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| Understanding Defensive Design: Making Mistakes Well | |
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| Introduction | |
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| No One's Perfect | |
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| Why "Defensive Design"? | |
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| Crisis Points | |
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| Contingency Design to the Rescue | |
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| Success Stories | |
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| So What Will This Book Teach Me? | |
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| What Won't I Learn from This Book? | |
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| Who Should Read It? | |
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| How Should I Use This Book? | |
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| A Brief Introduction to the Guidelines | |
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| Be Flexible | |
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| One Last Thing: See People, Not Users | |
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| Let's Get to It | |
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| Show the Problem: Display Obvious Error Messages and Alerts | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Give an error message that's noticeable at a glance | |
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| QwestDex: Where's My Error Message? | |
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| Hilton: But I Just Entered My Login | |
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| MotherNature: This Isn't What I Wanted | |
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| KB Toys: Obvious Error Notice | |
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| Excite: Try Again Error | |
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| Use color, icons, and text to clearly highlight and explain the problem area | |
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| Topica: The Wrong Way | |
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| Sony: Wrong Spot | |
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| Expedia: The Right Way | |
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| Google: Can't-Miss Error Message | |
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| Banana Republic: Clear Explanation | |
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| Always identify errors the same way | |
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| E*Trade: Inconsistent Error Notification | |
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| Priceline: Same Style, Same Place | |
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| Eliminate the need for back-and-forth clicking | |
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| eBay: It's Your Problem | |
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| Shutterfly: No More Backtracking | |
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| United Airlines: Which Airport in Chicago? | |
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| Head to Head: Ticketmaster vs. Victoria's Secret | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Language Matters: Provide Clear Instructions | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Don't use language that might be unfamiliar to your customers | |
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| ESPN and USPS: What's That Mean? | |
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| Network Solutions: What's a TLD? | |
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| Switchboard: Keep Internal Terms Internal | |
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| Typebox: Add to Buybox? | |
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| University of Chicago: Funky Acronyms Explained | |
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| Keep text brief and easy to understand | |
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| Aer Lingus and Fortune: Is There an Echo in Here? | |
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| Motley Fool: Straightforward Messaging | |
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| c2it: Cash or No Cash? | |
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| Head to Head: Qwest vs. AT&T | |
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| UPS: Invalid. Verify Validity | |
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| FedEx: Simpler Is Better | |
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| Be polite | |
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| Best Deal Magazines: We Warned You | |
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| Hallmark: Apologetic Tone | |
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| Lands' End: We Owe It All To You | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Bulletproof Forms: Create Friendly Forms that are Easy to Complete | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Highlight either required or optional fields | |
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| Victoria's Secret: Turned Off | |
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| Washington Post: Marked With | |
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| Accept entries in all common formats | |
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| Nordstrom: No Hyphens or Spaces | |
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| KB Toys: It's All Good | |
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| AOL: Autoformat | |
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| Zagat Survey: They've Got My Number | |
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| Provide sample entries, pull-downs, and formatting hints to ensure clean data | |
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| E*Trade: Which Dates Are Valid? | |
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| United Airlines: Month Pull-Down | |
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| DeepDiscountCD: Improving the Odds | |
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| Expedia and E*Trade: MM/DD/YYYY and XXX-XX-XXXX | |
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| Yahoo! and Citysearch: Sample Answers | |
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| Dell: Boxed In | |
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| Explicitly state limits to characters, number of entries, and so forth | |
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| Yahoo!: Then How Many? | |
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| CDNow: What's the Limit? | |
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| Google: 25 Max | |
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| Head to Head: Paypal vs. SprintPCS | |
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| If customers can't choose it, don't show it | |
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| Google: Then Don't Offer 2003 | |
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| Ticketmaster: Why Not Tell Me It's Sold Out? | |
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| Peapod: Only Show Available Times | |
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| EasyJet: Easy Picking | |
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| Validate entries (as soon as possible) | |
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| AOL: New York, Alaska? | |
