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Last week, I wrote about usability through my experience at a local coffee shop.  One of the comments recommended a book, so I bookmarked it with delicious and will probably forget about it in a few days because delicious (or any bookmarking service) is more for reference when I'm in a bind than a reminder to go pick something up.  It solves the bookmarking problem, but it's passive, not active, so it doesn't necessarily suit the 'wishlist' scenario.

Later on, I stumbled upon a post referencing a list of social wishlists, a post about an 'add to facebook' widget at chapters.indigo.ca and had PowerReviews/Buzzillions on my mind.  The wheels started spinning and I thought - what would make my shopping experience better?  My experience would be enhanced if there was a centralized wishlist functionality in every store. 

What would it do?

1. Provide a centralized wishlist - like Kaboodle, ProductWiki, etc.  A single place to manage my entire wishlist.  The centralized list would tell me where and when I found the product.
2. Remind me of my wishlist.  At some defined interval, remind me of what I have in my wishlist - send it bi-weekly in an email.  I should be able to schedule specific reminders, for example - I found an awesome card for my brother online 6 months before his birthday, but totally forgot about it when the time came around.
3. When I add something to my cart at a store, add it to my wishlist.  Abandoned carts are no more for authenticated users.  There is probably a neat way to solve this for unauthenticated users..  I'll stew on that.
4. Inverse of #3.  When I revisit a site, the cart should be re-populated based on my wishlist.
5. When re-populating my cart, maybe the site sees some of the other related items in my wishlist and if they carry the same product, the site also adds them to my cart.
6. When viewing my wishlist, it tells me the site I bookmarked it on, and other sites that sell the same product.
7. It would accept product updates.  Maybe vendors can communicate with the centralized wishlist using RSS (really simple syndication) to send updates to product descriptions, quantity information, price updates, etc.

What advantages are there for the consumer?

1. I have a wishlist that I can use across multiple websites, is easy to use, and provides me with some stellar value through reminders, product updates, and other features.
2. It's better than the 'bookmark and forget' system I have perfected with delicious.

What advantages are there for the vendor?

1. Vendors can see what I want.  There could be privacy issues here, but I share my bookmarks anyways, so what's the difference?
2. Vendors can push sales to me directly.  They know what I want, I will see relevant information as a result.
3. Vendors can see what the most popular items are - what does everyone have in their wishlist right now?  What is the most popular store?
4. Vendors get exposure.  By offering a particular product, you get exposure to everyone who has that item in their wishlist.

What advantages are there in general?

1. It would be awesome if RSPS were developed as a result (really simple product syndication).
2. Maybe it would lead to virtual stores that sell a collection of products from many vendors?  The store is made up of product feeds (see RSPS), and some way of paying for them all together.  Amazon's Seller Central offers similar functionality to this now, by way of allowing customers to list items for sale on their site, so this isn't a new concept, but I'm stretching it the other way - allow small shops to sell products from any company.  A consumer cross-dock sorta setup.  That would be cool.

It's a pipe dream, I know.  But it would be straightforward to implement, not hard to sell to vendors, and would really make my life easier as a consumer.  Until then, I will suffer with my patented delicious 'bookmark and forget' system.

Note:  By the end of this post, I had forgotten about the book recommendation completely.

This mornings routine forced me to visit a different Second Cup to pickup my daily dose of caffeine.  Having never visited this location before, I settled into line and waited for my turn to order.  I was greeted by staff, I ordered my medium Paradiso Medium, followed the line to the cash, swiped my giftcard and was off to find the ever important 'raw sugar' to make my coffee drinkable.

I turned around, found the sugar station, and proceeded to load up.  1.. 2.. 3.. done. 

Next - find a stir stick.  Different stir sticks here, wood instead of plastic.  I stir, and find the wood is much more effective for large sugar consumers.  Mentally noted.

Lid.  I need a lid for my coffee so I don't spill it (on myself) during my walk back to the office.  I look up to see the usual stack of lids above the sugar, reach for one, instinctively grab and shake it so I don't take 2 when I notice they are all upside-down.  Interesting. 

When I picked a lid off the stack, it was immediately easier to grab because the rim was up.  Because the rim was up instead of down I didn't apply pressure to grab it, which meant I didn't inadvertently grab 2 or 3, try to separate them and put them back on the stack.  It made my visit to the sugar station much quicker and reduced the after purchase wait time.  Fascinating!

I remembered a few things this morning as a result of my coffee experience. 

First, small changes can make a big difference.  Not all small changes will result in a positive effect on a system, but well thought out changes can.  In my case, upside-down coffee lids made a marked improvement on the overall coffee experience.  The wood stir sticks were more effective too.

Second, people who are very comfortable with a particular system can have a hard time seeing small improvements.  While I normally have feedback on everything, my morning coffee process has become a habit to the point of auto-pilot.  I have ordered a coffee so many times from the same location that I don't notice the system at all.  It's important to get a fresh perspective on a system, those who are too close might not see simple improvements that can make a big difference.

It was an interesting experience this morning.  It reminded me to read WHY WE BUY: The Science of Shopping, and CALL OF THE MALL: The Geography of Shopping again.  While all of these observations occur outside of the online experience, they still apply.  Understanding your users and their behavior within your system is a critical part of business.

There are many ways to better understand your users - through usability testing or usability assessments, but the most common and most cost effective way is through the use of analytics packages like Omniture's SiteCatalyst.  While the information gathered by the analytics package won't tell you everything, it will tell you more than you think.