crit–being very critical of our designs, beating them up, taking no prisoners and attacking them, these are the things that will make our designs better in the end. We also get to be the gatekeepers of what we do with the critiques, but there’s a lot of value in even the most negative of comments. We’ve got to be able to face those head-on, and get to the point to where we request, if not require, the feedback prior to putting anything in front of a user or a client.
What advice would you offer others who are just beginning to tackle user experience design?
I believe that all user experience designers are “rotten with imperfection”–every time we get something we lust for, we choose something else to want. User experience design is similar; it does NOT end–once you’ve turned over a great finished product… well, it’s not finished. It’s time to evaluate, update and repeat, because users are pretty “rotten with imperfection”, themselves.
Embrace the rotten-ness. Don’t look forward to the end of a project, look forward to the next opportunity to improve.
Tackle the things you’ve not done before–Robert Hoekman, Jr. asked me what I think “we” are, and I said, “adaptable”. User experience designers need to be just that–it’s a young field. There’s always going to be something you’ve not tried before. Dive in. Fail, fail well, and hopefully fail in the right direction, but don’t stop asking questions and don’t stop learning from your mistakes.
Oh, and get involved in the user experience design community–the Information Architecture Institute, Interaction Design Association, UX Net, Usability Professionals Association and a whole slew of UX Book Clubs are all great organization and are all continually looking for volunteers to support their efforts. Volunteering is a great way to get experience and work with some of the top minds in the field. I can assure you I wouldn’t be where I am today without them, and I doubt I would have found my way to writing a book without being involved.
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Posted in Community, Conferences, Information Architecture, Interview, User Experience, User Experience Design, UXD Book | No Comments »
Chicago Interactive Design & Development Group – May 19, 2009
Written by Russ on May 20, 2009 – 8:35 pmMay 19, 2009, Carolyn Chandler (my co-author for A Project Guide to UX Design) presented at the Chicago Interactive Design & Development Group‘s monthly meet-up. We presented our joint presentation (which is really Carolyn’s that we worked me in to), “Learning to Love Tension, Disruption & Chaos” that we had presented a couple of weeks ago at the Voices That Matter Web Design Conference in San Francisco.
It’s amazing what a difference 2 weeks can make! It’s also pretty amazing that we each only knew 1 person in the room–quite a few people less than we knew in San Francisco, and Chicago’s our home town! Not only that, I think we both were recovering from being a bit rattled from our presentation in San Francisco.
To be honest, the room was a bit flat–and that’s not to blame anyone, but it was a room with people in the web design space, on the last day of a conference and 2 fairly unknown authors.
Right after the always entertaining Jared Spool, too.
Hey, Jared’s one of those wicked-awesome, keynote-giving type of guys.
Hey, I’ve been hitting the stage and giving a handful of presentations this year and Jared’s been doing this for… let’s just say a bit more than I have. But, you know, sometimes the room can make a lot of difference.
That’s not to say we fell flat on our faces–there were some pretty good questions at VTM, but it felt dry. Regardless, I felt much better about my own abilities as a speaker (and a few people have been twittering my talk from the IA Summit on Heuristic Analysis for the Pitch Process in a positive light and that’s been a welcome boost to my own morale). Back to the local Meetup…
The room was pretty packed–it looked like around 50-60 people showed up, counting the late stragglers. We gave our presentations, felt the room was a bit more alive–and it was pretty nice to be in a room where everyone wasn’t staring down at a laptop. We also had some really great questions and genuinely interested people.
My portion of our discussion was on disruption, and Steve Portigal has been kind enough to work through this discussion. He provided some pretty good insights around how to re-frame problems, and that really helped me provide anecdotes that help others understand the value of disruption. Disruption can be something as simple as performing design testing with users, forcing very critical internal design reviews of your own work, or even getting your butt out of your chair and experiencing the environments where your end result will live (I give some examples using AMC’s touch screen kiosk and shower knobs that tend to paint the picture pretty clearly). We shouldn’t be afraid of someone knocking us off course–we should embrace it! We should be heading it off at the pass and encouraging it early on so we can get knocked out of our comfort zone and force us to be a bit more creative in the way we design. Disruption can be your friend.
Carolyn did a great job of talking about Chaos and Tension and how to work with them within the design process–there were some great questions around how to reign in chaos and how to wrestle with the tension to keep it balanced.
This group was outstanding–and it’s important to note that it’s been around for quite awhile. Judi Wunderlich, of Wunderland Group, has been setting up the local meetups. I’ve yet to be able to attend, and I can tell you that it’s been entirely my loss. The large group was attentive, interested and engaged and it was absolutely my pleasure and privilege to be asked to present to such an awesome audience.
Without Judi’s efforts, I’m not certain we’d have this type of meetup, and it’s important to recognize how lucky we are to have her support in our interactive community. Thanks, Judi!
This is been a rare local appearance–I’m really happy that I was able to take part, and look forward to getting more locally engaged. Support your local scene–they’re support is pretty fantastic!
Posted in Presentations, User Experience | No Comments »
I Love My Amazon Kindle. And I Love It On My iPhone.
Written by Russ on March 4, 2009 – 11:53 amWhen the first Amazon Kindle
Underwhelmed.
I loved the damn thing, but it’s industrial design was… meh. The edges where too harsh. It was bulky. The big-ass buttons were too big ass. Pages turned when I would rest the Kindle against my bag on the train and I’d lose my place.
It annoyed me.
