Bohmann on Usability

Micropayment systems to watch

• CoinClick looks like a sure winner in Denmark (and Scandinavia?) since the system is fairly easy to use compared to alternative solutions and is backed up by dominating financial institutions such as PBS, Danske Bank, and Nordea.
• Payex accept Euro, Dollars, British Pounds, and all Scandinavian currencies which is a necessity to do business in the relevant countries. While most other micropayment vendors are web-centric, Payex focus more on mobile payment. Their user interface still needs to be translated into Danish and Swedish.
• Valus looks like a looser. It's a prestigious project supported by major media companies and created by Accenture, Den Norske Bank, and Netaxept. However, usability is horrible since users (and vendors) are forced to use a payment process filled with pop-up windows and text written with small fonts. I tried Valus using Windows XP and the "Pay now"-button wasn't visible in a pop-up window without scroll bars. That sucks.

October 9, 2002 - By Kristoffer Bohmann