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Recent talk in the blogsphere suggests that the debate about user experience (UX) and creativity rumbles on. As a UX Researcher who believes strongly in good design, I thought I’d pitch in with my thoughts.

What I want to establish is that UX is not a hindrance to innovation or creativity, but something that should complement these pursuits. The problem seems to be that there is extreme polarisation in some quarters regarding a user centric approach. Some believe it to be the solution to everything, in effect giving the user the pen and asking them to draw the solution. Others believe it to be the antithesis of everything design and a complete block to creativity. In reality it should be neither, the key is to choose the right research for the right situation.

When working to enhance an existing concept or creating the next version of a product or service, traditional user centred design (UCD) works superbly. It’s what it’s designed for after all. Understand the current marketplace, understand business needs, understand user needs, create, evaluate, refine, repeat, launch and continually evolve. This is the bulk of what most organisations need from their UX engagements. It is of course a little more complex than this is practice as we must consider all channels a customer might engage with and ensure the best possible end to end experience, which inevitably involves some level of organisational change as well. However, the UCD method holds true throughout this.

Where things are a little more challenging is when UX meets innovation. Great innovators, like Steve Jobs or James Dyson, would contend that research with users does not lead to innovation. There is some truth to this; a focus group would have been unlikely to have designed an iPad or Dyson AirBlade. A survey wouldn’t have identified the need for Facebook. What you see with each of these products is where someone with uncanny insight addresses a latent need. Be it the ability to surf the web in an eminently immersive and pleasurable fashion, the ability to pursue a greater level of social connectedness or even the ability to experience dry hands after using a public toilet.

The trouble is that even for great innovators, these moments of great insight are rare. Mark Zuckerberg has arguably only had the one good idea, but executed and evolved it extremely well. James Dyson has created two or three revolutionary products. Steve Jobs’ genius was to take existing ideas and through an exemplary focus on the end to end user experience turn them into something so much better. What you’ll notice is that all of these extremely successful innovators relied upon insight, their own insight and their own empathy for users of their products. I salute their success, they’ve changed the way we experience the world, which is quite amazing.

However, for every other organisation this approach does rather rely on being fortunate enough to employ an amazing designer who completely understands their audience, has correctly guessed what they want and is prepared to tailor his creativity to suit their needs. This is where UX Research comes in. Contextual research methods such as ethnography or well facilitated creative workshops can lend great insight into users’ needs and provide designers with the information they need to create innovative products and services. And once they’ve created these products, we’ll be there to help them evolve and refine them. We’ll even help them to determine the emotional impact their products have.

We’re in this together. UX professionals are here to empower creative people and user focused organisations to deliver excellent experiences that delight their customers.

Foviance sponsored the third Directors Forum of the year, hosted at the Gallup and themed around measurement and strategy. John D’Arcy, Practice Director of Analytics & Insight presented the opening keynote: Who needs a measurement strategy anyway? John explored some of the different types of data available, what it is useful for and showed examples of how the use of measurement frameworks can advance customer engagement and experience strategy.

The forum included presentations from Dr Guy Fielding, Michael Blastland, Marco Nink and case studies from John Lewis and Barclays. To view all the presentations from the day please click here.

We also launched our second annual Multichannel Customer Experience Report surveying 650 companies and agencies to gain a perspective on the extent to which organisations are committed to delivering an integrated experience, to download please click here.

Thank you to everyone that attended with us, we hope  you enjoyed the day as much as we did, if you have any feedback from the day please let us know or if you would like John to present his keynote presentation to your company,over a lunchtime at your office, please let us know.

Whilst trying to find a coat online last week, it occurred to me how online fashion retail is still not very customer centric, despite the huge rise in online clothes shopping over the past few years.

I often don’t have a clear picture in my mind of what I want, just generally two specific things; what type of item (skirt/top/dress…) and what I need the item for (work/daytime/evening…) I do know what styles I like (classic/glamorous/urban…) and possibly thanks to Gok Wan, my shape (hourglass/apple/athletic…)

However, when I arrive on most fashion websites I feel overwhelmed by the choice and generally find myself trawling through endless pages of unsuitable items, and then giving up. Part of the reason for this, is that the filters provided do not help me narrow down the items using criteria that I actually have in mind. This is because, more often than not, the filters are based on the direct properties of the item (colour, brand, size) as opposed to the personal categories that users search by (purpose, style, shape.)

Adapting the filters like this could help users to find suitable items more easily, and, once reading about the items, I think that there is also scope for additional product information to help inform the buying decision. This could be things such as:

• Different ways to wear the item
• How the item looks on different sizes/shapes
• What others who previously bought the item think of it.

One website that takes a novel approach to shoe retail is stylistpick. Users are asked a series of questions about their fashion preferences before they are presented with a selection of shoes each month that the website thinks will suit them. I actually found that this narrowed the choice too much as there is no way to see all products, or re-do the style quiz if you need something for a different type of occasion. Although it’s not perfect it’s great to see new approaches being used.

The lack of customer centricity generally seen, surprises me given the size of the market, physical diversity of  people shopping and disposable incomes that many people have these days. Whilst I know that people’s clothes selection is very personal, I’m sure that there are others out there who wouldn’t mind a few more recommendations to help find the right thing. So, come on fashion websites, help me spend my money!

