One evening, the gf and I were talking about how much we love Pizza Hut’s breadsticks, yet neither of us have had them for years. We decide to look up their menu on the website using our iPhones. Oh, nice. A site optimized for the iPhone. Good job, Pizza Hut.
Now, how do I find the menu? I’m given options for placing an order, finding a store, or signing up.
(What am I “signing up” for, by the way? A raffle for a free large pie with three toppings? A weekend getaway for four to Waikiki? Annoying, but I digress.)
Nowhere on the iPhone-optimized site is there a link to view the full site so I can see their menu. After many furious moments trying to figure out a way to bypass the optimized site, we give in and “sign up”.
There were way too many fields required simply to register as a mobile user. Who has the patience to fill out this long form at all, much less, on a tiny device where two thumbs have to do the typing?
Where’s the simplicity?
We sucked it up and registered. You may be asking, why? Her motivation was that she wanted pizza. My motivation was to figure out how much worse this user experience could get.
In the end, it turned out we were still unable to view the menu, because we had to designate the closest location that would be our main pizza deliverers. In frustration, we called the local store and asked about their specials. It shouldn’t be that difficult to find a menu on your “optimized” iPhone site, Pizza Hut. Nor should you decide to not link to your full site.
What’s the lesson?
As a designer, you may need to step back from your designs once in a while. That may mean taking the rest of the day off and returning to that design tomorrow or even in a couple hours. It might mean asking another designer’s opinion on the flow of information. Are things blatantly obvious? They should be. Design for your most idiotic customer. Cruel, but it makes sense, right? Because if they can figure out how to use your site, the majority of your potential clients will be able to figure it out as well.
Everything should be where a client or user would expect it to be. Don’t make your design so “innovative” that a common person would have no idea where to begin. Instead of impressing them with your skillz, you’ll be turning them off so much they are most likely to click out and visit a different site… your competitor’s.
How else could this “iPhone-optimized” pizza delivery app be improved? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It would be good to think about how people find you and what they need. Pizza Hut probably thought that giving 3 options would be pretty simple. And it is, it’s just not what you needed, which makes a lot of sense.
Hi Asatar,
Yeah, I think they had the right idea as far as attempting to make it simple, but I’m not sure they went the right direction, and once you get past the first set of options, it’s still pretty complicated. In any case, a link to a menu would’ve been nice.
I hear they re-did their mobile experience recently, though I haven’t checked it out. I’d be interested to see if anything has changed.
Thanks for your comment.