4 ms·

The problem is that Facebook is a pain to navigate. If I wanted to shop for something online, the last place that I would go to would be Facebook - and even if

by nikcub 15y ago

The problem is that Facebook is a pain to navigate. If I wanted to shop for something online, the last place that I would go to would be Facebook - and even if I did choose to go to Facebook I wouldn't even know where to go or what to click on. A lot of those company pages have a spammy feel to them and when you like a brand they pollute your news feed. The Facebook design has zero familiarity to it. I have been using the site for over 5 years now, at least once a week, and yet I have zero familiarity with the product. When I click on a link in Facebook, I have no idea what is really going to happen. I have written blog posts and popular guides on Facebook yet when I am helping others secure their accounts I find myself just clicking and guessing. It would definitely be in the top 5 products that I have used in the last 5 years yet it is the only popular product that I can't navigate blindly. The menu's are starting to remind me of the toolbar hell of later Microsoft Office versions (a reason why a lot of power users are hesitant to upgrade Office). I think Facebook really need to streamline their design, separate brands from real friends in the news feed and sit down and work out how they can expose deeper functionality of the platform to users without just throwing dozens of links into the interface. When you have personal pictures from friends mixed in with brand messages users are more likely to feel that their privacy is being violated. Edit: to add, this is why I think Facebook isn't as secure in popularity as many analysts would have you believe. Pinterest is an example of a real threat to Facebook - a site that was designed with social and e-commerce ingrained in the product with an easy to use interface. That is a billion-dollar opportunity to Facebook is about to miss out on. Edit 2: My attempt to shop on Facebook: https://img.skitch.com/20120219-nd4peencu2b7kf9534juhb1ytc.jpg https://img.skitch.com/20120219-nd4peencu2b7kf9534juhb1ytc.j... vs my attempt on Pinterest: https://img.skitch.com/20120219-fjyq53h693eb4fnfitamgsmuc5.jpg https://img.skitch.com/20120219-fjyq53h693eb4fnfitamgsmuc5.j...

