[IxDA Discuss] Checkout and focus

[Tom Dell'Aringa]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a project where the client has decided to add a "prepay"
option online to their website. The customer will get a mailer telling them
they are eligible, at which point they can log in to their account on the
website, and choose prepay. From there it's a pretty typical checkout
process - view the service, choose a billing type, enter billing and address
info and confirm - get a receipt.

Unfortunately there are two parties in on the design of this piece. I'm in
corporate IT, but the client also has their own agency. (It's complicated,
trust me). In this case we will take the final designs and implement them.

The design we got from them for prepay is supposed to fit into the current
site design. Once the user logs in and sees their account page, it is there
that they can see the prepay option, and choose it if they desire to take
advantage of the offer. At this point you have the typical stuff on a
website:

- Header
- Global nav
- Branch locator
- Sub nav on the left
- Additional nav items for moving around in the my account section (which is
a separate piece from the website proper)

Once they have chosen prepay, they get into the checkout screens - 5 total
steps to be exact, the first of which is merely seeing the numbers for the
offer, the last being the receipt.

Here's where the issue is. At this point the pages are not focused on
helping the user finish the task of prepay. That information is there, but
it is still couched in all the stuff listed above, including yet another nav
section allowing them to go back to their account, ask a question, see
previous questions they have asked and the ususal global and subnav menus.
Take a look at this wireframe to get an idea of what I mean:

http://www.pixelmech.com/rev/wire.gif

I've been trying to make the point that all we are doing is distracting the
user from focusing on what it is they want to accomplish. At this point,
they have chosen to go ahead and prepay their account, and they have taken
action to go down that process and initiated it by clicking a link or a
button. Yet they are surrounded by all kinds of things that have nothing
whatsoever to do with prepay checkout.

The only section that has the prepay process is the blue box in the example.
If I am prepaying, do I want to suddenly stop and ask a question, or view my
past questions, or jump back into my account (where I just came from), or
use the page subnav to go somewhere else? No - and furthermore, the client
certainly doesn't want them to abandon the cart either.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the Amazon checkout process, and once you
are in that funnel, nearly everything disappears but the processes that
allow you to complete your task of checkout. To me that makes total sense -
help me finish what *I* have decided I want to do. It's completely customer
focused.

The agency apparently doesn't quite see it in this light. Their argument is
that bill payment (which is what this prepay really is) and consumer
purchasing are different. And certainly they are in a sense. But to me it
still boils down to I've chosen what I want to do - now help me complete the
task and don't needlessly distract me from doing that, as it does not
benefit me or the client.

Note, there is always a link to "my account" through this whole process
(even if we removed all the other junk) in the global nav (which I have not
advocated removing). So if I decide I want to look at my account more first,
or do something there I can.

So - (sorry for the long-windedness) what I am asking is what is your view?
Am I on the right track? If so, how should I back up my assertions? (Any
links to articles or studies would be great).  The agency seems to be taking
this stand:

"We evaluated numerous other payment apps to focus on bill payment and
placing a simple universal navigation around the process was definitely a
best practice for those that have entered the payment process."

I'm not sure I agree - why do you want to navigate around *during*  a
checkout process. As I said, there is already a link back to their account
page should they want to return mid process. Any comments are certainly
appreciated! (Please CC me on replies)

Thanks

Tom



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