usability | Internet Marketing Blog

37% of consumers think that most mobile sites are difficult to navigate

A new report investigating consumer opinions of mobile commerce has found that there is still a perception that the mobile web offers a poor user experience.

More than a third (37%) of respondents in the EPiServer survey agreed that many mobile websites are difficult to navigate, an increase from 32% in 2011.

The survey also found that consumers are increasingly unforgiving of mobile sites and apps that aren’t up to scratch.

Almost half of respondents (47%) claim that if an app is hard to use they will stop using or delete it compared to 41% in the previous survey.

People apparently have slightly more patience with mobile sites, although 38% still said that they would stop using a mobile site that is difficult to use.

by David Moth 12 April 2013 09:26am 2 comments

Ikea comes last in website usability study

Easter is coming and spring is in the air so consumers will be soon be shopping for home improvement and gardening equipment, though some might wait until the temperature gets above zero degrees outside.

There are several major brands vying to take advantage of the seasonal increase in spending, and Qubit has analysed six of them to see which provides the best online user experience.

The new home and gardens benchmark analyses the buying experience provided by Homebase, B&Q, Argos, John Lewis, Ikea and Wilkinson.

Using more than 80 industry best practice criteria, weighted on their importance in this sector, each website is assessed and scored giving  a final percentage to identify which brand offers the best online experience.

by David Moth 26 March 2013 12:56pm 7 comments

The history of personalisation

Personalisation in retail is often seen as the latest development in online marketing but the practice itself is as old as the concept of retail.

From the time of the earliest shopkeepers, good retailers would recognise their customer and tailor their pitch according to what they knew about them.

by Ian McCaig 11 March 2013 10:42am 11 comments

US retail apps achieve low ratings due to frequent crashing

Smartphone apps are an important way for brands to engage with consumers, however a new study has found that many brands are falling short on the user experience.

The Xtreme Labs Retail Apps Report found that just under a third of top 100 US retailers don’t have smartphone apps, while those that do suffer from issues such as a lack of features.

The average rating achieved by iOS apps in the App Store is 2.9 stars out of five, while on Google Play it is just 2.2 out of five.

On iOS the most common complaints were a lack of features (26%), frequent crashing (23%), and poor design (22%).

Android users suffered similar problems, with crashing being the main complaint (33%), followed by the app not working as intended (26%) and a lack of features (25%).

by David Moth 04 March 2013 14:25pm 0 comments

Five reasons why 'cool' product names might not be as clever as they seem

Some companies spend a fortune coming up with enticing names for new products - and sometimes it goes disastrously wrong.

A memorable example is the Chevy Nova, which in Spanish roughly translates to the Chevy doesn't-go.

Even if the name doesn't mean something inappropriate, our research shows that gimmicky product names might not be as clever as their creators imagine.

by Tom Stewart 04 February 2013 10:24am 16 comments

Mobile banking: who do you trust with your finances?

As experts in digital marketing, I am sure you were all aware that Thursday 8 November was World Usability Day -a world wide event celebrating the importance of in usability in the digital world.

This year’s theme was financial services and few would argue that usability was anything other than vital in this market.

My colleagues at System Concepts contributed a video of interviews with potential customers and some key players in the mobile financial market in which the two mobile financial services providers interviewed were Vodafone and O2.

This set me thinking: Do we trust mobile companies to give us banking, more than we trust banks to give us mobile services?

by Tom Stewart 22 November 2012 15:05pm 3 comments

Eight online shopping behaviour traits of men

Like Johnny Depp was once quoted as saying, I’m fascinated by human behaviour, by what’s underneath the surface, by the words inside people.

By spending considerable time with people using different websites in both their natural and controlled research environments, I’m able to cater for this satisfaction.

As a follow up to my nine women x nine hours = nine usability insights article, I am sharing some of the most prevalent behavioural traits of men when shopping online.

There will always be some differences and many of these have been observed with female consumers, but this list is very much up-to-date and representative of the male population.

If men are part of your target audience, which of the behaviours traits are you triggering or avoiding to persuade them to buy from you?

by Paul Rouke 19 November 2012 11:15am 21 comments

Sky TV and Virgin Media: how easy is it to switch loyalties?

In the past, it was quite common for people to remain loyal to the first bank they ever opened an account with, opting to stick with it through the bad times and good.

Nowadays however unwavering customer loyalty is seen as rather a quaint relic of yesteryear and we have become a far more savvy lot of consumers. More aware of where better deals lie, we grit our teeth and overcome the administrative challenges that switching any sort of service or utility provider can require.

This switching strategy now includes our once simple TV. Increasingly linked to our communications and Internet, this centrepiece of our living rooms and our Saturday evenings is something that can’t be messed with.

We decided to look at how easy it is to switch between the main providers of paid for TV services – Sky and Virgin Media and asked four customers of each to test the other’s site using whatusersdo.com.

by Kathryn McDonnell 21 August 2012 10:18am 9 comments

64 tips to make sure that your website delivers business value

With the economy in a seemingly perpetual crisis, businesses are under ever more pressure from their finance and managing directors to ensure all business tools and investments are delivering the desired results.

This includes websites ranging from simple brochure websites to marketing campaign websites to multi-channel international e-commerce solutions with integrated supply chains.

by Jeremy Anderson 31 July 2012 10:13am 4 comments

British Airways tops airline website usability study

The online travel market in the UK is valued at more than £17bn, and half of all customers book holidays on the web, yet there is much room for improving the user experience.