In most cases, a user accesses a website for an objective: searching the last numbers of the lottery, print some medical results, or even ask something to eat. Your (or ours) objective is to think in the best way/experience in how the user will do that.
Talking more, not about how the experience will be projected but about what maybe would be the focus of the whole thing: the information or content that the user looks for. In most cases, something that is abandoned and only has due attention when the problems start to appear.
In a world of digital projects not so distant, what happens frequently is related to I am not usually the one that handles it. So, a website area needs to finalize the content and:
- area X says it’s not the responsibility of it, which is part of area Y’s work.
- However, area Y says that it does not make sense they take care of it, which could be area Z demand.
- The area Z says that it’s not with them, but they could help. However, they are swamped, and it could take some time…
So we can predict the outcome of this seesaw: content came out worse than the current Brazilian soccer team.
A real case: the reward
I only stay motivated to write briefly about it because it recently happened to me the problem of content out of date. I had some credit card points, and I needed to chance for some benefit as I would cancel my credit cards. So, I did simple research (because I did not have so many points) and made a choice: I changed something small, but it was a reward.
The idea of a reward is an important thing because for me, as a user, I was excited to earn something.
The reward was nothing more than some credits that I could use in some establishments. The company has a website with some information about the program, a map that showed the establishments’ address. So, I got some addresses from places near my house, and guess what? Two of them did not know about the program, and one did not even exist.
I contacted the company and said that they were taking the necessary actions and apologizing for the troubles. I told them that all that mess was absurd but that I believe that it a bit of bad luck and I could try again in another region. So I did it, and guess what? The establishments wall all closed with wood plates (probably a new construction).
It seems like a joke, right? But it’s not. I thought about all of it because something which would be great because I was using a benefit/reward became the opposite totally. As soon as I use my benefit (I hope soon), I intend never to come back to use the services of the company.