The bigger the purchase, the bigger the screen. Plane tickets are fine on a laptop, but if you’re buying a car, you need a desktop PC. A house requires a Jumbotron.
I need to use my current screen to buy a bigger screen so I can make a really big purchase
Nah a jumbotron is too low res, what you should be doing is adding more monitors.
It's as if shopping on a laptop is more user friendly or some crazy shit like that
Desktops and laptops make browing a large number of tabs easier and websites dont pare down the options and menus into a useless mess
Theres some websites where I have to look at in desktop bersion on Firefox mobile because theyre useless otherwise. Digikey for example.
Exactly. Why do sites decide "you're on mobile, so you just don't need to ever see such and such piece nformation"? I get that there's limited screen real estate, but at least put that info somewhere, inside a menu or something.
For big purchases you've got to have the desktop version of the websites, you need a mouse for precision pointing and a keyboard for alt+tab-ing between windows, plus you need a spreadsheet open where you can compile all your research.
Or worse, "You're on mobile, you need to download our app to view this content."
Meanwhile you switch to desktop view and see everything normally.
I think large purchases should be done on a monitor because not cross comparing prices/terms/sellers/etc makes one a fool.
Tiny screens are a marketer's dream. The downsides are another 2 menus deep and the shitty terms are 2 screens ago, just look at that pretty bold number at the top and the pretty bold BUY NOW button at the bottom. Whee!
If something costs more than $500, I'm doing it with 4 browser windows on 2 screens with competing offers, seller reviews, product/experience reviews, etc, confirming I'm getting screwed the least possible for what I want or need before I make the purchase, and often confirming whether or not the large purchase is warranted at all.
Gen Zs "I do large purchases on my phone," and to be clear I like Gen Z more than my own millennial generation on most issues, is just a minor derivation on a very, very, very old flex, perhaps the oldest flex of all: I don't care what it costs, I'll just buy it.
My gen X rule is the same, but workstation.
I can't believe they called a laptop screen big...
Mobile sites suck for comparing options and getting a “big picture” of what’s happening. The limited display size forces you to hold more in your head about what you’re doing. That sucks.
I was going on a trip, so I finally broke down and was going to setup a Uber account. Turns out that you can not setup an Uber account on the desktop. Only though the App and even if I have shopping apps on my phone, I don't enter CC info through it/
You also can't schedule a ride at an appointed time the day before, so when I arrived at my destination airport at 2am, I couldn't be sure I would have a ride from Uber. Yeah, maybe that's old fashioned, but those are none starters for me.
Uber sucks balls, I don't understand the popularity. My local taxi firms had a better app before Uber even arrived in my home town and I find that they're more reliable.
In Czechia they made a competitior app, very easy concept, all taxi driver can sign up, you request a trip from point a to b, you receive a bunch of bids from the drivers, you select one, pay through the app. So simple, and its not some vc funded asshollery sidestepping taxi regulations
Lol ride scheduling is a scam though. Last I saw they don't make any promises that you'll actually get a ride, they just automatically request it for you shortly before your scheduled time and you have to hope a driver is available.
Sure its one less thing to think about, but it's also no different from doing it manually. Same risks.
I have never used Uber or any ride sharing app, and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. When we travel we either rent a vehicle, use local public transit, or have friends .
It's a good backup of other services fail, or if you need a backup ride when busses are too spaced out or too indirect.
I try to avoid them except that my city's taxis charged me $120 for half of what would have been a $50 Uber ride (I left the cab early) so I don't trust them anymore.
It’s like turning off your radio so you can read the map better.
Gotta go big screen for big purchases.
That suggests it's just a matter of focus. I can open multiple screens on my pc without issue, and switch between windows and tabs easily. I also don't have to worry about auto-correct messing something up, and websites by-and-large have awful mobile sites compared to the default on desktop. The mobile experience is just worse in nearly every way, barring portability.
