Saturday, September 12, 2009

Make websites easy to use

Many websites give bad experience to customers. They ask for a lot of unnecessary information to be provided, and they are unstable or difficult to use. The customers have to re-enter the information many times, to be rejected time and again. Some customers give up and go back to the old ways.

Websites should make it easy (not difficult) for customers to transact, so that more of the work can be done online, and reduce the pressure on the front line staff to handle customers personally or over the telephone.

Many websites of government agencies and bis companies have the same characteristics - they are difficult to use. It seems that they engage expensive consultants who make life complicated for everybody, so they can justify high fees. When will our leaders step back and use their common sense?

Tan Kin Lian
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mr Tan,

A brief comment. SingPass is the right direction to take for government agencies. For example, I can use the same SingPass account for CPF as well as HDB transactions, which is very convenient. When balloting for a HDB flat, I can use the account to pull up my previous application details, thus negating the need for re-entering my particulars. I hope that in future, we are able to use SingPass for all government transactions. However, I am not aware of the cost to the government that this convenience brings.

September 12, 2009 11:35 AM
Parka said...

Many decision makers don't have much knowledge on technology or how to correctly use them. Designing websites is just one of them.

Basically things will not change until the person in charge change to someone else. Too bad.

September 12, 2009 2:45 PM
Sanity said...

To complicate matter, some of the questions are ambiguous and vague, thus making answering them a chore. Also some of the questions are unnecessary (not related to the issue on hand) and duplicating.

Hopefully, the relevant authorities will review the contents, keep them simple, factual and relevant.

September 12, 2009 4:47 PM
Michael Lim said...

I do agree with TKL. I wonder whether the management of these companies try out their own website as I do agree some of them can be a challenge and may up your BP by a few points. Perhaps the designers did not put themselves in the customer's shoes or expects the customers to fully understand their design. Frankly, it should be as idiot proof as possible.

September 12, 2009 10:19 PM

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