The ultimate bad experience

So far, this has been the ultimate bad experience.  My purse was stolen on Saturday.  I only have (well, had) one purse, and in it was everything credit-card sized.  This included 4 bank cards, driving licence and numerous loyalty cards.  There was also some money, but as I am notoriously badly organised when it comes to carrying cash around (fortuitously in this case) I only lost about £15.

As soon as I realised it had been swiped, I got hold of all the numbers I needed to ring to cancel my cards.  First call, Nationwide (the building society, not the insurance company).  It was all going well until the man on the other end of the phone asked me whether I wanted to receive marketing materials from them.  Are you kidding me?  You're asking me whether I want to receive marketing materials from you when all I can really think about right now is the fact that I have no money, no access to money and someone has run off with quite a personal possession of mine.  He then went on to say 'Have a nice day'.  Have a nice day?!  Really?  Are you a monkey or a human?  I might expect something like this from a website, but from an actual living and breathing human?  No, I expect a little empathy.

Next call was to the Royal Bank of Scotland.  They were highly efficient, putting me through to their credit card cancellation department in the same call.  I was feeling a bit less worse now.  The lady I spoke to about cancelling my credit card was a real live human.  She did empathise with me.  Which made me feel a little better.  And she immediately checked my account to reassure me that no transactions had been carried out.  Yay, you've made some effort to understand your customers.

And then the pendulum swung the other way again.  This time I was trying to get hold of someone at MBNA (after mistakenly calling American Express, as that is what I recall seeing on my credit card, not MBNA).  They have a voice recognition phone system.  Problem number 1 - I'm in a public space, there is a lot of background noise, and I don't particularly want to shout my personal details to an automatic voice at the other end of the phone.  Problem 2 - after telling the automated voice that I've had my card stolen, it asks me to read out the long number on the front of the card.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't know the long number along the front of my card.  And then, because I couldn't read out the number they asked me to enter it using my keypad.  Just let me speak to someone already please.

Why is it so difficult to think about your customer when designing a service?  Who's using the service?  Yes, that's right, it's your customers.  Who pays your wages?  Yes, that's right, it's your customers.  Now, please think about how they would like to be treated and start your service design from there.

Augmenting reality. Using digital to make reality cool again.

When I told someone I worked in digital marketing they replied, "What? You sell fingers?" (boom, boom)

No, I don't sell fingers. In fact, whilst a lot of the work I produce digitally does eventually manifest in something real (like a product or an experience) much of what I do is very unreal. Perceptions are the original virtual currency, and much of the work I've done for Pepsi, Bacardi, Danone, Carlsberg and the like has traded in that currency alone.

How refreshing then to experience a site that connects the real and the virtual seamlessly.

Made.com allows one to buy furniture, not unlike any other online retailer. But in every other way, they are vastly different from other online retailers. And for that reason, I love them.

At this stage it's worth noting that I still haven't actually taken delivery of anything from Made.com. Yet even before fulfillment, I'm already a massive fan. How amazing is that? :-)

So how are Made.com different?

They use time as a currency

Their business model means there's significant time between order and fulfillment. Other companies find this a problem and see long delivery times as an embarrassment, hiding them away. But instead Made.com use this lag to their advantage: building drama, anticipation, affinity, connection and loyalty. They provide a countdown to delivery date and visual cues that help you to picture your actual product on its way to your door. A map and a nice description shows the path the product has gone through and it's current position. I like this.

They're are good value for money

We've got used to an Amazon.com next day delivery culture. We've got used to not having to wait for things. As a result, we inevitably pay a premium for this near-instant gratification. What Made.com have done is remind me that I don't, in fact, need everything by tomorrow. And by helping me realise that, they've helped me stop paying that premium. As a result, I've bought a product for a third of what it would cost in John Lewis. That's good value.

I find this really exciting. By merging real and virtual in a way that adds to reality, makes reality more tangible and more fun, the creators of Made.com have made reality cool again. And digital marketing that little bit more real. And my job just a bit more meaningful as a result. And that's a very good thing.

When fast service is bad service

Speedy, same hour (let alone same day) responses are what we all want from the customer service people we contact. Correct?

