Stupid wizard tricks

Sometimes well-intentioned designs are less than effective.

For example, the Lenovo "select a PC" wizard on their web site. I am in the market for a laptop PC, and visited the Lenovo web site to view their wares. (I have had good experiences with IBM Thinkpads, so Lenovo has an advantage in the selection process.)

After viewing several web pages and being overwhelmed by the choices of PCs, I chose to use the Lenovo web "wizard" (my term, not theirs) to select a laptop. I had been looking at a netbook PC, and I knew that I did *not* want a netbook PC. I want a full-blown laptop PC. But their product line is larger than I can hold in my head at one time, so I ran their web wizard to ask me questions and pick "the right PC for me".

There web wizard is an awesome construct. It asks lots of questions, and then asks a second round of "balance factor X against factor Y" questions where X and Y are attributes like screen size and battery life.

Finally you get to the recommendation. This is, by scientific analysis of your answers to the multitude of questions, the best PC for you. And for me, the web wizard selected... the exact netbook that I had been looking at before, the one that I knew I did not want!

So here I am with the exact wrong answer. The web wizard, with its tiny brain, has decided that I need a netbook. Yet my gut tells me that I do not want it. What to do?

There is no "make adjustments" option. My only option is to start the entire web wizard (with its multitude of questions) from the beginning. I choose not to go through that again -- now it is an ordeal, not an assistant.

The end result: I did *not* (and to this date have not) purchased a laptop (or any other computer) from Lenovo. This is a :FAIL all around.

The moral for software developers: Use wizards -- that is, one-way selection processes of guided questions -- with care, and when you do, keep them short. The larger picture is to allow the user a degree of control, and the ability to make adjustments. Had the wizard displayed possible answers along the way, and let me narrow the set as I select attributes, I probably would be the owner (a happy owner) of a Lenovo laptop PC today.