Conclusions

Web sites for buying personal computers are numerous and often badly made.  It is my contention that all present more confusion and less choice than could be attainable with a fairly simple database-driven web site.

The truth is, a relatively few number of choices can actually give a very wide range in types of computers offered. 

Instead of presenting the fundamental axes by which personal computers can be differentiated, major vendors universally bifurcate the entrance to the selection process into type of product and place of use of the product.  Dell, for example, “Servers & Storage,” “Notebooks & Desktops,” “Networking,” “Handhelds,” “Software & Peripherals,” and “Services.”  Across the right-hand side, the “Online Shopping” is divided into “Home & Home Office,” “Small Business,” “Medium & Large Business,” and four categories of public institutions.  I assume, since every large company used two methods of entry on their home page, that there is some expensive research that backs it up.

Nevertheless I maintain that these two ways of approaching the (presumably) same products does not help people find what they are looking for, but leaves them wondering what they missed.

The fact is that almost all personal computers are manufactured from the exact same hardware options and the same software options— there are very few proprietary components in the “IBM clone” personal computer business.

There is no technical logic behind this division.  For instance, home user interested in the latest (graphic-intensive) games would need a computer similar

The ideal components for a personal computer depend on what the computer is used for, not where it is used.

There are also no operational reasons, on the part of the computer seller, that I can think of for this nearly ubiquitous division, unless it is to practice price discrimination by selling similar systems to different users at different prices, perhaps for example soaking business and government customers.

unlikely to correlate very highly with , let alone the myriad buzzwords all users – for homes, businesses, organizations, governments, and anywhere – could benefit from a walk-through process about their needs and wants to help choose the best system for them.

It would take a prohibitive amount of time for a customer to play with the customization for each system, which is the only way to learn the full range of options at these sites.  My vision for a web site for selling computers is that once inside the design-my-computer or customization part, a user can come out with any of the computers offered.

All web sites that offer (instead of customization) a wide selection of computers from several manufacturers suffer from the virtual impossibility of comparing and understanding the differences of these models.  I think this limitation is inherent in offering multiple branded computers unless the re-seller does a lot of work to reinterpret the “features” as the underlying hardware and present all models the same way to their customers.

Every single one of the sites looked at required horizontal scrolling (on some of their pages; the vast majority for all of their pages) if displayed in a smaller browser windows— number three on usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s top ten web design mistakes of 2002.  (I quote Jakob Nielsen because he confirms some of my prejudices with expensive usability studies.)  Nielsen’s number one complaint about commercial web sites in 2002 is “no prices.”

“No B2C ecommerce site would make this mistake, but it's rife in B2B, where most "enterprise solutions" are presented so that you can't tell whether they are suited for 100 people or 100,000 people.”

Accessibility

Many sites required cookies or javascript, from behind the scenes calculation to pop-up windows (which some ad-blocking software disables), to use the site, to make purchases, or to view additional information (in the pop-up windows).

To try to do:

• Whenever a system is pictured or advertized, one click should bring the viewer to customizing and/or buying!
• Build tips and hints and advice and information on general components and specific brands into the appropriate level of the database.
• Include back-view pictures (of the slots), front-view pictures, and even inside pictures of sample configurations and, when/if possible, the customized computers.
• A compare features feature— for any two or three configurations that exists or someone creates!

To try to avoid:

• Overwhelming the user with too many options.
• Using the back button to go back and make changes is practically instinctive for a regular user of the world wide web.  Therefore, fouling up when the user does this is a flaw my computer ordering system will try to avoid if possible.

Goals

First, the database must support one click to start the buying process.  If a user like a sample configuration shown on the first page and clicks on it, or on a link such as “Customize and Buy” (or just “Customize”), that configuration should comes up in the full power customizer.  Perhaps there should also be a “Buy This Computer!” or “Buy Directly” link that brings the user immediately to entering shipping and billing information.

At no point should the user be forced to start over in selecting their computer (as at Acer).

It would be best if at no point was a non-updated (i.e., incorrect) price displayed for the system the user has created.  This could be done easily if each major component is chosen on a separate (necessarily fast-loading) page.  There could also be a fast customization option, using the same database but generating drop-down lists, as is the standard.  In this case JavaScript could be used to keep the price up to date.  This use of JavaScript only adds— unlike the very common pop-up windows for product information, which denies some users access to information all should be able to receive.