Phase 3 of the end. Actioned
The consumer and provider have an opportunity to action the end.
After both parties acknowledge that the end is going to happen, events with a purpose start to take place. The participants will be moving beyond words and intentions to changing states and moving matter.
The Actioned phase is probably the most critical point in off-boarding. It can take many forms, but broadly it is the point of no return. Given this importance it might take the form of an endorsement, like signing a legal paper, or clicking a confirm button, or some sort of check.
Taking action is an important experience for the consumer. It can
help to embed responsibility, requiring the ownership of consumption’s consequences. This might involve the practical exercise of assembling the assets. This could be the simple process of collecting recycling to take to the recycling bins or taking second-hand clothes to the charity shop or packing items to send to an e-bay customer.
Emotionally it can also be a moment of enormous meaning, involving satisfaction and closure. A crescendo to the wider experience, it might also be the most tangible phase in off-boarding. The outcomes might involve more physical assets or clearer actions.
Designing for action at the end
Currently, the approach to recycling is about what material it is made from and the specification that this is recyclable. These are neither emotional nor action-inducing issues. The action of recycling doesn’t present the consequences of not recycling. It does not engage with the consumer emotionally.
The Green Dot
The Green Dot scheme is run by the PRO Europe (Packaging Recovery Organisation Europe), founded in 1995. It is the umbrella organisation for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes. They describe the purpose of the Green Dot on their website as.
“The Green Dot is the financing symbol for the organisation of recovery, sorting and recycling of sales packaging. When you see the Green Dot on packaging it means that for such packaging, a financial contribution has been paid to a qualified national packaging recovery organisation.”
Accidental action
In 2016, Marco Marsala posted an enquiry on a user forum called Server Fault.
“I run a small hosting provider with more or less 1535 customers and I use Ansible to automate some operations to be run on all servers. Last night I accidentally ran on all servers, a Bash script with a rm -rf {foo}/{bar} with those variables undefined due to a bug in the code above this line.”
As the answers came into his enquiry it was clear he had done something critically devastating to his business. One person described the situation better than others. “I won’t even begin enumerating how many errors are simultaneously required in order to be able to completely erase all your servers and all your backups in a single strike. This is not bad luck: it’s astonishingly bad design reinforced by complete carelessness.”
Abbreviations and shorthand are quite common in Unix. But they also require experience and knowledge to master and use with confidence.
In Unix language...
RM = remove
R = recursive
F = force removal
The combined “rm -rf” means the recursive removal of anything it is pointed at. So, if that is your entire computer, back up and server, then you’re in trouble. Not requiring confirmation is risky. So, asking for an actionable confirmation at the end makes a lot of sense and can make all the difference when managing critical situations.
Delete confirmation
In digital products, there are often times when the user needs to delete items. This can happen in a wide variety of contexts, from removal of old files and creating space on burdened hard drives to deleting a digital account. These are important decisions, and most can’t be undone. So, it is critical that confirmation is sought from the consumer.
This example from Tumblr is a great example. It is clear about what the consequences are. It is warm and collaborative. And, importantly it requires a confirmation login to approve the deletion.
