I think that it really is important to have a confirmation option before users commit to an irreversible action, like making a payment or sending an email because people sometimes will be distracted by other stimulus even though they are focusing on a task (Nielsen, 1995). Thus, having a confirmation option can prevent users' to make error.
However, the idea of "confirmation option is important" emerged only after I have had the bad experience of committing the irreversible mistake that I would never forget.
Past experience of using a website that does not have confirmation option
I clearly remember that few months ago while I was trying to check out the items that I wanted to buy from ZALORA (a online shopping website), my sister was talking to me. Unconsciously, I had pressed the button of "confirm" without checking my course of action. Then, when I checked back my order status, I only realized that I had chosen cash on delivery as my payment of method. Yet, this is not the worst.
Supposedly, I could cancel the order in one call; unfortunately, their office working hour is from 9am to 6pm, and the time I realized was already 6:30pm. Thus, I decided to cancel my order tomorrow, but tomorrow was a Saturday, and I thought that ZALORA would not work on weekends. Then, I decided to call them on the coming Monday. However, on Sunday, I had already received an e-mail stated that my order had been processing, and waiting to be delivered, but I could not allow my order to be delivered to my doorstep because I would not be at home before evening. Due to this circumstance, I still decided to call ZALORA and expected that they would help me to cancel the order. Yet, they could not help me because the order had been delivered.
Conclusion
This experience taught me to understand that if I want to talk to someone I should have either stop my current task or ask the person to wait for me to finish my current task so that the same mistake will not re-occur. Nonetheless, most importantly I found that presenting users with a confirmation option can not only prevent user from conducting an error but also indirectly encourage users to check for potential errors (Nielsen, 1995).
Suggestion
ZALORA should add a confirmation dialog box especially when the consumers have chosen the cash on delivery as their method of payment because cash on delivery is different from online banking; when people choose online banking they will be directed to the page which they need to choose the type of bank before giving their bank account. Thus, even if the consumer has accidentally chosen online banking as their method of payment their order will not immediately be processed as the procedure of payment is not completed unless they have logged in to their online banking website. Since using online banking as a payment method needs a longer process, even if people are distracted from the current task, they would not unconsciously pay their order. Unlike cash on delivery, once consumers have chosen the option, there is only one way that they can undo their action, which is call to ZALORA to cancel the order immediately; otherwise, when the order has been processed and delivered, consumers would have no choice, but to stay at the address that they have put in their personal information.
Reference
Nielsen, J. (1995). 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
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