Over the last few weeks, some of us at ExperienceLab have
been trying out the Moves fitness app. It’s actually causing
a bit of rivalry between us, we’ve been emailing screen shots to each other
showing how many steps we’ve taken! My colleague is definitely winning so far
with 32,589 steps in one day as he explored NYC!
The e-retail sector is evolving with many retailers implementing multi-channel solutions with the ultimate objective of creating an omni-channel by offering a truly integrated digital and physical consumer experience. Increasingly, Click & Collect services are becoming more important to consumers, although Click & Collect is currently offered by less than half of Top 50 UK retailing brands.
Continue reading "How Click & Collect is Moving the Online Shopping Experience In-Store" »
I recently read a really interesting article in The Economist titled “The driverless road ahead” by Schumpeter.
It talks of the future of the car (and other vehicles) as being automatic with no need for human control. Although Schumpeter mentions that Google, who are developing technology for driverless cars, predicts this revolution will take a decade to happen, it got me thinking about what this would mean for the user experience.
Image credit: Alan Cleaver
Drivers would now take on the role of passengers, with their minds free to be entertained. The inside of the car could become a multi-media centre for passengers to kill time during their journey. This would have to be more entertaining than the in-car DVD players that are currently use to distract kids in the back seat. I envisage this as similar to the internet TV that has recently come on to the market, allowing users to play games, watch films, browse the internet, but also send emails and make phone calls for the more business minded passenger. With this in mind, how users interact with this in-car media hub will need some thought. Perhaps a new remote control will have to be designed for users to control the TV from the comfort of their seats, but also, the whole interior of the car could be redesigned to be more like the passenger area of a plane (first class!).
In addition, to thinking about the ‘in-drive’ user experience, passengers will also have to have some way of programming the car to take them to location they’d like to go to. It’s likely that this system would be used numerous times a day and potentially by different members of the family, something more intuitive and easier to use than the SatNav systems we have today would have to be designed.
If it will take at least a decade to get to the point of the using driverless cars, we have time to design the systems and consider the user experience, but the future of a phenomenon that hasn't changed a great deal for a century is definitely something to think about.
Check out this new map app - CityMaps, it uses shop brand logo’s to indicate where they are… great idea for a more visual map that is actually useful when your are in a city trying to locate the nearest Starbucks or Topshop! It also presents dollar icons to show where you can get a deal. Unfortunately it is currently only available in some cities in the USA, hopefully it comes to London, and the UK soon!
Sometimes it feels like an insult; we to stand in a queue that does not seem any shorter than it was before the manned tills were replaced, and we have to scan them ourselves, only to be told there is an “unexpected item in the bagging area”, which is an item that we scanned just seconds ago...
I visited my local Argos at the weekend, when collecting my product there was a customer feedback terminal positioned on the collection counter (see image). There were five questions on the terminal, each were quite wordy questions, with 5 ratings per question. I was only at the counter for 6 secs just to pick my product up; I didn't even have time to read the first question before I was on my way out the door (although I did have time to take a quick snap!). I was curious to see if other customers would have the time and interest to use the customer feedback terminal, so I waited and watched 8 customers go to the counter and collect their products. Not one person even took a second glance at the terminal.
Continue reading "'The customer is always right' - but are they bothered?" »
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Gorillaz concert at the O2 on 16th November, and it was interesting to see there were a variety of different Gorillaz inspired interactive activities available around the arena to entertain fans before the concert began.
Here at ExperienceLab we consider accessible websites to be be extremely important, and are frequently asked by our clients to conduct research to ensure their websites are accessible to all. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a new website, Fix the Web, which allows web surfers to report problems they find when viewing websites.
There is a huge population of web users who have disabilities, but there are still many websites that alienate these users. According to the World Wide Web Consortium, only 19% of websites meet the minimum standards for web access.
Fix the Web has been launched by the charity Citizens Online, and will see volunteers report complaints back to site owners. It will be interesting to see if this new initiative helps to make a difference.
Image ref: http://webaccess.tamu.edu/
I recently ran the 10km Bupa run in Central London and I
couldn't have completed the run on event day or done as much training as I did
without my Nike+ device.
This device comes in two parts; one that plugs into the end
of your iPod and the other part is a sensor that fits onto your shoe. So
it is basically like a pedometer that you can control through your iPod. This is a fantastic device that records your distance, time,
and calories burnt and other pretty useless but fascinating information about
your run whilst you listen to music to spur you on. It even has a
congratulations message from Tiger Woods when you record a personal best – feel
free to take that as a positive or negative feature!
However, there are aspects of the Nike+ device that irritate me. These are usability defects that probably would only occur in a running situation, but given it’s designed to be used in just that way it doesn't really bode well!
My family
recently acquired 6 tickets for the Ryder Cup in October – this is great news!
However, Ryder Cup organisers require all people attending the event to upload
a passport photo to their website. Obviously this is for security reasons, but
it seems they haven’t taken into account the age range of people that will be
attending the event.