But I loved feeding my reading habit and buying books on the train and just buying books to show off. Plus, it was pretty cool to have the Wall Street Journal ready for me every day when I was ready for it.
Except, of course, that Wall Street Journal would not allow me to have web access to the paper unless I paid for that online access, as well.
I sold that Kindle a few weeks back, even though I loved it so. To be honest, since I’ve been working on the book, my reading habit has dwindled severely. Now I have a whole bunch of these presentation things I need to be working on (and I am), but I also have some spare time to get back into reading, so I was pretty happy to jump to the front of the line and place an order for a new Kindle as a first generation owner.
I got it last week, and the improvements are unreal.
Okay, they’re real. But they’re (almost) all the right ones!
No longer do you have to push a funky key combination to force the sleep mode. Instead, you flip the switch at the top–easy! The buttons are smaller, and require a bit more impact and force (ie actual desire) to push, meaning you have substantially fewer accidental page turns! This, naturally, makes me happy.
The pages, well, they turn quicker. That makes me happy, too, except for the slight adjustment I’ve “learned” from when I push the page turn to when it turns… Ooops! There’s that nifty little “read the words to me” feature, but it’s more to show it off than anything else.
I love that I can email my Kindle account PDFs or Documents and they’ll convert it for a dime and then I can read it at my leisure. It’s annoying that it doesn’t keep images intact (I sent a PDF of The Book to it), but it’s nice to be able to read work, etc. documents NOT on the iPhone only.
In general, however, the industrial design rocks, the overall experience is greatly improved, the keyboard is better and the entire device just makes a lot more sense and seems about as right as it can be for an eReader, or whatever we’re calling them now.
The downsides that I currently see are:
No SD card for expansion of memory–but I never filled the last SD card, and Amazon will let you keep your digital books on their network, with the availability to pull them down whenever you want. Not much of an issue from where I sit.
I still can’t print or grab snippets of text, send it somewhere and print it. It’s minor, but it’s a pain in the butt to not be able to snag text, and article, etc. and print it off for reference.
This version did not come with a case like the previous version–I wasn’t a huge fan of the last case, but at least I had one and I didn’t pay extra for it. In return, the package was a lot less, so I guess there’s some tiny bit of the environment that got saved, but I still had to shell out a bunch of bucks to get a neoprene case, which in turn required more packaging and shipping, so I think that ecological argument just got tossed right out the window into the smoggy air. Just saying.
And it just got better…
Today, the Kindle iPhone application just came out, officially making Kindle hardware AND software, I think. The application is free, and like all the other iPhone applications: select it, install it, use it.
I found all of my books in a place called “Archives”. I grabbed the most recent book I’ve been reading and it downloaded it to my iPhone. In another tap, the book opened for me to read…
And this is where it got REALLY cool…
It opened up to the last page I read on my Kindle the day before.
No kidding!
While sitting in a doctor’s office this morning, I was flipping through pages–it was a thumb swipe from right-to-left–and I was able to exit the application and re-open to the same place. A “refresh”-like looking button is on the screen, so I tapped it and in a few moments it let me know that I was at the furthest-most read page on any of my devices.
Pretty freaking cool, really.
Even cooler…
I didn’t have to “register a device” or make any limited number of devices “authorized” to use it, which is a hard lesson that our pals at Apple should start to learn–especially for those of us with iPods, iPhones, AppleTVs and more than one computer.
Kindle: I’m a fan. Thanks for listening and improving. I hope the next changes are software changes so I don’t have to go through the sell-and-upgrade process again in a year.
Posted in Rave, Review, User Experience | No Comments »
A Project Guide to UX Design: Why We Wrote the Book
Written by Russ on February 4, 2009 – 12:19 pmThis is the unedited, unabridged version of what started out as the introduction to the book, but a lot of it got edited out–it made sense to do so, but I think the story is worth telling. –Russ
I’ve been a mentor for the Information Architecture Institute for a couple of years now, and I started to notice a pattern (go figure) amongst the people that I was helping. Most were either in positions where they were having difficulty landing jobs or they were not aligned with the expectations of prospective employers. Some had outstanding education, but not always enough practical application of their UX design skills in a project-based setting to help them find ways to become engaged.
Then, I attended the Information Architecture Summit in 2008 and met a lot of new people, including a few people who stopped by the IA Institute’s Mentoring Booth. The same themes seemed to resonate. As I spoke to more and more people, it made sense to me that a book like this could be useful to many in the UX design field.
While at the IA Summit, I skipped a session and attended a focus group-like session with Lou Rosenfeld (Rosenfeld Media) and Kevin Cheng to discuss Kevin’s upcoming book “See What I Mean” that will teach you the process of using comics to communicate ideas. My mind kicked into overdrive and I recall sitting there, trying to add value to the conversation while trying to jot notes onto my phone for future reference.
As is usual when people return from a conference that they got a lot out of, I returned back to Chicago exhausted—and fully energized and ready to take on the world again. I reviewed my notes and I started creating an outline of what the project process has looked like to me over the years.
Out of the blue, either Carolyn Chandler or myself sent an email to the other, and the topic of my outline came up. I shared it. Carolyn sent a response with her own views and opinions. The outline was revised. Then descriptions started being created so that the outline made sense to us—and to other people who were kind enough to review what we were creating. Eventually—and by eventually, I mean a few months into the book with Peachpit—we came up with our final outline that became the book that is in your hands today. Instead of trying to tackle the project alone, I found a very willing and capable co-author who was up to the task.
