cart...

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Karen writes:

  "It doesn't seem to be working smoothly on my computer yet, although I
  know you're aware of some of the bugs.  You are right, the "non-secure
  site" message does come up every time you click to purchase any item."

I've fixed this, by removing the link to the AGA graphic paypal displays 
on the cart page.  I don't think folks will miss it.


  "On the shopping cart page, there is no button to go back to shopping, 
  and if I hit the "back" button, I got a "Page Expired" message."

Odd.  I do see a "Continue Shopping" button, and what it does is flip you 
back to the other window with the AGA page.

  "On the "PAM" button, when I clicked it, it didn't go to the shopping
  cart page, so I clicked it again.  It still didn't go to the shopping 
  cart page. When I clicked on something else and did get to the shopping 
  cart page, PAM had been added to the list twice."

I think this is because of the "Non secure site" message problem.  Perhaps 
try again & see if it's any better.  It worked great for me on my computer 
at work once I fixed the first problem.


  "I think it would be helpful to have a "view shopping cart" button on
   the merchandise page, so people can check their order without clicking
   to purchase something else."

I put one in the footer, at the bottom of all pages.  I guess I can also 
put some text that says to look at the footer.

  "When I clicked the "Canada book" button, the right amount ($5) was
   added to the shopping cart, but it said that it was a non-member fee."

Couldn't reproduce this, but I also cleaned up some things that might have 
caused it.

  "I also had another idea, but I don't know how hard it is to do.  I know
  that many websites where you can purchase things have a place to develop
  a "wish list".  That way people can tell others what they might like as
  gifts.  Is this too complicated for us?"

Unfortunately, yeah.  The nice thing with this PayPal cart is that I could 
throw it together in a couple hours last night.   We *could* write our own 
shopping cart program that just sends you over to PayPal for checkout, but 
that's the sort of thing that'll take similar amounts of work to the 
contest website.  Given that we don't really offer a lot of stuff for sale 
(another option we could have done is to make each of those links "Buy It 
Now" that sends you right to a credit card screen), it's probably not 
worth the effort at this point.

  "I certainly don't mean to be picky with the above comments... I 
  couldn't have even begun to do what you've done so far!  As usual, I'm 
  impressed!"

Very helpful usability feedback.  Like I said, there's stuff I can correct 
& there's stuff I can't.

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com