Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

Discussions about the Online Donation system.
TuckerHST
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#11

Post by TuckerHST »

lmcguire wrote:If I were one of the programmers, and I had seen this thread, I would be *seriously* pondering Easter eggs by now. :D
Yess! If the perforation strip didn't do anything before, maybe it will now.
russellhltn
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#12

Post by russellhltn »

I think there's something to be said for a design that prevents questions. Even intelligent people might wonder if the categories are the same or if there might be some other difference. After all, when you're dealing with money, you want to be sure.

The church has a very limited help desk staff. Normally they help leaders, but this is something rolling out to the entire church. Help desk would be completely overwhelmed if even a very small percentage of people called to ask that question.

So while this might seem to be a violation of sound web page design, I think it's fulfilling a higher design function of being easily understandable by the masses. I think it will go away at a future date, once everyone has settled in.
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TuckerHST
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#13

Post by TuckerHST »

russellhltn wrote:I think there's something to be said for a design that prevents questions. Even intelligent people might wonder if the categories are the same or if there might be some other difference. After all, when you're dealing with money, you want to be sure.

The church has a very limited help desk staff. Normally they help leaders, but this is something rolling out to the entire church. Help desk would be completely overwhelmed if even a very small percentage of people called to ask that question.

So while this might seem to be a violation of sound web page design, I think it's fulfilling a higher design function of being easily understandable by the masses. I think it will go away at a future date, once everyone has settled in.
Hmm, interesting take. A couple of thoughts. First, this system isn't replacing traditional donations, right? So the target audience is early adopters, not the anxious "masses." Second, intelligent people are the least likely to interpret a superfluous decoration as substantive (i.e., a legitimate indication that the important stuff hasn't changed). In fact, my experience with the Gospel is that's what we're taught NOT to do, i.e., not to make decisions based on superficial indicators or outward appearance. To me, it seems contradictory to follow the opposite philosophy in UX.

All that said, I'm still open to the results of usability testing. Sometimes counter-intuitive conclusions are arrived at by testing; that's why it's done. But to be clear, it would be a surprise result.
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aebrown
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#14

Post by aebrown »

TuckerHST wrote:First, this system isn't replacing traditional donations, right? So the target audience is early adopters, not the anxious "masses."
It sure seems to me that it is indeed replacing traditional donations for many of its users. If the target audience were only early adopters, then it wouldn't be worth the effort. It makes much more sense that the target audience is quite broad. Of course, by definition the early adopters will be first, but I can't imagine that all this effort would be put into a system that is only or even primarily for the early adopters.

In any case, I think there's a good argument to be made that the image subtly reinforces the message that this online system replaces the paper system people are familiar with. Most people won't give it a conscious thought. I think it's a reasonable design, but even though some may think otherwise, this is certainly a very minor issue.
scgallafent
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#15

Post by scgallafent »

The target audience is not early adopters. Those who are typically early adopters may help get the word out, but the goal is to get this into the hands of the masses.

My stake has been using this application for about a month. When people look at it for the first time, I frequently hear "it even has the perforations at the top of the slip." When I was looking at the system with my daughter while she was home from college a couple of weeks ago, we looked at how you can see the receipt for a past donation. (Yes, you see a yellow slip.) Her excited comment when she looked at it was "See! I told people you don't tear the white part off the top of the yellow slip."

Some people will see that as wasted space. Others see that detail and the familiarity makes them more comfortable with the application. In my experience with members of my ward, the little "strip" of real estate has been valuable in increasing their comfort with the application.

As for uptake, 30% of our donations are coming in electronically and about 25% of the members using electronic donations are retired.
kellymab
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#16

Post by kellymab »

scgallafent wrote: When I was looking at the system with my daughter while she was home from college a couple of weeks ago, we looked at how you can see the receipt for a past donation. (Yes, you see a yellow slip.) Her excited comment when she looked at it was "See! I told people you don't tear the white part off the top of the yellow slip."
The fact that past donations turn yellow just made my day. If nothing else, the decision to keep the online version looking like the hard copy will bring many a smile to people.
JediMormon
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#17

Post by JediMormon »

It's a matter of familiarity. The online slip looks exactly like the paper slips available in the ward buildings. With no perforations at the top of the online slip, you can bet that some members (especially new converts), would be thinking "Wait a minute. This doesn't look the same."
t0008sa
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#18

Post by t0008sa »

It's skeuomorphism. A lot of Apple apps used to have that, but it's pretty much been killed by material/flat design.
lajackson
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Re: Online donation slips have perforation strips?!

#19

Post by lajackson »

t0008sa wrote:It's skeuomorphism.
I particularly smile at the end when the picture of the handshake with the bishopric shows up. But I believe those were the instructions to the developers. Make it as much like the real live experience as possible.
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