jballanc 15y ago
Your comment reminded me of when I used to work at Circuit City. One week, they decided to run a promotion: you would go to the Circuit City website, pick out and customize a computer. Then, you would print out a sheet with your order number on it, and go to the store to pay for it. It was painfully obvious to me at the time that this was probably the brainchild of some young gun marketer at HQ. "Here's the deal," I imagine him saying. "People that shop at our on-line store don't go home with as many accessories and don't purchase extended warrantees as often as our in store customers. So, we'll make sure they have to go in the store. Then we can up-sell the crap out of them! It's flawless!" Later on, I worked at the Apple Store. I once had a customer come in who was trying to decide between a MacBook and some low-end model of HP. I went through everything that she would get with the MacBook that she wouldn't get with the HP, and one after the other she informed me that she wasn't all that enticed by the difference. When we finished she told me, "I think I should get the HP." "Yeah," I replied, "that's probably the right choice for you at this point. If you need another computer in the future, though, don't forget about us." The customer was stunned. She wanted to know why I wasn't pushing her toward the Mac. "Simple," I said, "we want you to buy an Apple because it's the best product for you, not because some pushy sales-person badgered you into a sale." One of those companies is gone, one is the most valuable company in the world. Marketing on Facebook, to me, has always felt much more like Circuit City's strategy, and almost never like Apple's.
- matwood 15y ago
  "Yeah," I replied, "that's probably the right choice for you at this point. If you need another computer in the future, though, don't forget about us." The customer was stunned. She wanted to know why I wasn't pushing her toward the Mac. "Simple," I said, "we want you to buy an Apple because it's the best product for you, not because some pushy sales-person badgered you into a sale." I can say that in my experience this is true in Apple stores. The last MBP I bought I had to buy in store to get a certain discount. The sales person at the store actually went through my various usage scenarios to see if there was a cheaper option for my needs. Not often that happens in a sales scenario.
- jasonlotito 15y ago
  On the flip side, my last experience with the Apple Store and it's sales staff left me hating the entire experience. Suffice it to say, you can't walk and buy something knowing what you want. You are forced to wait for some sales person. More than a half hour into the experience, we simply left. My brother-in-law was sitting there, ready to buy. He knew exactly what he wanted. We left, and he never made the purchase. So, when I read things like this, all I see is a sales person who just wasted another customers time. Sure, it's policies, and you are spending that time with a potential customer, and treating them well. The point, however, is I've had better experiences buying Apple products from places like FutureShop, where I can walk in, explain what I want, pay, and walk out in less than 5 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure for the majority of people this is... fine (I guess). I mean, making an appointment to buy something is natural. But yeah, I avoid the Apple store now. Between that, and numerous other things, it's at best a frustrating experience.
  - r00fus 15y ago
    I had exactly the opposite experience last 2 times I was there - in one case a couple of years ago, I got an AppleTV... I straight-up said I was not interested in anything else, just that, I got a sales rep in about 2 minutes, then joked with him for another minute about how awesome Netflix on the aTV was. Paid, then I walked out without a bag or paper receipt. More recently, with Apple's improved "self-checkout", I simply scanned the item on my iPhone app and pay with my AppleID. Again, no receipt, no bag. I challenge you to find a more geek-friendly checkout mechanism. YMMV of course, but I've gotten really good mileage at my local Apple store.
chadhietala 15y ago
Want (the startup I work for) is just like Pinterest and we are allowing a community discover and share things that want or like. The difference is that we are solely products. We just rolled out a feature this week that auto-generates store fronts for merchants based upon things that community likes from that store. http://wanttt.com/ http://wanttt.com/ http://wanttt.com/w/merchant/store/298/?products http://wanttt.com/w/merchant/store/298/?products
- shingen 15y ago
  Change that name as soon as you can. I can imagine all the justifications you might have for triplicating the T, but it's not going to stick. Consumers have demonstrated for a very long stretch of time their dislike of difficult variations of words. Is that two T's or four T's again? www.wantt.com goes nowhere; and www.wantttt.com redirects to wantist.com. You've got a big problem right there. I assume you guys are the ones out of Michigan holding the trademark on "want" - but if you're going to keep that name, you should go hustle digimedia and trade your soul to get want.com
  - rhplus 15y ago
    It's a crowded space: http://want.it/ http://want.it/
    - halostatue 15y ago
      Very crowded: http://shopcastr.com/ http://shopcastr.com/ Shopcastr's focussed on Toronto right now; I work in the same office they do for a different startup.
rcthompson 15y ago
Part of the reason that it has zero familiarity is that it changes so often that memorizing a "path" through Facebook to a place you like to go is totally pointless. In fact, the constant change is the whole point of Facebook. The default page when you log on is your news feed, so even when the site itself isn't changing, the content is. It's like trying to remember how to navigate through this: http://images.funagain.com/photo1/huge/00069.jpg http://images.funagain.com/photo1/huge/00069.jpg

by nikcub 15y ago

jballanc 15y ago

Your comment reminded me of when I used to work at Circuit City. One week, they decided to run a promotion: you would go to the Circuit City website, pick out and customize a computer. Then, you would print out a sheet with your order number on it, and go to the store to pay for it. It was painfully obvious to me at the time that this was probably the brainchild of some young gun marketer at HQ. "Here's the deal," I imagine him saying. "People that shop at our on-line store don't go home with as many accessories and don't purchase extended warrantees as often as our in store customers. So, we'll make sure they have to go in the store. Then we can up-sell the crap out of them! It's flawless!" Later on, I worked at the Apple Store. I once had a customer come in who was trying to decide between a MacBook and some low-end model of HP. I went through everything that she would get with the MacBook that she wouldn't get with the HP, and one after the other she informed me that she wasn't all that enticed by the difference. When we finished she told me, "I think I should get the HP." "Yeah," I replied, "that's probably the right choice for you at this point. If you need another computer in the future, though, don't forget about us." The customer was stunned. She wanted to know why I wasn't pushing her toward the Mac. "Simple," I said, "we want you to buy an Apple because it's the best product for you, not because some pushy sales-person badgered you into a sale." One of those companies is gone, one is the most valuable company in the world. Marketing on Facebook, to me, has always felt much more like Circuit City's strategy, and almost never like Apple's.

