Many clients get in touch with us when they have a big project for us to work on. They might want us to usability test an entire website, redesign a website, or design a new app. Whatever the project, they seem to have a one off large chunk of budget assigned to UX which they are intent on ‘blowing’ in one go. Whilst there are occasions when this is needed, we find that the little and often approach is much more beneficial to the long term usability of a product. But it does take a mind-set shift within the organisation.

Break down the project into smaller chunks of UX activity

We find ourselves helping clients to reduce their initial budget and instead breaking the project down into smaller chunks. Our revised plan utilises us in a more cost effective way and ensures we are involved throughout the project and not heavily in one place and then not again for several months.

When you think about the logic of this approach and apply it to other areas of life, it makes a lot of sense. You don’t  go to the dentist once every 5 years and get a load of work done at once, instead you go every 6 months to keep things in order and treat problems as they arise.

Focus on the core user journeys one at a time

The little and often approach allows us to consult with clients on a specific area of their site as they are working on it. This allows us to focus on improving a specific user journey rather than brushing over it as part of a larger project. We can get an intimate understanding of a particular part of the customer decision making process to help clients isolate barriers and deliver experiences which go beyond expectations. Clients get our support in small affordable chunks as and when they need us and we can plan and schedule the work easily, meaning we can be more responsive to deadlines.

So, next time you’re planning your budget allocations for UX, try not to think big and blow your budget all at once. Think more strategically at the key aspects of the user journey you’ll want to focus on in more depth throughout the year and split your budget accordingly.

If you’d like some advice on how you can best utilise your budget, get in touch and we’ll arrange a call or pop in for a chat.

About Ali Carmichael

Ali (or Alasdair) is an experienced project manager who loves his Gantt charts and milestones! He has over 12 years' experience managing successful online experiences for world class brands. Ali is responsible for ensuring our clients love what we do for them. Follow Ali on twitter @AliJCarmichael

 
New technology is everywhere. It seems every other advert I see is selling the benefits of a new gadget, website or online service. There is a steady stream of innovative new ideas from companies desperate to launch the next big thing. In many cases it appears the technology leads the way. The shiny new features are the main focus of the adverts and sales materials with the occasional nod towards ‘easy to use’. But what makes the difference between an innovative new project being a success or a failure? What role does user experience (UX) play?

User Experience is rarely a focus for innovation

When companies embark on their new innovation it’s the technology that gets them excited. The UX role often gets marginalised and can be lucky to be involved in key project decisions. Yet according to James Kalbach in his talk at UX Brighton a couple of weeks ago, UX is critical to the success of any new innovation. He argues that “the end point of innovation always lies with users”. Once launched, the success of any project lies upon whether the end users adopt it into their daily lives. Therefore, it is the human factors that have a major influence upon the rate of adoption.

5 questions users ask about a new innovation

In his talk, Kalbach referred to 5 perceived attributes or heuristics of adoption which are detailed by Everett Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations. These are distilled into 5 simple questions users will ask themselves when introduced to any new technology:

Is it better? Is this new product or service better than what I already have available?

Does it fit in? Is it compatible with my life, my beliefs, my habits and current behaviours?

Is it understandable? Is it clear what this new product/service offers? Do I get it?

Can it be tested? Can I play around before I buy? Can I see it in action?

What does it look like? Is it aesthetically pleasing? What will I look like using it?

It is the human factors that lead to user adoption of innovation

Although somewhat simplistic in their nature, these questions are a very useful guide in assessing or predicting whether a new technology will be easily adopted by users. In his talk at UX Brighton he referenced the Segway and the internet tool Twine as examples where these human factors led to innovative ideas not being adopted by end users.

Get a Segway they said. You’ll look cool they said.

The key point Kalbach makes here is that the UX process can improve the rate of adoption among end users; “…history shows it’s not the whiz-bang of technology but rather human factors that matter in the end. This is where UX designers come in. Through empathy and understanding of people’s needs and perceptions, we can increase the rate of adoption.”

It has often been argued that the UX process can stifle creativity yet here is a clear and succinct argument for UX practitioners having a significant role to play in reducing the risk of non-adoption. Risk and growth are not typically part of the UX vocabulary but guided by these principles perhaps they should be.

