It's Not Your User's Job

Almost all of today’s web sites require the user to format input data in specific ways. For example, most web sites require the user to enter a credit card number without any dashes or spaces. This formatting is not the user’s job, it is the computer’s job.
The digits in the credit card are separated by spaces precisely because humans find it easier to deal with numbers in smaller blocks. Requiring users to change data formats for the convenience of the computer is unacceptable. It’s the programmer’s job to adjust to the user, not the other way around. Amazon.com manages to do this. Why can’t other sites?
Here are two more examples of terrible data entry rules:

When I registered to speak at Microsoft’s Tech Ed Europe (held in Barcelona this November), the directions for entering my phone number were 40 words long:
“Your number and mobile number must be entered in the following format +441234567890 i.e. +, followed by international dialling [sic] code, followed by the number. The number must start with a + and there should be no spaces, dashes or other characters between the numbers.”

Telephone numbers are separated into country codes and area codes and exchanges specifically to make it easier for humans to deal with There’s no excuse for a programmer being too lazy to strip out the separators. And why the hell do I have to start my phone number with a + sign? It doesn’t matter why they need a plus sign. I shouldn’t have to think about it. The computer should just add its own damn plus sign, if indeed it needs one.

The worst example I’ve seen lately is on Icelandair’s web site. When I went there to buy a ticket on for a gig I’m doing in Reykjavik, here’s what their site had to say about entering data exactly the way their computer wants it:

“NOTICE: You must type in your last name before your first name. If a name is spelled incorrectly, or the last name/first name format is reversed, do not hit the back button - you must start over! Either use the Start Over button at the bottom of this page or close the window and open a new one. If you hit the back button and change the names, the changes will not take and a correction fee of USD75 or equivalent will be charged.”

Do exactly what I tell you, or I’ll punish you. Is that a polite way to treat a customer? Would we accept this sort of guff from a live human? Hell no. Any time a customer service employee mouths off to me like that, I holler for the supervisor right away, insist on an apology and a new server. In this case, I called Icelandair’s customer service phone line and demanded that a human to issue the ticket with no extra service charge. I refused to deal with their impolite web site.
It’s time we stopped accepting nonsense like this from web sites. I’ll talk about how in future postings.