KISS My Web Site
23 September 2007
My grandmother, who lives in Australia, has decided to buy a prepay mobile phone. The salesman in the phone shop managed to confuse her, so she wanted me to go online, check out all the phones and phone companies, and make some suggestions as to which phone she should get.
I started off with Telstra, as this was where my grandmother had gone to. With all honesty, it is the most poorly designed web site I have been to - and that is quite an achievement as I have visited many web sites over my twelve years on the net. Prepay phones are often used by your average mum and dad (and grandmother) who don't want to go hunting around for info. So Telstra's phones come with a starter pack? Great! But what do you get in a starter pack? This isn't very clear, and requires a trip to the search engine. The call charges also aren't very obvious; I found details on what was included in each plan, but couldn't find details on how much would be charged once the included minutes were used up.
Vodafone have done a much better job with their web site. I got my mobile from Vodafone New Zealand, and was already familiar with their web site. It was no surprise then that I was able to find my way around Vodafone Australia's site. As a result, I was able to find out everything my grandmother needed to know, and managed to convince her to buy a Vodafone mobile.
We live in a time where every man and his dog has an Internet connection. Most of these people are average people who don't have the time, knowledge or patience to find information that is hidden on a web site. Web sites need to follow the KISS principle; unfortunately, Telstra's web site doesn't. A big round of applause for Vodafone!