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I'm really not quite sure what to make of this advice: http://thehipperelement.com/post/86991518680/daily-ux-crash-course-user-psychology-27-of-31 http://thehip

by JonoBB 12y ago

I'm really not quite sure what to make of this advice: http://thehipperelement.com/post/86991518680/daily-ux-crash-course-user-psychology-27-of-31 http://thehipperelement.com/post/86991518680/daily-ux-crash-... > If your marketing department wants to know anything about why the user is cancelling, put it in the form. Two pages of boring questions is a great way to reduce conversion. > Break the form into many pages so it takes longer. Include links to FAQ pages. And avoid using defaults; it maximizes the number of conscious choices for the user. > Ask them to explain their reasons for cancelling, and require at least 100 letters of text. Explaining is hard when your reasons are emotional. Really? Obviously I don't want to make it too easy for users to cancel, but to make it too hard just seems petty to me. Asking them to fill out the reasons for cancellation is a great idea (and worked really well for us), but forcing them to write at least 100 letters is just horrible. Also, there are some users that you really do want to cancel. You know, the ones that suck up twice as much support as anyone else and complain incessantly. Surely its more important to be focusing on why users are cancelling, not luring them through a maze of "two pages of boring questions"? Does anyone reputable actually do this? There is a sweet spot somewhere in between, but this seems to be irritating and would just make me want to write complete junk responses.

JoelMarsh 12y ago
Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.
- tommi 12y ago
  > Also, it should NEVER be difficult to cancel. Just time consuming. And to be super clear "time consuming" to me is about 5 minutes. As a user, I hate you for that.
  - dovel 12y ago
    I agree with this sentiment. Here's some UX for you - the user owes you nothing. Sure have an optional form or field for cancellations but 5 minutes? How is this beneficial for anyone? So, it's a free product - they will just never cancel their account and you will have inactive users sitting there. Who is this good for? So it's a paid product - they will cancel their account and tell everyone about the ridiculously long winded process they had to go through to cancel it.
    - wtracy 12y ago
      ... or they'll just dispute the recurring credit card charges for your paid product, and you'll get your merchant account frozen after a few "cancellations". We can argue over whether or not the original suggestion constitutes fraud, but the credit card companies will definitely treat it as fraud.
  - nakovet 12y ago
    Indeed. I cancelled Netflix 3 times, and look who's back paying for their content!? Me! Not the main reason, but because it's easy to cancel it, I don't worry about signing back (counter-example: gym subscription).
    - silverbax88 12y ago
      I stated this above, but because I have a policy of pain-free cancellations, I get about 50% of my cancelled users back WITHOUT HAVING TO DO ANYTHING.
- dovel 12y ago
  The post you had here before you edited was completely nonsensical. A UX post, on how a site should prevent users from cancelling to benefit the website, at the expense of the user. That is the opposite of a good UX. Here is some 'User pseudo-psychology' for you... Having your blog titles take up more than half the vertical space of my browser (when it is full screen) stops me reading your writing.
- Arnor 12y ago
  I'm glad I checked the comments to see if this was worth my time... question answered.
  - fat0wl 12y ago
    ha yea i read the first few sections & they were so hollow i had to come check the comments too -- good UX is not putting a bunch of filler in your opening 10 paragraphs. Only thing thats been said so far is that "3-click rule" that my 900 year-old boss spews to management after raving to me about how much he loves the Mac philosophy. XD In all seriousness, would love to see a guide from the more scientifcally-researched vein of this type of work.
thejosh 12y ago
"Designers, if you call yourself a “UX Designer”, you’d be the dev who called themselves a “Variable Declarer”."[0] Anyone who thinks they are a UX Designer who wants to make the cancellation process as hard as possible obviously has a very shitty product if the only way to retain your users is to try and make them fill out forms with minimum values. Really, 100 characters? "aksfwejfjwefjwewefj" will be all you get, you evil shit. [0] https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/448918439793815552 https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/448918439793815552
- JoelMarsh 12y ago
  On second thought, I might agree with you. I have added a note to that article to clarify.
  - thejosh 12y ago
    Sorry, the tone may have come across overly crass, but this is a topic that really irks me when people can't unsubscribe without a whole lot of BS.
- digitalengineer 12y ago
  I think there is a difference between a designer and a UX designer. I meet both kind regularly. The designer is still print-focused and can't wrap his/her head around the fact it's no longer possible to force how something should look. They think 'the look' is what design is about. Often they work from their ivory tower and their idea of communicating is 'sending the PSD'. This kind of designer (and agency) is going the way of the dodo but they still exist.
  - protonfish 12y ago
    I call those people "graphic designers" to their faces to be clear they are not UX designers, but make pretty pictures. Behind their backs I call them "web decorators."
  - thejosh 12y ago
    Yep, I feel very lucky to work with a designer who actually cares about UX, has a very good knowledge of how HTML/CSS actually works and everything that goes a long with that. Made hiring a frontend person much much easier.
silverbax88 12y ago
Cancelling a service should ALWAYS be easy and painless. I make sure all apps/services I have are just as easy to cancel as they were to sign up. I actually find that about 50% of people who cancel end up coming back. I also have NEVER had a user contact me about how to cancel their account. They just do it. No problem, no interaction, no bullshit 'let me talk to you first' run around. If you are trying to keep people from cancelling by making it difficult to do so, YOU ARE BAD AT BUSINESS.

