Re: Best idea of the week, make that year. Yeah, yeah, I know the year just started

[k k <turnleftatnowhere -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> 
> P.S. To tie this to another thread, this is why a UI
> seminar is in the long
> term more useful than an XML class: done right, the
> good system design would
> alleviate the need for programming a follow-up
> message.
> 

I currently work for a company that does financial
transfer software.

The above statement isn't really applicable. The fact
"Michaelangelo 5.5" isn't printed on the statement has
nothing to do with UI design. The question of what is
printed on the statement is a business decision made
by the company that actually printed and sent the
statement.

Credit card transactions are almost never handled by
the company that sells you the product. That company
hands off the information to a processor, a company
that has the databases to handle routing ACH files
between banks and the Federal Reserve. They do the leg
work of notifying the FR and the credit card company
of where money needs to be shifted between accounts.
(In fact, ALL bank transfers in this country are
actually done by the Federal Reserve. When someone
speaks of banks transferring funds, what really
happens is Bank 1 sends a messge to the Federal
Reserve that they owe X dollars to Bank 2, and the
Federal Reserve is the entity that actually sends the
money.) The credit card company prints the statement
and sends it to you. They are the ones that decide
what to put on the statement.

The name of the product or the name of the company
that sold it is not necessarily included in the data
that goes through the processor to the credit card
company. Most likely that file has only an account
number to identify the source of the data. Obviously
the credit card company doesn't want to bother doing
the programming needed to extract the name of the
product or its manufacturer from its database and
include them on the printed statement. The people who
sell you "Michaelangelo 5.5" or whatever it is are
putting themselves out and doing the customer a great
favor to correct a flaw in the system caused by the
credit card companies increasing their profit margin
by reducing their code creation load.

UI design has nothing to do with this. The UI designer
can't affect the business rules that cause the
situation.




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