It was clear to me that Carolyn and I had a degree of overlap and very clear areas where one had more depth and focus than the other. As you’ll see from the chapters, it was clear to us who fit where. We set out to create a book to help you move through many of the steps of the project process, including some additional information to help you understand just what the heck the project process is, and a few other morsels that should help you if you are setting out to do this on your own as an independent consultant or a freelancer.
As you’ll see in many chapters of this book, we’re not trying to be everything to all people. You’ll also see that we’re trying to provide you with the core information and knowledge that you should have to perform many of the duties you’ll be assigned as a UX designer. You’ll see that beyond our own examples, we’re quick to provide you with examples that help you identify ways to jumpstart the basic materials and allow you to mash-up the information and create something newer, better, or even more suited to your own purposes.
We hope that we’ve done a decent job of articulating that this is a pretty good project approach toward UX design based upon the collaboration of a couple of people who received input from other people to get to where we are today.
We’re nothing, if not constantly trying to learn and improve <whatever we do>, with each iteration. It’s why, to a degree, we’re in this field.
Welcome to “A Project Guide to UX Design”.
(Coming in March, 2009 on Peachpit Press’ Voices That Matter series)
(Check out the Facebook Group, too!)
Posted in Community, Conferences, Information Architecture, User Experience, User Experience Design, UXD Book | 4 Comments »
Experiencing the Misconceptions of User Experience Design
Written by Russ on January 10, 2009 – 4:50 pmInformation Architecture Institute’s Advisor and UX “it girl” extraordinaire, Whitney Hess authored an article on Mashable yesterday that’s gotten a lot of buzz. My description of Whitney isn’t facetious; she does a lot for our community to expand awareness and help make splashes where they aren’t being made.
We could all take a page from her book, frankly.
Sometime around Thanksgiving, I got a twitter Direct Message from Whit asking me what I thought was “the biggest misconception in UXD”.
I chuckled because I’d been working through this for a very long time, and I’d been having a number of conversations with Matthew Milan about this very same topic and how I really believe that we sell ourselves short by locking ourselves into “just” the user.
Whitney’s quote from me in the article as follows:
…just about the user
Russ Unger, experience design strategist, likes to say that the biggest misconception of UX design is the “U.” “There are a set of business objectives that are needing to be met—and we’re designing to that, as well,” he explains. “We just can’t always do what is best for the users. We have to try to make sure that we are presenting an overall experience that can meet as many goals and needs as possible for the business and the users.”As user experience designers we have to find the sweet spot between the user’s needs and the business goals, and furthermore ensure that the design is on brand.
Whit did a great job of distilling it down; I didn’t expect that what I had sent her would be carved in stone, but I definitely feel that the lengthier version gives a bit more insight and further explains my perspective (and as I mentioned to her, gives me something to blog about, too!).
I sent Whitney the following response:
Biggest misconception?
One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that people are getting too deep into “User” Experience Design. That is, most times, we are solving a business problem and wrapping something useful and usable around it. There are a set of business objectives that are needing to be met—and we’re designing to that, as well. In many cases, this forces “User” Experience Designers to choose between the lesser of evils and not really put forth what might be considered (by them) as the best possible solution. I believe any of us in the field could nitpick on any site or application and make a snap judgment—but we would not know what business objective forced that design decision.
As an example: I once worked for a large media company that identified banner ads as a revenue stream. This required a large “island” ad to be placed on the page, and forgive me for even saying this, above the fold (not my requirement). Some designers rebelled against this, but the way I saw this was that there is an ad on a page that had the potential to bring in enough revenue to pay multiple salaries each year—that’s ultimately a good thing, right?
I see us as Experience Designers, who truly try to provide what is best for a user—while making sure business objectives are met. Unfortunately, we just can’t always do what is best for the users, so we have to try to make sure that we are presenting an overall experience that can meet as many goals and needs as possible for the business and the users.
Whitney edited this down to fit into her pretty lengthy article–which, by the way, had my name listed amongst people that I’m fortunate enough to be able to say that I’ve met, I’ve had conversations with, I’ve become friends with and who are my heroes in the industry. Author, of course, included, and ranking right up there near the top.
I’m more than a little honored to be amongst those people listed, and I’m flattered to have given a response that was considered insightful enough to be listed.
But, I have to say, I very specifically meant that the U–the USER part–of User Experience Design is one of the misconceptions that I see.
We don’t always have the fortune of working for the Users. We sometimes work for the Business requirements and the business objectives. We are creating experiences for their users that are compelling the users to buy something.
Look, we’re a cost to companies, and they see it as a needed cost because we have the potential to save them money downstream by working toward the best interests of their users–to meet goals and objectives of the company.
We’re working with all that stuff. We’re working to simplify processes. We sometimes have to pick the lesser of many evils–and we do that, to a degree, for the user.
And the user isn’t always a customer, either.
cus·tom·er
- One that buys goods or services.
- Informal An individual with whom one must deal: a tough customer.
That’s far too narrow of a focus–for me.
Sometimes, the user is just a visitor. Sometimes, we identify business processes and/or communication processes (think to yourself how the editorial process might work for a large-scale CMS). Sometimes it’s a consumer–and that doesn’t have to be a customer. Sometimes the user is someone looking for information, and you can rationalize that however you’d like, but it’s not a customer.
Otherwise, it would be often called Customer Experience Design.
