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By scott
I am not one to usually complain on my blog, mainly because I think the people reading my blog could give a rats ass about my problems. However, this time I feel I need to complain because a) it has to do with online user experience (something I am passionate about) and b) pizza (something every developer is passionate about ;).
The other night I went online because my wife and I decided we wanted to order from Red Brick Pizza. Originally the plan was to just look up the phone number. Once I got to the site I remembered you can order online. Last time we ordered from Red Brick this is exactly what I did and it worked out fine so I figured I would try again.
The initial experience is standard, you hit the homepage and you are greeted with a massive shot of a mouth watering pizza that looks to be the size of the Millennium Falcon. From there I clicked on the “Menu” link in the top menu, again very standard for a restaurant site. Once I am in the menu I can use the left side navigation to browser their menu and below the menu is the “Order Online” button.
Little did I know the hell that awaited beyond that “Order Online” button.The first screen you are presented with inside “Order Online” is a Red Brick’s “Location Search Utility” (so official, geez). OK, I entered my ZIP code and clicked “Show Locations”. Ok, first problem, did anyone catch it? Earlier I mentioned that I have ordered online from Red Brick before. Why didn’t they remember my information. Hello, marketing opportunity, make me create an account, that way it is convenient for me next time I come, and it is convenient for you because you can mail me crap that I won’t read. Instead now I have to go through, enter my zip code, and select the restaurant that is closest to my house. That’s right, I have to select the restaurant closest to my house. Dear Red Brick, geo-location isn’t anything new. How about you suggest the restaurant that is closest to my house? Or pre-select it. I realize 2% of the time users may want to select a different restaurant because they are going to be on the other side of town or are picking it up en-route to a friends house, have you heard of a “Change Pickup Location” button?
Their “Location Search Utility” results page has a few issues too. When I entered my zip code, the results came back with two restaurants but only one restaurant is plotted on the Google map, the furthest one from my house (this may explain a few things…keep reading). Being extremely hungry I wasn’t in the mood for reading, and because the map was so zoomed out, I clicked the map plot, and clicked the “Go To Store Page” link in the map point call out.
Finally I made it to the online ordering page. Again, they show me the zoomed out, view from pluto, map with the map point again, not entirely necessary on this page. Below that is their entire menu listed with three columns to the right of each available item. In each column is a large, medium, and small number ticker and the corresponding price for each size. In Firefox, the layout of this page was horrible, none of the number tickers lined up with the corresponding items, sometimes the number tickers wrapped to the next line so you had no idea which item you were selecting. Luckily the two items I was ordering were at the absolute top of the list and the absolute bottom so it didn’t take much to figure out if I was using the correct number ticker.Well, there are so many things wrong with this page. Even in 1996 this page would have been horrible. The largest complaint, why isn’t this page merged with the menu they already have? I massive scrolling page with no categorization is just horrible user experience.
Ok, this may be because they are using an off the shelf e-Commerce solution and they were unable to incorporate it with their existing site. Nope, if you check the url, the same query string schema is used in the marketing type pages so we are still in the same system, we didn’t switch to https (you’ll see why shortly). I think it just comes down to laziness, someone, somewhere probably created an excel spread sheet with the prices and sizes available and gave it to a developer, that developer then cut and pasted that content into Dreamweaver (check the source, lots of MM_, not difficult to figure out they were using DW).Next issue, you can’t click on any of the items in the scrolling list? I see “NEW! Pizza Bianco”, however, I have no idea what a Pizza Bianco is. As a user, if I really want to know, I have to click on menu, then click on signature pizza, and find Pizzas Bianco. Then when I find it and navigate back to online ordering page my session was wiped and I have to start over, right back to the location selector…UGH! A simple solution would be to store the session and make each item clickable so the user can check out what each item is. The ideal solution would be to incorporate the ordering and menu sections but I already mentioned that. A middle of the road solution would be to have a mouse over div created that showed the image and description of the product. I assume all this data is stored somewhere since the site is running on Cold Fusion, there must be some sort of back-end?
Also, what is up with all the number tickers? Why aren’t they just using combo boxes, each combo box would contain the three sizes and the price. This would make the page look less daunting, would fix the layout issues, and personally I feel it is more standard and what users are used to. Not 16 thousand number tickers. Oh ya, if you click the number tickers too quickly the price in the top right doesn’t update, without looking at the code there must be some interval set up which isn’t catching the change event when you click fast.
