6 ms·
This button isn't about saving time, it's about preventing the instances of not having something when you need it. The moment when you realize you need more of
by scott_s 12y ago
This button isn't about saving time, it's about preventing the instances of not having something when you need it. The moment when you realize you need more of something is typically when you're using it. If you can literally just hit a button to order more, that's a significant change from having to do something else to order more.
- mikeash 12y agoApparently carrying one's phone in one's pocket is less common than I thought.
- scott_s 12y agoPressing a button is milliseconds, and can be done as a complete afterthought, while still doing your current task. Taking out your phone, navigating to a website and placing an order means you have to stop what you are doing, and do something else. When the time to complete tasks changes by an order of magnitude - even going from seconds down to milliseconds - our behavior tends to change. We easily accept this notion with developer related tasks such as compiling and testing. I don't see a difference here.
- mikeash 12y agoImagine if developers only built and tested once or twice a month. Now I come out with a new product where the entire pitch is, that build-and-compile you do once or twice a month now takes one second instead of ten! Oh, and it only works for one project. If you work on multiple projects, buy multiple products. Would this be worthwhile? I don't see it. Developer tasks like compiling and testing benefit from small efficiency gains because we do them constantly. Or the efficiency gains allow us to move from a model where we do them rarely to a model where we do them constantly. Neither one applies here. You won't buy detergent any more frequently with this button, and it's not something you do often.
- jakobegger 12y agoIt's not just about time saved. I tend to forget things I don't do often, so I automate them, even though setting up the automation might take more time than it will save me. As soon as the automation is set up, I no longer need to worry about it, and next time I can just push the button.
- scott_s 12y agoI won't buy detergent more frequently, but because it's easier, I'm more likely to be in a situation where I actually have it where I need it. If I could buy either at the moment I realize I'm about to run out, I would. Instead, I have to remember when I'm out at the grocery store, and I often forget, and then end up having to make a special trip the next day just to pick up that one thing.
- Jun8 12y agoI, for one, don't have my phone handy when I'm doing laundry in my pajamas, or while shaving in my bathrobe.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoPhones are annoying, and the UI of most apps is user-hostile. Here are the equivalent steps you have to do to accomplish the same thing as this button does: - Wipe your hands from moisture/whatever you had on them. - Find your phone in your pocket. - Orient it. - Unlock it. - Exit whatever app you left running in the foreground. - Open the app drawer. - Find the ordering app. - Click through several layers of UI to get to the right product. And only now you're in the same position as after just pressing a button. This is a significant cognitive load. When I realize I need to order something, I want to order it, not navigate through countless steps. Having to do more than two actions is too much.
- jorgearturo 12y agoExactly, a cellphone app can get the job done but it is a great cognitive deviation from whatever task you had at hand at the moment you realize you ran out of something(1). So amazon's dash button is not an innovation on getting something done, but get it done faster and more conveniently, and that alone makes sense for an enterprise whose profit depends greatly from understanding consumer behavior. So I agree with TeMPOraL, it is not ridiculous at all. And there's a bigger picture outside of comparing the convenience between using this little button as opposed to mobile apps, but that's off topic for this branch of the conversation, if you're interested IMHO & my brief reasoning, read this other brach[2] (also because DRY). (1): Optimally you realize you are about to run out of something before it happens. [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9299505 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9299505
- ksenzee 12y agoYou have probably never worn women's jeans. They have ridiculously small pockets, barely big enough to squeeze my S5 into.
- javadocmd 12y ago> This button isn't about saving time ... it's about creating a barrier to exit so that your customers won't comparison shop for different brands of detergent.
- fxthea 12y agoThe increased switching cost isn't by force, though. Customers are less likely to switch because of convenience -- you're paying for the conveniene which, I think, means that Amazon is providing a service that consumers want.
- javadocmd 12y agoNaturally. I'm just saying a few months down the road, you forget to care exactly how much that convenience is costing you.
- justicezyx 12y agoSince day one, amazon has been building this customer trust. Like it or just live with it...
- vidarh 12y agoI never care. I don't comparison shop. I always tick the "Prime only" button, even if it costs me extra. It's one of the nice luxuries of earning enough money that prices for consumables generally does not matter. I don't know what the things I used in the dinner I just prepared costs. I only know roughly how much my weekly grocery bill comes to (it's all delivered - the order is auto-populated by Ocado's algorithms, so if I don't do anything I get a reasonable default set of products based on what I usually buy). And I like it that way.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoYou're living post-scarcity. Let's hope everyone will be able to, at some point.
- gus_massa 12y agoMy problem is with some items that I buy only twice a month, like bath soap or mayonnaise. I notice that it's about get empty (or it's already empty :() and I put them in my mental to-buy list. If I'm lucky I'll remember them the next time that I go to the supermarket. And probably also the following time and a few more times until I realize that I got a lot of it and I remove the item from the list. So I don't have to buy them for a few weeks... I really like that it ignores the repeated pushes. > Unless you elect otherwise, Dash Button responds only to your first press until your order is delivered.
- knightofmars 12y agoI switched to buying things of this nature in bulk. You're more prone to ordering more of something if you realize you're down to the last 3 out of 10. That gives you 3 more tries to make sure you order it.
- robotresearcher 12y agoI don't have space in my apartment for three of everything.
- knightofmars 12y agoYour point is my solution doesn't work for you because it would require you to purchase three of everything you would ever purchase? What an odd way to live your life.
- bpicolo 12y agoI buy those things like...once every 3 months
- yellowapple 12y agoI'm pretty sure my jar of mayo has lasted me for, like, a year.
- btilly 12y ago
- wmeredith 12y agoActually, it's about a vendor making sure you buy their brand (again) when you need to fill up instead of going to the store and looking at the 50 choices in the detergent aisle one more time.
- boredguy8 12y agoReally? Lots of people regularly switching their detergent?
- wmeredith 12y agoYes, really. Do this: pretend you own Tide. Do you want people pressing a button that sends you money for more tide, or do you want them going here: https://www.google.com/search?q=laundry+aisle&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=782&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=UBcbVbywH5fIsATi0YKYDg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ https://www.google.com/search?q=laundry+aisle&espv=2&biw=144...
- hackerews 12y agoOh yea. Commodities. Competing to win marginally against a well-known set of consumer value drivers.
- pjc50 12y agoNever mind the time saving, what's the real time cost? How long does the battery last? How do you know when it fails? How exploitable is it? How do I do security updates?
- flinty 12y agoThis. The primary purpose is to avoid the pain of not having what you need, and the arguments and bad mood that follows, simply because you didn't add something to a list or thought you would remember to buy but didn't