Usability Review: Opt-Outs At Whitestuff.com

White Stuff is a UK-based clothing retailer. You can buy their clothes in stores or on their website. Unlike many (most) online retailers, their checkout process is actually pretty good but when it comes to usability, their email marketing opt-out forms leaves a few things to be desired.Here’s the form in its default state:

Default email marketing options on whitestuff.com

Notice how the first two options are phrased as positives (“I would love”), whereas the last option is phrased as a negative (“I do not want”). Although the same graphic — the checkbox — are used for each option, there are really two kinds of choice here: the choice to opt in to something, and the choice to opt out of something. I use the first two checkboxes to say “yes”, but I use the last to say “no”: this is counter-intuitive. Now look at the form after I’ve opted out of everything:

 Email marketing opt-out form on whitestuff.com

Two boxes unchecked + one box checked = zero email marketing. That makes no sense. It would be less bad — although still confusing — if all three checkboxes were used as negatives. No, I don’t want to hear from White Stiff, so I check box number one; no, I don’t want the “magalogue” (the what?), so I check box number two; no, I don’t want to hear from “friends” of White Stuff, so I check box number three. But this is still counter-intuitive: I shouldn’t be using checkboxes to say no to something. The right way to do it, of course, is like this:

White Stuff marketing options done right

Here the options are all of the same kind. Each time I check a checkbox, I’m answering “yes” to a question: yes, I want to hear from White Stuff; yes, I want the magalogue; yes, I want to hear from White Stuff’s friends. I can scan each label and answer the questions in my head, then transfer my answers to the page by checking boxes. Simple.

This is the kind of small detail that most websites overlook, and if you asked users they’d probably say that they hadn’t noticed it. But it matters.

Every time a website makes a mistake like this, it adds to a semi-subconsious sense of frustration on the part of the user. Make enough mistakes — make things difficult enough for the user — and that frustration will boil over into the user’s conscious mind and suddenly they’ll have a reason to leave your website. Boom: you’ve lost a customer.

Small details matter.