Wanless UX

user-centered web research, strategy and design

You are viewing the journal archives for "rants & reflections"

Expedia provides customer experience from hell

Posted on Feb 20th, 2011 :: Filed in rants & reflections

You couldn’t write this story if you tried. My experience with Expedia customer service was so wretchedly bad over the past year that I really do wonder how they’ve stayed in business. In behaviour that ranged from merely apathetic to rude and dishonest, Expedia demonstrates how to ensure a company doesn’t get (this customer’s) repeat business.

Samsung Canada support for Galaxy S Vibrant stinks

Posted on Dec 22nd, 2010 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

Before I get into the meat of this issue, I’ll say right upfront that I love my Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant.  Since buying it shortly after it came out in the summer I’ve had almost no trouble with it.  I say almost because I had to tweak the factory GPS settings and, for a while, [...]

Bad behaviour? Blame people, not social web tools

Posted on Sep 19th, 2010 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

I can’t imagine too many things more degenerate than the behaviour of a group of people at a rave in Pitt Meadows a week ago.  A 16 year old girl was drugged and gang-raped while a sicko took photographs.  One of the rapists and the photographer have since been arrested after, in particular, the photos [...]

Poor experience takes away from nonprofits

Posted on Mar 30th, 2009 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

A couple experiences I’ve had in the past week left me wondering whether a nonprofit would suffer from bad customer/user experience in the same way a business would. I figure that good causes can be cut a bit of slack because they usually operate on very small budgets and, if some process isn’t great, I [...]

Understanding your audience and the power of social media

Posted on Nov 17th, 2008 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

Since I’m not the target audience, I’m not going to wade into whether I find the ad below offensive or not. The interesting thing here in my mind is twofold: the makers of Motrin clearly didn’t do enough of the right kind of testing for proof of concept they didn’t understand how to do a [...]

Digital rights and access under assault

Posted on Jul 13th, 2008 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of access you want, or what you want access to. You’re under assault, plain and simple. With the news last week that Bell and Telus customers will pay at both ends for text messages and the obscene Rogers iPhone rate packages, we just have two more issues to [...]

Canned responses to C-61 letters

Posted on Jun 25th, 2008 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

While I haven’t yet printed, signed and sent any of the copyright petitions, I did manage a bit of an email writing spree regarding this hideous proposed legislation. Would it surprise you to know that I haven’t had a real response from anyone yet? To be fair, our politicians might just be getting a tiny [...]

Does tech make us stupid, or just rude?

Posted on Jun 18th, 2008 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

OK, so maybe not stupid, but apparently lazy. At least according to The Atlantic‘s Nicholas Carr it does. Based on the length of the piece, his writing chops are certainly still intact. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else [...]

The real reason for C-61

Posted on Jun 16th, 2008 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

merican pressure is nothing if not intense. It starts with big business and media bending the ear of the Bush administration, who in turn, essentially forced Canada’s hand. Did we just become the 51st state? Sovereignty, anyone?

Help me understand C-61

Posted on Jun 13th, 2008 :: Filed in rants & reflections, web & technology

I really don’t get this legislation, purely from a political standpoint. I completely understand that Harper will tend to swing between supporting a business agenda or toeing the American line, depending on who he’s pandering to at any given time …