My son is in elementary school, 5th grade in the fall, I have been collecting box tops for his school for the last 5 years. I recently purchased a product that is box top eligible and to my surprise there was no box top instead there was a new box top that told me there was no more clipping and I’d have to scan my receipt and download there app. (I don’t want any more apps…I know I’m in digital marketing, that comment is not lost on me.)
So I guess I’m going digital with my box tops…let’s go on a usability journey. 
First, I’m impressed with the box top design on the box; in a very small space they have given me the critical points to know. I no longer have to clip the box top, great. I have to scan my receipt, got it. I need to keep my receipt from the purchase (wish I read that in store, I threw out the receipt.). They give me a short link to learn more, BTFE.com in all caps, which makes it easy to read. I open my phone and go to the site it tells me to, btfe.com, it’s just a mobile version of their website. Click the site and it sends me to a page about the app with an option to download, I download the app. 
Now I’m off the site and in the app, first steps tells me to look for the box top logo, next tells me no more clipping, last “It’s that easy”…there words not mine. Now I have to sign up for an account. I can sign in with my own credentials or create an identify with my Facebook or Google account. I’m going with Google. I’m in, now it’s asking me to agree to Terms and Conditions, ok fine. 
Now I find my school, it gives me an affordance to choose from name, zip code or city, state, went with zip code, found my school. It told me on this screen I can change my choice anytime in account setting, good to know. Added data to my profile, birthday and zip code…wonder what they’ll do with that data?? It gives me a quick tutorial on what each section is for and what to know, nice. It now tells me what to tap to scan my receipt and the scan function gives me a quick overview on how best to scan my receipt. The steps on how to scan my receipt are below with some call outs.
Exploring the app, it tells me what products are box top eligible, the home page gives me ways to earn extra bonus box tops and gives me a screen with the total for my school. It’s cool to be in school.
The only thing with going digital that I see, is how do others give me their box tops now. My mom has been clipping and giving them to me for years, now she has to remember to bring her receipts all the time or download the app. I’m not sure that she’ll do all that, I’m not sure I’ll do all that either. Not that I liked clipping and taping and getting my son to submit them to his school, but that seemed easier than remembering all these steps to scan and add to an app. I’ll see how all this works once I remember to keep up with my receipts and scan it.
Box tops have been around for 20 years General Mills is going to have to change a lot of known behaviors for this to transition to digital. Or maybe this a ploy by General Mills to not give out as much money…
| 4 Steps to Scan my Receipt | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
The last step had a nice affordance, in that the image showed what my acceptance screen would look like, but the little arrow was not only point at “OK” but also jumping to give me an indicator that I need to select “OK” for the app to work. | ||
Here’s another blog post from “Scary Mommy” Put Away The Scissors, The Box Tops Program Is Going Digital with some of the same issues I’ve raised, if you want to explore more about box tops going digital (or more scary mommy things in general).
Taking Donald Norman’s Design Principles to Web Design, Patrick McNeil, Three Part Series
Leave a Reply