Today I saw an example of a product that in my mind has been presented terribly. Feedburner is an excellent tool that allows a site owner to see how many people are subscribed via RSS. While there is no way of seeing who is subscribed, at least you can know how many people are looking at what you write. I have used Feedburner a number of times in the past - and have never looked at the Pro features, because I assumed that Pro meant $X per month - it doesn’t.
Have a look at the screenshot below.
To me, this looks like it will take you to an upgrade page if you check a box with “pro” next to it. Actually, it just adds the extra stats - which are very good! Pro is by no means new, but I have never even thought about using it, because I was so sure it would cost money. In short, Pro lets you see the reach of your feed, as well as popular items that your subscribers click on. This post is not really about that though.
I’m not sure if is the repetition of the little blue buttons, or just the impression that anything professional (ie “pro”) costs money, but to me, this is terrible design. If it is free anyway, why even seperate it? Just make it a normal checkbox! It could be argued that Feedburner are just protecting their inexperienced users from features that are too advanced for them… But if they know enough to sign up to Feedburner (and are blogging in the first place!), surely a bit more info won’t hurt them!
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