Wow, this blog posting is getting a little long. I could go on and on and on about this horrible experience. Before I wrap it up I want to mention one more, and this one is the kicker. Once you have magically figured out what you want and possibly selected the correct size and quantity from the slew of number tickers and figured out that the “Proceed” button is way up in the top right of the browser you are redirected to the “Your Order” page. Once again I am asked to enter my location information. Didn’t I do this already? Note to developer <cfset session.zipcode = #FORM.zipcode#> does wonders for usability. Oh ya, I hope you don’t want to change anything, because if you click back at this point the number tickers don’t reset but the box in the top right that displays the current price of your order does so it appears that nothing is selected. Ok, now for the real fun. Fill in your contact information, click Submit (mmmm, I can already taste my pizza), and you are greeted with message “A pizza ambassador will contact you within 10 minutes to verify your order”. WHAT?!?!? call me? I just spent all this time online for nothing? I still have to deal with the phone.
Oh ya, so I lied, one more huge thing. After the pizza ambassador called me and confirmed my order, I went to pick it up and bingo, it wasn’t at the restaurant 1/2 mile from my house that I selected. It was at the restaurant on the other side of town. Interesting how the only restaurant that showed up on the map was the restaurant on the other side of town, however, the text results showed the restaurant 1/2 a mile from my house. So frustrating!
Red Brick, if you are going to offer online ordering, truely make it online ordering, don’t make users do a ton of unnecessary work and eventually end up on the phone with them anyway. Aixen Solutions, you may want to go back to the drawing board on this one.
Just my 2 cents, and in case anyone was wondering, the food was great, a little cold cause I had to drive so far to pick it up, but still tasty! They can’t make a website but they do make a decent pizza.
By scott
While flying back from Toronto the other day I thought of a new URL - flashmorgan.com. I visited a comic book store in Toronto, maybe it inspired the new domain name, it is somewhat super hero-ish. It’s a little more exciting then scottgmorgan.com. I don’t know how many complaints I have received from people who can’t find my site because they forgot the g in scottGmorgan.com. The new domain is much easier and shouldn’t cause any problems.
There is no need to update your bookmarks (unless you want to of course), I am not getting rid of the old scottgmorgan.com domain anytime soon.
By scott
I kept running into blogs using the same theme I was using so I decided it was time to switch it up. This new theme isn’t my final choice. I am going to be experimenting with a few new themes over the next little while. And if I find the time (highly unlikely) I may even design my own. When searching for a new theme I noticed there are a lot of bad themes out there. Anyone know of a site that has good quality WordPress themes? Please post the link in the comments below if you know of any.
By scott
First there was the Ford Fusion (the server side vehicle), then there was the Ford Edge (the corporate newsletter of the bunch), and now the Ford Flex (the highly customizable utility vehicle). What’s next, the Lincoln or Mazda CS3? Maybe the Mercury Air, or the Ford Premier. The Jaguar XK already comes with the Flash Player installed in the dash. Anyone else think this is coincidence or conspiracy?
By scott
I recieved an email yesterday from a Microsoft technical recruiter wanting to hire me as a Flash Developer, or as they called it, a Media Author. After I laughed out loud, sent it to a few colleagues who also laughed out loud, I thought about this for a second. Not about taking the job, I would rather be probed by aliens than work for Microsoft. I thought who in their right mind would take a Flash job at Microsoft? It would be like sitting on death row. Talk about a dead end job!
It is obvious Microsoft is trying to kill Flash, it will never happen, but when they do start to push hard, and Silverlight penetration reaches, I don’t know, double digits, why would they employ anyone using a competing technology. Probably because they know Flash is superior and it is going to be a severe uphill battle to even compete. Maybe they would hire me and brainwash me to be a Silverlight developer, then slowly hire every flash developer out there and “convert” them. Ok, maybe a bit far fetched, but would you put anything past Microsoft? I also find it humorous that they don’t even use the word Flash in the job title.
With that said, here is the recruiters email to me. My favorite line is “I am sure you would be interested in working in the Microsoft campus on exciting, challenging projects.” They couldn’t be more wrong.
Hello,
This is [name removed to protect the innocent] , Technical Recruiter with [name removed to protect the innocent], Seattle and a preferred vendor for Microsoft, Redmond in Seattle for contract and some full time positions.
I came across your resume online and as I was going through it, I would like to know more about what kind of roles you are looking for, what skills, areas you would like to work on, what you are passionate about and try to find suitable challenging positions for you . We do long term contracts which are generally extendable beyond a year, we do full time positions, we do contract to hire positions too. Depending on what you are comfortable with and what you are looking for, we will look, and help you find the right positions. I am sure you would be interested in working in the Microsoft campus on exciting, challenging projects.