matwood 15y ago
"Yeah," I replied, "that's probably the right choice for you at this point. If you need another computer in the future, though, don't forget about us." The customer was stunned. She wanted to know why I wasn't pushing her toward the Mac. "Simple," I said, "we want you to buy an Apple because it's the best product for you, not because some pushy sales-person badgered you into a sale." I can say that in my experience this is true in Apple stores. The last MBP I bought I had to buy in store to get a certain discount. The sales person at the store actually went through my various usage scenarios to see if there was a cheaper option for my needs. Not often that happens in a sales scenario.
jasonlotito 15y ago
On the flip side, my last experience with the Apple Store and it's sales staff left me hating the entire experience. Suffice it to say, you can't walk and buy something knowing what you want. You are forced to wait for some sales person. More than a half hour into the experience, we simply left. My brother-in-law was sitting there, ready to buy. He knew exactly what he wanted. We left, and he never made the purchase. So, when I read things like this, all I see is a sales person who just wasted another customers time. Sure, it's policies, and you are spending that time with a potential customer, and treating them well. The point, however, is I've had better experiences buying Apple products from places like FutureShop, where I can walk in, explain what I want, pay, and walk out in less than 5 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure for the majority of people this is... fine (I guess). I mean, making an appointment to buy something is natural. But yeah, I avoid the Apple store now. Between that, and numerous other things, it's at best a frustrating experience.
- r00fus 15y ago
  I had exactly the opposite experience last 2 times I was there - in one case a couple of years ago, I got an AppleTV... I straight-up said I was not interested in anything else, just that, I got a sales rep in about 2 minutes, then joked with him for another minute about how awesome Netflix on the aTV was. Paid, then I walked out without a bag or paper receipt. More recently, with Apple's improved "self-checkout", I simply scanned the item on my iPhone app and pay with my AppleID. Again, no receipt, no bag. I challenge you to find a more geek-friendly checkout mechanism. YMMV of course, but I've gotten really good mileage at my local Apple store.

chadhietala 15y ago

Want (the startup I work for) is just like Pinterest and we are allowing a community discover and share things that want or like. The difference is that we are solely products. We just rolled out a feature this week that auto-generates store fronts for merchants based upon things that community likes from that store. http://wanttt.com/ http://wanttt.com/ http://wanttt.com/w/merchant/store/298/?products http://wanttt.com/w/merchant/store/298/?products

shingen 15y ago
Change that name as soon as you can. I can imagine all the justifications you might have for triplicating the T, but it's not going to stick. Consumers have demonstrated for a very long stretch of time their dislike of difficult variations of words. Is that two T's or four T's again? www.wantt.com goes nowhere; and www.wantttt.com redirects to wantist.com. You've got a big problem right there. I assume you guys are the ones out of Michigan holding the trademark on "want" - but if you're going to keep that name, you should go hustle digimedia and trade your soul to get want.com
- rhplus 15y ago
  It's a crowded space: http://want.it/ http://want.it/
  - halostatue 15y ago
    Very crowded: http://shopcastr.com/ http://shopcastr.com/ Shopcastr's focussed on Toronto right now; I work in the same office they do for a different startup.

rcthompson 15y ago

Part of the reason that it has zero familiarity is that it changes so often that memorizing a "path" through Facebook to a place you like to go is totally pointless. In fact, the constant change is the whole point of Facebook. The default page when you log on is your news feed, so even when the site itself isn't changing, the content is. It's like trying to remember how to navigate through this: http://images.funagain.com/photo1/huge/00069.jpg http://images.funagain.com/photo1/huge/00069.jpg