we are: London

There are some web based applications that I use every day. I use Spotify to listen to music, Remember the Milk to organise my life, Tweetdeck to force my opinions on unsuspecting followers and Evernote to record clippings of inspiration and ideas. While thinking about the design of web apps one thing has really stuck in my mind. In an article by Luke W he talked about thinking and designing web applications as products, if web app is a product, design considerations such as customer lifecycle and packaging should be considered.

It made me think if Spotify is the product then what is the packaging? It doesn’t come in a box? The packing of these applications is the website that promotes it. This is the chance that the company has to promote its product and looking towards the restraints and considerations of physical packaging design can help strengthen a design. It gives a narrative for a designer to follow when creating and designing the most effective solution.

What can we learn from packaging design?

Packaging has certain contextual and physical constraints.

• Space is limited to the size of box or DVD sleeve so information must be delivered concisely and efficiently.
• Exposure to a potential customer is brief. They may only be walking past or scanning a shelf in a shop.
• Customers will want to see a product so packaging must find a way to make the product visible, either through large, high quality pictures or by making the product physically viewable such as meat wrapped in clear packaging in a supermarket.

Applying this to the web

These are interesting points but how do we apply them to the design of a web apps accompanying website.

• The website should always attempt to get information to the user as easily, quickly and concisely as possible. Copy should be short and sweet, pages should be kept to a minimum, titles and actions should be obvious and users should be able to navigate to content quickly and easily.
• Web users are famously impatient. They will not stick around of they do not get what they want quickly and easily. Just like physical customers time is limited. Benefits and key information must be delivered fast.
• A web application is not a physical product so how can we make this visible to the user? Screenshots, descriptions, videos, tutorials, testimonials, are all ways to make the product visible. The important thing is to let the user learn about the product before they have to download it.

These are all things that most UX designers will already be thinking of but wrapping them up in this analogy or narrative helps to deliver a thought process or a checklist to design against. If you want to learn more about our approach to design feel free to give us a phone on 0207 1991 321 or send us a message.

Robert information architecture, interface design, usability design, user centred design, user interface Design, ideas, Internet, usability, user experience

At best Intranet design is a challenging task for most, at worst it’s a thankless job that sits at the bottom of many companies priority lists.
Taking ownership can be a daunting prospect, especially as many intranets are unfocused, sprawling repositories of content and ideas, grown organically over a long period. But taking ownership is the first step in putting a tool in place that can quickly become a high priority on the business comms list.

Over the past couple of years, intranets have become a hot topic within large and small businesses, and within the world of digital design. New platforms, techniques and an ever blurring line between the Internet and company Intranets driven through the integration of social, UGC, multimedia and semantic technologies has led to more stakeholders, with more requests and usually less budget.

Persuasive design

One of our most common findings during user and stakeholder research is that reason an intranet is unused and unloved is due to the fact that it’s never worked and never been adopted by the business.

Every task users are asked to complete online should at least as easy as off-line methods, or easier, otherwise users will always fall back to the default of asking a colleague, phoning a department or worse not doing anything.

The reason behind this is that existing staff have learnt their way round the system over time, usually years and new joiners are forced to struggle through anyway they can. A recent client’s intranet is so bad that new joiners are given a guided tour as part of their induction and then offered a CD-Rom or online video tutorial. I doubt any owners of an Internet site would expect a tutorial on how to use the site as acceptable; just make it easy to use.

I’m ready to be engaged

Whilst your intranet is unlikely to become “the” destination for your staff and should not try to replace other sources of external information, it should be functional and engaging in equal measures.

Features that rank highly from a users perspective usually include:

• Buy, sell, rent
• Interest groups (sports, social, clubs)
• Lunch menu

For business engagement, these features rank highly:

• Ask the management (live Q&A)
• Personnel contact finder
• Collaboration tools (wikis and connectors)

It’s important to remember that many of the tasks that your staff use the intranet for can only be completed online, so usage should not be confused with satisfaction. Providing tools and services that help staff to become engaged with the business and each other will prove invaluable in driving uptake and long term use of the site.

