The Experience Design Scout

Even though QR codes scanners are far from mainstream, the codes itself give customer experience managers a technique to tie their service and marketing channels together:

1) Banks: Include a code in paper statements so customers can check their current balance online. Or in case of customer service announcements, display a code on the letter so customers can immediately call for questions.

2) Electronics retailers. Display a code on product shelves that direct shoppers straight to your or another comparison website. If you know you offer competitive prices, don’t fear to demonstrate it.

3) Print advertisers. Show a code in your ad that leads straight to the more interactive campaign’s micro site.

This is the QR code of this blog.

The (Dutch) INK Model represents a framework developed in the late 80s to evaluate the success of an organization. Although the model was refreshed in 2003, the attention it gets in recent years from press and management teams seems to have faded away.

Is the model not working? Probably. If you read the model you will find it is quite an inside-out approach to improving a business. To give some simple evidence, I use Google to see how many times the word ‘customer’ is mentioned at the official website of the INK model.

The result? Only 13 times.

What it means? Too often companies forget to put the customer central in their quality measurement exercises. If you measure the wrong things, chances are you don’t have an effective customer experience strategy.

September is packed with interesting events. An overview.

National.

• September 1. MoMo 7. Mobile business models, analytics, and user experience and usability.
• September 2-5. MobileCHI. Human-Computer Interaction with mobile devices and services.
• September 16. eDay ‘08. For latest trends in online business and marketing. Theme: Open Up.
• September 24-26. PICNIC ‘08. “Three inspiring days of ideas, fun and sensory stimulation in media technology, entertainment, art and science.”
• September 26-27. EuroIA. Quality content around Information Architecture. Theme: Redrawing the Map.

International.

• September 22-24. Design for mobile. Focused on strategy and tactics for user research, product definition, interaction and other design, and usability testing.

If you don’t have any (travel) budget left for the year, consider this one on experience design. It’s free and you can choose your own date.

Did i miss a good event?

Earlier I wrote how simple mortgage information is not always present at the sites of the three large banks in the Netherlands.

My search for a property has continued and am now using three large real estate websites Jaap, Funda and Moviqto find a house. I thought I share my findings in a structured way. But first a comparison by reach (powered by Alexa) and search volume (powered by Google Trends).

The goals and criteria

My goal was to find a property close to zip code 1055 in Amsterdam within the price range of €200,000 – €300,000. I’d like to save the search query for next time so I don’t have to narrow down the results each time I visit the site. I’d also like to add properties in a list of favorites.

I categorized my findings based on a set of ‘heuristics’ in different categories. The site gains a point when it helps me getting closer to reaching my goal and a -1 if it doesn’t. [For the record, this is just a short list of tests]

1. Navigation: Reaching your goals in a clear, efficient way.
   • Are menu labels clear?
   • Is the task flow efficient?
2. Usefulness: Receiving value through content and functionality [to reach these goals].
   • Is the functionality available to accomplish my goals?
   • Is the necessary information available?
3. Control: Maintaining control during the interaction.
   • Does the site help me to correct my error(s)?
   • Does the site guide me in completing a set of tasks?
4. Presentation: Laying out pages effectively to support Navigation, Usefulness and Control.
   • Is the size of the text large enough?
   • Are interactive elements consistent?
5. Branding & Aesthetics. Promoting the brand to leave a good impression.
   • Are graphics and functionality on par with the brand image?
   • Does the site offer something new?

Results: Funda leads the pack

In the spirit of the Olympics, here is the result:

Gold: Funda.nl +6. Strong points: legible text, extensive property information (’street view’), good error prevention and recovery. Deltas: not all required functionality is present, inefficient task flow when searching through map.

Silver: Moviq.nl +0. Strong points: Interesting new ideas (‘flirt with your house’), easiest registration process, good quality pictures, fast download/reaction speeds. Deltas: difficult-to-use map search (due to inaccurate ‘bubbles’), ambiguous category names, and absence of simple property information.

Bronze: Jaap.nl -4. Strong points: no registration required (has several disadvantages as well), RSS feeds. Deltas: Search functionality is oversensitive, hyperlinks are inconsistent, illegible portions of text.

Usability plays a key role in the overall experience

When using these sites I realized that the quality of a site is not purely determined by usability. One house caught my eyes in particular, but after calling the agent it appeared that the property was already sold. The website didn’t tell me this. So, in other words, for finding the best experience we also need to determine the accuracy of the property’s status. I’ll cover this in a different post.

Roughly:

• 1600 – 1830: Exchange
• 1830 – 1960: Exchange + Manufactured goods
• 1960 – 1990: Exchange + Manufactured goods + Service
• 1990 – 2005: Exchange + Manufactured goods + Service + Technology
• 2005 – xxxx: Exchange + Manufactured goods + Service + Technology + Interaction

Firms’ competitive advantage more and more starts at learning how to communicate with customers, telling a specific story, and managing well-designed interactions (purchases, questions, complaints, etc).

When is xxxx? What does it trigger? What will be next?

Great post by Ian Worley, Director of User Experience at Flow Interactive Ltd.

Ian writes that:

• “People are notoriously bad at identifying their own latent unmet needs, particularly where technology is concerned”.
• “the use of customer research .. to understand and influence buying behaviour is probably most thoroughly developed in the bricks-and-mortar retailing industry. However, these same approaches are not often used to design and build online stores, much less getting the two channels to work together”.
• “The best way to understand customer motivations and draw out insights that can have tangible impact on the bottom line, is to observe customers through the entire purchasing lifecycle; from learning about products, deciding on which ones to buy and ultimately buying and using them. This means using various ethnographic research techniques, from short context studies through to more in-depth longitudinal studies …”

Ian also shares a great case study how a toy company increased online sales with 33%. Through various studies the company found out that parents need assurance that certain toys are going to help the development of their child. As a result, the company changed the in-store experience by including this type of information on the packaging, while the Website was redesigned with additional age-based navigation, as well as age and development search filters.

The entire article is worth reading