Not always.

I recently filled in a form on a furniture removal website. The form was titled "Get an immediate quote online". I filled it in during a 5-minute break at work. I expected to get "an immediate quote online".

Instead, I got a promise that my quote would be sent to me. Then, within half an hour of filling in the form, I got a phone call. I couldn't answer the phone. Furthermore, the voicemail left on my phone left me no clearer on what my move was going to cost me. What was intended to be a quick, faceless interaction with an immediate response has ended up requiring returning of phone calls to named individuals to "further discuss my requirements".

Yes, the response was fast. But the response was not what I asked for.

The service provider missed the point of the service they were providing. The "online" element was what appealed to me in my context. However, there was no online fulfilment to speak of. The fastest service in the world can't make up for misunderstanding what your customers want.

Resurrection is actually quite a big deal

It's a stumbling block for many when it comes to religion. Whilst the premise of Christianity is appealing to many, they struggle to chew on - let alone swallow - the concept of resurrection. Why then, is the same phenomenon so acceptable in the world of technology?

Last weekend, my Internet access at home died. I tried to save it with a new router and an hour-long chat to a helpful man at BT Broadband. The diagnosis was terminal. The only treatment possible - an engineer would have to visit.

This was a big deal in our house. No Skype to Granny and Grandad. No Facebooking. No catch-up TV. Nothing.

Less than a week later, however, I noticed some other devices in my house were quite happily enjoying themselves on the Internet. iPhones and TVs were flitting about the Web to their heart's content. Unbeliever that I was, I sceptically fired up my laptop once more - expecting the same error message as before. But no - it lived! It died and rose again! Hallelujah!

A week on, and I've moved on from this miracle. I can't explain it - I probably never will. It happened once - it'll probably happen again. And somehow in the world of technology - this phenomenon is perfectly acceptable. We get over errors and crashes and things fixing themselves without so much as a reboot. The miracle of resurrection in the world of bits and bytes is something we're cool with. Why then do we give God such a hard time?

Dabs usability by numbers

I just popped onto the Dabs.com site to take a look at laptops. I was presented with a message "Use our tabs to navigate through the site".

Genius. I'd have sat staring at that page for days if they hadn't told me.

Banking on common sense

My bank knows a lot about me. If you add up the time I've spent using my bank cards, filling in forms and opening their junkmail, I probably spend more time with my bank than with my mum.

Why then does the information they use to confirm my identify not match the information they use to send me a new credit card?

Why then does half the bank know I've moved but the other half doesn't?

Why then do they seem to forget everything they know about me each time I apply for a new product?

As "knowledge is power", banks have the potential to be one of the most powerful organisations around. They know so much, yet they do so little. They have the potential to create some of the most relevant, meaningful experiences for their customers, yet they don't.

So what is the answer? Bigger, better IT Systems? Re-engineered processes? Quality assurance testing? Maybe. Or maybe just common sense.

Most (if not all) good experiences are about applying common sense. You'd think banks would have some.

Compare to buy

I’m off on a camping trip to France over the summer with my boyfriend.  We will be going to places we’ve never been before.  We don’t have a sat nav.  Time to buy one I feel.

I was aware of a couple of brands, but thought that there were probably more.  I did a quick search, and right enough there were others.  I quickly discounted ones where I wasn’t clear if Europe was covered.  This left me with the original two brands – TomTom and Garmin.

My next port of call was their respective websites.

Neither are amazing, but Garmin definitely came out on top.  For a start they enabled me to filter their products – I only wanted to see sat navs which included Europe.  Straight away that was 17 less products for me to look at.  TomTom on the other hand don’t enable any sort of filtering, so you are left to do this on your own by looking at the product name and description.

Secondly, the Garmin website enabled comparison of products.  This is a godsend when the products are in fact so similar.  There was no easy way of doing this on TomTom.  A Google search for ‘compare tom tom sat nav’ took me to a comparison page, allegedly on their site, but you could only compare the products they had chosen.  And there wasn’t a great deal of information to compare on.

