Gift Registries from Major Retailers Prone to Malfuncions

Recent testing by Forrester Research has uncovered several issues at three major gift registry providers. According to Forrester, testers encountered issues such as malfunctioning hardware, usability issues, and poor point-of-use design at Crate and Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, and Linens 'n Things.

"In Crate and Barrel's case," reported a researcher from Forrester, "usability was not an issue. The buttons on the screen were attractive, clear, and identified by color. The kiosk overall rated 20 on Forrester's scale. Unfortunately, a tool must rate 72 to pass muster as adequate."

Williams-Sonoma's gift registry kiosk, on the other hand, only rated 2, mainly because of hardware problems. "The printer was jammed when the testers began to use the kiosk, so many functions on the screen were locked as well. Once the employee cleared the jam, testers were able to complete tasks, but were not able to print a registry list -- once again due to a printer jam.", the researcher added.

Forrester researchers continued with Linens 'n Things, stating that, "their gift registry kiosk encountered performance issues in the evaluation process even before testers touched the screen. Unrelated marketing signage cluttered the space. A terse "Please keep this area clean" sign made users feel as if they should not be touching the kiosk. The signage describing how to use the registry was nearly illegible, as were the fonts on the touch-screen itself. That kiosk rated a lowly -10 on Forrester's scale."

Suggestions and recommendations by the Forrester research team included placing a self-service station out of the way of merchandise displays and noisy areas to help gift registry users concentrate.