It’s 6 a.m., some time in November 2020. My alarm doesn’t go off; I stopped using one years ago. Since then, I’ve been woken up by the lights slowly coming on in my bedroom and the pillow gently deflating.

I grab an object on my bedside table and place it carefully in its docking position below my right eye. A beep prompts me to give a verbal instruction: I say “Fu Man Chu”. My razorbot beeps twice to acknowledge the command, then whirrs into action and travels across the contours of my face, buzzing and trimming, while I lie motionless on my back.

Yes, Movember (http://uk.movember.com/) is still going strong in 2020, and these days I don’t need to squint in front of a mirror to get a perfect shave. That’s a big bonus for me. When I bought the razorbot last year, it had to be personalised – so I set it to calibration mode and let it map out my face and neck. It then asked me if there was another ‘region’ that I wanted to calibrate; I politely declined.

After two minutes, my facial trim is complete. I haul myself out of bed and visit the bathroom to see how my Fu Man Chu moustache is coming along, and gargle with some plaque-busting nanobots.

This advertisement using augmented reality by Volkswagen looks really cool. The only problem is you need to know about it and which ads it works with, or you’re waving your iPad about and looking a wally and nothing happens. It looks like the bus stop ones have a clue, but it might be harder with the billboard ones.

For this to reach the mainstream it needs to be so embedded in devices that you don’t need an app. I see two routes for this, either you need eyewear that augments the world automatically or (the less high tech approach) your phone buzzes or vibrates or in some way notifies you when near to an AR enabled location.

It’s getting there, the movement handling (so you don’t need to have a rock-steady hold on the device) suggest that the technology is just about ready.

If you are trying to view this video in Internet Explorer (IE)  and it is not showing, just click on this link: http://youtu.be/KRA0SZhKNyo

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.

As a regular commuter, I’ve started to notice a few QR codes appearing on adverts inside the tube carriages and even on a poster in a tube corridor. The other day, I spied a large half-page M&S advert in the Metro that sported a conspicuous QR code. It was probably a special edition (13th October), since today’s paper did not contain anywhere near as many QR codes.

However, in this particular paper, inside the first page was a “Metro on the move in four easy steps” box with a QR code and a very brief explanation of what they are and how to use them. Within the paper I counted no less than 11 adverts with QR codes.

I decided to carry out a brief review of the QR codes using an iPhone 4 on a 3G connection in the same location within the hour. The results of my findings are below:

Non- mobile friendly web pages:

• Metro’s own QR code took a considerable amount of time to load because of the non-mobile friendly web pages.
• Wowcher advert on saving on paintballing: It was slow to load to the relevant voucher and went straight to the main non-mobile friendly website.
• Simplify digital advert on price comparisons was slow to load and after a lengthy amount of time passes, I’m still waiting.
• Lloyds Pharmacy advert on men’s “problems” (let’s leave it at that): Leads to a non-mobile friendly website. Although a funny advert with three naked men pictured holding hats in front of them.
• Flu Camp advert to recruit people for clinical trials: Another non-mobile friendly web, a pity as the actual advert and code were very creative.

QR codes leading to different advertised pages:

• M&S Dine in offers in store (dinner for 2, £10); although the advert stated the offer ran to the 18th of October the code simply led to a web page to sign up for text alerts
• M&S Women’s full page coat advert: M&S lead users to the site’s women homepage, although mobile enabled, it would be much easier if the QR code diverted users directly to the coat.
• AirFrance (general advert): Again, goes straight to their mobile home page, I would have benefited more if it had linked straight to the advert on display.
• Motors.co.uk advert about researching second hand cars: Lands straight to the iTunes download page. (Except the title of the scanned code is not relevant – it is simply the iTunes url)

QR codes working well:

John Lewis/Sony Bravia TV: A QR code that takes you straight to the mobile enabled buy now page. In my basket with a click!

Heathrow general advert/download free app: It goes to a video page (showcasing the advert) but you can skip it to get the app download page. This takes you straight to the iTunes download page.

The final verdict is, if advertisers expect to go mainstream with QR codes, they really need to improve the experience for users.

Emotional Engagement Measurement™ (EEM™ ) is a ground breaking research approach that provides insights into the unconscious motivations of consumers when they are engaged in learning about, purchasing or using products and services. It’s taken three years of studying electroencephalography (EEG), adding traditional face-to-face and questionnaire research and honing our studies on eyetracking to develop our new service.

It’s an exciting development for businesses and brands; there’s a need to understand how customers feel towards products and services and even though Foviance has traditionally used research techniques to reveal conscious reactions, we are now able to unlock unconscious reactions with analysis of hidden reactions and impressions from customers using Emotional Engagement Measurement™.  This technique can boost revenues for our clients because they will understand on a greater level customers’ unconscious behaviours; it’s not just a case of knowing that experiences need to be optimised, but how to create better customer experiences and heighten engagement.

The importance that emotions play in a decision making process really cannot be ignored. By combining developed research techniques we can provide measurements in several key areas including; excitement, engagement, boredom and irritation (which provides a full picture of unconscious responses and reactions). It’s exciting for us to be able to provide the physical response to experiences, an area that was previously missing.

We have already witnessed great results for clear stimuli such as imagery, layouts, colours, email campaigns and more, which reveals entirely new levels of customer understanding.

To find out more about EEM™ and Emotional Engagement, please refer to our dedicated website