Today’s Rocket Scientist: T4E and EADS

Ok, this is a conference for which I’ve had a paper accepted…but, perhaps in a typical Indian sense, they’ve made things a whole lot more difficult and confusing than they needed to.

First, the conference submission system they’ve used EADS just plain sucks. Someone has suckered them into using it, and boy is it lousy. It also looks like it was designed in 1999. I am constantly guessing what it wants me to do to interact with it.

Specifically conference registration is confusing and difficult. As is customary these days, in order to present the paper, one of the authors has to register. Below are a series of screen shots of the registration process.

First, I’m asked to pay for Sahana Murthy. Um, no.

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Source: Brandon

Why am I registering someone else? And what timezone?

So I bail out of that screen, and click back on http://eads.info and then try registering again. How do I do it? Click on the green thingie in the Registration Box next to my paper title–that’s not obvious that I need to click it to register.

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Source: Brandon

What is that green thingie?

And then after registering I get a “Thank you for registering” and no confirmation information. Um, great. Where’s my receipt? Basically any web payment system displays a receipt after making the purchase–except for EADS. It turns out I can find that information by going back to my home screen and then clicking on the registration thingie image and then clicking on the “Paid” image. Sure, that makes sense, gee thanks.

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Source: Brandon

Why would I click on the Paid image to get a receipt???

Oh, and by the way, why aren’t you using the address I asked you to print on the receipt instead of my billing address? Why have the feature if you’re not going to use it?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]