Hehe, it rhymes. But that's the only fun here... holy shit the products are getting frustrating over at Yahoo. This is just today's list of frustrating interactions that appear to have little journey-based design-thinking in them;
1. Yahoo Mail on the web
It's mostly grey and quite clinical, conversation threading is somehow harder to understand than it's competitors, attached photos are hidden behind a Norton virus scan and can only be downloaded (what the f#@k?), and it's already ad-free due to Adblock. Idea: step up with a warm and welcoming redesign, so that users enjoy and actually want to spend time in Yahoo Mail; branding is less important than it seems.
It's mostly grey and quite clinical, conversation threading is somehow harder to understand than it's competitors, attached photos are hidden behind a Norton virus scan and can only be downloaded (what the f#@k?), and it's already ad-free due to Adblock. Idea: step up with a warm and welcoming redesign, so that users enjoy and actually want to spend time in Yahoo Mail; branding is less important than it seems.
2. Yahoo Mail on the mobile
Oh god. I don't even... how the heck do people even read a conversation in Yahoo Mail for iOS? I uninstalled this a while ago. I particularly recall the typography being deeply jarring for reasons that I can only imagine don't include a designer. Idea: same as Mail on the web, go over it's design from a welcoming and perspective, and clean up the conversation views.
Oh god. I don't even... how the heck do people even read a conversation in Yahoo Mail for iOS? I uninstalled this a while ago. I particularly recall the typography being deeply jarring for reasons that I can only imagine don't include a designer. Idea: same as Mail on the web, go over it's design from a welcoming and perspective, and clean up the conversation views.
3. Flickr Pro
I have been a Flickr member since Jun 2008 and have a fully paid up Flickr Pro account until late April 2015. However since I rolled my credit card number recently (thanks for losing it both of you over at Target AND Home Depot) Flickr deactivated my Pro services even though it's fully paid up. What? *sigh* Yahoo, don't deactivate things I've already paid for. This is not even Services 101, this is just basic not being a rude shit.
I have been a Flickr member since Jun 2008 and have a fully paid up Flickr Pro account until late April 2015. However since I rolled my credit card number recently (thanks for losing it both of you over at Target AND Home Depot) Flickr deactivated my Pro services even though it's fully paid up. What? *sigh* Yahoo, don't deactivate things I've already paid for. This is not even Services 101, this is just basic not being a rude shit.
Secondly, how in the f#@k does anyone renew or even find their Flickr account info from Flickr anymore? It's so well-buried I had to go into Yahoo Mail to find my Yahoo profile to find my Yahoo Premium services all to find out my Flickr Pro account had been deactivated. Jesus Christ. I'm not religious but I could have used a guiding hand.
Idea: Flickr is still mostly good and a not-yet-screwed Yahoo property, so put clean, well-designed account journeys back.
Why? Many users don't give a shit about the rest of Yahoo and won't suddenly give a shit when they're forced out of Flickr arbitrarily into other Yahoo properties. On the other hand a great, delightful Flickr experience might encourage them to try something else that is as good. Unfortunately nothing else is (excepting perhaps, Yahoo Weather on mobile, see 7 below).
4. Yahoo Wallet
After figuring all that in point 3 out, Yahoo Wallet balked on my payment update with the following generic error:
After figuring all that in point 3 out, Yahoo Wallet balked on my payment update with the following generic error:
An error has occurred
- We were unable to process your request due to temporary issues. If the problem persists, please contact Customer Care.
Well thanks a bunch Yahoo, that's really helpful and specific (not in the slightest) and I'll be sure to contact Customer Care (I can't actually, since you didn't provide any contact details whatsoever, and I'd probably rather clean my ears with a tree branch felled by a storm than speak with Customer Care at this point). When the above error happens, all you can do is return to Yahoo.com main page or log out...no bueno.
5. Flickr Pro
Retrace steps, and you might find out, like I did, that the payment update happened after all, so the error message thrown above was spurious to that effort of updating payment details (wtf? *brow furrows*). Flickr Pro is reactivated after all.
Perhaps the error message was related to finding the next page in Yahoo Premium, who knows, no specific information was included. Idea: include specific error information at each step. Make it human-readable, we are not Yahoo engineers.
6. Yahoo Groups
I don't even...when reading a group email notification in the Yahoo Mail mobile client, I recall being unable to choose who I could reply to...I couldn't email the Group easily (if at all, from memory). If you view your Group 'on the web' from there, you're not signed in, since you're in Yahoo Mail's embedded browser. Yes, even when the containing app is signed in ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. That browser view has no access to your iCloud Keychain. Emailing to the Group to start a topic works intermittently. And on and on... Just don't even bother with your Yahoo Group unless you're on a desktop browser. Idea: journey-based rethink of Yahoo Mail + Yahoo Groups interactions, starting with user research; build three key journeys really right, f#@k the rest because if the first three don't work the product will not grow.
6. Yahoo Finance
Finance search and $QUOT lookup are now divorced into two separate fields. Why? Is regex such as ^\$[A-Z] really that hard? I don't know regex but I wrote that in a few mins and it matches anything $Axxx quote code at the root of the search position. Idea: go back to one clear search box. If I start typing in a quote code, gimme the quote results. Otherwise go ahead and give me all the search guff including the ads. Gaming search results in this key property is less important than it seems.
7. Yahoo Weather (iOS)
At last, one product that's f#@king great! (goodjob) (yeay)