Posted on Fri, Feb 29, 2008
You’ve all gone through this. You have an issue with your cell phone provider and call them to resolve it, but next bill cycle, same old mistake…so you have to call again but they have no record of you calling last time…totally infuriating, right?
Well, Sprint has implemented an awesome system with their online customer service feature.
After engaging in the online chat feature with a customer service representative, they email you a transcript of the conversation!
Why is this great?
- Sprint are letting me know that they are keeping track of what was said
- They are sending me usable “evidence” of my conversation should I need it in future
- Sprint are reassuring me that they are true to their word
The great thing is that I, as a user, don’t have to do a thing – the process is automated, efficient and fast.
It is for this reason that I will forgive them for their website being rather, uh, temperamental over the last few weeks.
[digg=http://digg.com/business_finance/Sprint_your_customer_service_is_getting_better]
Posted on Thu, Feb 28, 2008
The HTC Touch – can sex-appeal replace common sense?
I’ll shortly be in the market for a new Sprint cell phone.
The past few months I’ve had my evil eye on the rather lovely HTC Touch.
With this phone, HTC have gone all iPhone on us, and have provided a user interface which is controlled by your fingers on a lovely touch-screen.
For all intents and purposes, this interface is extremely usable, both in terms of logical design and the physical input method.
That being said, one feature has totally thrown the chances of me owning this device in the bin.
The text/email interface is not aligned with the overall UI! For a phone that is driven by the users’ touch, it is extremely odd that the text message/email interface requires the use of a stylus!
Okay, while this may not be a big deal for the casual user, those of us who are relentless emailers and texters are going to find this very annoying.
The iPhone does a pretty good job with its text interface, so why did HTC feel the need to squish everything up into a stylus-only format?
While every other feature screams literal “hands on” usability, the text interface of the HTC Touch is an absurd contradiction.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/HTC_Touch_n_the_importance_of_interface]
Posted on Wed, Feb 27, 2008
While visiting the BBC website yesterday, I noticed a rather interesting link to a beta page.
It looks like the BBC is offering users a way to customize their very own home page, much like portals Yahoo and iGoogle.
I have mixed feelings about this, none of them are particularly bad – but there are a few things that need a tweak.
My Web, My Way
The BBC’s accessibility page
But let’s talk about the outrageously AWESOME stuff first. The Beeb has included accessibility options on the beta home page – users can choose between eight different viewing formats to help them read the website (they can also fully customize the experience under another option.)
Even better, the BBC has included a prominent link to its very own accessibility page. To quote the Beeb:
“My Web, My Way is a new website which aims to help arm our audience with the tools and understanding which will enable them to make the most of the world-wide web (not just bbc.co.uk), whatever their ability or disability.
Not only are the BBC taking accessibility seriously, they’re also teaching us about it. Kudos.
BBC Home Beta
The BBC’s beta, Home
The purpose of the Home beta is to allow the BBC to become your home page. You can personalize your BBC home page with color, add TV listings, news headlines, radio shows (and live links to the shows), weather, etc. Great!
While I think this is a good idea – I currently use iGoogle and love it – the Beeb may need a few pointers.
- The search box at the top only searches BBC sites. This is probably the biggest issue. Most people use their home page as a starting point, and searching the entire internet is often that point. This search really needs to incorporate an internet search engine otherwise people just aren’t going to use BBC Home as their homepage.
- Not a lot of content. The Beeb has done a great job of making the website appear uncluttered while retaining a very appealing look and feel. However, the look and feel takes away from how much information can be displayed to the user. The graphics, while nice, probably should make room for a few more headlines.
- International terminology. The BBC is great at catering to different nationalities and cultures, and has a high level of customization when it comes to viewing and hearing content.
However, simple things like showing Oklahoma City’s weather forecast in degrees Celsius instead of Fahrenheit makes it virtually unusable for those not familiar with the Celsius unit of measurement! Whoa! The BBC has addressed this already – they are FAST!
The good news is that this is in the developmental stage, and I am certain that the BBC address these issues before formally going live.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/BBC_personalizes_web_experience_and_adds_accessibility]
Posted on Tue, Feb 26, 2008
Website usability is a two-sided affair. While you can make your website as usable as you like, it’s pointless if it is not working for your business.
A website is the interface between business and user, and it should meet the objectives of both.
I thought that was certainly worth mentioning, as it’s very easy to focus on either one or the other.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/Two_sided_usability]
Posted on Thu, Feb 21, 2008
One general rule of thumb when it comes to website usability it this: don’t make users needlessly click.
Take note, Taco Bueno, take note.
