Asking for help made the situation even more baffling…
Image from Flickr, Dannyman

Authorize.net is an online payment gateway. Their service allows merchants to accept credit cards and payments through their website. The change needed was a straightforward edit to the clients Simple Checkout form. Simple was even in the name, so I expected this to take 5 minutes at the max and on to the next adventure. Well, 30 minutes later, there were three different web browsers open on my screen as I attempted to do this “simple” task on each one while simultaneously typing a mile a minute to their live help representative so that I could get it solved before the help chat closed.

This was definitely an adventure, albeit an unexpected and unwanted one.

Here’s how it unfolded, providing me with further proof that monitoring, changing and updating your online presence may be difficult at times, but to ignore it or do otherwise is business and marketing suicide.

It Is Simple. Just Go Straight To The Help Desk

So I was given a request to update this checkout form to add another entry as the client was now accepting another payment option.

After logging in and hunting around for a bit, I found the “simple checkout” form link. Now to add the new item, hit save and on to the next advent…wait. I clicked Save, I’m now at the new screen which should show my new item but, the item isn’t there. It did however update the other items that I edited. So what gives?

Okay, some temporary glitch. I’ll go back and do it again. Item. Click save and on to the next adve…um. Okay. Two in a row. Not good.

No problem. I can figure this out. I do it for a living. Problem, meet me—your destroyer. I tried the “overcompensate” approach and added two items—perhaps it would at least force the first. Items. Save. Nothing.

Well.

I’m getting a bit annoyed, as I have lots of other things to do and not much time (no one else shares THAT issue, right?). So I’ll just go to their Live Help chat and have this worked out quickly. Probably just a temporary error with their system.

Even an error message, however cruel, would have been welcome

Back to the action:

I click the Live Help button. I explain the issue, which she initially misinterprets so I explain it again. She understands now. But here’s where my mind gets blown.

“Use An Old Browser That Only About 30% Of The World Uses”

She states that I have to use Internet Explorer 6 or newer.

Didn’t the concept of “required browsers” for a website end somewhere around the turn of the century? I assumed (wrongly) that major companies built websites to work well on modern browsers, or as many as possible. But okay, I have all major browsers because I have to test client websites in them to make sure they look and operate correctly, so no big deal.

I open Internet Explorer, log in, etc. and so on, item, sav…

BZZZZT! Wrong again!

I return to the help chat, my eye now twitching slightly. “Nope,” I type, “It still didn’t work on IE10.”

“You have to use IE6 to IE8.”

…I am no longer amused.

Now I’m mulling this over as a typical user might. She essentially told me that I have to download IE 6, 7 or 8, which I don’t have because I live in 2013, install it and log back in just to do this “simple” task (an aside on the absurdity: there are actual websites devoted and promoted by MICROSOFT ITSELF to encourage and countdown the death of their outdated browsers). I refrain from typing out my thoughts on this, and lucky for me I knew a way around this issue that didn’t require installing a new browser, but many users may not. So I login (again) to Authorize.net and then make the changes. Finally, it works. Simple! Angels are singing, but both of my eyes are twitching now as I roll them.

Established Shouldn’t Mean Entrenched And Unchanging

Let’s look at this:

A major company, the largest payment gateway service provider in fact with around 350,000 users and billions in transactions, forces their users to use a specific type of browser in order to use their services. There is no onscreen indication of this on the homepage, on this Simple Checkout page or even after it fails, repeatedly, using the wrong browser. Which, if you’re counting at home, is all of them except the browsers that are currently used by about 30% of all users, if you’re feeling charitable in your calculation.

It’s also not in their Merchant Account online help or, based on a quick search, the knowledgebase.

So let’s say 70% of the customers out there are on another browser. That’s a lot of customers to make jump through hoops to do this task. How many of them would? How many of them would, but then immediately think “maybe I should look at another option?”

My guess is that in Authorize.net’s case since they have been around for years, being one of the first payment gateway companies in the world, they built their site based on the predominant browser at the time. But times change.

So much so that their site doesn’t even work in the latest version of Internet Explorer.

User Interface Design (aka Know Your Public)

User interface design is a phrase used to simply describe how a website and other technical items is built focusing on the user’s interaction with it. A poor one, such as this, can result in unhappy customers. I don’t know if I’m the only one who has gone through this, but I doubt that I am out of their claimed 350,000 users.

I’m not claiming that their service doesn’t work. It does. Billions of dollars are transacted each year, including for our clients. But anything could, and should be, improved, particularly as you grow in size. Stop, and you likely won’t stay at the top. Always look to enhance, upgrade and improve. Check to see that your website or other company tool is servicing those it is supposed to service. Just because it did once, doesn’t mean it is now, even if it’s “profitable.”

Creating (Or Updating) Websites

Properly creating, and updating, a website needs to take the end user into account and also factor in changes in web standards. Take into consideration who the user is. What do they need to know? Where do you want them to go? How will they be accessing your site? On a desktop browser or mobile? And so on.

Finding out from clients how their customers use their service is the first step (note: actual TPM questionnaires are not blank)

Changing the long-held beliefs or operating procedures for a business, particularly a large one, can be arduous. But not changing, being left behind, alienating existing customers and losing out on potential customers is not just arduous, it threatens the life of your business.

And that’s an adventure no one wants.

Find out how we can assist your business in smart marketing, friendly websites and improved statistics, visits and sales. Call us at 888-788-5124.

The post How The World’s Largest Payment Gateway Forgot the User in User Interface appeared first on Target Public Marketing.