From where I sit, and from where I’ll be sitting soon, it’s Experience Design, Experience Strategy and/or Experience Planning. Who we do it for… That may vary.
We’re always going to try to connect the dots with as much efficiency and clarity as possible, and that’s what is important.
Posted in User Experience, User Experience Design | 7 Comments »
Your “Only Once” Is My 3-6 Times
Written by Russ on January 5, 2009 – 11:46 amToday, David Armano posted a link to the newly updated ESPN.com website on Twitter for people to share some opinions and feedback.
I went to the site and saw that, still, ESPN thinks it’s an okay idea to play–with the volume ON–video on their home page. Like most people in the same time zone as David, I’m at work, so I left the site rather quickly.
I let David know my experience and that I felt ESPN clearly is not speaking to their users, while people around me are chuckling at me for the burst of non-work-related audio coming from my workstation.
David’s response was, “It only happens once–refresh.”
(For the record, I’ve now seen it twice on the same computer and I’m not about to try and find out again, thanks, ESPN.)
It only happens once.
Is that the truth anymore?
I think it’s a lie. A lie we tell ourselves and we instantly believe without letting it really surface.
And we’re forgetting about the fact that many people (still awaiting on a number about the average numbers of computers per household in 2008 from ChaCha, but…) have more than one computer in their experience–particularly those who, you know, actually go to websites.
I have a laptop for work (PC). I have a personal laptop (MacBook). I have a desktop (iMac). I have a home server (PC). I have a laptop for my wife (NetBook). And, finally, I have a laptop for my 5yo daughter (PC).
At any point in time, I could be using ANY ONE of those computers. And each “first time” I’ll have to go through whatever interstitial garbage you put up to thrill and wow me with.
For me, that’s 3-6 different times, and that’s if you “Only Once” actually works.
Look, I’m a realist. I’m pretty certain that my numbers are a bit larger than the average household, but many households certainly DO have more than one computer within the realm of their “experience”, and it is something to consider.
Especially when your “Only Once” is not working.
Posted in Rant, Uncategorized, User Experience | 4 Comments »
Remembering to Think About It, Giving Back to It
Written by Russ on January 2, 2009 – 1:17 amI’ve been very fortunate of late–I was chosen by SXSW (South by Southwest) to present a Core Conversation on the topic of “Friendship is Dead” with David Armano (It was originally submitted as a panel with Bill DeRouchey, Matthew Milan and David Armano).
I’ve been very lucky in that I was also voted by the membership of the Information Architecture Institute to serve on their Board of Directors, of which I am the Director of Events and Marketing. Why I bring this up will make more sense in the next paragraph, I promise.
When I was chosen to speak at SXSW, one of the first things that came to mind was if there was a way that I could help support the IAI membership, so I asked Hugh Forrest if there was anything that could be worked out between the two organizations. It turns out that there was something that could be worked out, and SXSW has provided the IAI with 2 free passes to the Interactive portion of the conference in the form of a scholarship that you can win by answering some questions.
You can enter to win one of these scholarships by answering a few easy questions in essay format online at:
http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/education/sxsw_scholarship.php
This is a pretty serious opportunity! SXSW is pretty commonly known as one of “the” conferences to attend–and this will be my first one to attend, and I’m pretty excited about it! You don’t have to go to see me to win (although if you win, I’d enjoy meeting you while we’re in the same place!), but it would be great if you sought out some of the folks from the IAI that will be there:
- Journey to the Center of Design – Jared Spool
- From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small – Whitney Hess, Jeffrey Zeldman
- Social Patterns and Antipatterns For the Win – Christian Crumlish
- Wireframes for the Wicked – Nick Finck & Donna Spencer
- Friendship is Dead – Russ Unger
(And if I’ve missed anyone, please let me know so I can add them!)
Okay, so that’s really cool stuff, and I’m really excited that the IAI is able to do this and that a couple of deserving people can go see something cool that they wouldn’t normally get to do. That’s awesome!
But…
The big point here is this: If you belong to an organization and you are fortunate enough to find yourself in the position to attend a conference, put on a conference or know someone at the conference, or any other event or occurrence, just take a moment to remember that/those organization(s) and see if there is a way that you can bring something back that could benefit other people who may not be as fortunate as you, me or anyone else lucky enough to attend.
The worst thing that can happen is that you can simply be told “No”. That’s not big deal–it’s something that was never yours to begin with.
But! If someone says yes, then there is opportunity! There is a chance you can help someone get more out of their membership–but more importantly, more out of their career. There is karma galore, and maybe that’s not your think, but goodwill has a pretty good way of finding its way back to people who are giving of it.
Some of the people I’ve come to know the best over the years and I’ve learned to count on, seek out for advice, rant and rave to or just shoot the breeze with via a late night IM or Skype session, I’ve found through the IAI and IxDA.
I don’t think that’s any small amount of coincidence.
And I’m working to find new ways to give more back–for all of us. Giving back on my own would be a bit selfish–I’d love to share that awesome feeling that I’ve gotten just from being able to put together a scholarship that people can take advantage of.
The really cool part? Just yesterday I got an email from someone else interested in this scholarship business–interested in helping us provide more scholarship opportunities. Other people are seeing the benefits for their events, as well as the communities that we’re all a part of!
That’s just a little bit more of the awesomeness that is snowballing out of risking a simple question.
So please, whenever you hear of an event, or an opportunity to help someone else out–even generally speaking, but especially for our various communities within User Experience–remember the organizations and the members who could benefit from any event–small, large, local or across the globe.
