Danny Bluestone

About Danny Bluestone

biometric technology

Key trends in online identity verification (so everybody knows you’re a dog)

The Internet was once a more anonymous space. People hid their real identities, coming up with unique and sometimes bizarre pseudonyms to represent themselves on specific websites.

As services and socialising shifted online, identifying each other digitally has become increasingly important. 

How can we do this securely, without impacting users’ experience? I’ll explore the trends in online identity verification, looking at the key solutions and implications for businesses and users. 

Need for speed: how to optimise website performance

Website performance radically impacts our success, 64% of smartphone users expect websites to load in under four seconds.

However, average page weights are still on the rise. 

As marketers, website performance can seem utterly beyond our control. Here’s how to change that…

How can technology boost the youth vote?

The UK’s upcoming election is the closest contest in living memory.

Reversing low turnout trends, research reveals 75% of young people intend to vote, but 44% haven’t decided who to support. 

This demographic has a real opportunity to make an impact on election night, if politics can reach them through digital channels.

Improving the multichannel customer experience

Whether you realise it or not, your company is in the user experience business.

Putting users at the centre of your strategy is key to a successful multichannel approach.

Here are five guiding principles to help you get it right.

Is there a future for native apps?

Recent research seems to casts doubt on the future growth of the once-thriving app economy.

According to Deloitte, almost a third of UK-based smartphone users no longer download new apps in a typical month. This finding has been replicated by Comscore in the US.

Worryingly, Deloitte also reported that nine out of ten users never spend money on apps. Even the seemingly infallible Candy Crush Saga profits are slumping much faster than expected. 

So, has the notoriously short digital attention span already moved on? What are the reasons behind this ‘app fatigue’, and are there any implications for the place of native apps in future business models?

Web design across different generations

For a website or digital product to be truly ‘user-centric’, we need to determine who the ‘user’ is.

Each person will approach a website, system or app through their own, unique mental model, applying how they think it will be organised to each new one they encounter. 

Although each individual’s mental model is unique, users can be ‘grouped’ to determine their digital (dis)abilities.

Generations share key aspects of their mental models, as people who live in the same period are influenced by societal values and culture, the emergence of new technologies, and experience similar events to some degree.

Similarly, they share age-related elements, such as physical or cognitive (dis)abilities. 

Interaction design: three important innovations

Interaction design (IxD) is all about shaping the customer’s digital experience, with new research and design trends constantly inspiring technologists and designers to invent better user interfaces and widgets.

So, what are some of the exciting new trends in Interaction Design and how can they create a positive impact on customer experience?

In my opinion, there are three important innovations set to make waves.

Four points of Pinterest in ecommerce‏

The pinboard-style website is on the rise, aspiring to become the visual search engine of the internet.

With the novel arrival of the newest batch of pins that this social media channel has recently created for today’s modern digital consumers, will it be taking retailers by storm, or just bring a drizzle of rain into the world of ecommerce?

The top three benefits of qualitative research in UX

Qualitative research ensures customer validation, clarity and a process when producing the products of tomorrow. It is possible to use qualitative techniques via a user centred design process to truly innovate whilst remaining agile.

The time and cost of qualitative research is often very small in the ‘grand scheme’ of product development.

Yet it is able to answer the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of which products should be created as opposed to just ‘how much’ attained from quantitative data, therefore yielding highly creative outcomes.