“Don’t underestimate the power of the intranet for fostering a sense of culture & belonging - it may not be a core ‘money-earner’, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important.”

How to guide

A few points that may help you in planning and designing your intranet include:

• Governance to avoid organic growth - The key to providing a consistent and usable experience is providing a strict governance model to ensure quality control. Intranets by nature are created and controlled by many people and departments and without solid governance grow organically into a combination of different style and experiences.
• Ownership and stakeholder involvement - Many challenges are faced throughout the redesign of an intranet as there is often no clear owner. Different sections and content are owned by different departments and stakeholders. It is important to include all stakeholders to both understand content and to promote a feeling of inclusion and acceptance of the work within the various content owners. This can present many challenges within time and cost restraints.
• Content - Large volumes of content can make it difficult for users to find what they need. Intranets can easily be into tens of thousands of pages. Content can generally be clearly split into two types. Content that is generated by a department specifically for employees of that department (IT generating content for IT employees) and content that is generated by a department for all employees (HR generating content aimed at all employees of the company). Splitting the information like this can dramatically improve the ease of finding content by isolating information only needed by a single department in a departmental section.
• Can’t find what you are looking for? - If content is difficult to find many users will resort to other channels such as asking colleagues to find important information. Information should be easily available so that users do not need to resort to other methods.
• Navigation - Navigation is key to providing a consistent experience and allowing users to find and move through content. In an environment where this may be defined by many different content creators it is important to ensure they follow a strict model, usually by service offered and not by business function.

Next steps

It’s important to have a plan when working on your intranet and it’s valid not matter what stage you are at, defining a new site or migrating to a new platform. Here are a few points to follow:

1. Take ownership; whilst often a daunting task, your ability to lead the project will ultimately deliver a very successful site.
2. Don’t under estimate the scale of the task in hand; updating, migrating or creating an intranet from scratch requires a lot of time, effort and support.
3. Use external consultants; they will bring a wealth of experience, offer an objective view and can help to mediate difficult decisions.
4. Don’t redesign standards; user staff are familiar with Google, eBay, Linked In and Facebook, use these interfaces rather than creating your own, bespoke ones.
5. Start collaborating now; get a range of staff involved in the redesign, they’ll become your champions and power users down the line.
6. Benchmark; creating some form of  measurement will help to justify the time and financial investments needed for short and long term success.
7. Don’t let the software control you; the platform is important but the business requirements and user needs should lead the design process.
8. Content strategy; know what you plan to do with the content and create a strategy for developing it long term.

If you have found this useful, then why not get in touch and see how we can help accelerate the success of your businesses intranet.

Chris Content strategy, Intranet, global usability testing, information architecture, usability research, user centred design, user interface innovation, Intranet, research, usability, user experience

A review in Revolution of online TV services by our MD Chris Averill brought out one factor that was really interesting to me, a lack of social media integration. A new beta version of the BBC iPlayer looks set to change that in a big way. Once users register for a BBC ID they connect with their Facebook and Twitter accounts and share favourite and recommended programs.

Hello Facebook friends! I’m watching Doctor Who

Facebook and Twitter are definitely the flavour of the moment and integrating with these services could be a very clever move for the BBC. After all I have both social media accounts linked to various things including my phone’s contact book. This integration allows users to automatically post updates to their Facebook wall. Users can also share their favourite programs with their friends and discover new shows through their friends’ recommendations. This brings a whole new dimension to watching TV that has not yet been exploited by other online TV sources.

LOL, check out this m8

A really nice feature that encourages the sharing of videos is the link to this feature. This allows users to easily access a link not only just to the video they are watching but an exact point in that videos timeline. Good riddance to scrolling through videos trying to find an exact time when someone cracks a really funny joke your friend just sent you a message about. Making it as easy as possible for users to share videos encourages word of mouth or ‘text of social media’ advertising.

What about the competition?

So how does the competition shape up? In Chris’ review both the ITV Player and 4od service did not offer any social integration and this has not changed. This major step forward by the iPlayer is leaving the competition behind at the starting gates and more features are also on the way from the BBC. They are hoping to integrate Windows Live Messenger into the beta in the coming weeks. This will provide an even deeper social media integration and encourage a more in depth social interaction between users.

