Please Re-Join The Queue and Try Again!
// January 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Accessibility
Yesterday I decided to book 2 tickets to see The Mighty Boosh in Cardiff on November 25th this year. So, I clicked away to the Cardiff International Arena’s website and chose the event and date I wanted, then came the race against the clock!
First, you have 3 minutes to enter your name and address, read details and choose a seat that is available. Hit enter and you wait for the site to process your request (this took about a minute). I was then greeted with the message “Your request has timed out, please re-join the queue”.
So I went back into the ‘queue’ and re-entered my details (a lot quicker this time). My request processed and I was then told I had 4 minutes to read the terms and conditions, enter my credit card details, check them, re-enter my address and e-mail information and wait for the site to process my request.
I hit confirm and after a short wait I was told I was succesfull and would get an e-mail/invoice in my mail box plus I had the choice to print an invoice for my purchase.
Now this got me thinking. Imagine a user with disabilities trying to book tickets here. This would be very very difficult for them as on the web site I saw nothing that mentioned the word accessibility.
I dread to think what a screen reader would output, something on the lines of ‘Please enter your details within 3 minutes or your pc will self destruct’! It would probably feel like that to someone who rarely uses the internet, be it an elderly person or someone who is not very savvy using the web.
Now speaking as someone who is very comfortable and experienced with using the web, I failed the first task, which speaks volumes in regards to the usability and accessibility of the web application I had to use to do a simple task of ordering some tickets online.
I have ordered tickets many many times online and it’s been a case of click and order – job done, recieve an e-mail and wait for the post man. I sincerely hope this is NOT the way ticket agencies are looking to sell tickets to consumers online.
I can understand a queueing process being implemented to avoid a server crash for demanding events (remember Glastonbury 2004 anyone?) but surely there is a better way to handle consumers online without having a time limit.
