Food. Get out of the way and let me buy the food so I can eat it.
Streaming site. Get out of my way so I can experience a story and feel connected to other human beings.
There's a lot of value in a brand that promises you'll get what you came for, efficiently (and of course, delivers on that promise).
Bad branding is when there's a gap between what a brand promises and what you actually get. A store that promises efficient shopping but just puts stuff on shelves in wrapped packs of twelve, isn't really helping you efficiently get what you want. There are indeed a lot of examples of this (in all industries). But that's because these companies don't put any thought into what they want to be seen as and how they can (continuously) deliver on their promise.
So the promise itself (e.g. "no-frills supermarket" or "amazing shopping experience") is irrelevant, as long as the promise is fulfilled.
Whether there is a market for a promise is another thing altogether, but we're discussing whether positioning your store as the most efficient place to get what you want is detrimental to the brand, which it isn't, as long as you deliver on that promise.
Or the reason I walk two minutes farther to a different place for my shopping - they have self checkouts fueled by a single queue. Far more efficient than the closer and cheaper place.
Utility first, uncompromisingly always. This is why we still use terminals. This is why I drive a smaller less cool granny car. It's why people still ride old terrible singlespeed bikes in denmark, and it works. It's why messy desktop icons can be peak efficiency. It's why everything good is good.
However, if you operate a webapp, Spotfiy, Gmail, Amazon, etc, settle on a "core UI" and don't change it. People don't want creativity in these kinds of sites, rather they want consistency.
I guess it all boils down to, it's all about the time and place.
You can see it in the way you're talking about them like "they don't matter - so do whatever you want". And you're right.
But I find that unsatisfying. We should be able to have it both ways - interesting aesthetic alongside utility.
The first occurrence of "website" in the second sentence was supposed to be "webapp", right?
It's the exact same amount of robot, just more dumbed down when it's customer facing.
I am picturing the hand model from zoolander, with the glass protection orbs, making someone else do absolutely everything for them.
The worker scanning and bagging my groceries is a service that makes my shopping experience more pleasant and less taxing on me. I'm not giving that up in exchange for nothing.
The ones I will never use are those which have a voice you can't turn off. Having to listen to those as I queue nearby, all I want for xmas is a HIMARS.
Also, you don't have self checkout "stores" here. Essentially every supermarket has a self checkout section. You can just make your judgement call in there on the fly. It's pretty much always faster though even if someone has a decent sized load due to the shared queue system.
I think if someone brought 50 items to self-checkout area, they would get knifed in the back.
There are usually at least 6 terminals, so if you have a incompetent idiot on one of them, it doesn't make too much of a difference.
About 90% of the time, there's no line.
... not that I've done it or do it... but worked at a grocery store a long time ago in high school and maybe coworkers frequently did this?
The website is built first and foremost as a way to find what you need. Buying online is almost an afterthought, there's one link in the header, and the only other indication that there even is an online store is once you click the exact item you want. Exactly where it should be.
It does exactly what it needs to and not much more. It's beautifully functional.
As long as the place is clean and well stocked with fresh items, anything else is worth approximately 0% to 5% to me.
The shop staff would correspond to gastric enzymes.
How big was the one you went to if they even had room to make a maze?
They run warehouses with a grid of rails and seem to be on a mission to automate as much of the logistics and delivery of products as possible. The website allows me to set up a regular weekly order, I can edit it up until the evening of the day before to add any last minute items. I think I pay £10 a month for unlimited deliveries over £40. Having someone bring a weekly food shop to your door for £2.50 is a great deal.
Not only is this a super easy to get food shopping done each week, I can do it from the comfort of my desk (great for when Retros get a little boring!). It also stops me impulse buying things.
I know I already have a December 23rd order coming full of Christmas food and I get to avoid the packed Christmas food shoppers and the depressing Christmas decorations and music in store (I'm a scrooge).
I don't want a better shopping experience, I want the best food, at the cheapest prices, delivered to me in a reliable way. I don't want to think about buying food any longer than I have to each week.
Being in a grocery store is not an important part of managing or using food supplies.
It's a shame they had to switch from Waitrose to M&S food. When they offered Waitrose stuff, it really was the best food and the best logistics combined. But the M&S quality and range are much less solid in our experience.
Nice, now do s/supermarket/Apple
I don’t goto YT to be mesmerized by their algorithm.
I am having more fun making content with OpenCV than anything I’ve done at a cloud job in 10 years.
Fingers crossed open ML implodes the tech labor industry by empowering owners of actual hardware rather than a bunch of middle men employees
They are very much a success on the shoulders of doing it differently.
You say that but I don’t think it’s entirely true. Ask around and people definitely have strong opinions about grocery stores. This one’s dingy and that one’s organized. This one’s cramped and that one’s too big. This one is laid out weird and that one is too bright.
Just because you’re not looking for a Disney-level experience doesn’t mean you’re not subtly affected (for better or worse) by all these little designed elements every time you go shopping.
The layout I don't care, I'll learn it. And the other 90% of design is up for grabs.
Some people are solely focused on the dollar price of eggs and bread and don’t care one cent about other impacts, while some others factor in things like animal welfare or organic ag.
Accounting for the options makes it less cut and dry. Do items get grouped by cost level or by item category? Which gets most prominent placement? Is it consistent across stores? How many options is right for each product category?
Article names it "... these regressive trends ..." - so here I disagree because not everything has to be "Disney-level experience" or even fancy.
Yes I go for cleaner supermarket and do less shopping in murky ones but in a way that is discussed in article we discuss *supermarkets are all the same*.
If there would be a supermarket that has some fancy shelve design or tries to surprise me each time I go there I would not care if it is clean and cashiers are supermodels - if I would have to deal with too much nuisance of their shelves to get basic stuff pay and get out.
This happens in the real world too. My wife wanted a Bulthaup kitchen. They were happy to give us a big book with their product line. But it wasn't a catalogue with sections for sinks, cabinets etc. Oh no, each section was photographs (basically no text) of built-out kitchens. No product names, part numbers, or prices. If you were interested in something you had to go to the shop and point at the thing in the photo to discuss it with a salesperson. A terrible company to do business with.
> I don't go there to wonder how cool web design might be - I go there to buy stuff or start video.
A gamer starts a game so they can play it, but that doesn't stop designers from making the menu both creative and easy to navigate. They aren't mutually exclusive. If game designers can do this, then why can't everyone else?
If I go to supermarket I don't want "shopping experience" - I want to buy bread and eggs - set your shop in a way where I can do it quickly and I will be coming back.
There are of course places/events where it should be an experience, like if I go to fancy restaurant I want "fancy dinner experience". When I am on the road and have to just eat something McDonalds does the job 10 mins and I am out even if it is not best choice food wise.
So setting up your page if it is webshop or streaming service - I don't go there to wonder how cool web design might be - I go there to buy stuff or start video.