Robert usability design, user centred design, user interface Design, future, innovation, Interactive TV, Internet, social networking

Do you want to know which iPad to buy now it’s been released in the UK, or find out which apps really are worth buying?

Well we have the answers to your questions and hopefully more, so read on, review and comment if you want to know more / disagree / have more information for our readers.

Firstly to qualify this article as the REAL deal and not just some recycled jurno junk, I have been using a iPad (64Gb wifi) for the past month, in anger as both a businessman and home user / dad of a 2 year old child and husband to a media junkie wife. I also have both UK and US itunes accounts so can access all apps around the world.

Should I get one or wait for something else?

That’s a great questions, especially as Intel have just released news of their new Atom chip that will be super fast, up to 1.9ghz, and super lean, hone batteris lasting up to 10 days. But anyone who bought an iphone competitor in great anticipation should just get on and by the iPad, it’s the real deal, you’ll not be disappointed.

I’ll update the blog as I go, so all findings are in chronological order (did you need to know that?)

Wifi or 3G?

This one is easy, if you’re likely to use your iPad out of the home or office environment, which is most of you over 16, go for the 3G. It drives me mad trying to log onto these rubbish public wifi networks and at £5 an hour on some, a PAYG or cheap O2 iPad tariff will be much cheaper. You can also cut your normal SIM card down apparently so get a Tesco mobie PAYG and you’re in.

Will it replace my laptop?

Office apps ♥♥

If, like me you spend a lot of time reading and replying to emails, showing presentations, reviewing RFPs or proposals then it’s better than a laptop. But if you want to edit those documents, then forget it, the tools are just too simplistic to do anything useful.

Yep, it’s true even the wonderfully designed Apple Pages, Numbers and Keynote fail to really compare to much more than Google Docs (which does not work on the iPad yet).

Other contenders such Office HD, et al have even bigger problems, save your money for now, be content with reading documents and not editing them. It will all come soon and it will be the online apps that win out.

Cloud computing ♥♥♥♥

I have also come to realise how important cloud services are, the iPad and other ultra-portable devices will cement this as the future, my favourites are Huddle and Dropbox. Huddle has a great UI and is easy to find docs, view online renderings and generally do what you need to do, other than download and edit document; see above as to why this is not such an issue.

Creativity ♥♥

Again it seems that the promise of great creativity on the iPad has been jaded by the early, quickly designed apps that feel a bit rubbish, in fact less useful than the iPhone versions. There are a couple that people like me will use a lot, iMockups and Omnigraffle both hold a lot of promise for interactive designers and Adobe Ideas, whilst basic, is great for freehand sketches on the fly.

Video & music ♥♥♥♥♥

In a previous blog I describe how the iPad came into it’s own during a power cut in a hotel recently and it’s brilliant. Anyone who has watched TV on an iphone or ipod will know that if the content is good, you soon forget the screen size. Well the iPad has great sound, an amazing screen and iTunes integrated rocks as always. You can stream UK Freeview TV using TVcatchUp.com/iphone and whilst the video is not HD, it’s pretty good for a free services.

Otherwise Spotify and Pandora (US only through VPN) are both great additions to your iPhone music library, infact I have sort of given up downloading from iTunes.

Battery life ♥♥♥♥♥

Is it a goer? Oh yes, it’s got more staying power than a student rugby team at a free bar. I have had at least 10 hours of continuos video play back and stand  by last for weeks even with regular use. In fact i have stopped carrying a charger at all, even over weekends, and the added bonus is you can use any iPhone charger with it.

iBook vs eBooks ♥♥♥

The Amazon Kindle and iPad book reading argument has been raging for longer than the iPad has been around, and whilst Kindle sales could do with a bit of Apple magic, the Kindle is a muh better ebook, mainly due to it’s e-ink and matt screen. As a long time Kindle owner I am impressed by Apple’s integrated book store within the eBook app, but less impressed by the weight of the iPad whilst reading anywhere that you need to hold it, and by the glare on the beach or in the garden.