Currently I have a long term contract position with the MSN Media Solutions Team at Microsoft, Redmond and they are looking for Flash developers.
1. Position: Media Author (Flash Developer)
Requirements:
Experience developing Flash site, components, and/or games. Proficiency in Flash, Photoshop, ImageReady or Illustrator.
Experience with Flash ActionScript
Some JavaScript experience, working knowledge of html, and web based design experience.
Experience in driving work through the software development process.
Experience in audio and video encoding and editing is a plus.
Do let me know if you would be interested and send your latest resume ASAP
Thanks and Regards,
[name removed to protect the innocent]
Does anyone else find this as funny as I do?
By scott
Since it won’t stop raining here in Southern California I brought the kids to the McDonalds in Burbank yesterday to burn off some energy in the play land. We ordered a couple happy meals with the incredibly shrinking cheeseburgers and I ordered a meal. While the kids were traveling through the miles of urine scented plastic caves I looked down at the receipt, to my surprise there was a one dollar “Eat in tax”. I have never noticed that before, I usually don’t study the receipts at McDicks but come on. Was there a VIP section with leather furniture that I somehow overlooked? Does McDonald’s charge this everywhere? I guess next time I will order it to go and bring the bags into the playland.
By scott
Well it’s a new year and I have held off posting anything. I didn’t really have a lot to say and I am not one to blog about nothing. A TV show about nothing was a huge success, but I can’t see a blog about nothing doing as well.
The past year has been a roller coaster for me and my family to say the least. We moved twice (4 times if you count corporate housing stops), one move was into a completely different country, I started 2 new jobs (Yahoo! and now Disney), my son went to 2 different schools, and somehow my wife found the time to get pregnant with our third child. So that means we won’t be resting anytime soon.
Looking back I wouldn’t of changed a thing as crazy as everything was. I learned so much professionally and personally. Professionally I have grown, my coding has improved greatly, for the most part I have been strictly working in AS3 and have absolutely no desire to turn back, unfortunately legacy code exists and AS2 will never go away, not for a long time anyway.
One of the best things of last year was working with Papervision, it has opened up a whole new world (or dimension) to me. I am a developer but I do have a creative side and being able to merge both halves of my brain using something like Papervision is truly amazing. Introducing the third dimension into interface design improves user experience because as humans we are trained to work with objects in 3D space and building everyday metaphors into the UI of our apps will make them that much better. Now if we could just get rid of the keyboard and mouse it would make obtaining those metaphors a lot easier. I think we are going to see a lot more 3D in the RIA space in 2008.
Last year we were all introduced to the iPhone, I am not going to drone on about it, but it truly is a great piece of hardware and software. Sure it is missing a few key things, but it is only a first release. Early this year Apple is releasing the iPhone SDK, you know engineers will be all over this SDK and it will only be a matter of time before some really cool apps and extensions are released for the iPhone. There is already a GPS extension in the works, GPS is the only thing I miss about my old LG phone.
So what else do I see happening in 2008. This is not a political blog so I won’t go into how I see the global economy switching from the U.S. dollar to the Euro, and I won’t go into the recession that everyone seems to be poo pooing which personally I think has already started. I also won’t go into how the Big 3 American car companies are digging their own graves and how the auto Unions are holding the biggest shovel. My all Chrysler employed family may disown me if I talk down the unions, oh wait, I think I just did.
2008 should be an interesting year from an RIA standpoint. There is a lot coming down the pipe. AIR is the first thing that comes to mind. Adobe has done a great job with AIR, I am just not sure how well it is going to take off out of the gate. In its current state it is a cool toy. I don’t think it is going to flop, I just think it will take a little time to fly, and maybe another major release. Personally I don’t agree with the whole AIR run time. I have used both mProjector and Zinc in the past to wrap swfs and create desktop applications. Both of these products allow you to create cross platform (Mac and PC, no Linux love) stand-alone apps with the Flash player included in the executable (if need be). These products had more hooks into the OS and file system, what they didn’t have was an embedded version of Webkit and a JS API. They also didn’t have the ability to interact with PDFs. So yes, AIR has it’s advantages, I just don’t agree with the runtime, it just adds a level of unnecessary complexity and doesn’t easily allow for easy deployment. IMHO. The apps should be stand alone so you can burn them on a CD and have them just work.