Thirdly, the compare feature on the Garmin website enabled me to find out what the different products offered.  There was no easy way of doing this on the the TomTom website.  Their website would probably win on the ‘looking good’ awards, but it just doesn’t deliver.  There are videos, but they took forever to load.  And there just isn’t the same level of technical (presented in a non technical way) information.

I think I’m going to buy a Garmin.  It was just easier to find information about them.  I feel more confident that I know what I’m going to get.

Websites are like roads. Discuss.

It's been a cold and snowy winter.  A lot of the roads I drive on a daily basis have suffered.  They are now a patchwork of potholes, previously filled potholes and some original tarmac.  It's akin to driving on roads in some Developing countries.

I can't help thinking that a number of websites are like this.  Someone discovers a 'hole' (missing content, outdated functionality etc.), and they come up with a patch.  This could be a new page on the site, casually added to a section where it doesn't quite fit.  Or a new piece of functionality which may or may not fit seamlessly with the existing content and functionality.  The website becomes that patch-worked road.

I look at these roads and wonder whether it would be better just to start all over again?  I realise that this would cause a great deal of disruption, in the short term.  And would probably cost a large sum of money, again in the short term.  But think of those long term savings.  And you could have a nice smooth road to drive on.

Equally for websites, what could be a worse user experience than not being able to find the information you want?  And not being able to use functionality on a site?  And for all the other inconsistencies that are likely to arise as a result of adding things ad hoc to a website.

It can't be a bad idea, when a significant number of changes are required, or have been made over time, just to wipe the slate clean and start afresh.  Done properly, you can then ensure an exceptional (and consistent) user experience on your site.

Burritos as big as your head

I love burritos.  In fact I love pretty much any Mexican food.  So, I was delighted to visit The Mission Mexican Grill (they know burritos) in Reading over the weekend.  The smell of the place, the sight of other people's burritos - it all whet my appetite.

When I got up to the counter to order, it reminded me of Subway - lots of things to choose from to go into your burrito.  I started getting a bit panicked - how am I meant to know what all the different fillings are, and what goes together best?  And then I saw the menu.  It is phrased in such a way that it intends to help you choose your meal.  Ignore it.  I read it, and my mind started boggling with all the available choices - you choose your beans (black or pinto), your main filling (chicken, pork, steak or vegetarian - more of that later), whether you want cheese (30p extra) OR guacamole (70p extra) OR sour cream etc.  In fact you can get all 3.

Best just to let your server lead you through.  If you get a chance to interrupt her that is - before you know it you will have a burrito as big as your head, no doubt with a few things you don't want (e.g. cheese, guac AND sour cream).

All this aside - the burritos are GREAT and you won't need to eat for at least 24 hours later.

Loving Sporcle

Another example of a site that does one thing really well, is Sporcle.

For the user, it's addictive, educational and fun. And for businesses it has potential for driving interest, awareness and affinity, not to mention the potential for conducting fast, simple research.

I put together this Sporcle in less than 30 minutes.

Most popular websites in the UK

It only takes 3 minutes to play, so give it a go.

Once again. Simple is best.

Just tell me how much it costs to park my car

I'm off to the o2 Arena on Saturday night to watch a gig.  It's a pretty awkward place to get to if you live Westwards outside of London.  Taking the train will probably take considerably longer than driving, what with all the changes and waiting around.  But what about parking?

My first port of call was the o2 Arena website.  Obvious place to start I would have thought.  They have a label: ''Getting to the o2".  Perfect.  I arrive on a page, and the second item on the list is "Parking".  Brilliant.  Then things start to go a little pear shaped.  The next page I arrive on has information about how to get there by car.  I don't want that.  I want information about parking.

And more specifically I want information about how much parking costs.  I scroll down the page and I see a nice big button "Pre-book Parking".  Great.  But I still haven't seen how much it costs.

On the resulting page I have to fill in a large form.  I don't want to fill in a form without knowing how much it's going to cost me.  At the bottom, I notice the call-to-action is "Check prices and pay".  Am I paying now?  But I don't know how much it is.  I realise I haven't filled in any payment details.  I relax slightly and click.  My page is then riddled with error messages because I still don't want to fill the form in!

I am far more likely to fill the form in and make my booking if I have all the information I need up front.

