I had always remembered the Piggly Wiggly's out in my Mom's home state of Arkansas as being these relic's from the fifty's. Well it look's like that's not the case any more, at least in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina. Where I happen to be vacationing at the moment.
Yesterday, my daughter and I were walking around at a local Piggly Wiggly picking up a few things for dinner and once we got to the check out line I was asked for my "member card". I don't care for "member cards". I find them annoying and the only benefit is for data mining on the companies part.
When I gave the cashier my answer of "no, I'm vacationing", she politely asked how long we would be staying and I informed her of how long. Then she whipped out a temporary member card for me to use during my visit. No questionnaire to fill out, no data mining, no coupons in the mail based off my shopping habits.
I said thank you, and saved three bucks. I thought about how easy she made the process and the experience. Make the "member card" easy for people to get and easy for people to use. They'll come back and to the store and use it while they're on vacation.
Now how does all this apply to the world of software?
First, be friendly and polite. Is your app rude? Does it ask to close everything you're working on when installing? Does it hog resources when running?
Second, make it easy. Easy and be done in a couple of different ways. Do you controls on you app have a flow that's appropriate for the culture that's going to be using it? Is it easy on the eyes? (empty space, font's, color, etc.) Does it do what it's supposed to do?
Third, bring them back. If your app is friendly, polite and easy to use this should happen.
Well, I'm back to the vacation. I'm making some fish taco's with avocado mango salsa, lime slaw and pineapple mojito's. See you later.
Tag: UX