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| UPS: Match City and Zip | |
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| Motley Fool: Enter a Valid Number | |
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| NBA: Invalid Email | |
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| ATI: Check Compatibility | |
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| Button up: Eliminate the Reset button and disable the Submit button after it's clicked | |
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| Bank One: Reset Only | |
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| FedEx: Asking for Button Trouble | |
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| University of Washington: Are You Sure? | |
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| E*Trade: Click Only Once | |
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| Applied Biosystems: Disabling a Button | |
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| Assist form dropouts by saving information | |
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| Discover: It's Now or Never | |
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| Bank One: Saving for Later | |
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| Netflix: Finish Up | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Missing in Action: Overcome Missing Pages, Images, or Plug-Ins | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Offer customized "Page Not Found" error pages | |
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| Home Depot: Where's the Beef? | |
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| Apple: Top-Notch 404 | |
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| Hewlett Packard: Explaining Why It's Not Found | |
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| Head to Head: Moviefone vs. IBM | |
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| The New York Times: Back to the News | |
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| Successfully redirect near-miss URLs | |
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| Apple: Uppercase vs. Lowercase | |
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| Excite: One Too Many | |
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| Amazon: One Too Few "W"s | |
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| Google: Ooo Yeah | |
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| Yahoo!: Photo or Photos? | |
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| Use ALT tags for images | |
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| J. Crew: No Alternative | |
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| Red Envelope: Missing Navigation | |
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| Apple: Text Rather Than Images | |
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| Don't shut out visitors with old technology: Offer alternative versions and technology upgrade information | |
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| Warren Center: Simpler Is Better | |
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| Versace: Have It Your Way | |
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| Connected Earth: Plug-In Breakdown | |
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| Sumomusic: Flash Help | |
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| Yellow Pencil: It works, but please upgrade | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Lend a Helping Hand: Offer Help that's Actually Helpful | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Answer questions on the same page they arise | |
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| Lands' End: On-the-Spot Help | |
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| Wedding Channel: Sanity Savers | |
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| Yahoo!: Contextual Help | |
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| Amazon: The Shipping News | |
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| Offer an easy-to-use "Help" section and provide clear links to it | |
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| PC Mall: Hidden Help | |
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| eBay: Bare-Bones Help | |
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| Yahoo! Chat: Help That's Actually Helpful | |
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| Orbitz: 4 Ways to Receive Help | |
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| Amazon: Need Further Assistance? | |
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| Let customers help themselves through online forums and training sessions | |
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| Blogger: Help from Other Customers? | |
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| eBay and Adobe: Self-Serve Help | |
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| Provide a human fallback plan (help via chat, phone, or email) | |
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| eBay: Snail-Mail Help? | |
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| Lands' End: Help That's Convenient for You | |
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| 1-800 Flowers and Gap: Help Avenues | |
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| Answer emails quickly and effectively | |
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| Gap: Short and Sweet | |
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| Dell: "Customer Support, This Is Tarzan" | |
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| Lands' End: Return Policy Explained | |
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| Help login with tips or email | |
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| Lego: What's My Username Again? | |
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| Pottery Barn: Password Savior | |
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| Yahoo!: Give Me a Hint | |
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| Apple: Three Strikes and You're Sent an Email | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Get Out of the Way: Eliminate Obstacles to Conversion (E.G. Unnecessary Ads, Registration, Navigation, Etc.) | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Don't disable the browser's Back button | |
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| Ticketmaster: Back Isn't a Bad Request | |
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| eBay: Input (T)error | |
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| Expedia: Back = No Problem | |
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| Make it fast, not cute | |
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| Star Wars: Episode Ugh | |
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| EXPN: Too Cute | |
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| Thrifty: Getting to the Point | |
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| Comedy Central: Playing It Straight | |
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| Don't force registration | |
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| Apple: Don't Make Me Sign In for Help | |
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| Sun: Getting to the Point | |
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| Don't block content with ads | |
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| About: Owl Blockage | |
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| Yahoo!: Cruising for a Bruising | |
