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Subject:
From:
Diane Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Diane Wilson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 14 Aug 2001 16:18:56 -0400
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I've come across a situation where it seems impossible not to
give a user an unpleasant surprise.  I hope some here may have
useful suggestions.

Consider a typical purchasing scenario.  You make selections,
fill out forms, and finally come to a "do it" button to finish
the process.  You click the button, and nothing appears to
happen.  So you click it again.

The problem, for the web at least, is that each click sends
off a separate transaction.  When the user does see a response,
it will be a response to the first click.  Since the browser
at that point isn't waiting for another page, as I understand
things, it will probably throw the second response away.  (I'll
be testing tonight to try to verify this, but the other scenarios
I can imagine aren't very good, either.)

With the second click, the user has effectively purchased
the same thing twice.  What is the appropriate response to
this?  The second transaction can detect the duplicate purchase,
but what do you do with it if you can't get the user's attention?
Discard the duplicate?  Email them to ask for verification?

We've all seen sites that say, "Don't click twice or we'll charge
you twice."  I don't like that either (no matter how diplomatic
the wording may be), and I don't think that it would be completely
effective in preventing errors of this type.

Please send suggestions by email.  I'll collect replies and
summarize.

--
Diane Wilson
[log in to unmask]
http://www.firelily.com/
"Art destroys silence." (Dmitri Shostakovich)

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