

Why you choose turbotax.com - vad_65
http://www.uxpx.net/2011/02/16/why-you-choose-turbo-tax/
One day someone realized that buying books online can be more convenient than going to a book store; that is how Amazon became so popular. With turbotax.com you can enjoy listening to your favorite radio, while drinking your favorite Starbucks coffee and preparing your taxes. Who said it’s impossible?<p>As a user experience designer I always chase for good patterns I can reuse, learn from or at least do a good analysis for future projects.<p>Since it is time to prepare taxes, one of the ideas I had in my mind was to analyze one of the online tax preparation services, and since I have never used any tax preparation online services before I became excited to try it.<p>Couple of months ago one of my friends recommended me to try Turbo Tax by saying:<p>“Turbo tax is an amazing online tool; the process of tax preparation is simple and intuitive, user interface is clean and attractive! Try it buddy, you will like it.”<p>I went to check the website the same day, and now couple months later I have a chance to test drive it.<p>I set up a list of criteria and began exploring.
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geuis
Its going to sound odd, but the first time I used TurboTax a couple years ago
was one of the best user experiences of any online property I have ever had.
And its freaking _TAX_ software!

I prior to 2 years ago, I always used H&R block. The first time I chose them
simply because I knew the brand, and they were at the top of the list on the
IRS's free filing site. I then stuck with them because I was already there.

My buddy convinced me to try TurboTax, and I was utterly amazed that 45
minutes later I was pulling my bank card out to pay for the filing (I owed
some money that year). They put a _lot_ of thought and testing into the
usability of the site. It was able to effortlessly take me from step one
through to payment.

At no point do I remember ever actually providing a username or password, but
apparently I did. You know your interface is good when people forget that they
signed up and then have nothing but good feelings about your product.

I'm lucky to work with a fellow who used to work at Intuit on TurboTax. He
said once that they spend millions of dollars every year on UX, testing, etc.
It really shows.

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sbisker
I can tell you that as someone who was a designer before it was cool to be a
designer, Intuit was present at every UX and HCI conference I attended (both
academic and professional) looking for designers before it was cool to look
for designers. Even back then their design team had hundreds of people on it,
running the full gambit from interaction and visual design to quantitative
testing (and lately I've seen them hiring). It's odd that they're so good, but
it's no accident - they've been working towards it for years now.

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mildweed
Data lock-in. They've got my tax info from the last 11 years. They pre-fill a
bunch of stuff based on that.

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tallanvor
The last time I used TurboTax was for my 2005 taxes. In 2006 I moved overseas,
and they don't let overseas filers (unless you have an APO) file for free.
--As I recalled back then, they wanted me to buy the full version of the
software.

To be honest, I don't miss using TurboTax. Even the year I had to declare
income from 3 countries, the tax forms weren't that bad. I might spend 2 hours
doing my taxes this year, so TurboTax wouldn't save me that much time anyway.

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wccrawford
Someone else mentioned Data lock-in, which is part of my reason for still
using them, but it's also that I know it's in their best interest to do my
taxes correctly. And I just fill out some really simple forms, reject a few
stupid offers (no, I don't want to pay you to look over my W2), and pay my
fee. Money comes back right to my bank account (no, I don't want some silly
prepaid credit card instead) and I'm happy.

Every year, I laugh at the 'Creating a secure connection' screen at the
beginning, too. I love how pointless that thing is, but yet inspires SO much
confidence in people who don't have the know-how to know how useless it is.
(And I guess a 'skip this' button wouldn't look too good. Heh.)

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teilo
I have been using their desktop software for a number of years. Last year I
tried their online version for the first time. I did it again this year.
Fabulous. As TA notes, the UI is nearly flawless. You always know where you
are. You can dive deep into the numbers at any time without loosing track.

Why would I ever want to do this any other way? Nothing to install. Last
year's data was sitting there waiting for me. Update a few numbers, add in
child #6, and I'm done. Everything I needed was already online (property
taxes, home loan interest, etc.), except for my W2. Finished in 30 minutes.

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jonpaul
I really liked Turbotax.com and used it for about four years up until last
year. It doesn't support multi-member LLCS, so it's not useful to me anymore.

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igrekel
Based on what I read, I can only guess turbo tax is nicer in the US than it is
in Canada.

My experience with the turbo tax french canadian equivalent from intuit
(ImportRapide) was barely ok. Many times I'd see an unexpected number pop up
and I'd have to spend a long time to track back where it came from.

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senixon
never used the online version, but the desktop software is incredibly easy to
use compared to memorizing and keeping up with all the changes... again not
sure about the online version, but the desktop is designed for first time
users as well as pros, you can use the wizard to help you with every little
tiny step or if you know what goes where, just navigate to the sections and
skip around as much as you need.

