Category: Services

A lot has changed in the user experience realm since I last posted an article on this site. Unfortunately, the utter nuisance of unwanted “promotional emails” — yes, SPAM! — hasn’t changed much at all.

Way back in March 2016, I took an in-depth look at the hoops users have to jump through when unsubscribing from e-mail newsletters. The dark patterns that I listed in that post are still in wide use today: pre-selecting opt-in checkboxes; using confusing language; making unsubscribe links difficult to find; and forcing users through plenty of gratuitous interactions before completing the opt-out process.

There’s a positive side to all this, however: It’s really simple for Companies to demonstrate that they do, indeed, care about their customers’ user experience. All it takes is a reliable opt-in process before sending out any emails. Many online publications do this already.

When someone submits an email address to sign up for a digital newsletter, these sites send an email containing an unambiguous button or link for confirming the subscription request. Here’s a typical example, taken from Ernie Smith’s excellent newsletter, Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet:

Hey there, we just got a request from your email address that suggested you were interested in getting the Tedium newsletter. Awesome! It’s pretty great and we’d be happy to have you.

But before you start getting it, we ask that you confirm that was your intention. It’s for your sake and ours—it confirms everyone that wants to be on this list actually is. So hit the big red button to confirm. (If you didn’t sign up, do nothing. We’ll never bother you again.) Thanks in advance!

If you do not want to subscribe after all, all you have to do is delete this email. And if you do intend to signup, just click that confirmation button or link. That’s it, and it’s a very small price to pay compared to the tedium of unsubscribing from a newsletter that was sent to you without your consent.

True opt-in for commercial emails

When it comes to company newsletters, I’ve only seen this kind of true opt-in process on a single site: Pale Blue Earth, a manufacturer of rechargeable batteries.

The website unfortunately does pre-select an “Email me with news and offers” checkbox on the check-out page. Even if you miss that detail, the very first email you’ll receive from this company — besides any that are directly related to a purchase — is titled, “Confirm Your Subscription.”

The explanation in the email body is on par with the one from the Tedium newsletter:

If you didn’t subscribe to this list or you’re not sure why you received this email, you can delete it. You will not be subscribed if you don’t click on the link above.

If you have any questions, you can reply to this email or contact Pale Blue Earth at support@paleblueearth.com.

Companies who spam you don’t care about customer experience. Period.

For the vast majority of companies, spamming their customers is an integral part of “customer engagement.” The consequence of that strategy is that dark interaction design patterns appear at two stages in the process: First to trick users into signing up for promotional emails, and the second to make it as tedious as possible to unsubscribe.

I was delighted that Pale Blue made it so easy to not get their newsletter. That consideration for their customers’ user experience instantly reflected on how I perceive of that company as a whole, and whether or not I will consider them for future purchases. (Spoiler alert: I will!)

This is a surprisingly simple detail that instantly makes a company stand out from their spam-happy competition. It boggles the mind that so few company choose that over unnecessarily tormenting their customers.

Corporate newsletters that are actually worth reading are few and far between. If it wasn’t for rare gems like Sweetwater Music’s inSync emails with their blend of music tech news and production tips, I probably wouldn’t subscribe to any of them.

That is why I normally unsubscribe from email newsletters as soon as they show up in my inbox. I seriously appreciate it when the sender makes that process quick and painless, so I can focus on emails I actually care about.

Unfortunately, however, most companies — whether intentionally or due to ignorance — make unsubscribing unnecessarily tedious.

Haven’t signed up to our newsletter yet? We’ll do that for you, then!

A few months ago, I had ordered business cards from Moo. Their site provides a solid user experience and the quality of the final product is excellent.

But then they sent me this just last week:

While some marketers might think that this is a slick approach to lure customers into reading their company’s newsletter, this approach annoys me a lot because now it’s on me to take additional steps if I do not want to subscribe to these emails. Which, of course, reflects back on the entire company, and makes me wonder how customer-oriented they actually are. Most importantly, I’ll unsubscribe anyway.

A much friendlier way would be to send me an email which courteously invites me to sign up and includes a “Yes, please sign me up” button. That way, if I am not interested, I’ll simply delete the email, and I’m done.

Thankfully, the unsubscribe button in Moo’s email is big and bold, and impossible to miss. When you click it, you’ll see this in your browser:

If all I want to do is to quickly unsubscribe from their newsletter, there is way too much information on this page. It takes extra cognitive load to take it all in and understand where the actual confirmation message is. Which is not a trivial point, because you have to confirm your unsubscribe request by clicking a button.

And see what their designers did there? Thanks to the color selection, the “lifeless gray” Confirm button has less visual prominence than the “vibrant green” Cancel link next to it, so your eyes are (intentionally) guided to the latter.

What I want to do now? Since I came to the site to unsubscribe from the unsolicited newsletter, I don’t really want to spend any more time here. In fact, this has already taken too long, so why try to make me spend even more time on the site?

Great with civil liberties, not quite so great with web design

I have deep respect for the work of the American Civil Liberties Union — but not so much for the design of their unsubscribe confirmation screen.

What is the difference between “Membership emails” and “Membership email lists?” Why is the email address displayed in four places? Do all of the three Update buttons submit changes across the entire form? Why do two sections use radio buttons, while the other uses checkboxes?

