licentious radio

Thursday, February 7, 2002
[12:26:18 PM]

Ecommerce usability. I should mention that after torturous experiences with websites (warehouse.com, compaq.com, compusa.com, etc.) I ordered a compact flash ethernet card from CDW [cdw.com].

The top of the CDW page has links for networking and accessories. I tried under accessories first -- some terrible website I had visited had all the compact flash stuff under accessories. At CDW, it was obvious right away that accessories was wrong. It was easy to switch to networking. That gives you a list of subcategories. The first is Adapters... obviously what I need. The adapters page has several groups, I obviously wanted NIC Network Interface Adapters. The first choice is 10/100 Ethernet PC Card Mobile. Since they don't list CF cards, I clicked on PC Card. That gave me a list of 99 products, on two pages (not TEN).

I'm not saying cdw is good. I'm just saying it isn't wretched, like all the other websites I tried.

This list of 99 adapters only had one Compact Flash adapter on the first page that seemed likely to work for me. The link to the second page was javascript only.

CDW uses ASP, presumably with Microsoft servers. Prior probability of their website being secure: "strich gegen null" (approaches zero like a high school calculus problem).

I usually keep javascript off when I visit untrustworthy sites. To see the second page, I added to the end of the url:

&page=2

<rant>Why would you make a website where people can't see what products you have unless they have Javascript, and it's turned on? I once wasted *days* arguing with marketroids who wanted potential customers to register before being allowed to see our products and prices. Clue: make your website so anybody can use it.</rant>

There wasn't anything interesting on the second page.

So now I was about ready to buy. I clicked on a little shopping cart, that only told me my shopping cart was empty. I scrolled back to the top of the page to see that the checkbox is so I can compare several products, not buy them. I clicked on the name of the card to see the detail page for it, and there was an Add to Shopping Cart button. I clicked on that, but -- silly me, with cookies off -- my shopping cart was still empty. That's why the shopping cart icon didn't work, too.

Now, it's actually possible to let somebody buy one product without cookies on (and still have most of your website be static pages). The whole purchase process can have the identity carried along as hidden variables.

But requiring cookies for purchasing is not the worst of all website problems, so I'm not complaining.

On the other hand, there is that Microsoft web server. Do I want to run my credit card through it, or would I prefer the fantasy that if I give it over the phone, internet hackers will have a harder time getting at it?

CDW has their phone number on their website. I dialed the phone.

I was able to speed the transaction because I had the part number. My next phone purchase will go quickly, because now they have my contact information. When I buy something, I want to hear from a human that the item is in stock, and I want the person to tell me when I'll get it. Alas, I wasted so much time yesterday at wretched websites, that it was 5:00 Chicago-time before I called CDW. He wouldn't guarantee that I would receive the card today.

Anyway, if the card shows up, and it works, I'll be happy. As long as it shows up, I'll probably start at CDW the next time I want to buy something.