Parking tickets

How many times have you arrived at your airport car park in a rush?  Parked up in the first space you find, then run to get the bus you see coming towards the closest bus stop?  And completely forgotten to make a note of where you parked your car.

Then you come back to the car park days/weeks later and you can’t find your car.

It hasn’t happened to me *smiles smugly*.  But just yesterday I was on the bus back to the car park, and a couple on the bus could not for the life of them remember where they had parked their car.

If only they’d kept a note of where they’d parked their car!  But who is organised to have somewhere to write this information down when they’re catching a flight?

Enter the latest in parking tickets – on the reverse there is a space to write your parking area and row number down.  All you need to do now is make sure you have a pen to hand!  User experience is all around us.

Stick to your knitting

My mother-in-law is an incredible knitter. She's forever dropping off a new jumper or hat for my little son. They look great and get far more positive feedback than anything we've bought him in Mothercare or Next.

However, my mother-in-law is not good with computers. She's also not good at fixing things, mowing the lawn and accents. She should stick to her knitting.

Many website owners could learn from my mother-in-law.

They try to do too much, too soon. What probably starts as a clear, single-minded proposition, soon degrades as the very real pressures of making money mount. Perhaps it is an effort to keep investors happy by wrangling revenue out of every inch of a site? Perhaps it is about being blinded by the plethora of features available, rather than stopping to concentrate on the few features that will make the difference. Whatever it is, bolting on additional revenue-generating features or fashionable technology, can often be to the detriment of the whole.

All the big successes on the Internet started with a clear, simple proposition.

• Google = "organising the worlds information"
• Blogger = "helping people have their own voice on the web"
• YouTube = "the premier destination for you to watch and share original videos"
• Twitter = "Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately"
• Facebook = "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life."

I'm trying to bear this in mind on all the projects I work on. On more agile projects its too easy to get caught up in what we could do. I'm sure everyone at some stage has browsed some of the best sites out there, cherry-picking features to include on their own site. The result though is almost inevitably a mess. A mess that users don't know how to use, and businesses struggle to make money from.

My mother-in-law is far more multi-faceted than most websites, and aside from knitting she is also a great teacher and hostess. When she tries doing something and turns out to not be very good at it, she stops.

I wish more websites were like my mother-in-law.

Cinema e-tickets

This is so simple, yet it pleased and surprised me.  Not bad for a Friday afternoon.

We planned on visiting the cinema on Friday evening to see INVICTUS.  We had planned on going last Friday evening as well, but when the film was sold out when we arrived.  This week we thought we'd book it in advance.

I rang the cinema to book tickets, and the process was super smooth.  As soon as I got off the phone, there was an email in my inbox confirming my purchase.  I had not expected this (I don't think I've ever had an email confirmation when booking tickets on the phone before - normally you just turn up with the credit card you used to book, and pick up your tickets in the cinema).  I was quite impressed (clearly, I'm just easily impressed).

Also, the confirmation email had one of those weird square barcodes on.  It turned out my email was also my ticket - the usher scans this at the screen entrance, and voila.  No queues.  Brilliant.

Oh, and INVICTUS was pretty good too.

Mice, mice, baby.

Alright stop, collaborate and listen.

Catching mice is a good experience. Last week, my American Idol viewing pleasure was interrupted by a small field mouse scuttling past behind the TV. My initial frustration at the little rodent soon gave way to a rush of excitement, anticipation and competitiveness.

I've never been into fishing, but after spending a weekend catching mice, I've got a better idea of the appeal of such sports:

1. The strategy around placing the trap (a humane one, of course)
2. The nuances of bait choice (genre and size)
3. The waiting... oooh, the thrill of the waiting
4. The anticipation every time you stop to check the trap, and then
5. The exhilaration when you see the trap door down and the little fella scuttling around inside.

There can be few household chores that are more fun.

Augmented reality for online shopping

Today our Lead Flash Developer sent round an augmented reality prototype: you turn on your webcam, it recognises your face and puts a pair of cartoon glasses on you.  As you move around, the glasses stay on you – it looks like you’re wearing the glasses.

