UX Failures on Lego.com and at Petro Canada

July 8th, 2009

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about usability. It’s made me think a lot about the user experience when I’m designing and developing. It’s also made me think a lot about the user experience when I’m NOT doing anything computer related.

Lego.com Catalog Request

I recently went to the Lego website to try and get a catalog sent to my house. I remember reading through these catalogs as a kid and coming up with all sorts of creative things I would be able to do when/if I received a certain set.

Heck, half the fun for me was just looking at what the Lego designers had come up with. So yesterday I wanted to order a catalog for Andy, my 2.5 year old son, as he’s been really enjoying our Lego collection. When I got to the last screen in the slideshow and tried to go back to re-enter my correct age, it wouldn’t let me! It cookied me and I had to clear my cache to be able to re-enter the form information. Grrr..

Image of tweet by @dmosher, "An interesting side effect of reading UX related materials: I see usability problems EVERYWHERE (and not just on my computer)"

I want to get a catalog, but I'm not sure where to click. So I end up clicking the SHOP button; it seems to make the most sense.

In the Shop page, there is still no catalog order button so I click "by catalog"

Shop by Catalog has a very small text link that seems to be what I want! Yay!

Oh, 4 ways to get a catalog? I just want to fill out an online form

Ok, so I need to select my age range AND include my own age.

Arg! Are you kidding? I picked the age range of my son! Not me! Ok, no big deal, I'll click back and go pick the right age.

Petro Canada Gas Pumps

I went to fill up my car the other day, and wanted to pay at the pump. There were 2 icons to display the “right” way to insert my debit card… which one was the right one?

A Petro Canada gas pump with two different visualizations of how to insert a credit card