Usability

After having recently moved house, I decided to set up a new Internet connection. As I was already a mobile customer of theirs (which entitled me to a discount) I opted for an O2 broadband package. I wasn’t particularly pleased with the usability of the registration process on their website. I always get annoyed by small usability flaws and get even more angered when functionalities such as the address finder don’t work (O2, here is a hint for you). But what disappointed me was not so much the average user-friendliness of their site as, in the end, I managed to do what I wanted. What left me perplexed was their order follow-up strategy, which is in essence a very good concept that was poorly implemented. Read more…

The newly launched H&M UK site seemed promising – someone recommended I check it out, and since I have a couple of friends expecting babies soon I thought I would go and investigate baby clothes.

Firstly, I’m afraid to say, the site did not even load: I waited almost 2 minutes with a blank page only showing a very faded Union Jack flag – a nice way of indicating this is the UK site, if only the site loaded. Under normal circumstances I would have left to go to another site. But I persevered… Read more…

The lovely Jesse Lewis of Disney Online told me about an iPhone app called Hipstamatic, and now I’m hooked. It’s inspired by Lomography, whose adherents ‘shoot from the hip’ to produce random and often stunning photographic compositions.

I decided to put Hipstamatic through its paces on my recent holiday in Greece. For £1.19 you get the app, plus three lenses and three films – more are available to be purchased separately (and I challenge you not to splash out on a few more after having played around a bit). Read more…

My Kindle just arrived. It came in a brown cardboard box, Amazon style, except that this was a different model box from the standard ones – more classy, somehow, with its black band across one end. Tear off the strip of perforated card at one end, and the lid lifts up to reveal the object of your desire: THE Kindle. There’s something of an Apple feel to the experience – white, smooth – lustrous, even? – hard, moulded plastic inside, no frills, and the dark matte grey device nestled, pod-like, in the box. Basic instructions on the screen clearly display a diagram of the device, its USB/power cord and how to plug it in – so clearly in fact, I first thought this was printed on the protective plastic film, and so did a couple of other people I showed it to. So far this is turning out to be a rather good customer experience. Read more…

I am feeling annoyed and frustrated with making bookings on he Internet. I’m off on holiday and thought that rather than drive straight through to the southernmost tip of England in one day, we’d stop off to see some relatives on the way. There’s six of us, so staying with anyone is no small undertaking. This time we decided to look for a hotel or B&B. Read more…

Catriona Campbell will be speaking at the annual Charities IT Conference with  media celebrity Jackie Brambles. A number of Foviance’s charity clients attended last year and we look forward to seeing them again this year.

Catriona’s session will include:

Web Development & Content Management

Getting your website strategy right
- Optimising your website for maximum interactivity and usability
- Integrating your website and supporter database
- Engaging and embedding a new kind of giving and sharing culture for future generations
- Utilising video resources for an effective call for action

Catriona Campbell – Usability Expert
FOVIANCE

Jackie Brambles – Media & video expert
BROADSTANCE MEDIA

I took the  iPad home for a few days and carried out some basic usability testing and below are some of my findings:

• Connect to my wireless network. All fine, except main CTA (after writing password) was amongst letters and looked equally grey)
• Watch YouTube videos – Eddie Izzard – great experience with the iPad sitting on my legs, picking it up every so often to show my husband who could also participate at a distance.

Read more…

By Chris Holmes

I was asked to field test Apple’s iPad presumably as penance for mouthing off about how impractical and uncomfortable I predicted it would be to use. While I haven’t changed my mind about the iPad, I’m also pleased to say that I was wrong about many details. So just like Jacob Nielsen recently did, I can now reveal my first usability findings for the iPad.

For the record, I started writing this article on the iPad which I was given to test-drive for the weekend, but its not currently very easy to get any copy off the device when typing in Pages, I had to give up and resort to my laptop. Read more…