All of these organizations help provide community and opportunities to connect with other professionals, mentors, people with similar passions, people who can help you solve problems and even communities where you can find your place.
It’s easy to forget that, especially when you’re paying a membership fee and you may be inclined to think that someone else is paid to do that. In the case of the IAI, I can tell you with sincerity that we (board members, volunteers) are not paid. I’m pretty certain that the fine folks on the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) board of directors are not either. I’m not putting that out there because I feel that I deserve pay or any other sort of reward.
Far, far from it.
If anything, I feel as if I am the steward of a role for an organization that has given me so very much–from a great community of professionals that I often believe are so far out of my league in this industry to some of the same people who I’m fortunate enough to call “friend” and “mentor” or “advisor”. I have a global group of connections–there are few places that I could travel to without feeling as if there is someone nearby that I know and could meet with for coffee, dinner, or just a great conversation.
That, is fortunate. Oh–and if you’re in these organizations, you, too, are fortunate. This greater community of User Experience professionals are so very helpful, even when they’re wildly busy. They’re passionate about what they do, about the growth and maturation of the field, and they’re willing to lead by example and impart their knowledge and wisdom to anyone who is willing to ask for it.
That, is something I cherish and intend to do whatever I can to try and help foster and see that whatever stagnation may be happening comes to an end. We have so many tools available to us–any of us–that breaks down the distances between us. Tools that help us create communities that are tighter, closer-knit than ever before. I think 2009 will be a year of exploring and finding the tools that fit and bringing people closer together, helping them no longer be islands. I hope so. I’m going to do my best, which probably involves losing a bit of sleep, to see that it does happen–but it’s worth it, and it’s fun to tinker and have a group of people who are willing to do that with you.
Gosh! I think I just claimed that it’s fun to find failure with a group of like-minded folks.
Will you help find failures with me?
(Imagine how awesome the successes will be!)
Posted in Community, Conferences, Presentations, SXSW, User Experience | 3 Comments »
Do We Really Need Associations, Anyway? Do They Need Us?
Written by Russ on December 1, 2008 – 12:00 amWithin the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of things happening around me that have made me wonder about the validity of professional associations of sorts, and if we really need them.
In general, I think the answer is “yes”, but mostly, I have to wonder if the add-on to that is “but for how long?”.
I’m not going to pretend that organizations like the IAI (full disclosure: I am on the Board of Directors) and IxDA haven’t helped me, personally, make many of the social and professional connections that I have today. But, that was before.
Before all this social network stuff sort of just asploded in our faces and made everything so intimate, public and NOW NOW NOW!!
I’m grateful for these organizations, actually, as long as they work.
So, to answer my questions, I’d say the answer on both parts is: YES
But the time is critical for them, I fear.
BUT… I think both need to evolve a little in order to find the right way to keep it all under the same roof. There’s no problem with people owning initiatives, and it’s awesome that people can, over the course of a holiday weekend (in the US, of course) crank out 110% awesome. The world wants things RIGHT NOW, and that makes waiting even more difficult than Tom Petty ever imagined. Organizations love to talk about and hate their red tape and people love to talk about and love/hate their organizations response times and excuses of the red tape.
It kind of stinks. But, it’s also a reality. There’s got to be a way to make things happen and get organizations and “their people” all engaged, enabled and empowered to “get stuff done” so they can meet in the middle. There’s got to be some sort of an open framework we can create where people start running as fast as they can and as fast as they want with great (or not great, half-cocked, hair-brained) ideas and make them work for both in a way where both reap the rewards.
I’ve watched as people have identified a number of reasons why events should be near them (and sadly, watched while even less than Pareto would be happy with identified themselves as those willing to take part in the preparation and organization of such things), griped and/or yelled and/or bullied about certain attitudes and approaches to different locations and even, I’m sad to say, as people have thrown up their arms and politely asked, urgently requested and all-out yelled and hollered their requests for assistance.
Unfortunately, I watched those requests get sent, and then watched forward motion get made without support.
In fact, over the course of a holiday weekend in the United States, I watched Steve Baty take his half-baked “UX Book Club” idea and start to bake the hell out of it with his peers–many he’s never met, and some he may never meet in his life. Will Evans and Andrew Boyd jumped-in to help, without any real call for support and they helped inject more excitement and energy into the project.
They organized.
They plotted.
They schemed.
(Admittedly, I got involved, thumb-tapped away on my iPhone as furiously as I possibly could and tried to keep up from the remote reaches of the inner-midwest USA)
They found new ideas from their existing ideas.
They created new ideas–blew them up to bigger than better than any one of them had dreamed-up before.
Mountains were made out of idea molehills, and frankly the whole world looked a helluva lot better from a “wow, that’d be really kick @$$” perspective.
They used the hell out of the back-channel to get people active, excited and to make sure they were missing as few opportunities as possible while engaging as many people who could help them.
They did this without the assistance of associations, organizations, fax machines, the USPS or DHL delivery service. The did this without worrying about whether or not the location was one that suited everyone.
They did this because they love what they do, they love being active and they have heart, soul and no real spare time to donate to their communities, but they figure they can give up an extra hour of sleep a night to make something worthwhile.
How come so few people want so much but can’t come up with the same type of inertia–if I tried to stop Steve right now, he’d plow through me like a Mack truck going over a puddle. This thing is happening!
And it’s awesome.