However, the killer appeal to many will be the fact that the iPad is a multifunctional device, so it’s unlikely that the majority of interested consumers would buy both, only early adopters like me would bother. So there is a good chance that the iPad will become the defacto device for the casual consumer, but the Kindle will remain the leader as far as serious readers, most of whom will be big spenders, are concerned.

As a foot note to the book piece, there is an Alice in Wonderland app that is beautiful, interactive and worth every penny, my daughter loves it and I can see it becoming the DVD of the new millenium.

Will it save news and magazine publishing? ♥♥♥♥♥

Only good journalism / content can truly do that but the apps I have seen go a long way. It seems the publishers are split into two camps, it’s a digital newspaper and looks like it or, it’s a new device with new ways of interacting let’s redesign it.

The winners so far in the new new media war are:

• AP News: mmm lovely UI and exciting ways to filter
• Thomson Reuters: A bit hectic but using the space and interaction nicely
• Zinio: Amazing renders of the actual magazines in an interactive format
• USA Today: Content is still as dull as ever but the cross over design between print and digital is lovely
• NPR: Looks great but a little less usable than the rest
• Marvel Comics: The best interaction of them all, it’s amazing, very lateral

And the losers are:

• Yahoo!: Indeed an exclamation mark is needed, it’s a bad 3D sitting room for a menu, very 80’s
• WSJ: Looks kinda 1930s, which is nice if that was the brief
• NYT: Again the retor squad have been out, nothing challenging just a bit dull and detached navigation
• BBC: Not what I was expecting at all to be honest, poorly designed and too many images
• Maxim: Whilst not on my usual reading list, the app is a terrible, ham fisted affair. Get Zinio and pay for the glossy electronic version of the print, it works, simple as that.

First impressions

It feels solid, the screen is beautiful, it’s a breeze to set up and the interaction is everything you expected. As always with Apple the bits you want to work do work, from effortless touch screen interaction to fast loading apps, beautiful email and calendars and web browsing.

In fact it’s so good I forgot about the lack of camera, USB ports, coffee machine bolt on, finger print readers, etc. When you use it you know every single part has been thought out and, unlike the all singing all flash playing future competitors, it does everything you need, just not everything you want, but it does it perfectly.

It’s far better than I could have hopped and it has been well received by everyone who uses it, in fact 100% of people who have used mine say they want to buy one now!

Chris Mobile, apple, iPad, interface design, user interface future, innovation, iPad, Mobile, navigation, usability, user experience

I couldn’t resist downloading the official Twitter app for Android as soon as I heard it was available. As an avid tweeter I was excited to see what it was like.

The homescreen

When loading the app the user is taken to a homescreen where they can choose if they wish to read tweets, view their profile or view lists messages or replies. The layout is simple and easy to use with large target areas for fingers to press. The area at the foot of the screen is very interesting. This area is used to pop-up various trending topics allowing users to visit these searches directly from the homescreen.

Peoples tweets

While reading tweets the application keeps access to all functionality on one screen. The full tweet text is displayed with a small pop-up menu displayed at the touch of an icon. This allows users access to functions as such as retweeting, replies, favourites and sharing while not leaving the main screen, not dissimilar to the method applied by the latest Facebook design where the user has access to many functions from a single screen.

Your tweets

The “Create tweet” screen is clearly laid out and organised. The update and cancel buttons are placed above the keyboard, not hidden behind it as in so many Android apps. An iPhone style on/off slider is used to toggle the users location on or off, an interface element many people will be familiar with but may not be clear to all of Android’s user base. It is easy to add or upload photos and another function allows users to access their following list to add people as an @ reply into their tweet. This is a handy feature that turns your following list into a contacts list.

Tweetclusion

The official Twitter app is a welcome addition to my Nexus One. It has currently taken the title off Seesmic for my top tweeting tool. Its combination of neat features and smooth interface make it a good choice for anyone.

Robert Mobile, information architecture, interface design, user interface Internet, Mobile, Nexus One, social networking

Be inspired

You are in the last decades of the 19th century and want to understand how people read through a page of text. There is no such thing as an eye tracker (yet!) so what do you do?

You invent one!