I hate doing anything on a phone. The UX is just bad most of the time. Most of the crucial information tends to be hidden away in sub menus. Dark patterns everywhere so you get psychologically manipulated into spending more.
Plus there is never an urgent time to buy something quickly enough that id take out my phone and clumsily navigate through some garbage outsourced app to do it.
Yeah, when I hear people complain that their banking app breaks when they use a non-standard Android ROM all I can think it "You bank on your phone? What's the emergency that can't wait until you get home to your real computer?"
I can only speak for the credit union I work with, but their app is largely better than any web based banking site I have used. From what I can find it is considered very well built, and secure, not just smooth to work with, simple UI, and have never given me single issues using it as designed.
I find myself on their site only for reading things. Like loan policies, investment stuff, etc. cause those types of documents just work better for me on a desktop.
Big LAPTOP screen? I forgo both my Laptops and Phone. Big purchases are made on the Desktop or the living room computer (which is hooked up to the living room TV) so all may see the confirmation.
This is the way. Unless you absolutely need 240Hz, TVs are as good as monitors now, especially if you get one designed for gaming like an LG OLED. Input lag is a thing of the past. Gaming on a giant 65" screen is working wonders for my back too, since I no longer have to lean forward to see.
I feel this in my bones. Right to the core. Anything important ain't happening on a mobile for some reason.
It shouldn't really be just millennials who do this, and there's a simple reason for it. Just about every web developer uses a desktop for development work, so most of their testing is done in a desktop browser. So mobile-only bugs do slip through the cracks more often, I find. imo that is the reason that to this day, a lot of bugs get overlooked on mobile.
I feel like food ordering services are always the worst culprits for some reason. Many times I have tried to order food on my phone only to get stuck in a login loop or some other bug that makes it impossible. Open the same service up on my desktop and it works perfectly first try
Notably modern browsers can simulate phones, tablets, TVs, really all kinds of screens. I personally use that mode a lot to test the mobile variant, but nearly all bugs are purely CSS-related (at least in my experience) when it comes to a mobile-desktop discrepancy. Either way, for food delivery and stuff like that I'd really expect the devs to develop primarily for mobile, so that's surprising to hear.
Yeah I refuse to debug other people's sites lol so I don't know what's going on precisely but I've noticed this a few times.
We build things as mobile first in my shop but it's really hard to test everything on a real device on every build. I suspect these kinds of bugs are usually a "this small change should work the same everywhere" but doesn't for various reasons.
And my Xennial brain says "this is looks like a job for the desktop"
I can't comprehend people who does spreadsheets on a phone
I have done this before when I needed to make one adjustment to a preexisting spreadsheet. If I don't have my laptop and someone tells me about a change to a project, sometimes I'll just make a note in my phone, but if it's a quick fix, sometimes I'll pull up the spreadsheet and fix it right away to avoid forgetting.
But that's far and away the exception
Same here I suppose, I use my phone for really small changes but usually I avoid it because it's really finicky and there's less features compared to doing it on the desktop
just small ones, those are ok
Gen-X here. Technically, I bought my car on my phone. My generation grew up picking our Christmas presents in August from the Sears and JC Penny catalogs then waiting months to get them. Buying off a phone doesn't seem that crazy TBH.
Gen X here, I don't share either of those experiences with you but whatever. I used those catalogs (and now sometimes my phone) for, umm... different purposes.
The way i see it, most people have 1 expensive/powerful device for thier work, and a secondary cheaper one of the rest. I have a custom desktop PC for my important work, and a relativly cheap phone for less important/mobile stuff. While my sister is all in on her phone for her day to day things, and a budget laptop on the side.
I have my home PC that is my REAL computer, I have a laptop as an away mission computer, and I have my phone as my portable mental unwellness device.
Same. Booking flights or doing anything otherwise intricate on a laptop with its touchpad and tiny monitor is crazy.
never mind the "big", for me, purchases at all need to be on desktops or laptops. I'm too clumsy to use phone for spending money in case that 1 quantity becomes at 100 due to a mistimed swipe.
