Are You SURE You Don’t Want to Pay Twice?
“You have already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK.”
Now, I’ll admit that this does indeed provide me with a tiny bit of useful information. But if I look at it as a choice, then it starts to look ridiculous. Because, at this point in the transaction, the only choice I need to make is whether or not I want to pay for the item. But…haven’t I already made that choice? To get to this modal dialog, I had to tap on a button labeled $2.99, and then tap another button that said “Buy Now.” If I didn’t already own the app, I’d be charged immediately (or prompted for my password, if I haven’t entered it within the past several minutes).
AppStore knows I’m logged in. It’s capable of finding out if I already own the item at which I am looking. So, why am I given a rather superfluous decision to make, when I’ve already made a more important decision based upon insufficient data (not to mention misleading UI)? More to the point, who in hell would ever tap the “Cancel” button, upon reading this dialog? “Oh, it’s free this time? Well, nevermind then, I guess I didn’t mean it when I tapped the ‘Buy Now’ button.”
