Boston is in the middle of its nth big snowstorm of this winter. I'm flying Delta tomorrow, had heard that many flights have been cancelled, and thought I'd check delta.com so that tomorrow morning I wasn't fumbling around. I'm glad I did.
These screenshots were taken at 12:40pm today. This first one is of Logan Airport's status.
Ignore the sorting. The airport is aware that all of Delta's flights have been canceled for the remainder of the day.
Here's what Delta's page is showing at that same moment:
Note:
- Status of each flight that was supposed to depart today: Past Schedule
- 1:30 flight and all subsequent flights today are still accepting reservations. Despite being cancelled.
I've been watching over the course of the day, and what happens is that when the wallclock time passes each intended departure time, that "Book>" button becomes "Past Schedule".
What are the primary purposes of the Delta website? Book flights and check status of flights.
You know what does work on their webpage? Most everything, but most amusing: their blog — most recent entry: "Connect With Your Facebook Friends In-Flight!" Or at the terminal, because if you book a flight or go to the airport today, that's where you'll be.
So how does a website get this broken? I'm guessing: no internal users. The communications worker has to look at every blog post. The HR department has to verify that each job listing is what they expect. But nobody at Delta is using their website to check flights. The nice customer service representative at the airport is using some internal interface — always works. The phone representative is using a similar, internal system as well. Because these people simply could not do their job if this were their tool.
Testing, validation, internal customers. Get as many of your own people to use your product as possible. Keep that use going. It's your best source of information, because you'll know even before you get a bug report whether something is broken.