I think I'm finally figuring out why I hate mobile UIs so much. My hands are probably twice the size of the average developer. My figure tips are wider then theirs are.
The most millennial trait is posting screenshots of Tweets as memes. Bring your hate.
I’m gen z but I do this too
Yup. I work for myself and sure I have quickbooks on my phone... but you bet tour ass I'm using the laptop.
This is true for the obvious reason that a real computer with a big screen is just better, but it's also true for another reason: lots of vendors have been caught engaging in shady market segmentation tactics where they overcharge people on phones and/or using "apps," relative to the price offered to people on desktop browsers. It tends to be even worse for iPhone users than for Android ones, by the way.
I think the real reason a desktop (or laptop) screen is superior is really the ease with which you can open multiple browser tabs (and to a lesser extent, multiple profiles/private browsing mode) to compare prices, as well as the easy with which you can view them side-by-side instead of having to switch between different fullscreen views.
I don't understand how people do things like shopping on their phone. I mean if you're only buying one or two items, sure, but if you're doing grocery pickup at Walmart or something how do you even function on a screen that small? You can't do any kind of comparison without flipping back and forth between multiple tabs.
Mobile is fine for reading articles, instant messaging, etc., but there are a lot of things that are absolutely better on a laptop.
Does Walmart work like IKEA? Cause over there I find it a lot easier to just scan the barcode and view similar items through the app, personally. I would hate to have to browse through it all on my laptop (or phone for that matter) just to shop in person, but quickly scanning the barcode to find "related items" or similar items etc, I found to be very useful
I have really tried to limit online shopping. I avoid Amazon like herpes and have for years...I'll use Lowe's website and/or app to locate things in the store. "Where in this 40 acre building can I find an 8 oz can of contact cement?" And performance issues aside it's okay for that.
Actually doing shopping on a phone though? Signal to noise ratio is too bad.
That's exactly how i feel, too. Some years ago i went back to school. I was about 10 years older than anyone else and was flabbergasted to see that people are actually shopping clothes/shoes on their phones.
Or even better the dual monitors on my desk
Only dual? I wish I had more than 3 :)
Really?
Damn I'm weird. I make big purchases on my phone to make it feel like a small purchase.
Fuck that's not healthy is it
I just need my phone to double check the dates someone texted me. The exact message that has the dates needs to be open and next to the laptop. I swear I'll get the flights wrong otherwise.
I hate when they offer a discount for using the mobile app to make the purchase. My local airline does that shit.
It's always annoying, but everything does this now. Kroger has tags that say $4.99, $3.99 with Kroger card, $2.99 with mobile coupon.
AssholesEdit:For those who don't know, Kroger is a grocery store.
I did most of the paperwork for buying a house on my phone
Big screens are for Digi-key orders
Ooh, a meme from gay comedian Justin Covington in the wild! Big ups to the big man.
I don't even agree with that but world forces me, I only buy in my laptop just because the site don't fucking work on mobile, it don't accept my card, and when go to the laptop, with the same fucking card, it just work???
BTW: are people born in 2004 considered millennial?
BTW: are people born in 2004 considered millennial?
No, Millenials are those who grew up around the early years of the new Millenium. That is, those born roughly 1980 to 1995.
i think i was born too late to relate to most millenials
for me, big computer is for either
A. Something that needs more power (gaming, CAD)
or
B. Something easier to do with a mouse and keyboard (long documents, fps games, video and photo editing, etc)
but i have no problem spending $3,000 on something through my phone screen. I bet whatever business im buying from has a mobile-first design for their website anyway
I will make it my life's purpose to pay for a business class fight on a smartwatch, no scratch that, a smart ring, i will report back with further progress.
I can just picture you spinning the ring to read 1 letter of the terms of service agreement at a time.
