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."

Comments

That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[Anonymous Coward]

Minimum viable product, maximum revenue extraction.

Or did you think the evolution of subscriptions and microtransactions was to benefit you, the customer?

Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

Minimum viable product, maximum revenue extraction.

If you don't like the product, don't buy it or use it.

Or did you think the evolution of subscriptions and microtransactions was to benefit you, the customer?

Oddly enough, yes. Successful businesses are motivated by maximizing their profit. But they succeed at this only if people actually choose to buy their products because they benefit. The fact that the business is primarily motivated by its own profits is not a problem, because in a free market, the only way to increase those profits is when people choose to buy their products and actually hand them their money.

It's not zero-sum game, it's a positive sum game: both buyers and sellers benefit, each in their own way.

Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[ExekielS]

We have studies that show there is no market competition with fewer than 5 choices holding more than 70% of market share. Freedom and choices are a lot more limited than you are imagining, both theoretically and practically. Which is why consumer survey's showed that 85% of consumers preferred low gloss/matte screens but over 95% of screens made were high gloss, a problem that has existed for MUCH too long.

Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is why consumer survey's showed that 85% of consumers preferred low gloss/matte screens but over 95% of screens made were high gloss, a problem that has existed for MUCH too long.

That's one of those problems that is difficult to fix. When you are in the store and compare the gloss screen to the matte screen, the glossy one has much more vibrant colors, so consumers naturally pick that one. It's only when they get to using it in real life that the glare starts to get to them. But at that point it's too late. They've already bought it, thus rewarding the company for producing the glossy screen. They have no way to provide feedback to the company to incentivise them to manufacture matte screens. The best the consumer can do is, IF they happen to figure out that the gloss is the source of their frustration and they would have been better with a matte screen, and IF they can manage to remember that fact several years later when they buy their next TV, then I suppose they can make the point then. But the truth is most people WON'T figure it out, and most of those who actually do WON'T remember it several years later when they next buy a new TV. So they'll walk back into the store, say "wow that one looks a lot better" and walk out with another glossy, and the glossy manufacturer has been rewarded again.

Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[sglewis100]

Yes. If people reject it, those other companies will also withdraw.

Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[0123456]

Can you give an example of that happening?

Music DRM, for an obvious example.

Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do

[GLMDesigns]

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).

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 /= 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.

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.

Actually great UX for everyone else

[trybywrench]

The UX of the Dash Button is great, shopping for laundry detergent is boring, just one press and it's over. Managing your personal finances has zero to do with the dash button user experience.

Re:Actually great UX for everyone else

[brunes69]

I can tell you didn't RTFA.

The whole point is pushing the button provides no immediate feedback at all. People are used to pushing a button doing something immediately, not pushing a button and *MAYBE* something happens 48 hours from now.

As such, these buttons are unlikely to gain any kind of popularity.

Re:Actually great UX for everyone else

[Notorious G]

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.

an overview of the dash button for geeks.

[nimbius]

For the uninitiated, the dash button is an electronic wireless device branded with the logo or namesake of your favourite brand or product. Pushing the button automatically incurs an order for the product and should you be sufficiently removed from the understanding of how this technology works, you'd be inclined to insist its nothing short of magic. It isnt. As a geek, you must understand this technology is a powerful and its opportunities are many. For example:
1. Reprogramming. What if the tide button closed the garage door? opened the trunk? set off the neighbours sprinklers or fired up the coffee maker? Amazon is offering for a discount the opportunity to break out that sweet oscilloscope and crack away at some assembler. Its a discount wireless device that can actuate a solenoid and pour cottage cheese on the cat at the press of a button
2. relocation. Place the device in more suitable areas. What if every time your neighbour sat down on the couch they inadvertantly ordered a 12 pack of bleach? how about whenever the dog bolts through the doggie door your inlaws end up ordering a 24 pack of disposable diapers? The potential is endless and the power is great. you control who gets two crates of macaroni and cheese, how often, and even when.

Re:an overview of the dash button for geeks.

[Notorious G]

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.

We like them

[turp182]

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.

Amazon Employees at work

[trenien]

The first few comments from IDs numbers between 50387607 and 50387627, all shooting down the review (most with : "let's avoid shopping chores" and one with "it's great for imaginative geeks").

Yeah, I don't really believe there's anything genuine there...

i love them!

[Lumpy]

Where else can you get a complete Wifi and processor board for hacking ready to go for $5.00?
I just hope they dont realize that the 4 I bought will never be pushed to buy their products. I already have one triggering events on my Linux server, and soon to have the rest acting as remotes for home automation.

Forget what?

[sjbe]

How when my dad buys something shipping is wayyyyyyyy overpriced but go to my account (one where I have cancelled orders because of overpriced shipping) and it's less than half the cost *same town*

Perhaps because you buy more from Amazon so they are willing to cut you a better deal. Very little on Amazon has wildly overpriced shipping and the minority of stuff that does have overpriced shipping is obvious and invariably from third party vendors. Most of what I buy is through Prime and has "free" shipping. If you see overpriced shipping don't buy it.

Of course I've made my living doing ecommerce in the past so I can assure you that most people have NO idea what shipping actually costs. We used to charge exactly the rate UPS charged us and people would complain that we were inflating shipping prices even though we were shipping at cheaper rates than they could get themselves.

or their bait and switch, or their sending an item entirely different from what was pictured.

Aside from one or two mistakes where the wrong item got picked I've never seen this happen and I've ordered a LOT of stuff from Amazon. The few mistakes they've made they corrected and sent the correct item or refunded me no questions asked. I've never seen Amazon "bait and switch" anything, ever. If it was a third party vendor not sending what was shown I would just immediately send it back and complain to Amazon. They'll pay the return freight and refund your money.

Yeah I know there are resellers, but Amazon fronts them so they get the blame too.

If you buy the thing with the overpriced shipping, the only party to blame is yourself. Buy somewhere else if you don't think you are getting a good deal.

The solution to every problem isn't an app

[sjbe]

Why not just have a cell phone app.

Because the best solution to every problem isn't an app. Believe it or not there sometimes are better and more efficient ways to solve a problem.

Open the app, see a list of easy to order items, click on the items you want to order and hit send. That's it. Very simple to use, and the user knows that their order went through.

All of which is harder than just pushing a button. You just described a 4 step process than in reality has even more steps. (turn on phone, log in, find app, open app, scroll through list, select item(s), select send). Compare that with pushing a single button on a wall and it is absurdly complicated.

Look I don't have any use for these Dash buttons myself but I understand what they are trying to do. The less steps someone has to go through the more likely they are to buy. The founder of Coke basically built his business around making sure his product was "within arm's reach of desire" which is why you can easily find a coke product almost anywhere on the globe even in some of the most remote corners. They made buying their product VERY easy. Amazon is trying to do similar things. Maybe the Dash buttons won't work out but the principle of what they are doing makes sense. Sometimes a more general solution isn't the better one.

Re:Have you ever been to a grocery store?

[rockmuelle]

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