Too many online stores make it hard for me to spend my money. If I have to think too much, or if there is some kind of barrier between me and the “buy” button, I’m much more likely to just give up than I am to spend the money.
Let me opt-in
This morning I went to book tickets to see Ratatouille. Odeon have a reasonable website (infinitely better than their old one), and their online booking system is easy to use and lets me to choose the exact seats I want.
But just before I can click to give them my money I have to read this:
I have to work out what it says, and realise that if I don’t tick the boxes I’m going to get spammed with crap I don’t want or need.
If I’m spending money, I shouldn’t have to opt-out every time I buy tickets. It’s unnecessary. It’s frustrating. It means I’m less likely to use the online booking system in the future.
Decisions decisions
Recently I reinstalled Windows for a friend, and in the process copied his iTunes music between machines. I gave the laptop back, but when I got home I decided that I wanted to find an application that would let him copy all the music from his iPod to the fresh iTunes install.
It was on Windows, so he couldn’t use PodWorks. I eventually found an application that looked like it might do the job.
And then I got to the order page.
That was too much of a barrier.
- I didn’t know his iPod serial number, and it was going to be too difficult to ask
- I didn’t know how many computers he had and whether he might need to do this on more than one computer
- I didn’t understand how the licenses worked, or why I was being limited to one of these two options
The “Knowledgebase” didn’t help much either.
So in the end I just gave up (it didn’t take me very long to give up) and I decided not to bother buying a license, or indeed an application, for him.
Please make it easy
So please, if you want my money, and if you’ve got me to the point where I’m about to hand it over, don’t make it hard for me to do so!
