Re: UKNM: lastminute.com does delight its customers!

[Robb Masters]

On Friday, January 7, 2000, Ian Fenn <

ianchopstix [dot] co [dot] uk

> wrote:


 >David Siegel may offer a relevant suggestion in his book "Futurize your 

 >enterprise". He suggests that sites should organise themselves around types 

 >of users. Dell do this when they require visitors to select whether they 

 >are a home office user, a business with 1-500 employees, etc... The user 

 >experience is then shaped against this selection. Perhaps you could this 

 >for some areas of lastminute.com, i.e.:

[snip]

 >1. Families

 >2. Couples

 >3. Sole travellers


This may work for lastminute.com, but as a user I really hate the "what kind of user are you?" approach that some web sites take.


This may be because they're so badly thought out. For example, when I go to a computer manufacturer's site and I have to say whether I'm a home or business user, and they present me with a range of PCs they think will be right for me. 


When looking for a PC I usually have to look at business AND home PCs to find one that meets my needs. This is because the split is artificial - whether I want a PC for home or business is irrelevant. If I want to do word processing, etc. at home, I might want a "business" machine. If I want to test web sites and CD-ROMs at work, I might want a "home" machine.


 >From my own experience, I always feel that by saying I'm one type of user, I'll miss what they're saying to the other type of user. If this was just financing options, file servers and maybe modems instead of network cards (in the example above) it wouldn't worry me, but it invariably includes products they don't think I'll want, when they have no real idea of my needs.


The options suggested for lastminute.com look sensible, but (even with the addition of "groups") where would I click to travel with three mates? Maybe groups, maybe families (although we're not a family, that maybe the best place for packages designed for four people). You'll often find that there are users who don't neatly fall into your definitions.


I generally think that in most cases, the nature of the content should help users to guide themselves to the correct information. So instead of "business" and "home" computers, how about (just off the top of my head) "budget", "performance", and "servers"? "Home" and "business" users would then visit the appropriate sections according to their actual, rather than perceived, needs.


So as long as the information is there (e.g. when looking at a lastminute.com hotel price you can see the single supplement, the child rate, group discounts, etc.) you don't need the extra step of saying who you are.


And, while we're on the subject of PC manufacturers sites, two bigger mistakes that many of them make, which have some relevance to other sites too, are still failing to respond promptly to e-mail (e.g. two e-mails, both of which were sales leads, sent to one major site over two months ago with no response at all to either) and giving you a list of their products ("Ultimate", "Supreme", "Mega") and expecting you to be able to pick the right one without knowing anymore about them. The end result is that you have to read about them all to work out which one is most appropriate. Or you just go elsewhere.


But I digress. However, given that I'm having little success with PC manufacturers web sites, I would welcome any off list suggestions of competitive builders for a bespoke PC (off-topic and a little cheeky, I know).


Regards,


Robb (

robb_mastersgyro [dot] co [dot] uk

)

==

Robb Masters, Head of New Media.

Gyro New Media, 1/9 Harbour Yard, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 0XD.

Tel: 0171 349 4541. Fax: 0171 351 3318. Mobile: 07880 788 833.



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