Recently I haven’t been touching iTunes much at all, since my online music consumpion has transformed from files to streaming, thanks to Spotify. Many times there are still tracks that are not available through the Spotify subscription service, which is when I turn to see if iTunes is providing them available for purchase. Much to my surprise, I’ve started to increasingly dislike the iTunes experience. Looking at the results from the new 2010 Customer Experience Index by Forrester, it looks like I’m not the only one.

Let’s compare what happens when I search for an artists in both services. iTunes goes first:

With the current version of iTunes 9, there’s just too much going on in the user interface. Even with the UI chrome excluded from the picture, there’s still way too many items fighting over my attention. Furthermore, I don’t get the immediate Google Experience ™, where the first search result is big and bold, waiting to be clicked. In iTunes the items are too small and don’t appear clickable, maybe because there’s just so much I could click on. Overall, the navigation just feels like too much work, not enough fun.

What about in Spotify then:

Lots of small text here as well, but it’s a lot more bearable, since the structure is so clear. I know the purpose of each UI element and they are grouped in a logical manner, so that none of the information I’m not interested in feels like any kind of distraction. Even without any previous experience of using the application, I think I would be quite at home in navigating in Spotify, since it follows the univesal language of audio library software. What’s funny is that I think much of that language has evolved from the most popular audio library out there: iTunes.

Why is iTunes starting to become more cluttered? Why is it going down the path of Altavista, which used to be the top search engine of its time, before transforming into a messy portal with too much ads and features going on, then consequently losign the game to Google? My theory is that both iTunes and Altavista have (or had, in the case of AV) the same problem, which is the need to be constantly selling to the user. iTunes Store does not make any money until the user clicks “buy”, and it needs to achieve this same behaviour time and time again. In a similar fashion, the portal fever that Altavista was infected with consisted of presenting as many ad banners to the visitor as possible, whereas Google cleared away the clutter and developed a way to show only relevant text ads in predetermined sections.

The Spotify model doesn’t have the hard sell built into it. Its model lures in new users with free accounts, to explore the simple functionaliy built over the vast library of music available for streaming by just clicking on it, building up an engaging first experience of the service. Sure, the users are greeted with audio ads between tracks, unless they purchase the premium account. However, that’s a handicap that you can disable with giving them money, and I’m betting people can easily understand the trade-off there. In iTunes Store there is no subscription service that would make the catalog browsing free from the hard sell. Not until Apple starts offering the similar streaming scheme as Spotify, that is.

Let’s take one final look at another UI for searching a particular artist. With the introduction of Google Music giving some glimpse of things to come, I’m betting that the future UI design patterns for audio libraries will most likely be coming from the masters of search.

The issue

Today I got a promotional email from Amazon.co.uk, saying that you now deliver thousands of additional products to Finland.

I reviewed the delivery restrictions, saw that you ship watches to Finland, and therefore proceeded with trying to place order for the following item (Diesel DZ1132).

Upon trying to check out, I was granted with the familiar statement of “This item can’t be shipped to your selected destination”. Apparently it was an Amazon Marketplace item, where different delivery restrictions apply.

The suggestions

Since you keep a record of what my account’s delivery destination is, I would like to have the option of filtering out products that I cannot purchase. At the moment, there is no way for me to search for watches that are sold by Amazon.co.uk itself and which could be delivered to my country of residence. The logical result is that I must consider all watches to be not available for me to purchase, as there’s no way for me to validate this outside the order placing process.

If you ever implement such a feature, be sure to remember to promote that in your newsletters as well. Previously I requested the option of not receiving the electronics related email advertisements from you, as the products promoted in them were not available for me to purchase. At the same time, I did not want to give up your book related recommendations emails, so opting out from all email communications did not seem sensible to me. I was told then that no such option unfortunately existed.

The final positive words

Now when you have increased the coverage of your delivery destinations, we’re “almost there but not quite”. Since the shopping experience at Amazon is in general superior compared to other online retailers, I’m looking forward to having the last few detailes sorted out one day, to truly deliver a shop that works the way the customer would expect it to work.

Best regards,
Jukka

After a few days, I got a reply from Amazon.co.uk customer service. Nothing out of the ordinary there, typical corporate lingo.

The reply

…I do understand your concern regarding the Marketplace delivery restrictions. Although we are aware that all sellers will not be able to ship all the items to international destinations, we are always working to serve our international customers better.

Please know that all our customers, international and at home, are very important to us. Also it is always important for us to hear how customers react to all aspects of shopping at Amazon.co.uk. Strong customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we provide.

I have forwarded your message on to the appropriate department who will be glad to review your suggestion.

The surprise

Today when I started writing this blog post, I visited Amazon.co.uk to recreate the bad shopping basket experience, in order to get a screenshot of it. Surprisingly, there was no such experience, as the order went through! Apparently many of the Diesel watches have now been moved to the category “dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk”, which means I will get my Xmas present after all.

The lesson

Negative customer experiences, when offset with a positive surprise, can turn into moments where the customer relationship is actually solidified. For a more theoretical reference, see this post by Frank Capek on the importance of the “element of surprise”.