 Also today we discovered a site, as a result of reading Figaro Digital, called Knicker Picker.  You choose a model that most closely resembles you – they range from a size 6 to 14 – select the underwear you like the look of and your chosen model models it for you.

So, imagine augmented reality for clothes shopping?  There is always a risk, when you buy clothes online, that the item won’t fit, or won’t look right.  Imagine being able to ‘try something on’ anywhere?  It would just make clothes shopping so much easier.  No crowds.  No queues.  And hopefully no having to send things back.

Clearly, others are thinking along the same lines.  Take MixMatchMe.  It’s like playing with paper dolls.  There is a model on the right hand side of the screen.  You select items of clothing from the left, and they appear on the model on the right.  Genius.  You can preview your outfit before you buy it.  But the model is superskinny.  And there is only one model.

Augmented reality functionality, of a kind, is already available on Glasses Direct.  They have a feature on their site called ‘Video mirror’ – fire up your webcam, the software finds your face and you can “try on” their most popular glasses styles.

The future's bright.  The future's augmented reality.  Or is it?

Bottom lines

I love innocent drinks. I love the drinks themselves and everything the brand stands for. Few companies deliver such a consistent and compelling brand experience. They manage to do what most FMCG brands can only dream of, simply by being real.

Now they've asked their customers to write clever lines to go on the bottom of their bottles.

Conventionally, packaging would be the exclusive domain of the agency contracted to design it. Battles would be fought over exact colour pallettes, layouts, copy, promotions and legal requirements. After space had been allocated for bar codes and nutritional information - members of the marketing team would haggle over the remaining space.

Innocent however, take a different view.

They have identified an area of packaging that no-one has considered before.
They have worked out that the best messages are often subtle messages.
They have worked out that making a customer smile more important than anything else.
They have let their consumers own the brand.

As a big advocate, I've obviously submitted my idea already. And here it is:

"I see you, baby!"

No doubt, it will be short-listed next week and immortalised in biodegradable plastic soon therafter. I'll keep you posted.

What's more important: 'sign in' or 'sign up'?

You sign in to sites more often than you sign up for sites.  So, what would you expect to be most prominent on the home page of sites requiring you to have an account?  The sign in part, surely?

Not necessarily, it would appear.  Take the popular professional networking site Linkedin – the most prominent element on their home page is ‘Join Linkedin Today’.  But you only need to join, or sign up once.  You will probably want to update your profile or check your messages or carry out any number of other tasks that you can only carry out if you’re signed in, much more often.  Where is ‘Sign in’?  It forms part of the main navigation at the top of the page – it doesn’t exactly stand out, or make it easy for users to sign in quickly.

 

Similarly, on Twitter, prominence is shared between the ‘Search’ feature and ‘Sign up now’.  Sign in is less prominent, at the top of the page, and you can’t fill your details in directly on this page – you need to click ‘Sign in’ to see the sign in fields.

Compare this to Facebook.  The sign up area still has more prominence that the sign in fields, but the big difference here is that you can enter your sign in details directly on this page.

And then you have the webmail providers.  Their sign in tends to have more prominence than their ‘sign up’.

But there might still be room for improvement.  Take Ymail (Yahoo’s webmail).  Whilst you are able to sign in directly from the home page, it is lower down the page than the ‘Sign up’ message, and it appears to have prominence on the page because of other strong elements on the page e.g. the ‘benefits’ information about Ymail.

 

There is less going on, on Google Mail’s homepage, which probably helps make the sign in area clearer and more prominent on the page (even if the ‘benefits’ of Google Mail do take up more space on the page).

Similarly, Hotmail’s sign in area is clear and prominent – perhaps more so than Google Mail’s.  It is given equal prominence to the ‘benefits’ of Hotmail content.

A user's experience on your site will be strongly influenced by how easy or difficult they perceive a task to be.  By making it easy for the majority of users to carry out the popular tasks on your site, you are one step closer to providing a great user experience for all users.

My account: I just want to be able to log in

I recently signed up for an airmiles credit card – you know the type: you buy things and for every pound you spend, you get a mile or so back.

How many miles do I have?  And where can I fly to with my miles?  A fairly common task you might argue?  And therefore, fairly easy to do?  Not so.

