I needed oil for my car and went to a quick stop service company. They did the oil change swiftly and efficiently. When I went to checkout, I swiped my credit card. But the instructions were so unclear that the clerk had to walk me through what should have been intuitive. She does this all day long, and she got confused too and had to call over the manager. Press #1 for credit but it means you have to press #2 on the keypad. Really?
Bad design thinking.
The power went out in my house due to a storm. It lasted less than an hour. I had to reset my alarm clock. I have had the clock for ten years since you can attach an iPod to it to listen to music. Setting the time and alarm is so confusing, that I keep the instruction booklet next to the clock. It is not intuitive. Nothing about this process clock-radio is simple.
Unlike the simplicity of setting the time on an iPhone, this non-Apple clock-radio device was designed for confusion. No one at this company ever said, will our customers find this easy?
What does Mem/Click/Adjust mean?
Bad design thinking.
I went to the website of a company who sells a certain brand of shoes. The user interface was so complicated that I left without making a purchase. They sent me all over their site with links that didn’t understand where I wanted to go. The team that created the navigation didn’t put much thought into the journey for a new visitor.
Bad Design Thinking
- How often do you step back and look at how a new customer engages with your company? Do they have a clear path to learning, get help and purchase?
- Are you so focused on your company telling your story, that you forget why your customer knocked on your front (or digital) door? Here is a hint: They didn’t come for your story. They came because of their story. And their story was focused on solving their problem.
- Ever read this book called Change by Design by Tim Brown at IDEO. Here is a review of this wonderful book.
- There is extraordinary power in leveraging simplicity. Read Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein to learn how the simplicity can power change. One of their remarkably simple ideas increased enrollment by employees in 401K plans from 45% to 85%. They used design to solve the problem by making the decision to join an opt-out instead of an opt-in.
Driving Home: Imagine going to the airport in an unfamiliar city and not seeing the sign for returning your rental car. All you want to do is find the rental car lot. You have one job you want to accomplish. Return the car.
Instead, the airport has so many signs, in some many colors, with so many fonts that you get lost trying to find your path to accomplish your goal.
Bad design thinking is the anti-sales department.
Are you helping your customers solve their problems or adding to the confusion and complexity of life?
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Need an objective look at your customer’s journey? What could the power of great design thinking do for your business? Let’s navigate a path forward together. Connect with me here.
Photo: Jeffrey Slater
