There is a part of me that hates programmers. It’s the same part of me that hates engineers, and it hates them for the same reason: they don’t think about the things they build.
Borders as a brick and mortar store is slightly more expensive than Barnes and Noble but in my circles of travel is infinitely more accessible. Borders.com, on the other hand, is way more expensive than Amazon.com and, in fact, you could say that Amazon.com is doing to other online book sellers what Barnes and Noble brick and mortar stores did to other meat world independent bookstores. But the frequent buyer program at Borders is free and the frequency with which they send me coupons gives me a chance to indulge myself in even the chain standardized, marketing research inflected version of the sublime pleasure that is poking around in a bookstore.
But life is busy and I’m only downtown two days a week through the middle of March, so online ordering is a better option for the things I know I need to buy and a 30% off coupon with free shipping made Borders.com a good deal until I realized their site was built by programmers who don’t think.
See, error messages are where most programmers fall down. Frequently, the error messages are accurate but opaque: they make sense from a programming perspective but have no inherent meaning for the user reading them. And even if the error messages make sense, most programmers fail the second test for any login usability: they don’t provide alternate look-up.
I haven’t carried my Borders Rewards card in my wallet for years because I know I can walk into any store and give them my phone number which the clerk can use to find my account and let me use the coupon I brought with me or apply any other discounts that I might be eligible for. So if I can do that in the physical store, why can’t I do that in Borders’ online store when the site fails to find an account with my e-mail address associated with it? Why is it that my only choice is to retrieve my forgotten username by e-mail address?
Why is it, then, when your site tells me that my e-mail address doesn’t exist, I create a new account, and I then try to register my frequent buyer card with that new account you tell me I can’t because it doesn’t match the account on file?
[insert banging head on desk and really aggravating phone call to closed customer support line here]
Yes, I realize this is a first world problem, and that none of it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but, again, I’m lucky enough to have the luxury of getting worked up by things like bad usability and incorrect grammar.
I’m also unlikely to do any shopping at Borders.com this holiday season. I know Amazon.com is the Buns and Noodle of online retailers. But I also know that when I show up at their virtual store they don’t lock the doors in my face.
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