Let’s try a simple exercise, Bueno style. The situation: I want a corporate job at Taco Bueno. For the ultimate experience, why don’t you try this exercise with me?
- Log onto their home page. Go on, do it.
- “Enter” the website (pointless step, if you ask me.)
- Click on “Employment Opportunities” at the bottom.
- Click on “Corporate Opportunities.”
- Click on the thing that looks like you shouldn’t click on it, “Click here to view a listing of current jobs and apply online.”
- Click on “Corporate Opportunities”…again.
- Click on “Positions Available.”
- Laugh at end result.
That’s an awful amount of pointless clicking. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, actually.
With some reorganizing and streamlining this process could be shortened to a mere few clicks.
Need more Bueno? Need more usability, actually.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/Taco_Bueno_applying_for_job_could_break_clicking_finger]
Posted on Wed, Feb 20, 2008
Stew sent me this rather interesting article today.
The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index points to e-commerce satisfaction being at an all time high.
Larry Freed, the CEO of ForeSee Results, makes this excellent point in the article:
“Companies have to excel in their online channel. Survival in this economy depends on customer satisfaction, because switching costs are low and an alternative is just a mouse click away.”
In order for the online channel to excel, a variety of things must be in place.
In the case of an e-commerce site, the website needs to:
- Look credible and professional (who would buy from a website that doesn’t look like it’s the real deal?)
- Offer desired products at competitive prices
- Be usable
You see, it would be a mistake to assume that usability is the single key to success in an e-commerce environment – that’s just not so. Product, price and professionalism (i.e. trust) play a huge role too.
However, you can be guaranteed that if your website isn’t usable then the user, given a myriad of alternative websites, isn’t going to give you a chance. I mean, it’s not as if they have to go through the inconvenience of leaving a store and driving around town to another location, is it?
Click. Game over.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/Companies_have_to_excel_in_their_online_channel]
Posted on Mon, Feb 11, 2008
A week or so ago, Smashing Magazine published an article about effective web design.
Their 10 principles are as follows:
- Don’t make users think
- Don’t squander users’ patience
- Manage to focus users’ attention
- Strive for feature exposure
- Make use of effective writing
- Strive for simplicity
- Don’t be afraid of the white space
- Communicate effectively with a “visible language”
- Conventions are our friends
- Test early, test often
I’d recommend everyone interested in good website design to head over to the original article to find out more.
You can’t really argue with any of the above, as great website design really boils down to logic.
Remember, a great website doesn’t have to be a dull website. I really enjoy seeing a usable website that realizes the importance of branding and visual style.
Although I haven’t conducted a usability analysis on New York Presbyterian’s website, this certainly stands out:
- Great use of color and style (try comparing this to other hospital websites!)
- Easy to use – the find a physician and clinical services sections waste no time
- Clear and well spaced text makes it easy to read and scan
- Good exposure of RSS, podcast, email, contact details and video features
- The writing is simple and friendly (great branding!)
- Although the hyperlinks are not conventional (not blue and underlined), it is easy to see at a glance which text is a hyperlink and which is not
Thanks to Stew for finding the Smashing Magazine article!
Posted on Wed, Feb 06, 2008
Kristen (my biz partner) and I had to travel to the lovely town of Duncan for business last Friday.
We navigated our way to Route 81 where we saw the following sign:
A perfectly normal sign – all is well in the world
As you can see, the sign is showing that we’re on Route 81 and we just need to keep on truckin’ in Kristen’s Acura 3.2.CL/mobile closet.
After 5 minutes we saw this sign:
Turn left, right?
That sign is telling us to turn left to continue on Route 81, which is confusing because we know that we simply need to continue in the same direction that we’re currently travelling.
Since we had to be at our destination at a certain time, this sign caused us to panic. It clearly was telling us that Route 81 was left.
After a few minutes of, “OMG, we need to turn around,” we saw this:
Umm, my brain has left the building
So, apparently we’re still on Route 81 (which is good) and we just need to keep going.
Every now and again, we’d see the random Route 81 sign pointing left, but we were already wise to that red herring.
By the end of the trip, we think that we had it figured out. The wise Sign Masters were not feeling particularly clever the day they made those signs.
If they had included the direction of travel on the sign, all would be obvious. If the sign that pointed to the left included the word “North” on it somewhere, then we would have known that we didn’t need to turn (because we wanted to go South.)
A simple usability enhancement would undoubtedly save motorists double-guessing themselves, and prevent many from turning and travelling in the wrong direction. What’s easy to understand for the designer (of road signs, and web pages) could mean something entirely different for the user.
[digg=http://digg.com/design/Road_signs_n_you_gotta_be_kidding_me]