by JonoBB 12y ago

JoelMarsh 12y ago

Author here. I agree. After a few minutes of after-thought I have updated the article to reflect this feedback. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.

tommi 12y ago
> Also, it should NEVER be difficult to cancel. Just time consuming. And to be super clear "time consuming" to me is about 5 minutes. As a user, I hate you for that.
- dovel 12y ago
  I agree with this sentiment. Here's some UX for you - the user owes you nothing. Sure have an optional form or field for cancellations but 5 minutes? How is this beneficial for anyone? So, it's a free product - they will just never cancel their account and you will have inactive users sitting there. Who is this good for? So it's a paid product - they will cancel their account and tell everyone about the ridiculously long winded process they had to go through to cancel it.
  - wtracy 12y ago
    ... or they'll just dispute the recurring credit card charges for your paid product, and you'll get your merchant account frozen after a few "cancellations". We can argue over whether or not the original suggestion constitutes fraud, but the credit card companies will definitely treat it as fraud.
- nakovet 12y ago
  Indeed. I cancelled Netflix 3 times, and look who's back paying for their content!? Me! Not the main reason, but because it's easy to cancel it, I don't worry about signing back (counter-example: gym subscription).
  - silverbax88 12y ago
    I stated this above, but because I have a policy of pain-free cancellations, I get about 50% of my cancelled users back WITHOUT HAVING TO DO ANYTHING.
dovel 12y ago
The post you had here before you edited was completely nonsensical. A UX post, on how a site should prevent users from cancelling to benefit the website, at the expense of the user. That is the opposite of a good UX. Here is some 'User pseudo-psychology' for you... Having your blog titles take up more than half the vertical space of my browser (when it is full screen) stops me reading your writing.
Arnor 12y ago
I'm glad I checked the comments to see if this was worth my time... question answered.
- fat0wl 12y ago
  ha yea i read the first few sections & they were so hollow i had to come check the comments too -- good UX is not putting a bunch of filler in your opening 10 paragraphs. Only thing thats been said so far is that "3-click rule" that my 900 year-old boss spews to management after raving to me about how much he loves the Mac philosophy. XD In all seriousness, would love to see a guide from the more scientifcally-researched vein of this type of work.

thejosh 12y ago

"Designers, if you call yourself a “UX Designer”, you’d be the dev who called themselves a “Variable Declarer”."[0] Anyone who thinks they are a UX Designer who wants to make the cancellation process as hard as possible obviously has a very shitty product if the only way to retain your users is to try and make them fill out forms with minimum values. Really, 100 characters? "aksfwejfjwefjwewefj" will be all you get, you evil shit. [0] https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/448918439793815552 https://twitter.com/iamdevloper/status/448918439793815552

JoelMarsh 12y ago
On second thought, I might agree with you. I have added a note to that article to clarify.
- thejosh 12y ago
  Sorry, the tone may have come across overly crass, but this is a topic that really irks me when people can't unsubscribe without a whole lot of BS.
digitalengineer 12y ago
I think there is a difference between a designer and a UX designer. I meet both kind regularly. The designer is still print-focused and can't wrap his/her head around the fact it's no longer possible to force how something should look. They think 'the look' is what design is about. Often they work from their ivory tower and their idea of communicating is 'sending the PSD'. This kind of designer (and agency) is going the way of the dodo but they still exist.
- protonfish 12y ago
  I call those people "graphic designers" to their faces to be clear they are not UX designers, but make pretty pictures. Behind their backs I call them "web decorators."
- thejosh 12y ago
  Yep, I feel very lucky to work with a designer who actually cares about UX, has a very good knowledge of how HTML/CSS actually works and everything that goes a long with that. Made hiring a frontend person much much easier.

silverbax88 12y ago

Cancelling a service should ALWAYS be easy and painless. I make sure all apps/services I have are just as easy to cancel as they were to sign up. I actually find that about 50% of people who cancel end up coming back. I also have NEVER had a user contact me about how to cancel their account. They just do it. No problem, no interaction, no bullshit 'let me talk to you first' run around. If you are trying to keep people from cancelling by making it difficult to do so, YOU ARE BAD AT BUSINESS.