That’s how the first “eye tracker” was born in the late 1800s, by Edmund Burke Huey. Readers had to wear lenses with only a small opening, that had a pointer attached. This allowed Huey to observe where they were looking and study which words they paused on. In essence it’s not much different to modern eye-tracking applications and just goes to show that it does take a bit of a great mind (with a little bit of that creative craziness) to come up with something simple and effective to address a challenge.

Be bold

OK, so this is not a history lesson, so why this intro? Chris and I had a discussion the other day about innovation and risk and how we can drive innovation for our clients. Granted, some will be more open than others, but can we help our clients take a bolder approach to things? Try new and not-so-well-tested techniques?

Well, my favourite example is… Marmite (ok, stay with me here)!  I really like their playful, self-deprecating approach to advertising, which they’ve also introduced to social media, by inviting users to post ‘like’ or ‘hate’ videos on Facebook in exchange for… free Marmite cereal bars! Most recently they’ve launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign that pokes fun at all those parliamentary candidate interviews, giving promises about changing the world (one marmite bar at a time).

Allowing (and actually inviting) ‘uncontrolled’ negative content on your social media page would have been concidered mad some time ago, but it takes a bold few to create a new trend. As brands evolve towards being more open and honest with their customers I’m sure we’ll see more and more of this boldness (cue HSBC’s First Direct, O2 etc).

Be different

The question though remains: how can we best help our clients be innovative and stand out of the competition? The answer is by being different - in a positive sort of way! We are different from other agencies and each of our clients is a new and different challenge for us. Most of the briefs we get usually require ‘best practice’, tried and tested solutions that work well for the majority of users and are usualy safe and guaranteed to work. Now - don’t get me wrong - this is great and for some projects that’s all that is needed. But the truth is that it will rarely make a website (and, in turn a brand) unique, standing out from the competition. It surely helps towards a good user experience and happy customers - but in today’s competitive world (online and offline) that’s just not enough to grab everyone’s attention.

We are here to help you go that extra mile for your customers. We love creating unique experiences and with techniques like behavioural targeting and multivariate testing, you can ensure you always get the best results possible. Call Chris now on 0207 1991 321 to have a chat about how we can help you stand out from the competition.

 

Anthony eye-tracking, interface design, usability design, user centred design Design, eye-tracking, ideas, innovation, inspiration

Working on projects with multiple deadlines, deliverables, meetings and workshops can always be an organisational challenge. Keeping a record of all the things you have to do, when they need to be done and how important they are can be a nightmare to keep on top of. To keep all my tasks under control I list out all my tasks. To keep all my deadlines, meetings and workshops in mind I enter them all into my calendar. I do however start to find myself with multiple lists on various pieces of paper and my calendar is not connected at all. If I leave my list in the office and go to work onsite I am left unorganised. This was of course until a colleague turned me on to a popular web application called Remember the Milk.

My problems answered

Remember the Milk is an online to do list application that lets me enter all my tasks, give them deadlines and days to be done/completed, organise them into priorities, keep several lists separating my work and private tasks and even more. It’s all kept online so is available from anywhere I have an internet connection. It even sync’s with a Remember the Milk application for my Android phone (iPhone version also available), and sends me daily reminders of my tasks due that day. It combines all the tasks both my calendar and paper lists achieve into one easily accessible place.

Remember the user?

So i like the concept and it solves a real world problem for me but what about the UI? I can remember the milk now but did they remember the user?

The interface is clean and simple with some nice touches. The right hand column floats to be always visible when users scroll down long lists. The tabbed layout allows for easy navigation between lists. The right hand column gives easy access to all the main task options allowing users to quickly edit due dates, estimated task time, notes and tags.

The key to the usability and experience of the application is the prominent task input field. This allows user not only just to add the name of a task but to use a series of commands to enter further details of the task in the single text box. Users can add due dates, priorities, tags, locations, repeat tasks and time estimates by adding commands such as hash symbols. This may involve a degree of learning but for an application that many users will use every day it turns a single text box into a extremely powerful piece of functionality.

Robert Mobile, information architecture, interface design, usability design, user interface innovation, Internet, Mobile, Nexus One, usability, user experience

Last week, the World Bank announced that it was to free up 2,000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics that had mostly been available only to paying subscribers.

