Trick or tweet
Even if you’re not a Facebook addict or regular Twitter user, you’ll know how difficult it is to escape social media. Why? Because social media is revolutionising the way that people consume content.
Social media is opening new channels of communication between brands and customers and there is a lot of potential in the social web that marketers can tap into. For example, a study earlier in the year by Penn State University showed that 20% of all tweets mentioned a brand name. Sales and marketing professionals need to be aware of these significant media consumption trends so they can tailor and target their messages as effectively as possible across a changing landscape. Read more…
The iPad – will it change the game or is it just Star Wars monopoly?
A glass or two glasses of wine into a networking dinner recently, I found myself in a debate about whether the iPad would be game changing or not. I have some history of this subject as when we first started the company in 2001, we travelled the world testing Microsoft’s tablet PC to help understand how and where people would use it and what usability issues were apparent between device and software. Read more…
eBooks – a conversion?
I do not have an eBook yet but being an avid reader, I have been closely watching the developments in that field. I try to keep up with the different types of eBooks and have even tried the Penguin app on my iTouch, but found the eye strain too unpleasant to even read the first page. Not a great user experience for me then. I have so far not been convinced of the need to part with my cash, and there are a few additional reasons for this. Read more…
Measuring the success of your iPhone App
“Number 1 app in UK, France and Germany…”. Those who regularly browse the Apple AppStore hunting for applications (apps) will undoubtedly be familiar with this type of catch phrase. It’s generally what users first read when they land on app description pages (as if they were all number one!). Developers and designers use this type of technique to lure candid users to download the app by making them believe it’s the best of its kind on the market. This also illustrates how the success of an app is often assumed: the higher in the ranking, the more successful it is. But as you may probably know already, this approach is entirely flawed. Read more…
It’s official, I’m a traditionalist
By Katie Buchanan
As a User Experience Consultant I spend a lot of my time designing websites and understanding the value and impact that the Internet has on people’s lives; how they interact with brands and services, shop online, communicate online, and bank online. A personal experience recently has reminded me of participants in my various forms of research over the years; why they and now realising why I, are traditionalists at heart. Read more…
Which type of segmentation is best? – Part 1
This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 12/02/10 and is republished here with permission.
One of the things I like about my job working is a customer experience consultancy is that I’m surrounded by people with a very different outlook on life. Our user experience consultants tend to come from a behavioural psychology background and are great at using qualitative research techniques such as lab testing, eye tracking and ethnographic studies to get into the mind of users and to understand what makes for a good or bad experience. Read more…
Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’
“Never try, never fail, those are the words I live by”, or so says Drew Carey’s character Crank in the animated kids film ‘Robots’. I heard these words coming from the back of the car a few days ago as I headed off on holiday with the family for a week in North Devon. You could run a business by that motto but I’m not sure it would last long or be an exciting place to work.
On the contrary, it is the belief of both my team and I that we must try, that sees Foviance opening for business in China this quarter, with a new office in Shanghai. Read more…
Localisation is required when you’re lost in translation
As geographically separate regions of the earth are brought ever closer together by the pervasiveness of the World Wide Web, it is only natural that businesses attempt to extend their reach beyond national boundaries via their online presence.
However, ‘internationalising’ a site is a far more involved process than merely translating it, and without intelligent international research with native users, it is not possible to truly localise a site. Read more…