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Why is the Adobe product website so hard to use?

Community Beginner ,
Jul 26, 2013 Jul 26, 2013

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With the great sucking sound of Adobe's migration to CC, those of us wanting to buy perpetual license products often find it next to impossible to find the correct order page.  Example:  It took me over 15 minutes to find the page where I could buy the downloadable CS6 PPro.  I bookmarked it.

Today I went looking for Acrobat XI Standard (NOT Pro).  I still haven't found that. [Correction:  I found it while composing this message; see below.]  You would think one could find a page to buy something quite easily.  Here's my path:  Home page->Products (Top Destinations)->Acrobat, then Buying Guide (small print in the middle of the page), then push the Acrobat XI Standard icon, then FAQ(!), then Purchasing Acrobat XI, then How do I buy Acrobat XI.  That opens a sub-text in which there is an active llink "Select a store".  I push that — and my cart is preloaded with Acrobat XI Pro!  No way to buy Standard that I can find!

OK, back up to the Standard page.  On the right it offers me an upgrade which I can't use.  In sheer desperation I push the Buy button for the upgrade.  It replaces the panel with another one in which Upgrade is still the defaultl choice.  Ah-ha!, NOW there's a dropdown that allows me to choose Full.

Problem solved.  But see the original question.  On no other product website is it so hard to buy something you want.  Why is Adobe's so obtuse?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Jul 26, 2013 Jul 26, 2013

I agree; Adobe's website (not only the product area, also help & support) are among the most difficult to navigate on the whole planet.  But you ask why, and I have no idea.  Perhaps it is a test: only the most clever and wise of us are allowed to buy Adobe software?

However, just to re-experience your own, I went looking for a download of Acrobat XI Standard, and surprisingly it took me only two or three clicks to get there:

Start from https://www.adobe.com/ and sign in

Hover on the Products butto

...

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LEGEND ,
Jul 26, 2013 Jul 26, 2013

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I agree; Adobe's website (not only the product area, also help & support) are among the most difficult to navigate on the whole planet.  But you ask why, and I have no idea.  Perhaps it is a test: only the most clever and wise of us are allowed to buy Adobe software?

However, just to re-experience your own, I went looking for a download of Acrobat XI Standard, and surprisingly it took me only two or three clicks to get there:

Start from https://www.adobe.com/ and sign in

Hover on the Products button and select Acrobat from the dropdown.

Under Acrobat XI Standard click Buy

Change Upgrade to Full, then click Add to Cart

For once that was quite easy...

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 26, 2013 Jul 26, 2013

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> Under Acrobat XI Standard click Buy

> Change Upgrade to Full, then click Add to Cart

You are correct, and it would have saved me several steps.  But for a seldom customer like me, that Buy button says only Upgrade, for which I don't qualify.  I haven't a clue that I will have a Full option by pushing it.  As I wrote in the OP, I only pushed Buy out of sheer desperation when nothing else worked.

Thanks for the simplification and for the lightning response.  If I ever buy anything at Adobe again (unlikely, as I am firmly in the anti-CC camp), I'll try to remember how.

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Mentor ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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Perhaps they have imported the web design to India as well.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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Phillip, I am sorry to have to say that I find your insistence on mocking/attacking India and the people of India rather tiresome and even irritant. I may be biased because I am not a citizen of the USA, but I think you are taking things a bit too far.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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Claudio, I understand you're only responding to Phillip, so this reply is for him as well.  The subject of outsourcing and offshoring is interesting in itself, but it's the subject of another discussioni.  May I ask both of you, and any future commenters on this subject not to hijack this thread.

Best, of course, would be to hear from some Adobe insiders who might give us some insight as to why the website is as it is.

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LEGEND ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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Best, of course, would be to hear from some Adobe insiders who might give us some insight as to why the website is as it is.

I do agree. Unfortunately, our "Adobe Presence" here is limited to some very hard-working administrators, who probably do not have all that much input to (or receive much info from) the Web site design team.

My guess would be that the Web site looked good on paper, and that to the designers, functioned well.

Also, with the release of CC versions, I can see where Adobe would anticipate that the majority of visits WOULD apply to CC, so greater emphasis is placed on those versions - and also that Adobe wishes most users to go to a CC license model. Obviously, that will happen soon, as the CS 6 products become unavailable - sort of a dead end.

Still, being able to choose the exact product and its version, and then easily going to the proper page should still be the biggest concern. The same holds for all Web sites that sell a product, or service. Make it easy, and logical for the users.

As for the Adobe Forum Design Team, they are (or were) based in India, but I do not think their geographic location has any influence on the Page designs. I feel that their hands are tied by Jive. I do not know if they also contribute to the Adobe.com Page designs, but whoever is responsible, could do a better job, IMHO.

Good luck,

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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SVLbyler, my apologies, I had no intention whatever of hijacking this thread, just the opposite.

As to the design of this site, I have complained since the changeover to Jive of many "small" quirks, and have suggested many "minor" improvements. The semi-official answer has always been that the Jive software does not allow such changes, and therefore nothing has been done about them. That is why I have stopped suggesting improvements.

My sad impression is that these forums are run by Jive, not by Adobe.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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> My sad impression is that these forums are run by Jive, not by Adobe.

Somewhere we got sidetracked.  My complaint (see subject) was with the Adobe PRODUCT website, not the Adobe FORUM website.  I have no problem with the Forum.  (Full disclosure:  My nephew is one of the two tech founders of Jive Software.)

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LEGEND ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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My apologies again: it would seem I did not read all the posts carefully enough, and I didn't notice I had been  sidetracked.

