oneux | designing experiences

my country needs me

Transactional Greek websites...hm definitely a misnomer.
Here is my tale: I am travelling to Athens in November and my wife found out about a dance performance by Dimitris Papaioanou, the guy behind the Athens Olympics ceremonies. So I though I'll book tickets. Off I go to the National Theatre's website and after 20 minutes literally fighting with the website and booking process I think I booked 2 tickets. I say 'think' because I have yet to receive an email confirmation. Some highlights from my online mini ordeal:

• The service offered by  www.ticketservices.gr randomly assigns seats. I could not select my own seat, though i could see plans of the auditorium
• The selection is valid for 15 minutes regardless of whether you need to register your details or not
• Once details have been entered you have no option to make changes, for example give another telephone number or correct a mistake
• It is not clear whether tickets are posted to you or whether you can collect them at the box office. Actually I had to call them and ask!
• There is no way of logging out which means you need to clear the browser's history to avoid others accessing your details
• There is no indication as to whether the site is secure (other than the https:)
• After you or rather I have naively shared my credit card details, you get a minimal confirmation of no real use
• There is no email confirmation

I  could go on and on but it simply makes me mad. I now know why Greece lacks transactional websites. It is becasue the concept of customer experience and user centred design is unknown to the agencies building web services. No wonder Greeks are suspicious of e-retail, I do not blame them.

Off to call my credit card company to make sure my account has not been emptied by some wise guys in downtown Athens

life without walls

This is the tag-line that follows the now ubiquitous 'I am PC' series of ads by Microsoft. A tag-line that acquired a whole new meaning after reading an IHT article on Internet security.

With research suggesting that the percentage of on-line infected computers to increase to 15% by the end of this year and an increase of 43% in malware removed from Windows computers in the last six months, there are few signs of hope in the battle against the online fraud industry estimated to be worth around $100 billion a year.

In the cat and mouse race that is being run out there, the mouse is definitely ahead. As a computer scientist in the IHT article suggests: " In many respects we are probably worse than we were 20 years ago. Because all of the money has been devoted to patching the current problem rather than investing in the redesign of our infrastructure"; a bit like Vista then...