“It’s important to make the data and knowledge of the World Bank available to everyone,” World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said. “Statistics tell the story of people in developing and emerging countries and can play an important part in helping to overcome poverty.”

This presents massive opportunities for developing countries, whose researchers will have access to useful and meaningful information that could well be integral to their future economic development. In the midst of the global financial crisis (yes, it’s still going on), access to this data has the scope to fit in well with the data ‘mash-up’ market that has grown since a number of governments’ recent initiatives (including the UK’s www.data.gov.uk) to free up data to the general public.

On a level closer-to-home, it’s exciting to have access to this level of detailed statistical information, as the ease with which it can be tracked, monitored and updated makes repurposing it not only more reliable in terms of reporting but also demonstrates that numbers and figures (when illustrated in an engaging way) have the ability to tell a story just as well as pictures and words.

David Blog, Community, internet research, usability research data, Internet, research, world bank

Just a quick update on how useful my ipad is turning out to be.

Pre-editorial note; wait for the 3G, the reason will become clear shortly.

Having left hospital after an operation, I was forced to take a break from office life, so off too Sandbanks in Poole for 4 days.

On the way there the road was closed and we had to wait for hours, whilst I read a few chapters of my ebook, I could really have done with some online mapping on the iPad to get round the traffic, alas no 3G.

Once there, with the hotel kindly providing free wifi, 3.5mb so not too bad, we surfed the web, checked tv listings, found nearby attractions for the rainy days that did not happen and generally left the iPhones switched off, we even had a good laugh at the price of holiday houses in Sandbanks, circa £800k for a 3 bed apartment!

Now we all know hotel tv sucks and my 2.5 year old loves a bit of firman sam before bed, well luckily we had a few downloaded on the iPad, which my daughter Sophie can now happily use.

Then the power went off in the hotel from about 6pm to 11pm. No drama there, we finished up watching Peppa Pig, put Sophie to bed and then settled down to Harry Brown with our wine and fish & chips.

The battery is truly amazing on the iPad, hardly using any power at all for hours of videos. Once we had finished the film, drunk our wine and polished off a bag of Revels, we hopped into bed and I read another 100 pages of The girl with the dragon tattoo.

Once the power came back on, sadly the choice of TV channels was reduced to Sky news and Sky sport, so for the next two nights we streamed all our tv through Catchup TV, which I was very impressed with from a quality point of view, in fact it was flawless. (apologies to the other guest who had terrible wifi due to our streaming).

Whilst the iPad is no Kindle, it was for those few hours a lot better given we had no lights. And whilst my weekend away may not sound that exciting, a evening in a hotel room with no lights and a 2 yr old child has the makings of a murder.

So thank you Steve for saving my life and providing us all with some much needed R&R.

The iPad has proved to be a game changing device for me, my daughter and my parents. It’s simple, compact, so very usable and above all it does what it says on the tin.

Chris Averill Mobile apple, iPad, media

I’ve had my iPad for a week and I love it. Even with just a few apps it rocks at everything. It’s replaced our laptop at home, I use it out and about for emails, presentations and reading magazines which it excels at.

So all of this sounds great and it is, except that the launch in the UK is delayed for a month, so no iPads or apps for 6 more weeks.

The good news is that you’ll be able to buy the 3G version, which, if like me you plan to use your iPad on the go, will be something that you can’t live without. After all how prolific and affordable are public wifi zones?

And in return we’ll see our mobile phone companies offering new individual tariff bundles to add mobile, home broadband, mobile PCs and a range of tethering charges.

Opening up this new market sector will drive a price war, similar to the one Tesco has just started with their new iPhone tariffs, which is good news for consumers and for the companies making and selling ultra portal PCs.

So don’t complain that you can’t use one tariff to do everything right now, because I am certain that you will be able to soon. Once Google have launched their gPad and the rest of those that I’ve seen but can’t remember the the rush will start.

The only question is will the gpad and other clones hit the spot and be as good as the iPad?

Chris Averill Mobile apple, iPad, Mobile