Poorly designed onlline checkout process

[Mr Hero]

Maybe a brain burp on my part, but when ordering food online, they really ought to make this process idiot proof.

Done right:
Pizza the Hut's checkout process. You have to actively confirm your method of payment. By default it's set to CC, so if you click too fast, it stops you until you choose what you want.

Done poorly:
Setting the default method of payment to cash. If you click too fast, your order is placed and you have to call in to the store to correct this.

In my most recent experience with Papa "Toilet's" pizza, I had earned enough points to earn a free pizza. so I order that . Whoops, in my haste, I checked out without switching the payment to CC. I called the store. If I were to cancel the order, I'd lose the points. Only thing I could do is add an extra topping so I could be charged on my CC.

[Syriilord]

I don't recall who originally said it, but : Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.


I think we've all been around long enough on this site to know how true that is...

[Arcus]

My grandfather had a Murphy's Law Unattributed Variants poster in his office. There were three that addressed trying to foolproof something.

It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently capable fool.
Make something idiot-proof, and they will build a better idiot.

[Seshat]

Even so, good UI design includes trying to make the whole thing both as predictable as possible, and as idiot-proof as reasonable.

Certainly one mis-click should not be enough to cause an irreversable mistabke.

[Sandiercy]

Someone said once (the quote might not be exact) "If they make something idiot proof, an idiot will come along and prove them wrong".