Little things mean a lot: Usability & the wonky tray table effect
Even relatively small usability problems can have a big effect on user experience and user confidence on your site, especially at crucial stages of the user journey.
Making your site recession proof through better usability
The recession is an extra obstacle to shopping online. To stop it from being insurmountable, you need to make sure you remove all the other barriers you can.
Last summer I asked if the downturn was leading to greater use of e-commerce? The answer then was 'yes'. The answer is still “yes”, only maybe more so now...
Gaining equity in your site through improved user experience
One of the benefits of usability improvements is that they keep on delivering long after they are implemented, a compelling proposition for companies trying to make the most of their online traffic and conversions.
I regularly need to discuss the benefits of usability in the context of a specific company’s online business goals.
What does the Telegraph do better than the Guardian or the Times?
Many of the big newspapers have launched sites specifically for mobile users, Graham Charlton has recently reviewed several of them here. But are duplicate sites really the way to go? How do you work out what to include? Above all, what happens if after all your efforts a mobile user decides to access your standard site and gets a poor user experience there?
System Concepts has just tested the mobile and standard sites of three quality newspapers:The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian when accessed using a mobile phone. Our results clearly highlighted some of the issues brand owners face in deciding their mobile strategy.
A social media smorgasbord: 40 common elements for community-focused websites
Social media websites try to combine two things: people and content. When these two things work in harmony a website becomes a buzzing, viral experience, where users do the hard work and feel a bond to the brand / platform.
In the past few days I have started planning and wireframing a new community-focused website, to try to develop and launch a useful platform.
Creating such a platform should be reasonably straightforward in this day and age, since there are so many fabulous sites out there that are already doing this well.
Indeed, I found it relatively straightforward to add the kind of tools and functionality I thought a social media site should offer to users. Many of these elements are second nature to us, since we use them everyday (on sites like Twitter, Last.fm, Facebook, Flickr, et al...).
So what are the common elements used by social media websites?
Speed still counts for web users, but not for IE8
Erick Schonfeld of Techcrunch yesterday reckoned that IE8 fares poorly in the browser speed stakes, and contests that it is key for Microsoft to retain market share.
He wrote: “Speed is really everything. Without speed, all the other features fall by the wayside. We’ll have to wait for new independent speed tests to see how IE8 stacks up, but speed does not appear to be its strong point.”
Nice observation, but I’m not so sure that browser speed matters for the majority of web users. Techies and internet fiends will spot the difference, for sure, but how many tech-savvy people do you know that still use IE?
Tips for filtered navigation in e-commerce
While some customers will arrive at an e-commerce site with a clear idea of what they want, more will prefer to browse, so it is important to accommodate this user behaviour and make browsing for products as easy as possible.
Providing effective and relevant filtered navigation can make a huge difference to the customer experience; it reduces the amount of cognitive effort required of visitors, and makes it more likely that they will find a product that suits them.
I've been taking a look at how some UK e-commerce sites handle filtered navigation (or feature filtering, faceted navigation, whatever you want to call it), and providing a few tips...
The Great Usability Debate: Internal vs external testing?
There is an ever-urgent need for companies to both acquire and retain online users, especially in today’s economic environment. Our new Usability and User Experience Trends Briefing highlights this, but which is best for achieving reliable results - internal or external testing?
Gap.com's single checkout not a good idea after all: report
US clothing retailer Gap.com launched a nice new e-commerce site in June last year, but it seems the decision to integrate its four brands into one checkout function hasn't worked as well as it hoped.
The retailer has designed its site so that users can shop from Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Piperlime, as well as Gap itself, and checkout at the same time, but this has had the unintential effect of undermining perception of the brand, according to Foresee Results.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