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Mentor ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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There is no complaints from me about the Forum (thankfully) last few months ever since they have quit putting the Jive series number at the botton of the page. Several months now.  (I've just Jinxed the forum by bragging on it).

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 28, 2013 Jul 28, 2013

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Claudio González wrote:

Phillip, I am sorry to have to say that I find your insistence on mocking/attacking India and the people of India rather tiresome and even irritant. I may be biased because I am not a citizen of the USA, but I think you are taking things a bit too far.

I agree with you completely here.  Attacking anybody using their ethnic origin is completely wrong.  In fact, if Philip is American then the language used in post # 3 remains much to be desired.  It is completely wrong grammatically and even Indians can write better.

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Mentor ,
Jul 28, 2013 Jul 28, 2013

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I am not for nor against Indians (from India or the US) or any Foreign person. If you are going to train foreign people if they are going to provide service help to Americans (or for that matter other countries) to provide them equal the training they would get if they were based in America (or that foreign country). And If they are to speak a Foreign (to themselves) language they should be provided diction classes, so they can pronounce English (or that foreign country) as good as, or better than Americans or British/Canadian/Australian's (or other Foreign Countries) can. So that we understand what they are saying.

It’s a sign of the times where companies would rather takes jobs away from Americans That need it to put more money in the pockets of Offices and Board of Directors. So be it there is nothing we can do to stop it. 

Personally I don't care if the person is from America, India, Mars, Vulcan, Klingon, Romulus etc. As long as I have the ability understand what the person is saying. It gets frustrating when I get on a Tech line and have to ask the person to repeat the answer up to 20 times, and have to give up because I can't make heads nor tails of what they say.

And Yes I am white. But I was brought up by Parents that didn't care about color. Dad born 1912, Mother 1924. Both when growing up, were it not for blacks in the area, where they lived, they would have gone hungry. Both of them and myself we didn't see color or if you're from a different Ethnic group. You were just trying to make a living like everyone else. You put your pants on the same way (on leg at a time)

And finally, yes I admit my English is not the best. When I went school I had the most difficulty with it. It was boring and uninteresting and would often put me to sleep. So my spelling and Grammar is off. I am not proud of it. But I just deal with.  So make fun if you desire. (I've had people make fun of me all my life from Elementary school on so nothing is going th change.)

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LEGEND ,
Jul 27, 2013 Jul 27, 2013

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Pat,

But you ask why, and I have no idea.  Perhaps it is a test: only the most clever and wise of us are allowed to buy Adobe software?

That is the best line that I have read all month!

BTW - I do agree about the navigational aspects of the Adobe Web site. Often I will get where I need to be, but then, when I attempt to go back, I cannot figure out how I ever got there in the first place. Secretly, I think that there are random variables, that come into play, and change the navigation, just to frustrate me.

With CC, I find that things seem to have gotten worse and have given up trying to find a URL to help out a poster. I know that it's somewhere, but after many failed attempts to find it (and I have been using the Adobe Web sites, since they first went up on HTTP), I just gave up.

I won't go quite so far as saying that they are the most difficult on the "whole planet," as you should see my electrical power supplier's Web site - that changes drastically almost every month, and makes no sense whatsoever. Still, it certainly could be better, and easier to navigate.

Hunt

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 28, 2013 Jul 28, 2013

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Today I went looking for Acrobat XI Standard (NOT Pro).  I still haven't found that. [Correction:  I found it while composing this message; see below.]  You would think one could find a page to buy something quite easily.  Here's my path:  Home page->Products (Top Destinations)->Acrobat, then Buying Guide (small print in the middle of the page), then push the Acrobat XI Standard icon, then FAQ(!), then Purchasing Acrobat XI, then How do I buy Acrobat XI.  That opens a sub-text in which there is an active llink "Select a store".  I push that — and my cart is preloaded with Acrobat XI Pro!  No way to buy Standard that I can find!

I found it within 1 minute of clicking on the correct links in the main adobe website. The trick is (if this is a trick or not) to go to the main website at this link:

http://www.adobe.com

Then at the top you will see a menu item as shown in this link:

2013-07-28_1235.png

You now need to click on the Products link to get something like this:

2013-07-28_1239.png

Now when I clicked on the Acrobat item I got these options:

2013-07-28_1230.png

Now this wasn't rocket science for me because, as my ID suggests, I am in a different industry altogether.

The only other point I will mention is that one needs to have an ambition in life to crack almost any difficult problems like browsing the web.

Hope this helps and hope you will buy the perpetual licenses for all Adobe products while stocks lasts.  They are going like hot cakes here.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 28, 2013 Jul 28, 2013

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SVLbyler wrote:

Problem solved.  But see the original question.  On no other product website is it so hard to buy something you want.  Why is Adobe's so obtuse?

Because not mny people buy software from Adobe when buying from Amazon is much more cheaper.  Look at these two prices:

2013-07-28_1345.png

2013-07-28_1344.png

If more people start buying from Adobe direct then the website could be made simpler for buying customers.  Perhaps this is something something our MVPs can suggest to their Adobe Masters. Pat weiner could do this because he is spending more time deciding what is a correct answer and what is not when he could do something that could make money for Adobe.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 28, 2013 Jul 28, 2013

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Look at these two prices:

You're comparing Acrobat Standard from Amazon with Acrobat Pro from Adobe.

Adobe's retail price for Acrobat Standard Full Win is US$299 (compared to Amazon's US$279.38)

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Guest
Jul 29, 2013 Jul 29, 2013

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Well in my opinion website is good but you just need to get used to it. I hope you will get it quickly

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