| For a short while I worked for one of Australia's | | | | attempts click the big red cross at the top right of |
| largest banks which trotted out the motto "DIRFT" - | | | | your page and move on ... didn't want to buy that |
| Do It Right First Time. In fact they went from one | | | | item anyway. How difficult would it be to enter a |
| motto to another year in and year out, all intended | | | | date format example? In fact many sites, the better |
| to motivate people to do good work. Rework is both | | | | ones, do. |
| non-productive and wasteful of resources, so if | | | | Occasionally I begin entering an address online and |
| people could only get their jobs right first time, it | | | | when it comes to the state/province box, I drop |
| would save a lot of money and frustration. | | | | down a list and every option is in the USA. But hey, I |
| I don't know that the bank ever reached its goal of | | | | live in Australia, not Texas or Iowa. When you want |
| having people DIRFT, but it was certainly worth the | | | | to make a buck internationally, you have to expect |
| effort. I still have the coffee cup with the motto | | | | people from other countries with different addresses. |
| emblazoned on the front and occasionally think about | | | | Provide some way of capturing them. |
| it. | | | | An Australian site recently wouldn't accept my post |
| Lately I've been thinking that there are many things I | | | | code 0870 and kept flagging an error. All Australian |
| find that obviously follow the dictum, "Do It Wrong | | | | post codes have four digits and the Northern |
| First Time". Most of these things seem to be in the | | | | Territory begins with zero. I've lived here since 1957 ... |
| domain of the Information Technology industry. | | | | I know the post code! Apparently the fool who |
| For example, how many times have you wanted to | | | | created the form didn't. |
| submit a comment or log-on somewhere that has a | | | | I was so annoyed I simply left the site. My view is |
| scrambled script that you have to undecipher and | | | | that if you can't get something as simple as that |
| type into a dialogue box, only to find that you can't | | | | right, you don't deserve my money. |
| read it? | | | | Getting it Right |
| It's not only a matter of mistaking an I for an l, | | | | When the bank I mentioned above created a new |
| sometimes the characters are so jumbled that you | | | | program it did extensive User Acceptance Testing. It |
| can't read them ... they are definitely not one of 52 | | | | did everything imaginable to its software to see |
| variations of the 26 letters of the English alphabet or | | | | where it had shortcomings or errors that would |
| one of the usual ten figures. You enter it and the | | | | annoy customers. It made everything goof proof. |
| page refreshes just to tell you to do what you have | | | | When it was perfect, it would be released to the |
| already done. You fool! | | | | public. Why some other organisations don't do that I |
| So you try again and if it doesn't work, move on to | | | | don't know. |
| another site. | | | | It seems that people launch sites with the idea that if |
| Then there's the online forms where you go to enter | | | | there is a problem, someone will let them know. |
| a date, no mention of the format so you try: 24/03 | | | | That's not a very good business philosophy. |
| 2008 and submit. Seconds pass and the form | | | | If you really want to compete with the good players, |
| appears with a message in red, "Date required". So | | | | Do It Right First Time. |
| you enter 03/24/2008 and after several more | | | | |