Thursday, January 12, 2006
BonusPrint: The Worst Photo Printing Service Ever?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 09:00 AM
I've complained in the past how frustrating it was that Picasa didn't offer any options for ordering online prints for Canadians, but several months ago they released an update that offered one option: BonusPrint. This is a big deal, because my parents and my in-laws are digital camera users but tend not to get prints made because it's confusing when I explain that they can't just uploaded their Picasa-edited images off the hard drive, they first have to export them in order to get the changes they made. I don't blame them for being confused, Picasa does this poorly. At any rate, I've used BonusPrint once, and so have a few relatives. I decided to email them today with some feedback, and after writing the email I realized it was basically a quick review of their service. Here we go!
"I recently placed an order using your service, though Picasa, and wanted to offer several pieces of feedback:
1) Zoom & Trim is turned off by default, which is a very bad thing. First, your thumbnail images are so small that it's not easy to see that there's a white border around the image, so the first-time user won't understand there's a problem. And because you're using a "3D" beveled edge (which went out of style in 1998 by the way), even when Zoom & Trim is turned on there still appears to be a white border. I'm sure that 99.99% of all people ordering from your service do NOT want to have white borders around their images, so Zoom & Trim should be turned on by default for all images. My mother in law ordered 50+ photos from you, the first time she used your service, and she wasn't aware she needed to turn on the Zoom & Trim feature, so guess what? She got 50+ photos, all with white borders, and will never use your service again. You may think that having a link explaining what Zoom & Trim does is enough, but it's not. You need to make the default be what most people will want to have, which is no white borders.
2) There's no way to activate Zoom & Trim across all images. Having to click Zoom & Trim 50 times is ridiculous! There should be a way to toggle it off and on across all images in the order. My mother, in her 50's and an inexperienced computer user, even commented that it was "silly" that she had to do the same thing 18 times in her order. If she can realize it, why can't you?
3) There's no way to change all photos in an order to one type of photo. Let's say I want 100 photos in 4x6 matte - you expect me as a customer to select 4x6 matte from the drop-down menu 100 times? That's insane.
4) Where are the options for 5x7 matte, or 8x10 matte? Offering only a 4x6 matte is limiting.
In short, I found ordering from BonusPrint to be a wholly unsatisfactory experience - your service is very un-polished, and looks like it was created in 1999 and underwent zero user testing. I'd urge you to look at other services such as ShutterFly, Kodak Gallery (formerly Ofoto), or almost any other online photo service and see how they're doing it. You have a great opportunity being the only online service available for Canadians in Picasa, but you're not going to get many repeat customers if you don't improve the end user experience."
- Jason Dunn
One thing I didn't add was that I swear their Kodak photo paper is thinner than other prints I've seen from competing companies - it just feels a bit flimsy. This goes without saying, but I'd avoid BonusPrint if I were you. If they respond to my email, I'll post the response in the discussion thread.
Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Alberta, Canada with his wife Ashley.
"I recently placed an order using your service, though Picasa, and wanted to offer several pieces of feedback:
1) Zoom & Trim is turned off by default, which is a very bad thing. First, your thumbnail images are so small that it's not easy to see that there's a white border around the image, so the first-time user won't understand there's a problem. And because you're using a "3D" beveled edge (which went out of style in 1998 by the way), even when Zoom & Trim is turned on there still appears to be a white border. I'm sure that 99.99% of all people ordering from your service do NOT want to have white borders around their images, so Zoom & Trim should be turned on by default for all images. My mother in law ordered 50+ photos from you, the first time she used your service, and she wasn't aware she needed to turn on the Zoom & Trim feature, so guess what? She got 50+ photos, all with white borders, and will never use your service again. You may think that having a link explaining what Zoom & Trim does is enough, but it's not. You need to make the default be what most people will want to have, which is no white borders.
2) There's no way to activate Zoom & Trim across all images. Having to click Zoom & Trim 50 times is ridiculous! There should be a way to toggle it off and on across all images in the order. My mother, in her 50's and an inexperienced computer user, even commented that it was "silly" that she had to do the same thing 18 times in her order. If she can realize it, why can't you?
3) There's no way to change all photos in an order to one type of photo. Let's say I want 100 photos in 4x6 matte - you expect me as a customer to select 4x6 matte from the drop-down menu 100 times? That's insane.
4) Where are the options for 5x7 matte, or 8x10 matte? Offering only a 4x6 matte is limiting.
In short, I found ordering from BonusPrint to be a wholly unsatisfactory experience - your service is very un-polished, and looks like it was created in 1999 and underwent zero user testing. I'd urge you to look at other services such as ShutterFly, Kodak Gallery (formerly Ofoto), or almost any other online photo service and see how they're doing it. You have a great opportunity being the only online service available for Canadians in Picasa, but you're not going to get many repeat customers if you don't improve the end user experience."
- Jason Dunn
One thing I didn't add was that I swear their Kodak photo paper is thinner than other prints I've seen from competing companies - it just feels a bit flimsy. This goes without saying, but I'd avoid BonusPrint if I were you. If they respond to my email, I'll post the response in the discussion thread.
Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Alberta, Canada with his wife Ashley.