I mentioned the iPhone SDK already, this will be huge, of course people are going to try and monetize off of this, why wouldn’t they. What I am really hoping, as are most who are reading this blog, is the iPhone Flash Player we’ve been all dreaming about. There are rumors, lots of them, unfortunately only one guy (and probably a few hundred others) know for sure, Mr. Jobs, please enlighten us. The Internet on your phone is still a little watered down, you promised me the real internet in your ads, where is it? I know there would be memory issues, let’s face it, there are some very heavy flash sites out there. Already I have seen Safari on the iPhone close/crash when an image heavy page is loaded. By now I am sure most of you have heard about QVM or tamarin-tracing, could this be the beginning of something huge?
What else, Flex 3, all I have to say is wow. If you haven’t played with the beta do so now. The profiling and refactoring alone will blow you away. Flex has taken off big time, the one thing that puzzles me though is the number of recruiters who contact me with Flex work yet I still don’t see a ton of it out there in the tubes. Some of the jobs are with Fortune 500 companies. Either they are taking their sweet time to launch their “next big thing” or they gave up on using Flex because they couldn’t find the talent.
This year we will also see the Flex framework fully open sourced. Thank you Adobe, this is really going to change the landscape. Maybe we’ll finally see an AS3 decompiler.
EcmaScript 4, this is going to be an interesting one to watch. There has been a lot of rumblings from a few of the big players. Microsoft doesn’t like it. Once again, Microsoft and Adobe will be at each others throats.
IE8 will be released, yawwwwwwn.
Thermo, Astro, Buzzword oh my. H.264, Google Gears, WPF, it’s shaping up to be a good year. I have even heard some rumblings from the Cold Fusion camp, sounds like there is going to be some cool stuff coming from them.
I am not one to make resolutions, I believe if you have to wait till the beginning of the year to make a resolution you’re not very motivated. But this year I want to expand my horizons. I want to get into other technologies, I have played with a lot of things but I want to go beyond playing. Things like Ruby, Gears, Python. I want to get dirty with SQLlite. I also want to contribute more to the Open Source community. I also don’t want to move, don’t want to start a new job and maybe want to take a vacation for the first time in 4 years. We’ll see how much of this list I get to, with a third child on the way it could be tricky.
In closing, Happy New Year to all, I hope you and your families have a great 2008.
Filed under:
AIR,
Actionscript,
Adobe,
Apollo,
Apple,
Disney Internet Group,
Family,
Flash,
Flex,
General Programming,
Papervision3D,
Technology,
Whatever,
Yahoo
By scott
After 6 years with the same design it was time to retire my old website. Like any busy developer or company for that matter personal projects always get pushed a side. I figured since I am starting new in L.A. that I should finally get around to updating my Blog. And here it is. I rolled my own CMS for my previous site and blog, it worked great, but it was dated. So now, like many, I have switched to WordPress.
I will soon have my portfolio back up, this time I am going to try and do something a little bit cooler with it, and since I am a Flash/Flex developer I will probably do something using the aforementioned technologies. For those who can’t wait to see what I’ve worked on the old portfolio can be viewed here. Stay tuned and let me know what you think of the new site.
Props to the designers of this theme N.Design Studio and MangoOrange™, I haven’t set up all the 301s for the old content, so if you have bookmarks you may see the old design rearing it’s ugly <head>.
By scott
Personally I think they are just psychological. A technical placebo if you will. I noticed tonight when I was shopping in “beautiful downtown Burbank” that they have updated a few of the pedestrian crossing buttons with fancy blinking buttons that beep when you push them. I still don’t think they do anything, I think the beep and blink is another psychological trick, In your mind, when you push a button, you expect something to happen, the old plunger style buttons didn’t do anything and left you wondering if anything was going to happen. This is probably my most bizarre posting just wondering if anyone has any proof that these things actually change the light quicker. Next week we’ll discuss the close door button on an elevator 
By scott
It’s my own fault, it’s what I get for switching jobs a couple weeks before MAX. If I were still at Yahoo I would be polishing up my presentation and sitting in my Chicago hotel room right now. Instead, I am sitting in Burbank in a corporate house. Am i bummed, yes, would I change anything no! Am I jealous of the 4000 attendees, hell ya My first week at Disney was great. We are really working on some cool things Coming soon to a browser near you! Stay tuned!To the folks in Chicago, please blog, and please fill Flickr and You Tube with images and videos from the conference and more importantly the after parties.
