Tue_Feb_12_13:00:08_PST_2019

72 I drove off to find another gas station. I then realized there were no other close gas stations. I went back. I almost got into a wreck on my way back to the gas station. Now I was enraged. I arrived at the gas station and waited in line again. The car in front of me would not back up to let the person who just finished pumping, out. I had to wait until the van on the other side was done. I then had to wait for the guy who would not move to finish. Negative Advertising I was finally ready to pump my gas. I tried to use my credit card, but after about a minute of processing, a warning flashed up at me: "Please See Cashier…System Down." On the pump it stated "pump then pay." So I tried to pump. It did not work. I went inside and asked the cashier what was up. While snacking on his food he said, "(crunch) Sorry, I had not got around to turning your pump on yet." Mind you it said pump THEN pay. I had been trying for a few minutes at this point. I went back outside and pumped my gas. I left vowing never again to visit that gas station. It was a Mobile in Mystic, Connecticut (just off the interstate), and I still vividly remember the sign in my head as well as the cashier who was snacking while he should have authorized my pump. If That Gas Station was a Web site What was the point of that tangent about a gas station? It took longer to tell the story than it will take to make my point. I was reading Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen about the same time I had that bad day, and this nugget of truth came to me—there is no page that is so important that I cannot go elsewhere. If that gas station was a website, I would have left. Many people find your website through search engines. Other sites may link to your inner pages. There is no way to tell where traffic will come from. I never see the shopping cart on many sites because they make it a challenge just to get there. I have abandoned many shopping carts. Most websites have miserable usability. I must admit some of my sites needs some work in this area too…it is one of the most neglected aspects of web design. Web Example This comes from a usability/design example story found on page 69 of Taking Your Talent to the Web by Jeffrey Zeldman. I left my baby daughter in the car while I went to buy dope. Then I drove away. I'd gone about five blocks when I realized my daughter wasn't in the car anymore.