I fell at the first hurdle – logging in to my account.  You can enter either your email address or your membership number.  I had never received a membership number, and as I had never been to the site before I didn’t think they would have a record of my email address.

I tried my email address anyway, as I had applied for the credit card online and had used my email address on the application.  It didn’t work.

I sent a message to my credit card provider via their online messaging system to request my membership number.  When I have used online messaging systems previously (e.g. on www.ebay.co.uk) I have received a message in my email inbox when my message has been replied to.  Not here.  I had to keep logging back into my credit card account to check for new messages.  They were not quick with their replies either – it took a good 4-5 days before I got a reply.

But, I digress.  I just want to find out how many miles I have, and where they can take me.  In fact, I’d be pretty happy right now if I could just log in to my account.

Back to my airmiles provider.  I now had a membership number, which I typed into the ‘Membership number/email address’ box.  I tried one of my passwords (yes, yes, I know I should have unique passwords for every account… but seriously?) and was presented with the ‘Forgotten your password?’ page, with a message highlighted in pink “You do not have an email address registered to your account, please contact us via one of the email addresses above detailing your membership number so we can resolve this.”  BUT THERE IS NO EMAIL ADDRESS ON THIS PAGE!!!  And why do I have to email you to register an email address?  Why can’t I just validate it online?

So, I’ve hit a dead end.  I can’t log in to my account.  And how do I find out what email address I should use to register my email address?  After a few clicks, I end up back on the login page, and notice a ‘I don’t have a password’ link.  Clicking on this and I finally see some email addresses.  Yes, multiple email addresses.  Just give me one email address.  Don’t make me think about which one is correct.

More than 7 days later I have still not received a reply from my chosen airmiles company.  Perhaps these credit cards aren’t so beneficial after all.  But it isn’t the credit card provider’s fault – they provide me with an airmiles balance.  I just can’t find out what I can do with these, or how I use them.  Or log in to my account to see that they are actually being recorded in the proper place.

Online returns: it doesn’t have to be a black hole

Buying things online can be a risk.  What if you change your mind?  Or the product doesn’t quite match your expectations?  Your heart sinks.  There are so many obstacles standing in the way of you getting your money back, or getting the product you really want!  You have to trek to the post office, stand in a long queue, and then you have the reputation of the Royal Mail to contend with – is the package actually going to get back to the right place?

So often, when you buy a product online and you have to return it, you get little, if any feedback throughout the returns process.  You constantly have to check your bank account to see if the refund has been made, or you have to contact the seller to see if they have received the item you have sent to them.  This simply adds to your levels of frustration with the company (especially if you’re returning an item which is faulty, or not what you expected from their description in the first place).

I recently had to return some spare parts for my Hoover vacuum cleaner.  Whilst not flawless, I had a comparably good experience on www.espares.com.  In-between buying the parts and receiving them, I actually decided to purchase an entirely new vacuum cleaner (it’s a long story, but essentially the aforementioned Hoover emitted a distinct burning smell accompanied by sparks whenever it was first turned on).

On the confirmation email that I received from espares.com when I ordered the parts, I noticed that you had 14 days to return items and there was a handy link to the ‘Refunds and Returns guide’.  I followed this link, and arrived on a Hoover branded page with information all about returns.  I discovered that, in order to return an item, you need a ‘returns authorisation’.

I didn’t have a this ‘returns authorisation’, so I phoned the customer service number given on this page, explained my situation to the friendly man on the other end of the phone and was given a ‘returns authorisation’ number along with instructions of where to post the items.  The process so far had been hassle free, and I was a happy customer.

Espares.com didn’t stop there though.  I logged into my email account a few minutes after the call, and there was an email confirming our conversation including the vital ‘returns number’ and details of where to send the package.  I felt reassured that they were now expecting my return package, and that I had all the information I needed to complete the return.

A couple of days later, I received another email from espares.com confirming that they had received the returned parts, and on the same day I received another email saying that they had refunded the transaction.

This may seem like a lot of emails, but they were impeccably timed.  Receiving feedback throughout the returns process reassured me that my refund was being handled quickly and efficiently, which in turn gave me confidence in espares.com.