Sunday, June 14, 2015

Where is the WWW headed?

I found an opportunity over lunch last week to catch up on my blog roll. So I came across this blog by Michael Bolton.  I really feel and share in his frustration.  Our family budget is accomplished by Mint.com.  Several months ago our bank a local credit union changed their website.  The impact was actually quite severe in that now our checking account does not import into Mint.com.  We have had numerous email threads with both Mint.com and our bank.  Here it is 3 - 4 months later and the issue still has not been resolved.  I have offered to work with their developers to help troubleshoot the problem, but they will not take me up on the offer.  The bank claims it cannot be their problem and Mint.com is a free software, so why should they care they have destroyed a families budgeting process.  The options we now have to consider are leaving a bank with have been with for 30 years or abandon Mint.com.  I do not like either choice because this integrated solution should just work.

I get gas at several local convenient stores.  My blood pressure goes up when I read the digital greeting on the pump and the last letter of the final word appears on line 2.  Such a trivial bug, but it bothers me.

I was interacting with Lanette Creamer via Twitter.  She made this statement that resonated with me a bit; "Have you seen the case yet where they are literally building faster than they can detect sanity? Dropping a deuce on the user."  I really think she is on to something with this statement.  In the effort  to deliver software faster, companies tend to fail the primary users.  Isn't the entire purpose of delivering web applications to delight the customers?

Lanette also made a great post on LinkedIn.  I thought it would be cool to leave a comment on her post.  I was not able to leave a comment.  I tried several browsers, so I sent Lanette my comments via Twitter.  Anyone reading her article will not have that context.  LinkedIn was following the Twitter conversation, so at least they were actively aware of the problem on their site.

Is the internet getting better?  Is it heading in the right direction?  This short analysis would indicate the internet is not headed in the right direction.  Companies are not making their audience happier.

I still believe we can rapidly deliver great software, but we need to do it with the customer in mind.
Michael Bolton and Lanette Creamer are passionate people who care and want customer experiences to be better.   We should all desire great experiences and we should let these companies know.

Happy Testing!