

When a few hundred lines of javascript could equal $100 MM - zg
http://garry.posterous.com/when-a-few-hundred-lines-of-javascript-could

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simmosn
My main gripe about the vast majority of travel websites is the complete lack
of an "anywhere" option in the destination field. Sometimes I have a week off
work, a set amount of cash and don't necessarily _care_ where I go. I just
want to see all possibilities for destinations/flights etc. I think SkyScanner
is the only site I've seen this option on.

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joedev
<http://www.google.com/flights>

Select: departure airport, departure date, and return date (optionally price
range). Do not choose a destination.

See: a map of destinations with price labels shown for major cities.

Set: the max price and see possible destinations fade away.

Click: on a destination dot on the map and instantly get details of available
flights.

All without pressing a single "submit" button and without entering a single
destination.

~~~
akx
Trying to select Helsinki as departure airport: "Sorry, locations outside the
US are currently not supported."

Ah well.

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rrreese
I find expedia.com to be equally terrible in this regard. In fact I have found
that most travel oriented websites suffer from extremely poor UX, be they
hotels, airlines, bus or train services.

I can understand the smaller hotels or bus companies, but there is no excuse
for the larger players. The article is a bit presumptive in the cost, but it
has to be affecting their bottom line.

~~~
henrikschroder
I've been using hotels.com for many years now and they've actually gotten
better and better during that time. Not as good as you might like, but still.
:)

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mwexler
While I admit the form reset is annoying, I don't see where the author shows
any evidence that this usage pattern happens enough to make a difference.

Sure, when N gets large, every little bit helps. But if that behavior pattern
only happens rarely, then changing it is unlikely to make much impact.

For all we know, their testing might have shown that folks who are planning
trips between 2 options (flight to Vegas, no hotel needed, vs. flight to LA,
hotel needed) wanted the form to reset so they didn't have to keep swiping and
typing over leftover text in the fields. The frequency of usage patterns,
weighted by their value to the business, would be a useful guide.

I'm not saying that the recommended change is the right or wrong thing to do,
but I am saying that some data would really help back up any claims over size
of impact. Otherwise, it's a good finding ruined by a totally exaggerated
headline.

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swalsh
Hipmunk has an amazing interface, but I have yet to actually use it to
purchase a flight. Quite often I find better deals elsewhere. I really want to
use it exclusively, but I just don't trust it to have the best data yet.

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dbcooper
Why on earth would someone abbreviate million as MM?

~~~
heretohelp
Pretty standard/common practice.

When discussing certain quantities, including money, it's common to use MM
such as $100MM.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix#Similar_symbols_in_ab...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix#Similar_symbols_in_abbreviations)

~~~
cabalamat
> Pretty standard/common practice.

It's a common practise, but it's not a standard AFAIK. It's from latin mille
which means 1000, so M=1000, and MM=1000000.

Unfortunately there is also a much more widely used international standard
where k=1000 and M=1000000, so the M/MM forms are to say the least, confusing,
and ought to be scrapped.

~~~
swombat
On the other hand, I've never seen anyone use 10M to mean 10k, so there
doesn't seem to be any actual confusion caused by this.

1000 = k

1000000 = either m or M or MM

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simondlr
When numbers get large, the more the little things start to matter. It must be
exciting to see the changes happen live in front of you when you flick these
'little' switches.

~~~
patio11
Not that any of my clients would do this (or, candidly, I'd fire them), but
suffice it to say I've heard of places where you can make enemies by being a
wee bit too effective at plucking low-hanging fruit like this.

I think 9 figures is likely to be an exaggeration but say it is 7 figures (or
low 8 figures) per year, which is probably pretty easy to verifiably achieve.
Large corporations being what they are, there's a high probability that
someone will be personally identified with the decision made 5 years ago which
a) you're suggesting reversing and b) you're suggesting cost the company ~$40
million dollars. This combination makes you a threat to that person's career.
Likely as not, that person is a VP, and they didn't get where they are without
having political capital and favors owed to them by people who _also_ might
have eventually risk getting demoted for gross incompetence if that were
possible to do with "mere numbers." So you have to watch your back.

I once had a consulting proposal where I suggested that a process change could
improve outcomes by let's call it $X0 million (and I was charging $X0k).
Apparently a VP had sponsored the current process, at a cost of $X million,
and he was directly in the line of signatures required to get the consulting
gig approved. That ended that.

Startups/small companies aren't immune to this sort of pathology but you tend
to get a lot less of it in my experience.

~~~
nswanberg
Gerald Weinberg discusses this problem in his "Secrets of Consulting",
somewhere after proclaiming "it's always a people problem." One is hired as a
consultant, and so one thinks the best approach is to recommend a change that
likely achieves the best possible outcome for the client.

But in accepting this, the client would have to acknowledge the existence of
this problem and all its potential consequences.

If I remember correctly, his recommendation is for a consultant to only
improve matters by, say, 10%, making the client look good for hiring a
consultant, making the consultant look good for delivering, and, what seemed
to me just a happy side-effect, benefiting the client's organization.

The alternative, I suppose, is for the consultant to move on to greener
pastures, and for the organization to see a 0% gain.

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jackshepherd
I work for an airline and recently redesigned the flight search. Saw 10%
increase in movement to next stage of the funnel.

I still don't feel like I can say 'increased turnover by £70million' in good
faith though.

There is a limited market out there. For a small business a 10% uplift in
conversion really = 10% more revenue. The same isn't necessarily true for a
blue chip.

~~~
danielharan
A 10% revenue can drive more than 10% increase in profits.

Sounds like you're doing a fine job of following patio11's advice (getting
close to the money). Hope that works out for you! :)

