The reason that many Web sites are hard or unsatisfying to use either comes down to naivete or ignorance. The problem is that they often ask you to follow a non-intuitive path through their site to get what you want but wind up not delivering the goods.
We ran across such a site the other day. We own a Yard-Man riding mower manufactured by MTD Products. Our machine is the Sears Yard Bug a now discontinued model. Our wife says that it looks like it should be made by Playskool and that we look very amusing as we scuttle around on it. Be that as it may, it is a neat package though we must admit not as well designed as we first thought.
Anyway, when the Yard Bug failed to start the other day we decided to fix it – it had to be electrical and how hard could it be?
The answer was “very.” The manual that comes with the machine has a diagram of the wiring harness that doesn’t actually show any connections and none of the interlock safety switches are shown on any of the mechanical drawings. So, the obvious thing to do is check the manufacturer’s Web site. Right?
Wrong.
Go to the MTD Owner’s Manual section and try to find the Lawn Bug. You will need the machine’s model number and – get this – the machine’s serial number! This is ridiculous! Worse still there’s nothing there more than the original manual as a PDF but it will take you ages to find this out given the site’s organization. Which is where we started this diatribe.
Try to find the model on the site. Go to the home page and in the “Product Menu” combo box select “Riding Tractors”. The resulting page appears rather devoid of information until you realize that you are supposed to click on the photograph of the tractor. Has MTD ever got a real human being to test the site? This layout is anything but obvious.
When you do crack the code you get another tractor picture and a list of products without pictures so if you don’t know that your model is discontinued you have to click on each link in turn. Argggh.
And should you want to get really frustrated, just try the section “What Model is Best for You?” If you choose attributes that don’t match the spec of any of their products you wind up at a page that tells you “Any one of these products will work for you. See your local retailer for availability.
