Companies keep changing their web sites in the interest of “improvements”, but they more often make them more complicated and user-unfriendly.
I’ve been using Yahoo! Finance for years to get daily quotes for a small list of stocks. I made the request from a very obvious text block on the home page. Then either Firefox or Yahoo! Finance stopped allowing drag and drop, a very long-standing feature of the Macintosh. Then Yahoo! Finance moved the quote text block somewhere else. All in the name of improved interface for the users.
Boy! I never did make it through all the user complaints about the changes. I gave up on Yahoo! Finance and used TD Ameritrade instead.
Even with Ameritrade and its constantly changing home page it took me awhile to figure out how to consistently get the quotes I wanted.
But Ameritrade’s news page is a humble-jumble of hidden information
Where are the numbers in
Net Investment Income
Net Realized ST Cap Gains
Net Realized LT Cap Gains
Return of Capital or Other Capital Source
They are off the screen and can only be gotten by copying the area and pasting into a text document. Even then, the lines are all a humble-jumble.
Google’s Blogger has also been “re-designed” by making text alignment non-workable. I think I’ve sent feedback twice on this, but I guess Google is too busy on more “beautiful improvements”.
Even that great promoter of user-friendliness gives great features and takes away great features. Once upon a time Apple worked very hard on ease of use. Now they seem more concerned with “beautiful” document and spreadsheets. I’m sorry I don’t want charts with bubble points; I want a chart with connected dots.
Showing posts with label Ameritrade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ameritrade. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Software systems working incorrectly? What's new?
I'm cleaning up lots of old notes and I found this feedback that I sent to Apple on 2002-12-18. Sorry, the referenced article is not available on Yahoo.com anymore. You can find it at http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=728071 with lots of sarcastic commentary.
Beginning of feedback
I concur with Mike Berman's article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20021218/bs_nf/20277. Although I don't have the degree of problems he has, there are many things in OS X and software written for OS X that definitely do not provide "seamless" operation.
Instead of putting flashy new interfaces or applications into OS X, I wish Apple would devote far more resources to making OS X a truly effortless operating system. For example, when I select a server to access a computer connected to mine by a single Ethernet cable, it takes a long time and then OS X starts dialing the phone!!!!
Second, it would help users greatly if Apple certified third-party software as being "seamless". For example, Microsoft does not have a consistent handling of text among Office products (Word to Entourage is worst). For example, I can click on Send Messages in Entourage and it will connect with Internet Connect and wait for the connection. If I select a site from Favorites in Internet Explorer, it starts the connection but says the server can't be found when the connection is made.
Third, it would help if Apple would certify major web sites as being "seamless" for Macintosh users. Try using Ameritrade.com with a Macintosh; many of the fancy features just don't work or can be erratic.
I don't see any point to upgrading to OS X 10.2 at a cost of $200 for two computers for features I don't have any great need for and I don't have any guarantee all the little gotchas in 10.1 have been fixed.
Apple has been a leader in user friendly software for 18 years. I hope Apple will now turn its focus to being a leader in software reliability.
End of feedback
Has it been eleven years since I learned to be a late adapter? Well, I haven't completely learned my lesson. iOS 7 had a huge learning curve, and I still encounter many annoyances. And in 29 years they still haven't learned to "do it right" on the first release. And people expect the ACA systems to work seamlessly on the first day?
Beginning of feedback
I concur with Mike Berman's article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20021218/bs_nf/20277. Although I don't have the degree of problems he has, there are many things in OS X and software written for OS X that definitely do not provide "seamless" operation.
Instead of putting flashy new interfaces or applications into OS X, I wish Apple would devote far more resources to making OS X a truly effortless operating system. For example, when I select a server to access a computer connected to mine by a single Ethernet cable, it takes a long time and then OS X starts dialing the phone!!!!
