Calls-to-Action

A good call-to-action is clear and jumps out at you (holy 1990s, not literally) in the right place at the right time. Fitts’s Law states that the time required for a user to move to a target is directly related to the distance from the target and the size of the target. This makes sense if you think about it. If you put a super small link far away from where the user is starting the task, it’s not going to be easy for them to get there.

Size matters as it indicates priority compared to the each and every other piece of the content on the screen.

Take Evernote.com:

What do you think they want you to do here? Their top priority is making it easy for new users to sign up.

So what happens when a call-to-action is not so prominent and obvious? It leads to longer task completion times and user frustration. Enter the Apple Watch. (Don’t get me started on trying to download apps — that’s another post for another day.) I was playing with an Apple Watch and needed to update the iOS. I have a ton of Apple products so I assumed this would be easy.

Steps to Update iOS on Apple Watch directly from Apple Support:

1. Keep your Apple Watch on its charger until the update completes.
2. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, then tap General > Software Update.
3. Download the update. …
4. Wait for the progress wheel to appear on your Apple Watch.

Seems easy enough. Here’s the Software Update screen. Ok, now download the update…

So why was this me?

First of all, that Install link, even though it’s orange text, blends in too much with the other less important content on the screen. It looks less important than the orange underlined link to the Apple Support article, and who really wants to click that? Nobody. But wait, is this that much different from the iPhone update screen?

Actually, yes.

The Download and Install link stands out much more on this screen than the Install link did on the Apple Watch app. It is visually separated from other text and is the only blue text on the screen other than the back button. It is much more clear what Apple thinks you want to do on this screen.

The Apple Watch update screen could be more effective if the support link was styled like the Learn More > link on the iPhone update screen. It would also be easier to find if the small bulleted instructions were not below the Install link as well. Why sandwich the most important call-to-action between two big chunks of less important text?

Here’s a quick redesign I mocked up to illustrate how the experience might be improved. (Note: I intentionally kept the same content, colors, etc. in the redesign, but other changes including changing background color and size and color of the Install link might be even more effective.)

Just my two cents.

Really, Netflix?

The time had come. I had mooched off of my friend’s Netflix account long enough and it was time to go legit and sign up for my own account. Go me! But before I can stop patting myself on the back for being a responsible upstanding citizen, I begin cursing the Samsung Smart TV (why did I blame the tv?) as I struggle to find some Account or Menu option in Netflix to log out of my friend’s account and into my own.

After a few wasted minutes I hit Google and see this at the top of the search results:

I read this and chuckled to myself thinking this code looks like something out of an 80s video game. It’s not. Look at the URL at the bottom of the box. This is from Netflix’s own Help documentation.

It’s true! And the worst (best?) part is that it worked! Well it worked in that it displays the active account information and allows the option to “Deactivate” the device. That’s how Netflix designed for the use case logging out or switch between accounts? Really?

How in the bloody hell does Netflix expect ANYONE to be able to log out of an account without Googling to find this bizarre code? Zero findability for such a basic feature. They must not want to let users easily logout, but why?

What if I told you that if you decided to cancel your Netflix account, but forgot to deactivate it on your TV or worse, you forgot to tell your friends/family that shared your account that you’ve cancelled and they watch something on one of their already logged in/impossible to logout devices your account will automatically be reinstated and you’ll be billed?! (Note: I haven’t been able to validate that claim I read in a forum while researching the issue, but even if it’s not the case now it could’ve certainly been the case at one point because this issue has been existing since at least 2011.)

THAT is why user experience is so important and why I’m so passionate about the field. Is this an intentional ploy by Netflix to make it difficult to logout or did they just not feel it a priority to fix in the past five years that this madness has been going on?

My Two Cents

The solution here is pretty simple. There needs to be a top level menu where things like Profile, Account Settings and Preferences live. While they’re at it, the horizontal scrolling to browse has got to go, but that’s a post for another day. I still love you, Netflix.