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Kindle: Buying Books by Accident

32 points by bensummers 16y ago

oscardelben 16y ago
I once bought a book by accident but I was able to get a refund on the next page.
mike-cardwell 16y ago
I like the way the author "forgets" to mention the simple refund capability. It would have sounded even more like whining if he'd remembered to include it.
- wanderr 16y ago
  He's complaining about the UI design, not making any claims that Amazon is being fundamentally evil here.
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    He clicked the wrong button because he didn't read it. If he's going to blame the UI for that action, he should have also mentioned the fact that the UI provides the equivalent of an "undo" button.
    - ugh 16y ago
      Not everything is a holy war. Calm down.
      - mike-cardwell 16y ago
        Heh, I just think it's a silly article. If the button he clicked by accident did something harmless, he wouldn't have posted it... Except it did do something harmless, but he forgot to mention that fact...
        ugh 16y ago
        A button which, from time to time, shows up where the “Bold” button normally is and which does random stuff is bad UI design, even if you can easily undo. Undo doesn’t and shouldn’t excuse bad UI decisions.
        mike-cardwell 16y ago
        "Undo doesn’t and shouldn’t excuse bad UI decisions." Do you think that somehow disagrees with anything I've said? All I'm saying is that the author should have included the existance of a refund option in his article. "Can you get refunds" was my immediate thought on reading the article, and I'm guessing that's the first thought that comes into the minds of most people on reading it.
- LukasMathis 16y ago
  I didn't forget to mention the refund capability. I didn't mention it because it's not relevant to the point I'm making. I'm not saying that Amazon is somehow trying to steal money from people (I rather like Amazon). I also didn't write a general critique of the Kindle's UI (which is usually quite well done). Instead, I merely pointed out a specific flaw with its UI. You can call this "whining", but I'm a UI designer, so being whiny about this stuff is kind of in my job description :-) It's true that you can get a refund, but that doesn't make the problem go away. It means that the user can fix the problem once it has occurred. The experience is unpleasant regardless of whether the user can fix it afterwards. Preventing the problem from occurring is better than allowing users to fix it once it has occurred. In my particular case, though, I was unable to fix it on my own. As soon as I realized that I had selected the wrong option, I hit "Home", hoping that it would cancel the action. It didn't cancel the action, but it did prevent me from seeing the order confirmation screen, which would have allowed me to cancel the order. Obviously, a quick message to Amazon fixed the problem regardless, but the point is that all of this should not have been necessary. It could have been avoided if the Kindle had simply selected the same default action for all types of documents.
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    I get that. However, when writing a blog post, it is good practice to consider what questions people will ask when they've finished reading it and answer them in the article. You have to admit, it's a pretty obvious omission.
    - LukasMathis 16y ago
      I probably should have pointed it out. I've added a footnote. Writing blog posts like these is a balancing act. On the one hand, I want to keep it short and stick to the point I'm making. The fact that you can get a refund is not directly related to the specific UI problem I'm describing, just like the "undo" feature in a desktop application isn't directly related to, say, mislabeled menu entries. On the other hand, I try to write defensively. If an article is read by hundreds or thousands of people, there will inevitable be some people who feel that something they consider important was not included. I try to anticipate the most obvious criticisms or questions, and explicitly mention them preventively. But if I include all of them, the text will eventually become unreadable. I'm also writing for an audience of UI designers, who generally realize that I'm merely pointing out specific UI flaws, rather than making larger points about the products or companies I use as examples. I probably missed the mark by not pointing out the fact that it's possible to get refunds, but I think it's not as obvious as you imply.

32 points by bensummers 16y ago

I once bought a book by accident but I was able to get a refund on the next page.

I like the way the author "forgets" to mention the simple refund capability. It would have sounded even more like whining if he'd remembered to include it.

wanderr 16y ago
He's complaining about the UI design, not making any claims that Amazon is being fundamentally evil here.
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  He clicked the wrong button because he didn't read it. If he's going to blame the UI for that action, he should have also mentioned the fact that the UI provides the equivalent of an "undo" button.
  - ugh 16y ago
    Not everything is a holy war. Calm down.
    - mike-cardwell 16y ago
      Heh, I just think it's a silly article. If the button he clicked by accident did something harmless, he wouldn't have posted it... Except it did do something harmless, but he forgot to mention that fact...
      - ugh 16y ago
        A button which, from time to time, shows up where the “Bold” button normally is and which does random stuff is bad UI design, even if you can easily undo. Undo doesn’t and shouldn’t excuse bad UI decisions.
        mike-cardwell 16y ago
        "Undo doesn’t and shouldn’t excuse bad UI decisions." Do you think that somehow disagrees with anything I've said? All I'm saying is that the author should have included the existance of a refund option in his article. "Can you get refunds" was my immediate thought on reading the article, and I'm guessing that's the first thought that comes into the minds of most people on reading it.
LukasMathis 16y ago
I didn't forget to mention the refund capability. I didn't mention it because it's not relevant to the point I'm making. I'm not saying that Amazon is somehow trying to steal money from people (I rather like Amazon). I also didn't write a general critique of the Kindle's UI (which is usually quite well done). Instead, I merely pointed out a specific flaw with its UI. You can call this "whining", but I'm a UI designer, so being whiny about this stuff is kind of in my job description :-) It's true that you can get a refund, but that doesn't make the problem go away. It means that the user can fix the problem once it has occurred. The experience is unpleasant regardless of whether the user can fix it afterwards. Preventing the problem from occurring is better than allowing users to fix it once it has occurred. In my particular case, though, I was unable to fix it on my own. As soon as I realized that I had selected the wrong option, I hit "Home", hoping that it would cancel the action. It didn't cancel the action, but it did prevent me from seeing the order confirmation screen, which would have allowed me to cancel the order. Obviously, a quick message to Amazon fixed the problem regardless, but the point is that all of this should not have been necessary. It could have been avoided if the Kindle had simply selected the same default action for all types of documents.
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  I get that. However, when writing a blog post, it is good practice to consider what questions people will ask when they've finished reading it and answer them in the article. You have to admit, it's a pretty obvious omission.
  - LukasMathis 16y ago
    I probably should have pointed it out. I've added a footnote. Writing blog posts like these is a balancing act. On the one hand, I want to keep it short and stick to the point I'm making. The fact that you can get a refund is not directly related to the specific UI problem I'm describing, just like the "undo" feature in a desktop application isn't directly related to, say, mislabeled menu entries. On the other hand, I try to write defensively. If an article is read by hundreds or thousands of people, there will inevitable be some people who feel that something they consider important was not included. I try to anticipate the most obvious criticisms or questions, and explicitly mention them preventively. But if I include all of them, the text will eventually become unreadable. I'm also writing for an audience of UI designers, who generally realize that I'm merely pointing out specific UI flaws, rather than making larger points about the products or companies I use as examples. I probably missed the mark by not pointing out the fact that it's possible to get refunds, but I think it's not as obvious as you imply.