Web user experience design to deal with extreme and minor errors

The user is God, even if the user is vexatious, is also helping us to provide the opportunity to discover the problem.

This article says the vexatious user, is actually the designer oneself. Because the designer is the most vexatious user (why?) ）

There are some extreme situations, as real customers, may not meet a few times in a lifetime.

As shown in figure:

1. Will you press the search button if you do not enter anything in search bar?

2. Do you know that this input box should not support the letter, should not exceed the maximum page number, but also enter such a value?

3. Enter letters in the price range, such as a?

Not most people, except for designers. Designers have to take into account the extreme situation, and in each case how to let the system response, so he became the most vexatious user. If the designer doesn't consider the details of this very mini, it's worthless, in case one day met some vexatious customers, a try out the problem, he will be in So-and-so blog, write haha, this very cattle site would have made such a mistake-I admit, this behavior is generally still called designer to do it.

Anyway, today, finally completed the project design documentation, with some check details of the tangle, I also vexatious a, "harassment" of many sites, tried a variety of extreme situations, but also found some seemingly experienced a good site embarrassing and unprepared. But seriously, who cares? After all, real users don't do that.

Don't play big today, just play the extreme case of simple page numbers and price areas.

One, Taobao

1. Enter the letter in the price range-- Taobao instant automatic removal , do not let you fill in, the stronger is, the instant I vexatious to paste 1a1 such a string, Taobao also immediately the middle of a filter out.

2. Enter the letter in the page number input box --Click OK, the page refreshes, or the page number is positioned to page 1, and the input box also clears the letter.

Interestingly, I am currently on other pages, such as page 99th, after entering the letter in the input box, the page refreshes, or to the first page.

3. Again vexatious some, I entered in the input box 200, exceeds the maximum page number , the page refreshes, Taobao still give me to navigate to the page number 1.--seemingly logic is the input of the code requirements of the characters, all refreshed after the return page number 1.

My evaluation : The first case, the scheme is fair, to avoid errors, and will not pop-up prompts. The second situation: to go to page 1 is silly, why not stay on my current page number . As for the third case, I tend to be positioned to the last page.

Two, EBay

1. Enter the letter in the price input box--click Go, there is a hint, well, it looks a bit laborious.

2. Enter the letter in the page number--go left point point to point to do not have any reaction , Eaby is said: You vexatious, I simply ignore you, see how you do?

3. Enter the number above the maximum page number in the Page Number entry box--click on the page to refresh and navigate to the last page. ebay is saying, "Sorry, that's all we have."

My evaluation: The first case, or the comparison of the error prompted. In the second case, I thought the system was stuck and waited for half a day. In the third case, ebay has done a good job.

Third, Alibaba International station

There is no price range, only harassing page numbers.

1. As shown in the picture, enter the letter and click Go to Appear warning box-and exclamation point. Alas, serious and solemn Alibaba.

2. Enter the number above the maximum page number in the input box--after the page is refreshed, return to the first page.

My comment: The seriousness of the hint, too much. In the second case, page numbers respond to overflow values like Taobao, and need to be improved. This, to the end is not more in line with the user's original requirements?

Four, Google

Google did not jump to the first few pages of functionality, take the zip input box in figure one to try the situation 1.

1. Enter the letter--click Go, the page refresh, in addition to just the letter clear, any changes are not.

2. Enter the letter in the price area input box, click Go, page refresh, clear the letter just filled in, or no change!!

It seems that Google's strategy is: you vexatious, I also vexatious, you slap back I will take a slap back, you do not understand my response? So what exactly are you expecting?

Also by the way to harass the Chinese Youdao shopping and Pat two sites, found that the program can not jump out of several. However, there are some details of the difference, for example, in the way of the price input box, first input the correct value (such as 1-100), after the replacement of letters, the page like Google as usual refresh, but will return to the previous state (1-100).

Google in the same situation, but return to the initial state.

Mapping to real-life cases:

harassment here, the mind suddenly flashed out a picture, if you one day, very boring, to vexatious (fool also can Ah, fool is not called vexatious), to a watermelon shop, to the shopkeeper said: "Boss, please give me a football."

The boss's possible reaction and my reaction:

A. Pretending not to hear, no response, another shout, or no response.

--Was he deaf? Or did you not notice me at all? Eaby This is how the page is done.

B. Roar: Are you sick? I don't see a sign that says watermelon!

I'm so scared, isn't this boss in a bad mood? That's what Alibaba did with the flip page.

C. Give you a watermelon directly. Ask again, or give you a watermelon.

-first inexplicably, then, oh, it turns out this is a watermelon shop. Google's price is doing this.

