Slashdot Mirror
Life With the Dash Button: Good Design For Amazon, Bad For Everyone Else
vivaoporto writes: A scathing review published on Fast Company describes Amazon's Dash Button, the "Buy Now" button brought into the physical world as "the latest symptom of Amazon's slowly spreading disease", "an unabashed attempt to disconnect customers from the amount of money we're spending." The author's criticism centers on Amazon's lack of focus on customer experience, a core UI that doesn't make sense, limited and expensive product selection and a store UX "no longer designed for your convenient shopping", but rather "designed for their profitable selling."
We have three Dash buttons and last night while my wife was doing laundry my phone informed me that laundry detergent had been ordered via the Dash button.
We realize they aren't pushing the cheapest priced products, it's the convenience we are looking for (prices are comparable to grocery stores, a bit higher than Wally World, at least for the things we use them for).
The article goes on and on about instant gratification and the delay between pressing the Dash button and receiving the product. Comes off as whining to me.
BlameBillCosby.com
I not only RTFA, I have several dash buttons now. I get immediate feedback through a notification on my phone which lets me know it was ordered and the estimated arrival (as well as giving me the option to go to the app and cancel if it was a accidental order). I get routine updates as it moves through the delivery process - shipping, updated delivery times if it will be late, delivered. It's handy as hell. Take the last paper towel out of the closet and the button is right there, just a press and new paper towels arrive and I don't have to cart them home.
You can only order 1 at a time. In the event of multiple presses, you get a notice and have to confirm that you really intended to buy that many.
Milk and meat are around the periphery because their display cases are connected to (or close to) the bulk cold storage in the stores. It's part of preserving the "cold chain" of ensuring that products that need constant refrigeration throughout the supply chain actually get constant refrigeration.
Most of the marketing text written about grocery store layouts was developed after the layouts were already in use. Most of the layout quirks are the way they are for more practical and mundane reasons. Layout as a conspiracy makes a great story, but in general, it's just that. Yes, impulse aisles are exceptions as are some other elements in the store, but for the most part, the practicalities of storing and presenting large amounts of food determine the layout.
-Chris
Can you give an example of that happening?
Music DRM, for an obvious example.
The button itself provides feedback. You push it, it blinks for a few seconds, then shows a green light if successful and a red light if not.
Either your "opponent" doesn't understand free markets or you just created a "straw man" to prove your point. There is no magic in the free market just as there is no magic in evolution.Food labeling comes as people want it. It may take time. People may create food coops (populated by avowed socialists) but the food coops are part of the free market (not from a top-down government bureaucracy).
/= caveat emptor. If you say that your product is made of x (and only x) you are liable for that. In a free-market society if you were found to have adulterated x (or substituted y) you would be successfully sued.
The time and energy put in to make food labeling laws could be done to push the concept of food labeling to consumers. Then these consumers will reward companies who label their foods.
By the way free-market capitalism
I'm certain you can find all sorts of opponents of capitalism who would say "that's not so." How about showing some intellectual curiosity and reading what proponents of the free-market actually say:
Here's a list to start your reading: Bastiat, Menger, von Mises, Hayek, Milton Friedman.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond