Joe
Gebbia from Airbnb weighed in on a Wall
Street Journal soapbox about making mistakes, by telling a story about how he
and his fellow internet savvy 20-somethings at Airbnb failed to think about
things like font size and language choices when developing their site. Then they realized that their fastest growing
group of hosts is seniors, followed by 50-somethings. Oops.
So
what did they do? They held a
"Bring Your Mother To Work" Day and asked their mom's to use the site
while they observed them. I am sure that
it was an eye opening and productive exercise. (2016)
Maybe it's
just me, or the fact that I have been buying lots of stuff online lately, but I
am shocked to discover how many dysfunctional websites there are out there; particularly
if one tries not to use Amazon.
Here's
a short recap of some of the problems that I have encountered in the past few
weeks...
1.
Entering my address and being told that it was incorrect because I either abbreviated
NY or didn't. (Ikea)
2.
Being unable to redeem miles because the name on my airline credit card does
not match my legal name. (American Airlines)
3. Not
being able to include my apartment number in my address because the company hadn't
delivered to that address before. (Lego)
4.
Couldn't order a comforter and have it sent directly to someone else as a gift.
(JC Penney)
Really?
So
here's a suggestion. Have a "Bring
Your Mom To Work Day" to fix your website problems before they put you out
of business.
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