So I need some help with some complex XML stuff, and figure that I'll just go buy a book on it. Well, it's a lot easier to check online, so I do that and naturally go to the Apress web site as they have absolutely fantastic books. They're one of my favourite publishers. Really. Apress absolutely ROCK~!
Within SECONDS I'm able to find the book that I want: http://apress.com/book/view/9781430209973. Contrast that with other sites where it takes forever to find anything. I'm not kidding. At least 50% of the time, MINIMUM, when I look for something online, it takes me a stupid amount of time to find it, let alone buy it. Buying is nigh unto impossible at far too many web sites.
So I find the book instantly, and look to see if it's truly the book I want to buy. How long does that take? Oh... about 60 seconds or so. I download the TOC PDF and scroll down to the relevant chapter that I'm interested in, "Serializing and Deserializing Complex Types". Yep. That's it. So I decide to buy it. (Note: At this stage, I've spent about 2 minutes at the site in total.)
Click. Added to cart. Click. Checking out... Login? Oh... I bought a book by Bob Walsh a few years ago (4 actually, as I found out once logged in), so I stick in my email address and password (I remembered it even). I'm logged in with no problems. This has taken me about 15 seconds or so (in the payment process).
Next? Pay for it. They use PayPal! HOLY JUMPING MOTHER OF JESUS~! They've got the intelligence to use a system that just bloody works, and that I also use! WOW! Guess what?!?!? It takes me like 15 seconds to pay for it! EASY! Seriously... I'm fucking impressed! It took like 30 seconds or so to buy something! Most sites will dick me around for half an hour or so while I sign up, login, enter more information, change information, register something else, do it all again because everything failed and didn't work... This site took my money immediately and made it not only possible, but EASY! Seriously! I'm really stunned at just how easy it was!
So inside of 5 minutes, I've visited the site, bought something, and downloaded the PDF of the book!
5 minutes for everything. Less than that actually. Less than 5 minutes.
AND! I've got my last purchase, MicroISV: From Vision to Reality, online there for me to download again! WOW!
I'm sure that somebody is thinking that I'm being ridiculous or sarcastic... Very far from the truth. I am being quite literal.
Online banking is a nightmare, and I dread it. I'm not the only one either. A friend of mine spent well over an hour the other day trying to login and get a simple transaction done... He did better than I fared the last time I tried... He finally managed to get it done. I wasn't able to complete the transaction at all. I wanted to wire from my account to another... Nope. Errors. Multiple times... Just not possible to do. How hard is it to give somebody money online? Nigh unto impossible in most cases. I guess a large part of that is because our bank is the Korea Exchange Bank and their web site, while infinitely better than it was before they changed it last year, is still virtually impossible to use for anything.
But all of this is pretty much par for the course. And what I've found is... Get ready... When it comes time to pay online...
Developers ROCK~!
Everyone else SUCKS~!
Yep. If I want to buy software online, it's drop-dead simple to do. It's bloody easy. It's click, click, done. All the time. (Except with Share-It!) Developers make the buying process simple. They "get it". They understand that it's not very difficult to take money from people that want to give them money IF they make it easy.
Other kinds of web site? Fuck no!
A week or so ago I wanted to order pizza online from Dominoes... Think I could manage? Fuck no! They made everything so fucking difficult that I just couldn't manage to even look at the fucking menu~!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!! HOW FUCKING STUPID DO YOU NEED TO BE TO STOP PEOPLE FROM SEEING WHAT YOU HAVE FOR SALE??? I shit thee not!
At the Dominoes Pizza site, they have pizzas listed, and as soon as you click on them, they want to take your credit card information and name and all kinds of shit. Jesus Murphy! Can't I just see what's available first? Nope. No such fucking luck. Click "Menu" then click something, and this is the page you get:
Oh!!! So THAT is what a Hawaiian pizza looks like at Dominoes? Hmmm... Guess I'm ordering from somewhere else.
Actually, my wife phoned them and ordered. I simply wasn't in the mood to fuck around with some moronic automated phone system that would do nothing more than waste my time. They have great pizza, but they sure as Hell make it hard to order. I simply will never order from them. Ever. I will never visit their web site again, and I will never telephone them. I will order from their competition, because they make it easy for me to give them my money.
Then again, I've found that basically all web sites here in Australia are nothing less than total dog shit. (I'm being quite generous here... Really...)
Well, that's not totally true. I buy software from an Australian company, Infralution, on a regular basis, and it's EASY! Oh, but then again, that's a software site... Gee... Pattern seems to hold... Even in a place where virtually every web site is still back in the stone age. Developers get it right. Others manage to create beautiful, ornate sculptures of dog shit, complete with coloured icing and sprinkles...
The Dominoes site looks wonderful. Visually, it's fantastic. Makes me wonder if it was designed in Korea, as Korean design is pretty much always drop-dead gorgeous.
But it just makes things far more difficult than I am willing to deal with. I do not have that much patience. Years of experience have taught me that anyone that is that stupid to create a web site that violates so many good design principles, simply isn't capable of completing a transaction in a reasonable manner, if they can complete it at all. So it's not worth my time to progress any further than the first barrier that sits between me and me giving somebody money.
Again, contrast that kind of nonsense with how easy it is to buy from Apress. There's simply no comparison. 30 seconds to complete a transaction vs. not even being permitted to view what's for sale! Let me say that again...
30 seconds to complete a sale vs. not even being permitted to view what's for sale!
Hmmm... Yep. Things that make you go, "Hmmmm"...
What would that look like if it were translated into a real world situation with a customer sitting down at a table to order...
Hi. I'd like to order a pizza. Can I see your menu?
Give me your credit card.
I'd like to see a menu first, please.
What's your name?
What has my name got to do with looking at the menu?
Give me your money first.
Can't I just see what I'm buying first?
No. Give me your credit card, name, address, phone number, postal code, email address...
Fuck you. The pizza joint across the street at least has a menu to look at. <storms out>
Give me your credit card...
Ummm.... Hello? McFly?
Sure, I'm picking on Dominoes at the moment, but they're just par for the course. Most other sites are very similar.
As for Apress, man... I really wish other sites would take a lesson from them... Make it easy for me to give you my money! PLEASE!
Cheers,
Ryan