Elizabeth Atkinson

Elizabeth's bio

Elizabeth Atkinson has been working in User Experience for over five years. Prior to joining Foviance in March 2010, Elizabeth has developed in-depth experience in a wide spectrum of research methods including Usability Testing, Focus Groups, Card Sorting, User Experience Measurement, Persona development as well as use of Web Analytics. These methods have been used to analyse and develop the websites of many leading brands in eCommerce.

Currently Elizabeth is working on Foviance projects for the BBC, Bank of America and Barclays. She is also a member of the Usability Professionals’ Association.

John Lewis have recently made wifi available throughout out their high-street stores. According to reports, the primary reason for this is to enable customers to compare the price of products before choosing to buy them. This is a very bold move from John Lewis, sticking by their longstanding price promise to be ‘never knowingly undersold’.

I’d be very interested to monitor the usage of this wifi. I wonder if customers will be more likely to whip out their mobile devices to check prices as they shop in store? Or, will this move of enabling wifi increase trust in the brand in providing great value products, so that customers don’t feel the need to actually check up on the prices offered? Is it instead going to be used by John Lewis customers to simply check Facebook or read their online copy of the newspaper in the John Lewis café?

Either way, it’s a great move to ensure that customers can make immediate decisions in store and complete purchases there and then, rather than having to do online research separate from their offline experience. The important thing for John Lewis to ensure in rolling this out, is that customers’ mobile online experience is fully aligned to their in store experience, to provide a fully joined up multi channel experience. Done well, this could transform shopping experiences and is a great step in the direction of ensuring that the digitally evolving needs of customers are met throughout the traditional shopping journey.

On November 18th, Foviance presented at the Digital Fundraising conference 2010. The event included a number of insightful talks providing ideas, insight and case studies of amazing fundraising efforts that have been successful online. Along with Catriona Campbell, I helped chair the afternoon sessions. These focused on providing details of how the digital space could be used to maximise fundraising opportunities online and they really did demonstrate roaring success. (more…)

The Apple iPhone saga continues… To cut a very long story short; after jumping through various hoops to prove to the Orange call centre that my iPhone was dysfunctional, I have finally received a brand new handset. However, I’m confused as to which brand should be tainted by the initially poor customer service that I experienced. And on the other side, which should be praised for the excellent customer service at the end of the process. (more…)

I recently blogged about the iPhone4 and hoping to be a proud owner, set the wheels in motion. After a gruelling two hours of being left on hold and almost giving up, I finally managed to place my order for the iPhone4 on 24th June 2010.  Despite this terrible telephone customer experience, the new toy was impressively delivered within 24 hours and I got my hands on it. (more…)

Rumours of the Apple iPhone4 have been circulating for months and for so long I’ve been waiting to make my free phone upgrade worthwhile, I’ll finally get my hands on an iPhone. Now the launch date has arrived and I only have a few more weeks to wait.

So, what are some of the new features of iPhone4 that are going to be so special? For me forward facing video calling, is going to be a really good feature (in the main). A number of my close friends live all around the UK so being able to actually see their faces when we chat will be a real bonus and make them feel much closer. This is great. But, I don’t want all my friends, family and colleagues to be able to utilise video calling. (more…)

It’s surprising how long it took Selfridges to release a fully transactional website. Being a representative of the pinnacle of London fashion they must have missed out on years of full online shopping baskets, not launching their transactional site till 2010, but relax – now it has arrived!  (more…)