But “they” own it. That is, there is no owner beyond this collective of unorganized people who decided that their locations could read books once a month.
They DO need the support of organizations–organizations can help them with (perceived?) purchasing power, greater reach, and the potential for more opportunities and growth beyond these local book clubs.
I mean, if someone has the gusto to pick up a book and read once a month, maybe they also want to sit down once a month and watch a presentation on <something> or they want to grab a beer with others and talk about <something> or they want to schedule their own “camp” type of thing.
They DO need organizations. As Marc Andreesen says (courtesy of Christina Wodtke), “Organizations are GREAT distribution channels.” (okay, so Christina clarified this below, but I think it still stands)
Hell, they’re a great place for like-minded people to get together and change the world, rattle the status quo and shake the foundation of just about anything they set their minds to.
Organizations DO need them-these people are THEIR leaders of TODAY and TOMORROW.
One can do without the other, however. One can create the other, however.
One SHOULD inspire, engage and activate the other.
My point is that I think a lot of us get frustrated–I know I have, and I do–and we forget that these things all really do have connecting points and dependencies.
Most of us work in the User Experience space (if you’re reading this blog, at least I think you are)–you/we should all be connecting these boxes and we should all be wanting to solve these problems. We should be taking advantage of this “whatever-point-oh” web/world that we’re in and FIND NEW WAYS to be excited and energized and CREATE SOMETHING BETTER.
Because if we don’t, someone else will.
Will you?
I will.
In the upcoming weeks–nay, days, I will be sharing my initiatives for 2009 as a member of the Board of Directors of the Information Architecture Institute. None of these are impossible to achieve and all of them are valuable and will be worth your time if you choose to participate and/or lead these initiatives with me.
I can’t do it alone, and I want your help.
And you can make my ideas better. More awesome. More YOU. Oh. My. God. Think of how cool that is to see a seed turn into a tree right in front of your eyes and/or from the work of your own hands!
There are so many opportunities for us–from having fun to getting really dorky-technical.
It’s there. If someone hasn’t thought of it–and even if they have–pick up the idea torch and give it a try.
There are big things to be accomplished in 2009, and there are all types of leaders needed–in organizations and in the world at large. Organizations always need more leaders and volunteers and will present you with opportunities you’d never dreamt of. If an organization cannot or will not support you, challenge them–better yet, challenge yourself–and start building something great, and present it to them.
Don’t just BE the change you want to see…
CREATE the change you want to see.
Posted in Community, Information Architecture, Rant, Rave, Resumes, Social Networking, User Experience, UXD Book | 4 Comments »
My Apple 3G iPhone Experience: I’m Pretty Surprised, Pretty Disturbed, and Ultimately Failed
Written by Russ on July 22, 2008 – 11:38 amThere has been a lot of discussion around the 3G iPhone, and I’ve been leery. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to shift away from my comfort zone with my Blackberry, but I figured it was probably time for a change and time to go through the awkwardness of shifting experiences.
Always learning and all of that.
Obtaining the 3G iPhone wasn’t really that difficult. Wait in line, pay the premium, activate the phone, go home and tinker all day get back to work.
All-in-all, it was pretty painless, pretty fun and my inner geek was giddy as a school girl.
Then, strange things started happening.
The Troubles Begin
Sometime in the first evening of 3G iPhone ownership, things started getting wonky. Things felt different, and applications started acting up. It was frustrating and I was frustrated, but I was willing to suck up some of the blame to my unabashed downloading and installing of nearly every single application I could get my hand on.
I did a full restore of my phone.
A couple of hours later, things were back to awesome. I went to bed.
I woke up, all set to get back to geek, and something strange was afoot.
There was no email in my Inbox. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Look, I’m not going to pretend I’m uber-popular, but, dammit, I get a lot of email. Something is generally broken when I do not.
I fiddled. I adjusted. I tried things out. I nearly cried. And yes, I even checked the 30-something emails on my laptop before I broke down and called AT&T, knowing this was going to be the equivalent of standing in line for the new roller coaster at Disney. I was screwed, and I knew it, but I wanted this to work.
I talked to my first rep who transferred me to Apple Support faster than you could say “a…”.
30 minutes later, after the 20 minute AT&T queue, I got a rep. I explained the problem (“Not getting email”). I repeated my vital information a few more times and explained my problem again. I was told the network is slow, all new people signing up, etc. Just be patient, Russ.
That sort of seemed like a cop out, so I explained that my wife’s 1st Gen iPhone, right there in my hands, was getting email and we were both existing subscribers. The rep didn’t get it or didn’t care–I’m not sure.
I explained that I felt the person did not understand my question and asked to please be transferred to a supervisor.
<click>
I spent over an hour on the phone to get hung up on, and I was even being a pretty nice guy.
My ear was sweating from the phone and I was parched, but by gosh I got right back on the pony and started the process allllll over again, with a few extra more “punch in your phone numbers” and “what’s your addresses” thrown in for good measure.
As if I was talking to a twin, I got…the same problem all over again.
I explained that I felt the person did not understand my question and asked to please be transferred to a supervisor.
<click>
At least it was only about 30 minutes of my time this time around. Oh, and I had hit the “Take a survey” button before the call, failed the person miserably and asked for a follow-up call, knowing I’d never get one, of course.
Not to be outdone by the hanger-uppers, I called again.
Miraculously, I found a person who could help me–and did!
I went to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
A nice, full reset of the phone and within a minute or so, all my email started swirling down to my phone in 3G & wifi goodness.