D. Ask you: what? You repeat? I said: "Please give me a football, the boss also asked:" Please give you what?

-Oh, well, I'll take you, I'll have the watermelon. This is how the price of Taobao is done.

E. Oh, one of the students said, why can not you request to fill out the specifications directly? That would have prevented a mistake, in some cases it is possible (if 50% of the people are expected to go wrong), but many times it is like a funny picture: "The watermelon shop door erected a huge brand, said--we only sell watermelon, please do not buy football or other items in our shop ."

To sum up: in the face of "extreme and minor errors", the response of each website:

It is worth noting that the specific design, must be "specific circumstances", such as Taobao automatic error correction, is good, but also only applicable to the single character of the case, such as the price area can not appear letters, so the immediate empty. And Google Shopping in the zip,states that input box, there are many characters, can not automatically error correction (need the overall semantic judgment), as if a customer said "boss, I want a football-the same watermelon", have to wait for users to finish.

No pop-up warning box, also do not damage the page structure, you may wish to help Google think of this place's calibration, in addition to the autonomous response, there are no other options?

Validation Containment:

Despite the thought of breaking the head, we still can't anticipate all the errors in the filling. User Input 6a We can clear the letters, user input 6. We can convert to 6.0, user input 6.6.6.

This is the question I was asked the other day ...

Check, like a checkpoint, we have principles, but also some feelings. This is the human nature-inclusive, can not prompt error will not prompt, can let the user operation uninterrupted without interruption, even in some very small error, we can directly for the user to decide.

first, let's take a counter example: a less tolerant checksum from a certain Business-to-consumer website:

This site completely avoids popping out of this less-than-cordial window: direct retrieval of a product that is equal to 99 or less than or equal to 99.

In this case, there are a lot of websites doing quite well, even if the price of the first big after the small, the same can be inclusive through: automatic conversion to the first small after the big. How did they do that? In a word: More for the user think, think more details. The user experience is not a rhetorical conversation.

Check the containment with the price range for example:

1. A input box input number is less than B input box:

positive case: Taobao and Eaby, Google can automatically replace the first small after the large, the corresponding interval results.

Negative Case: enter 300-100 in the Amzon price range. The website is refreshed as usual, but the results and filter adjustments remain in the state before the input, which appears to be invalid.

2. A and B two input boxes input. 6 or 6. Such a combination of characters:

Positive case: Amazon and ebay both convert 6 to 6.0, while. 6 translates to 0.6 for searching. Even enter in the Eaby price input box. 6 such characters, it will automatically rounded up to 0.01 for a search.

Negative case:Goole only 6. Such characters are converted to 6, but if you enter. 6 Such characters are ignored, do not affect the results and will be emptied--it seems that Google should not have so cheap goods. Taobao is automatically empty the non-numeric characters, so even if the decimal point is part of the price, it also according to clear.

And I just tried a pat on the beat, ah Oh

To be honest, I think I'm right that I'm not the only one who loses, is it the decimal point and the number?

3. A and B all enter the same number, such as 100.

Positive case: ebay, Taobao, Amazon are directly using price=100 to search.

Negative case: Google, it said directly did not find any results. This I understand Google, because it is a collection of products, are the price range, may not find the full price is equal to 100 of the product, but can also press "less than or equal to 100" to search?

4. A input box input number, B input box blank.

Basically a positive example, each Web site is based on a number greater than or equal to a input box to search. Conversely, if you enter a number in the B input box and a blank, it is also in accordance with the number less than equal to the B input box to search.

Check the "foolproof"

Of course, no matter how we racked our brains, we can not fully anticipate how users will input, such as I simply enter. 6.6.6. 6, what can you do? Smart Eaby are dumbfounded, can only hint that:

But it can also be used: only two decimal places to retain only the first decimal point in the way to accommodate, our front-end to do so, they are very skilled cattle.

However, tolerance always has a certain limit , when necessary to be more serious, otherwise not only let us designers sacrifice a lot of brain cells to think that these may not be possible accidents, but also to the system has great pressure.

So, we can predict some cases, such as the story of input boxes A and B above, give the conversion scheme. Then, in these cases, a unified approach needs to be given: Taobao's clear strategy, like ebay's red tip, and Google's "autonomic response" strategy. Specific problems are dealt with concretely. User experience is to protect the majority of users experience good, not very few, when necessary to sacrifice this very small number of user experience also may not be.

That's why I'm opposed to a serious reminder if the user hasn't entered yet: Please enter a normal positive number (half angle) in the price range. Format such as ..., this is like a watermelon shop in the doorway of a huge brand, Yue: We only sell watermelon, please do not come to our store to buy football and other items, so that 99% The original is to buy watermelon people find it baffling, destroying most of the "normal user" experience.