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| Orbitz: Ad Trumps Error | |
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| News: Bannerless | |
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| Eliminate unnecessary navigation during multi-step processes | |
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| Pottery Barn: Checkout Distraction | |
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| eBay: Stay on Track | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Search and Rescue: Deliver the Right Results with Smart Search Engine Assistance | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Offer a clear explanation when no results are found or inexact matches are shown | |
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| Pepsi: Less Is Not More | |
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| Target: A Mop That Plays MP3s? | |
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| Spun: No Keyword Matches | |
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| Crate & Barrel: Votive Explanation | |
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| Head to Head: Marshall Field's vs. Sears | |
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| Anticipate common errors and provide relevant results | |
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| IRS: W2 or W-2? | |
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| Google: Bad Spelling = No Problem | |
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| Head to Head: MarketWatch vs. Yahoo! Finance | |
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| Amazon: You Know What I Mean | |
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| Google: Using Search Logs | |
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| Head to Head: Bluelight vs. Wal-Mart | |
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| Too many results? Offer features that let searchers refine and filter results | |
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| Best Buy: I Just Wanted a DVD Player! | |
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| L.L. Bean: Give Me the Boot | |
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| Amazon: Which Cash? | |
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| Sears: Sort Options | |
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| Citysearch: Have It Your Way | |
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| Yahoo!: Narrow My Search | |
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| HotJobs: Refine Results | |
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| eBay: Get More Specific | |
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| Qwest: Suggest Related Documents | |
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| CDNow: If You Like This... | |
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| Head to Head: Foot Locker vs. Finish Line | |
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| Amazon: Letting the Customer Decide | |
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| No results? Let customers easily expand search criteria | |
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| Marriott: No Quick Fix | |
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| eBay: Try These Search Alternatives | |
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| News: Expand Your Search | |
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| Yahoo!: Need More Results? | |
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| Offer tips on how to improve results | |
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| Reebok: No Tips | |
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| Amazon: Search Examples | |
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| AllRecipes: For Better Results... | |
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| Don't rely on advanced searches | |
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| Musician's Friend: Too Complex | |
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| Palm: Pull-down Overload | |
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| Chicago Tribune: Basic First, Then Advanced | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Out of Stocks and Unavailable Items: Make Sure Unavailable Items Don't Become Dead Ends | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Be upfront about item unavailability | |
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| Baby Ultimate: Don't Tease Like That | |
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| Amazon and Tower Records: Stock Notification | |
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| Lands' End: Inventory Alert | |
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| If a product will be available at a later date, explain when, provide product details, and take advance orders | |
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| Bookpool: When Will I Get It? | |
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| CDNow: Expected Release Date | |
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| Head to Head: Barnes & Noble vs. Amazon | |
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| Offer email notification | |
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| UPS: Can't You Get Back to Me? | |
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| Kill Rock Stars: Tell Me When This Item Is in Stock | |
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| Mother Nature: "We will watch this product..." | |
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| Show similar items that are available | |
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| Terrific Toy: Less Is Not More | |
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| Gap and L.L. Bean: ...But These Are Available | |
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| Hotmail: Try One of These Instead | |
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| Head to Head: Domain Bank vs. Register.com | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| The Contingency Design Test: See How Your Site Rates | |
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| Who Should Perform the Tasks? | |
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| How Does This Differ from Other Site Usability Tests? | |
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| Scoring Your Test | |
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| The Contingency Design Test | |
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| Tally Your Score | |
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| See How You Stack Up | |
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| Conclusion: Contingency Design: A Long-term Commitment | |
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| Study Customer Support Inquiries | |
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| Solicit Feedback | |
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| Analyze Server Log Files | |
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| Get Outside Opinions | |
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| Put Someone in Charge of Contingency Design | |
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| Build a Contingency Design Knowledgebase | |
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| Prepare to Fail | |
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| Conclusion: One Step at a Time | |
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| Index | |