Second, it would help users greatly if Apple certified third-party software as being "seamless". For example, Microsoft does not have a consistent handling of text among Office products (Word to Entourage is worst). For example, I can click on Send Messages in Entourage and it will connect with Internet Connect and wait for the connection. If I select a site from Favorites in Internet Explorer, it starts the connection but says the server can't be found when the connection is made.
Third, it would help if Apple would certify major web sites as being "seamless" for Macintosh users. Try using Ameritrade.com with a Macintosh; many of the fancy features just don't work or can be erratic.
I don't see any point to upgrading to OS X 10.2 at a cost of $200 for two computers for features I don't have any great need for and I don't have any guarantee all the little gotchas in 10.1 have been fixed.
Apple has been a leader in user friendly software for 18 years. I hope Apple will now turn its focus to being a leader in software reliability.
End of feedback
Has it been eleven years since I learned to be a late adapter? Well, I haven't completely learned my lesson. iOS 7 had a huge learning curve, and I still encounter many annoyances. And in 29 years they still haven't learned to "do it right" on the first release. And people expect the ACA systems to work seamlessly on the first day?
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Good service still exists
If I rant about all the screw-ups in corporate America, I should also praise good service when I encounter it.
I have a blog in mind on how Apple giveth and Apple taketh away. One of the taketh aways was how PDF files download from websites. I tried downloading my statement from Ameritrade with Safari. I could get a window with the statement, but I could find no way to save it as a file. I gave up and used Firefox and had my statement downloaded in seconds. I sent feedback Ameritrade and received and answer in a day. One now has to hold down a key while clicking on the link to a downloadable file. Let's see, I wonder how quickly I would have been able to unbury a similar answer in Apple's forums.
I have some bizarre clues for my passwords, and sometimes I can't figure out what I meant. When I tried to get my US Funds statement I couldn't figure out my password. This particular site doesn't give you many chances to try again. Even when asked the security question, I couldn't answer it correctly, probably because I used a different variation on the spelling of the answer. Poof! Please call a representative.
I did that and I did have a wait with some Mozart. But when I got a representative he asked how the weather was here and mentioned that his daughter had visited Two Harbors recently. He quickly gave me a temp password and I gave it another go. Then I couldn't change it because I couldn't find anyplace to do so. Another call but with no wait time and with the same representative. He pointed out the pull-down menu that linked to password maintenance (it was kind of obscured by a poorly-chosen color overlay).
Both of these incidents are cases where effectiveness is more important than efficiency. Should these representatives' performance be measured by how many customers they serve a day (efficiency) or by how courteously they give satisfactory solutions (effectiveness)? I'll take effectiveness any day, even if I have to wait for it.
I have a blog in mind on how Apple giveth and Apple taketh away. One of the taketh aways was how PDF files download from websites. I tried downloading my statement from Ameritrade with Safari. I could get a window with the statement, but I could find no way to save it as a file. I gave up and used Firefox and had my statement downloaded in seconds. I sent feedback Ameritrade and received and answer in a day. One now has to hold down a key while clicking on the link to a downloadable file. Let's see, I wonder how quickly I would have been able to unbury a similar answer in Apple's forums.
I have some bizarre clues for my passwords, and sometimes I can't figure out what I meant. When I tried to get my US Funds statement I couldn't figure out my password. This particular site doesn't give you many chances to try again. Even when asked the security question, I couldn't answer it correctly, probably because I used a different variation on the spelling of the answer. Poof! Please call a representative.
I did that and I did have a wait with some Mozart. But when I got a representative he asked how the weather was here and mentioned that his daughter had visited Two Harbors recently. He quickly gave me a temp password and I gave it another go. Then I couldn't change it because I couldn't find anyplace to do so. Another call but with no wait time and with the same representative. He pointed out the pull-down menu that linked to password maintenance (it was kind of obscured by a poorly-chosen color overlay).
Both of these incidents are cases where effectiveness is more important than efficiency. Should these representatives' performance be measured by how many customers they serve a day (efficiency) or by how courteously they give satisfactory solutions (effectiveness)? I'll take effectiveness any day, even if I have to wait for it.
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