Especially in the context of this form’s complexity and vagueness, it isn’t very helpful that the confirmation message generically refers to “updating your email preferences.” If you make the process so complex, why not expressly state which emails, if any, I should expect to still receive in the future?

A webpage in true Redmond fashion

Microsoft brings the complexity of the unsubscribe page (on which I arrived after clicking “unsubscribe” in a promo email from Microsoft-owned Skype) to a whole new level.

Their designers chose tiny text for the body copy, dropped in rich Windows 7’ish icons, placed links all over the place, and threw in an entire FAQ for good measure.

Specifically note how the checkboxes are mapped backwards: Checking an option does not mean that you want to receive that newsletter, but that you want to unsubscribe from it. Which is like saying, “Choose ‘Yes’ if you do not want to receive this.” Very odd, very confusing.

What you see after clicking Save feels as bloated as the form itself.

It’s commendable that this page details what changes you’ve just made. But why is it presented in such a convoluted layout? I’d find it much easier to grasp if the page contained two bulleted lists, one with the offerings I am now subscribed to, and one that shows what’s still available, but that I have not subscribed to.

(That said, this page recreates the order the item order found on the configuration page, so there is a perfectly solid reason for this layout. I’d still find it more accessible to group items by subscribed/unsubscribed, instead.)

In my case, things were even simpler, since I had unsubscribed from all of Microsoft’s promotional emails. Instead of seven lines of clunky text, a single one would have sufficed: “You will no longer receive any promotional emails from us.” A little bit of server-side logic can do usability wonders sometimes.

Killing time with an unsubscribe page

And this years award for Quirkiest Email Unsubscribe Page goes to Sears. And they’ve truly earned it.

When you click Unsubscribe in one of their email newsletters, the marketing department at Sears doesn’t think it’s enough to confront you with a bloated form. They also offer you four video clips to choose from! Maybe some customer will find these funny, but when I clicked Unsubscribe in their email, I had already made my decision, so why go to these lengths to try to make me stay?

Sometimes I wish I could see into a marketer’s brain and understand where ideas such as the above page come from…

The benchmark design for unsubscribing from email newsletters

What, then, is a great way to handle an unsubscribe request?

As I had said at the beginning, for me this is all about quickly and conveniently canceling an email subscription, so ideally I would click on the unsubscribe link in an email and simply see a confirmation that I’ve been unsubscribed.

Like this:

Click the link, read a very clean, very concise message presented in a light-weight design, and DONE!

This specimen pushes absolutely zero marketing fluff on you, and you don’t have to take any further steps to “confirm” your decision. And just in case that you unsubscribed by mistake, there’s a handy and friendly link to undo that change.

So: Which of these workflows would you prefer? (Yes, that’s a trick question.)

Don’t underestimate the importance of the unsubscribe experience

When designing an unsubscribe workflow for email newsletters, keep in mind that people who follow that process don’t necessarily abandon your company for good. They might just be overwhelmed with email.

How efficient and user-friendly this workflow is, will reflect how your company — and overall brand — values your customers’ time in general.

When you order something online, wouldn’t it be great if you could tell which carrier will deliver your order? Let me tell you a quick anecdote why I wish that every online retailer would provide this information.

A crappy delivery of a premium product

On a frosty March evening in 2015, three boxes were delivered to our home. They contained a brand new laptop and some peripherals.

Although the order confirmation stated that a signature was required on delivery, the driver just dropped the boxes off on our front porch. We were both home at the time; the driver simply didn’t bother to ring our doorbell.

If I hadn’t checked the online tracker one more time that evening, the shipment would have sat outside in the freezing cold overnight. Or might even have been stolen.

The delivery was a day late, too. Unfortunately, the tracking page did not give any reason for the delay beyond stating “REDELIVER ON NEXT BUSINESS DAY.”

Also, this carrier does not seem to consider Saturdays to be business days, as I found out via another shipment. The data in the screenshot below — December 4th, 2015 — was a Friday. Despite the “REDELIVER ON NEXT BUSINESS DAY” status, it still didn’t arrive on the 5th, but on the following Monday.

It’s not just me being excessively picky or demanding: The support forums at Amazon and Apple, who both use this carrier, are overflowing with complaints from customers who are extremely unhappy with this carrier.

All together now: “UX is all about setting expectations!”

It’s needless to say that I’d love to avoid having anything delivered by this company in the future. And I am more than willing to pay a premium to achieve this goal.

I do want to know with certainty, though, that I’m not paying extra and still have to deal with these people. Which is why I sincerely appreciate that, for example, the great folks at Adafruit make it very clear who they will entrust with getting your purchases to you.

They also do not offer Saturday delivery, but they very prominently state as much right in the appropriate context of the shipping options.

Apple, on the other hand, leaves you in the dark about which livery the truck will have that stops by your house to drop off your freshly ordered goodies.

Let me have more trust in my options

I wonder why a premium brand like Apple would collaborate with a below-par discount service provider in the first place. If they do go that route, though, they should at least give me a premium delivery option that reliably selects a different carrier and, thus, results in a more enjoyable overall customer experience.

After all, who wants to be all excited with anticipation for two days, looking forward to a shiny new laptop, only to find that machine in the morning, frozen to death on the front porch.

Oh, sorry, I meant “excited with anticipation for three days,” because “REDELIVER ON NEXT BUSINESS DAY,” you know.