Good Services Allow You to Walk Away
Being technologically adventurous in this "Age of The Beta" we live in is a lot of fun. I love checking out new web-based services as they make their way on to the scene. In fact this post is coming to you via Posterous (a service I happen to be checking out for the first time right now) written with an app that's in beta (Gmail, the perpetual beta). But the level of trace info which it leaves scattered across the internet is beginning to make me paranoid.
Each social service, website, mailing list, etc. that I've signed up for has a small thumbprint of me- usernames I've selected, bookmarks I've liked, email addresses, people I've communicated with, etc. These user accounts will likely live on as long as the service stays in business. They'll likely even live on much longer than I do.
I can't tell you why this bothers me. It's not like anyone could siphon value out of my hijacking my dull life. But just having the loose end hanging there bugs me. Which is why I love services which allow you to try them out, and then walk away cleanly if things don't go well. One prime example of this is Delicious. I recently tried it out, and while it's a nifty service, I couldn't fit it in to my daily internet groove. Instead of just abandoning the site hoping that someone someday deletes my data, Delicious allows you to delete your account. This little feature not only makes me feel more comfortable, but it leaves me with a positive impression of the service- a service that I didn't even like much to begin with. I might try it again some day, simply for how easily they let me leave.
So if you're designing a new service or open beta, give your users the option to walk away cleanly. If they do leave, they'll leave with a smile.
Comments [0]