If you're considering designing an account status or summary for a web site, there are a couple of basic features that users are likely to want:

1. Security - a method by which a user may sign in to the web site to retrieve private information regarding an account
2. Accuracy - The account summary should be up to date as possible -- the reason users are using the account summary is to view a near-live summary generally (or review of previous periods).

Last week, I signed up for a new Cingular wireless plan (and bought a new phone as well after having a Motorolla for the last 3.5 years). I wanted to see how many minutes I was using, how the billing for the Internet plan I signed up for worked and more.

I signed in and here's the information I was provided:

Useful. For some reason, they don't have the ability to show me any useful data until the next billing cycle starts. Excuse me? In what functional design document was that acceptable? [SLAP!]

Wireless/mobile plans are hard enough to understand as it is, so why does the industry treat us like that and charge us an arm and a leg for questionable service? When I was in the Cingular store last week, a 20-something year old man was in the store wondering why his bill was so high. He couldn't make any sense out of it. I could see that the bill was over $120 -- which for me would be reason to be in the store as well if I couldn't figure it out. Turned out there were some "fees" and misleading charges for some new service he had gotten and the billing cycle, blah blah blah. [SLAP!]

Oh -- to top it off -- I've been a Cingular customer for 3.5 years now. I upgraded my phone. I upgraded my plan. As a reward, they knocked 50% off the fee for signing up for new service (down to $18). [SLAP!]