Whilst I’m bashing o2 about their price-plan tables, here’s another thing.

Before I explain, a question for you: what’s the most important piece on information on a bill? (All together now) “How much do I have to pay?”.

Why then does my total appear on page 2? Granted, I changed price-plans part way through the period the bill covers, but that’s really no reason for the most significant piece of information to appear so far from the beginning of the bill.

Another occurrence of this was when I ordered the latest Harry Potter DVD for my daughter. One of the screens looked like the one below, with the button to take me to confirm my order (it’s that little pink thing at the bottom of the image) as far away as it could possibly be from the top of the screen. By the time I reached this step, they have my card details because I’ve shopped with them before, I’ve committed to buy something, but still they are pushing more at me. I’m about to give them my money – it’s really not the time to interrupt me.

Sure, there’s lots o2 and HMV are trying to tell me (and sell me) with these two communications, but as the user what I want to know in each case is pretty basic: “How much do I need to pay?” and “How do I get the DVD out of the warehouse and on its way to me?”. They would both be more effective if the order of the information in them reflect the way they are used.