We’re house hunting in South Africa at the moment and we’ve tried just about every property website there is. We’ve seen some shockers, and we’ve been surprised by some very good, usable web design. When you compare the best performer with the worst offenders, it does highlight how making your website usable really is a …
Author archives: Phil
Those youngsters! They should straighten up and fly right.
Behind the curve as ever, I read about Andrew Keen and his “anti-web2.0” stance in the Observer. Thanks, also to Matt Buckland, for pointing me at it. “The author and entrepreneur has stunned his adopted country with a book that accuses bloggers and other evangelists for the web of destroying culture, ruining livelihoods and threatening …
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Usable toilet doors
From BBC News Online… ‘[Virgin trains] denied reports in the Daily Telegraph about automatic doors opening unexpectedly or locking people in. Problems with disabled toilets on the hi-tech tilting trains however were down to people not using the automatic doors properly, a spokesman said. “There’s a button to close the door and another with a …
Marketing AT people
The blog has been even quieter than usual, because I’ve been in the process of moving to South Africa. It has been one of the most relentlessly busy times of my life, but now that I’m here it looks like it was all worthwhile. Capetown is a great place. I’ve seen some truly strange ad …
Unnecessary features aimed at idiots
The Guardian’s Charlie Brooker captures user-experience rage with hilarious accuracy in his guardian column for March 5 2007: My new mobile phone is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots. ‘When you dial a number, you have a choice of seeing said number in a gigantic, ghastly typeface, or watching it …
Turning your mobile phone upside down
I find texting uncomfortable. And it seems I’m not alone. Someone has filed a new patent for putting the screen below the keypad. Try turning your phone upside down to get a feel for how it might be. I think I’m sold. More info at mad4mobiles.
iphone – ibrand
Thanks, experience curve. iphone – it’s all been said. I love this parody, and I’m sure the folk at Apple do too. It rams home just how strong the link is between great user experience, and loyalty. Maybe we should poke fun at these fabulously loyal icustomers. Or maybe we should wish that we had …
CTRL-Tab: Mastery, complexity, flow
So finally here’s the follow up post to the CTRL-Tab thing. CTRL-Tab to page through browser tabs, F2 to edit in MS Office, and my all-time favourite CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-S in Photoshop to “save for web”. Do these arcane, unguessable key combinations offer a good user experience? Simple answer: Yes. They offer efficiency and speed for users …
Customer satisfaction: the lead metric (3)
This follows on from my two previous posts on this subject. I think I’ve got somewhere with this. It has been an interesting ride. The questions boil down to: How can you measure the quality of your customer experience, across multiple channels (web, store, call centre, WAP)? Is measuring symptoms of customer experience, rather than …
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Budget user interfaces
A few years ago, my wife bought an electric blanket for our bed. She did well- it’s wonderful thing and it keeps us snug. But the usability of the control modules is so dire that it’s actually funny. Take a look… Note… The cryptic red circle icon drifting between the on-light and the left hand …