Of course, I still hadn’t been able to get MobileMe to work, no one would answer the email requests I sent in… I did finally get a response and was asked to reply to that email with information which bounced, as luck would have it. About a week later, I got the MobileMe issue fixed because a rep was kind enough to help me out via the chat help.
Just the Beginning
I was surprised when the same issue happened again a few hours later, but I was armed with the knowledge of how to heal myself, so I did that.
A few hours later I did it again. And again. And again.
Early the following week, I made an appointment for the Genius Bar on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and make a lunch trek to the store.
The only real difficulty I had was that I have an AT&T-purchased phone, so they had to give me a “white box” model, made specifically for these exchanges (hmmm…), instead of a pretty Apple black box.
I’m not that much of a prima donna, so I let it slide, happy to get my iPhone back.
Except that the “Genius” took my screen protector off and got it a little dirty, applied it crooked, etc. They should have just issued me a new pack and let me do it myself, but if I pay $15 for a replacement… eh, phone is back and I’m happy.
On my train commute home from Chicago, a rep from AT&T called me to follow-up from my poor experience that I had.
<insert needle scratching across record sound>
Really.
She was kind and she informed me that if I felt I was having problems getting the people to understand my question and get it answered that I should feel free to ask for a supervisor.
I let her know I had done that.
She instantly issued a $25 credit to my account and told me she had the history of my calls in front of her. I let her know the last person was quite helpful so, you know, please don’t make him eat paste while the others were being forced to eat it.
All Good Now?
I certainly thought so. Until later that evening, when my email stopped coming to my phone again and just hung while I was trying to poll the various accounts.
I called the support, again. This time, however, I went directly through Apple.
I spoke to a man by the name of:
Chris M.
He’s an iPhone Support Specialist, and I’ll spare you all his information, unless of course, you need some help and then you can send me a note with your email and I’ll share it. Chris was a patient, thorough person and worked with me through a lot of long waits–upwards of an hour as he made me fully restore my phone, just in case the previous restore had captured something nasty that brought the same problem back to haunt me.
Everything seemed fine. Chris gave me all of his information in case the problem came up again, and we both agreed that this certainly was odd to have the same thing happen again, and certainly it should not be the phone.
I guess that must have meant that it was me, because it happened again the very next day.
I emailed Chris in the evening and he called me at home to help with the issue. That was pretty cool.
We checked out a few more things, I popped off the screen, unscrewed some hinges and took out the battery and stuff…
Just kidding.
Then he made me an appointment for Saturday at the Genius Bar in Oak Brook, Illinois for 1:50pm to exchange the phone a second time. This wasn’t great news, but it was better than a “not perfect” phone.
From Not-So-Great to Right-in-the-Crapper
I grabbed my 4 year old daughter and headed off to the mall. I figured we could share a little daddy-daughter fun at the outdoor mall with the big Disney and Land of Nod stores. Sometimes, it’s great to be a dad.
This day was not one of them.
We arrived a little late thanks to an accident on the tollway–and thanks to being a little late.
I explained this to the older woman at the Genius Bar as she frowned and checked me in–I think.
I think, because she just stopped and walked away from us while an older guy was being kind of bark-y to people and was moving around us. A younger girl popped up at the computer and asked me what I wanted.
Excuse me?
I asked her where the other woman went–she was helping us and didn’t say anything, just typed away on the keyboard and said nothing. Could she please go get her so we could find out what was going on?
“I’m replacing her, she’s on break. Why are you here?”
What? I just gave her some information. I’m here for a replacement phone with an appointment made for me by a Product Specialist ™. Please go get her so we can find out what’s going on.
“I’m here now. What do you want?”
Inject your own tone; it was busy, I was holding hands with the apple of my eye and getting frustrated. I told her I was there for a replacement.
[blank stare]
Older guy is still walking around barking. My daughter is tensing up.
Me: “Could someone please help me? Excuse me? Could someone talk to me?”
[blank stare]
Me, to barking guy: “Excuse me sir, can you help me? Hello?”
[ignoring]
Me, louder: “Excuse me, Mr. Brick Wall, Anyone, can you please help me? What’s going on here?”
Barking guy, who, by the way, looks like this (only less blurry):
He yelled at me. He really, seriously yelled at me.
He yelled, “CAN’T YOU SEE WE’RE BUSY?!” and summarily ignored me with the replacement person standing in front of me.
My daughter asked me, in a pretty dainty, nervous voice, “Daddy, why did that man yell at you?”
Good question.
I wasn’t exactly sure why I was getting ignored and yelled at, but I pulled my daughter out of the throng of people and the rage of a bitter, old, orange-wearing man to calm things down. I’m sure he was happy I disappeared, but I walked back up to him, tapped him on the shoulder and when he looked at me I pressed that good ol’ camera button and snapped his picture and let him know he was about to be “Internet Famous” and then twitpic’d that thing out to the few followers I have.
The reaction from Twiterati was one of surprise and shock.
The reaction of the guy sounded something like “mucking berk” but it was busy and I’m not real sure why he was talking gibberish anyway.
Down But Not Out
We left, but I wasn’t about to be finished. My iPhone was still less than perfect.
I called our pals at Apple. It is, after all, in the iPhone’s contact list by default.
