At 04:08 PM 1/28/02 -0500, you wrote: >First of all, kudos!! Well spoken :) >Now here's my beef: > > > ... which would she prefer? She would prefer less typing. > >But are 16 characters going to make a big difference? Sure she has to get >her card, but isn't she used to that when making any other purchase?
Yes. However, if she could walk into a store and say "put it on my tab" she would prefer that. If she had two stores the same distance from her house with the same products at the same prices, she would pick the one with the shorter checkout lines. You probably would too. In this case, it isn't really a shorter checkout line but a shorter checkout process. People like that. It's convenient. It's obvious to us that this has some security problems, but it isn't obvious to the people checking out. They see that one store is more convenient so they go there without thinking about the ramifications of that convenience. > > ...he wouldn't even care. His assumption is that his information is > > well-protected and even if it gets out, he has fraud protection. > >That's too bad. Still, I can't help wondering if he didn't make sure to >"rip up the carbons" back in the day. :) He did. But to him, the internet is like a black box. He types things in the little box and magical things happen. This is how it is for a lot of people. Think about how many people actually use AOL because they can talk to their friends and get their email *and* surf the web, as though these things are supposed to be mutually exclusive. Or even better, think about how many people use Outlook and Outlook Express. It's really convenient to use whatever email program comes installed with your operating system or your word processor, but it is notoriously insecure. Why don't people use a different program? Partly because they trust Microsoft to avoid the problems that Microsoft doesn't avoid. People don't understand it so they assume that the experts have eliminated the problems. Since many sites do offer this credit card functionality, people assume that it isn't a problem. It's obvious to us that it is a problem but it isn't obvious to them. > > Unless you have an extremely specialized site, you are not its target > > audience. > >If I'm spending money, I am the target audience. Actually, that's not true. You're not even the target audience of this message. This is a huge issue in any form of communication. You have to identify your target audience and make yourself understood by that audience. Websites are communicative and you need to identify your target audience so you can present things in a way that makes people want to do business with you instead of your competitor. If your target audience prefers convenience to security, adding convenience makes you more desirable to your target audience, even though we as developers prefer security. Let's say that I wanted to buy my best friend a present so I went to the FreeBSD mall to look for a stuffed Chuck. (I did this today and it makes a darn good target audience example.) I don't use FreeBSD. I have no intention of changing to FreeBSD anytime soon. I don't need FreeBSD books or software or technical support. I'm just looking for a toy that I know they sell. If I bought that toy, that would not make me a part of their target audience. Their target audience is FreeBSD users. Purchasing a toy for a friend does not make me a FreeBSD user. It's pointless for them to pander to *me*. I'm going to buy one thing from them ever. They need to pander to the people who will keep coming back and keep buying things. I'm not repeat business and I'm not in their target audience. The main point is, we don't know who his target audience is and we don't know the needs of his site. Instead of trying to give useful information to someone who has already said that he knows there's a problem, people are arguing with the question. This is a valid question and simply writing it off as an invalid question isn't helpful to anyone. Now available in a San Francisco Bay Area near you! http://www.blivit.org/mr_urc/index.cfm http://www.blivit.org/mr_urc/resume.cfm ______________________________________________________________________ Get Your Own Dedicated Windows 2000 Server PIII 800 / 256 MB RAM / 40 GB HD / 20 GB MO/XFER Instant Activation · $99/Month · Free Setup http://www.pennyhost.com/redirect.cfm?adcode=coldfusionb FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
