Newsletter Archive
The 'Unfinished' Conversation Economy
April 23, 2007
It is interesting how ideas tend to join up. Old ideas and new ideas start to converge, get finished, when the culture is ready for them, but not before. It looks like the time of the conversation economy has finally come, and I'm very glad of it....
Amazon - A Remarkable Customer Experience
April 03, 2007
I keep being impressed by Amazon, hack though it might be to keep noting them as ...
Usability 2.0 and Psychological Types
March 20, 2007
One assumption implicit in current usability practice is that one-usability-fits-all, or, more specificly, what is usable for me is what is usable for you and is usable for the rest of the world. This is Usability 1.0....
Amazon Delivers... Remarkably
February 26, 2007
My heart sank when I realised that my purchase from Amazon had not turned up. Now, I am a great Amazon fan, and I buy from there all the time, but I had heard rumours that when things go wrong...
Usability Basics, Usability Hygiene
February 12, 2007
We talked last time in Funneling the Sales Process - Designing An Experience about grand designs, customer experience designs. But more mundane matters of usability basics and usability hygiene dominate our...
Funneling the Sales Process - Designing An Experience
January 29, 2007
We talked last time about in Usability at the Checkout - Funnel to get Sales about creating a process with no
distractions and only one way out, so that customers who had decided to purchase could ...
Usability at the Checkout - Funnel to get Sales
January 22, 2007
When an internet retailer of any description is looking to increase sales, the first place to look for improvements is ...
A Blink Usability Protocol
September 27, 2006
I mentioned last time in the Relevancy, Search Marketing and Usability article about a Blink Usability methodology or protocol that we have been using.
Relevancy, Search Marketing and Usability
September 14, 2006
Recent changes at Google have left many companies facing difficult decisions about their strategies. Google has introduced ...
Fridges, Flowers and Frocks
August 17, 2006
The idea that all internet sales processes can be thought of as the same was put into sharp relief recently by our discussions at ...
Landing Pages are Opening Conversations
April 21, 2006
In a similar vein to the last newsletter which was thinking about 'before' people get to your site, we have also been thinking about the first few seconds after they arrive...
Google, Usability and Thin Slicing
March 31, 2006
We have been thinking lately about the experience that users and customers have before getting to the target site...
Please Make Me Think! I Want To Think!
March 16, 2006
Steve Krug wrote a book in 2002 called "Don't Make Me Think - A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability". As the usability profession changes, I thought it would be interesting to consider its legacy...
The Always On Culture
March 02, 2006
Its long been my contention that the people who embrace technology also enjoy the use of it. Consequently it has always been rather odd to me that the given wisdom of the internet states ...
Basic Online Sales Process Pitfalls
February 16, 2006
In many ways, there is only one rule - to make sales online you have to design a sales process that fits the customers buying process. Rocket science? I don't think so, but 'mono channel vision' means...
Design to Make a Difference - Proactive Usability
February 02, 2006
(First published January 20th 2006 as part of the IMRG Annual Report)
The increasing take up of usability and design best practice by e-commerce over the last few years is finally beginning to pay dividends. The IMRG predict...
Thin Slicing in the Blink of an Eye
January 19, 2006
Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Blink : The Power of Thinking without Thinking', just out in paperback, is destined to be a classic in my opinion. Gladwell has an easy style and big ideas. His idea here is about the way that we form ideas 'in the blink of an eye'. This is a pre-cognitive activity...
The Design Psychology of a Heinz Ketchup Bottle
January 05, 2006
Heinz UK have brought out a new variety of ketchup bottle that stands on its top rather than its base. The driver for this innovation in sauce delivery systems will be quickly realised by any fan of the spicy red condiment. Simply...
The Ghost of Christmas Delivery
December 22, 2005
Flowers are a very popular gift at Christmas, and are an almost perfect internet purchase. But with flowers the delivery date needs to be right. They can't be delivered...
The Ghost of Christmas Empty Shelves
December 15, 2005
A key factor in being able to buy something is being able to find it. When people seek things out on the web, they typically will know the details of what they want, and have been intimately involved in deciding to buy it. But at Christmas ...
The Ghost of Christmas Availability
December 12, 2005
The Christmas season is special. People buy differently and for different reasons than in other months.One very important difference is availability. Everybody wants the same things, and they want them at the same time!
The Ghosts of Christmas Customer Experience
December 08, 2005
I was asked to appear on BBC Business Breakfast recently to talk about how Christmas E-Commerce differed from Rest of the Year E-Commerce. This was a great opportunity to consider what was different about Christmas, and how this might affect the customer experience...