This was not about to be easy, however. I got through to someone who was a little surprised, if not offended, by the story. He connected me to an iPhone Product Specialist. Sort of. It took about 30 minutes, so I shopped with my daughter (kitty alarm clock, tambourine, wind-up bird in a cage, sweater vest and a work shirt) with the ear piece in. She was not a fan, but we had fun.
I spoke to a Product Specialist. He basically told me he’d “see what he could do”, which really kind of floored me at this point.
He called the manager of the store (Jamie, for what it’s worth) and called me back. They could do an exchange for me, but it would have to be white.
I allowed myself a chuckle, thought of a couple of friends with their white phones, decided I could turn this into a “Stormtrooper” type of thing and my inner geek would be satiated.
Return to Ignorance
I went back to the store.
Mr. Grumpy was there, but I informed him I was there for Jamie. He was looking smug–or maybe I was just defensive and PO’d and had a tired kid on my hands–and told me Jamie had stepped out. I let him know I had an appointment, made by a Product Specialist a few moments ago and his face sort of shifted a bit.
Jamie was tracking down my phone.
The place was still crowded–like they were giving away gold and gas cards. The old grumpy guy kept circling us and I asked to have him stay away from us. Little kids don’t like yellers, after all. We got bumped into a small area by the door to the stockroom.
Time doesn’t pass too quickly in this situation.
One guy, with a white goatee (and this is for the sake of Apple & Oak Brook Apple Store) saw that my daughter was doing very well. She was tired, but hanging out, being patient and far more level-headed than, say, any Apple Store employee to date.
He called her princess. +1
He disappeared into the stock room and came back with a bright yellow t-shirt, although too big, it was a gift for a kid. +2
He was very nice and she thanked him. He was high-five worthy in a -10 sort of universe.
You rocked, sir, and you were kind and empathetic. It’s as if you actually understood customer service and you were surrounded by monkeys from a CareerBuilder ad.
Jamie did pop up a couple of times, let me know he was looking. He asked if I had my receipt of purchase–which I did. Oddly enough, I had explained to the Product Specialist that I had my receipt–but that it was from an AT&T store purchase, since I had already gone through the issue at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store.
Oddly enough, this AT&T receipt meant that Jamie, the Store Manager ™ was unable to swap my phone. “It’s a part number thing, you understand. I wouldn’t even be able to swap the SIMs–it wouldn’t let me and the phone would be no good to you.”
Kind of like the one in my hand. Except it works, but the data would cut out from time to time. Which would be no big deal if I wasn’t an uber-geek who relies on data more than voice, of course.
Of course.
Jamie let me know that he wouldn’t be getting another shipment of phones in the next day (Sunday), but probably “early next week…”
He was, after all, really sorry.
Really?
Then why didn’t anyone apologize to me, to my daughter for being yelled at? Why didn’t anyone understand the impact of that? Why didn’t anyone apologize for dropping the ball, being rude and not communicating as they should?
Where Failure Meets EPIC FAILURE
Clearly, I was not happy.
I had just went through some hell–from a product perspective all the way down to having an uncomfortable talk with my daughter about “how people really talk to each other”.
I explained to Jamie that really, none of this seemed enough.
He explained that it was entirely out of his hands.
Entirely?
Really?
I started to leave. We needed to get out of there before I said a lot of things that aren’t meant for the blogosphere, yet alone truck drivers (and I can say that; my father was a truck driver and that brings cursing to a whole new level, folks).
“Russ…”
I stopped. Perhaps this guy was worth the trouble. He wasn’t actually unkind; he was pretty genuine and tried to be thorough and I think he wanted to help. Heck, I’m sure he was exhausted and had had it up to here with damn people like me.
“Yes?”
“What do you want me to do?”
Yes, he said that.
He may as well have spit in my face.
My opinion is that when you invoke such a phrase you’re quitting.
What do I want you to do? Give me a free iMac. I’ve been eyeballing a refurbished one to purchase through the Employee Purchase Program, but after 12+ hours of my time wasted throughout this process, I’d call that about break-even. Plus, I’d be replacing a Vista PC, so +1 Apple, right?
I didn’t say that.
I knew the answer. “You know I can’t do that, sir.”
Do I? Then why did you ask what I wanted you to do.
Instead, Jamie, you should have given me some options. You should have bent over backwards a little bit.
You should have prevented this blog from being written by doing something as simple as a discount card, an option to <do something else>, some music, some ProCare, something.
Yes, you should have.
Shame on you for NOT even thinking of it, but instead asking me what I would like for you to do.
You, Jamie, failed. I’m sorry, but that’s an F-.
Sidebar: I worked for a video store while in college. My district manager always told me that 1 complaint card would sting worse than taking a $100 loss on the day. Think about that. That’s 1 phone call versus 30-40 video rentals back at the time.
That’s the way customer service works. You don’t take advantage of the uber-geeks who want your product. We do have our limits. And we don’t deserve to be treated poorly in any situation. We are your fans, your advertisers, we are the goofy people who stand in long lines outside of you stores that generate free media coverage for you.
The Follow-Up?
I sent an email to my buddy Chris M. at Apple over the weekend and let him know I was pretty unhappy. I let him know that I thought he’d done right by me and I’d share that with people, but that I had really been met with a poor reception and pretty terrible follow-up from the Apple store.
It’s Tuesday now and he hasn’t followed-up. I sent him an email today letting him know that I was disappointed not to have received a response from him.
Now, I’m back to square zero, with a phone “mostly works”.
How do you think I feel?
Tags: Apple
Posted in Rant, User Experience | 12 Comments »
