Editing 3175: Website Task Flowchart

{{comic
| number    = 3175
| date      = December 1, 2025
| title     = Website Task Flowchart
| image     = website_task_flowchart_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x683px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Tired of waiting on hold? Use our website to chat with one of our live agents, who are available to produce words at you 24/7!
}}

==Explanation==
This is a flowchart comic. It ostensibly shows how to accomplish a task on a generic website. With the improvements to web infrastructure, {{w|accessibility}}, and {{w|user experience}} research over the decades, one might think that this would be simple. And sometimes, indeed, everything just works as expected. However, the flowchart indicates that this system often fails to handle error states gracefully and can {{wiktionary|a chain is only as strong as its weakest link|completely shut down}} when the smallest [[2347: Dependency|dependency]] breaks.

The first step is to try to access the website. This includes {{w|Loading (computing)|pulling it up}}, and possibly {{w|Login|signing into an account}}. Websites may have legitimate or [[792: Password Reuse|nefarious]] reasons to profile their users. Either way, it is often another step in the way of the user's goals.

The very start of the process can already fail if the website doesn't load, you enter an incorrect username or password, or the website's {{w|authentication}} service is having problems and rejecting legitimate credentials, for example. Issues at this stage are often out of the user's control, and can kneecap your productivity if you rely on that website, as was recently discussed in [[3170: Service Outage]]. The flowchart provides no specific {{w|troubleshooting}} guidance, as the exact steps will vary greatly depending on the specific problem, and readers may have their own troubleshooting process similar to [[627: Tech Support Cheat Sheet]]. It could involve visiting another website like "[https://www.isitdownrightnow.com Is It Down Right Now?]" to see if others are having the same issue, double-checking your login information, or looking up any specific error messages the site gives. You may simply have to wait until the broken service is restored.

If you can enter the website, the next part of the flowchart asks if you finished your task successfully. If you have managed to both log in and do your work (perhaps eventually), it simply congratulates you for finishing your task. Failure here could be because of other issues with the website, such as {{w|Software bug|bugs}}, or [[3170: Service Outage|service outages]] in the middle of your work, or simply because the site doesn't have the tools to accomplish your specific task. You may have to use tools that ''are'' available in alternative or creative ways to accomplish what you need to. This might not be an option if your data or workflow relies on a specific site, or if alternatives are sketchy or paywalled.

As the flowchart suggests, troubleshooting a website can be a major deviation from your goals, and can involve following many false leads for hours on end. There's a chance that the issue resolves, putting you back on track. But in the meantime, you're trying to find a solution on your own. According to the chart, talking to tech support is a last resort.

If your troubleshooting fails at either stage, the chart guides you to call the website's {{w|customer service}} line, which is framed as admitting defeat. The flowchart reckons that an {{w|Automated attendant|automated}} phone system will put you {{w|Hold (telephone)|on hold}} and a {{w|On hold messaging|prerecorded message}} will then suggest trying to use the website ''instead'' of calling directly. While this would be helpful for someone calling the support line ''before'' trying the website, it assumes that the site is working properly and that the task can actually be accomplished there. It's like kicking you when you're already down to hear that "advice" after spending hours trying to use a website that simply would not work like you need it to. (Additionally, the voice reading out the website's URL is reading out the "www." before the URL, which is usually unnecessary in the modern day (depening upon how the web-server, host/domain entries and/or browser are set up), possibly implying that the voice on the other end belongs to someone who's slightly technologically inept.)

From there, the flowchart predicts that you will be so frustrated, you'll throw away both your computer and your phone into the sea before even listening to the rest of the on-hold message. This would be a drastic and non-trivial way of responding to the situation, as it would destroy those devices. (It would, at least, formally end your attempt to use the website.) The flowchart presents this as an inevitability as a form of {{w|hyperbole}}.

The title text is another part of the presumed hold message, perhaps for anyone who had not followed the flowchart as faithfully. It encourages the caller to visit the website's {{w|live chat}} function, a fairly recent development that combines the best and worst aspects of both online and phone-line support. It can be ambiguous whether the "live agent" is zero, one, or many people. You may reach a qualified staff member with all the answers to your questions; or, the conversation may be passed around between various less-than-knowledgeable staff who are merely following a ''script'' with a flowchart process (hopefully more useful than this one) to let them give more expert advice than they might be capable of; or, increasingly, you may connect to a {{w|chatbot}} that processes your queries, follows a similar script, and may be more difficult to reason with or escalate the issue. It may {{wiktionary|triage}} your initial responses before 'bothering' a real human who can help you with your request, if it is able to transfer you to a human at all.

The claim that the agent can "produce words at you" (rather than "talk", "speak", or "communicate") implies that their responses won't convey any information, or perhaps even basic understanding of the problem. If the live chat is open 24/7, you may reach a human agent elsewhere in the world who {{w|English as a second or foreign language|doesn't speak English natively}} and struggles to understand you. This could also be a blatantly honest admission that you will converse with a potentially inexhaustible {{w|large language model}} AI, where the words you receive might demonstrate {{w|Markov chain|even less understanding}} of your problem, as merely being able to send even [[1068: Swiftkey|vaguely logical sequences of words]] might be worse than useless. Additionally, giving random vague sequences of words would add to the user's frustration, strengthening their urge to throw their laptop into the ocean.

==Transcript==
[Caption above the panel:]
Doing a task using a company or organization's website:

[Below this is a flowchart, starting with "Go to website, try to log in"]

[Box 1 (start):] Go to website, try to log in (go to to box 2)

[Box 2:] Did it work? (Yes/No)
*Yes: Go to box 3
*No: Go to box 6

[Box 3:] Try to do your task (go to box 4)

[Box 4:] Did it work? (Yes/No)
*Yes: Go to box 5
*No: Go to box 8

[Box 5 (end):] Nice! Done!

[Box 6:] Spend hours troubleshooting account/login (go to box 7)

[Box 7:] Did it work? (Yes/No)
*Yes: Go to box 3
*No: Go to box 10

[Box 8:] Spend hours troubleshooting website (go to box 9)

[Box 9:] Did it work? (Yes/No)
*Yes: Go to box 5
*No: Go to box 10

[Box 10:] Give up and call customer service (go to box 11)

[Box 11:] Hold message: "Did you know you could do all of this more quickly and easily on our website? Just go to W-W-W dot..." (go to box 12)

[Box 12 (end):] Throw phone and laptop into the sea
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Internet]]