For more information on James Kalbach follow him on twitter @JamesKalbach or visit his blog Experiencing Information.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you create innovative digital products that users love to use get in touch.

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees

Focusing on users at the very beginning of a project sets a solid user-centred foundation for a project. It can be difficult to remain focused on users when technical reasons, business aims, project objectives all combine to kick off a new project. To help you remain focused on users here’s five core questions we use when we first get involved in a project.
The questions we’ve used here are for a website redesign project, however, they are just as relevant for any digital product or service, whether it is being re-designed or developed from scratch.

1. What’s the story of how the project has got to this point?

Start with the big picture. What has generated action on the project? Is it technology-driven? Is the website under performing? Have business targets or a shift in strategy triggered a change? Or has the website grown organically and become stale? Understanding why the project team are motivated to start the project is critical to seeing where you can help, and understanding where users fit into the overall picture.

2. Who are the different types of users? What are their goals in using the website?

It’s surprising how many times we get a vague answer to these two questions. If you sense hesitancy, confusion, or fabrication in their answers this will clearly point to the need for you to start the project with user research to understand who is using the site and why. Once this research is complete, your next task should be to design user profiles to help everyone remain focused on users (See our previous article: How to do quick and effective user profiling).

3. What other sites (or other sources) will people to use to achieve these goals? Why will they use this website instead of alternatives?

It’s critical to understand the wider context in which the site exists. Are there a variety of other websites, apps and offline resources already available to users? If there are several alternative methods, your initial research must set out to understand what sources they use, why they choose those sources, and what user needs exist that are currently un-met. An in-depth understanding of what the site needs to do to migrate users from what they use at the moment to your site is the key to the success of a project.

4. What are the aims of the project?

By this point, you should already have a good understanding about why the project is important. However, it is still important to ask this question. Sometimes there can be additional aims that have not yet been discussed. You can also use this question as a guide when setting out the tasks you plan to undertake. It can be useful to set out the UX tasks and deliverables you will complete in order to help the project team achieve each aim.

5. In the future when all your concerns and challenges have been overcome, how will you know it is successful?

Finally, you must understand how they will track and measure success. Some projects have complex aims but very basic success criteria. Sometimes, the project team are focused on the wrong metrics and this is a good opportunity for you to highlight some more user-centric metrics they could use to measure success. It’s also a great opportunity for you to set out some before stats to use as a benchmark to measure against at a later date.

Having a set of questions you always include in kick-off meetings can be a really useful way to ensure you have a good understanding of the project aims, who the users are, and also what UX activities you are likely to start with. In your next kick-off meeting you’ll now be prepared to ask the right questions and really make a difference to user experience. When you’re done, come back and tell us about how you got on.

If you’d like to talk to us about how we can help you integrate UX into all your projects to generate more online revenue, please get in touch.

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees

 
I remember in GCSE Business Studies being taught about how to write a memo. Though I never got the chance to right a real memo as by the time I had finished college and university the business world was using email.  I wonder if pupils are taught how to write emails in school today. I hope so. If I were teaching them how to write a good email I’d ask them to think more about the recipient of the message, or the user if you will. Here are my five tips to make it easier for the recipient of your email to read, understand and action your message.

1. Include your phone number

Many people include the option to ‘phone me if you have any questions’ in their message. Yet, it is surprising how many emails don’t include a phone number. Make it easy, even if you’re not offering an option to call you back, leave your number and save the reader the hassle of trying to dig out your number from somewhere else when they want to call you.

2. Provide a response deadline

You need a response quick smart. The person you sent the email to scan reads the email and prioritises a few other things over it. The deadline comes and goes, you get frustrated. Explain that you need a response by a specific time in your email so your recipient can respond accordingly, or at least let you know that the deadline is too tight! Either way, the risk is mitigated.

3. Don’t Cc anyone

Over my years as a project manager, I often received emails just to keep me ‘in the loop’. But when everyone does this it becomes a chaotic mass of noise making it difficult and time consuming to know where to focus. How many emails in your inbox are actually for you? How many people do you Cc, just in case? When sending an email ask yourself, who really needs to receive this? If the recipient doesn’t warrant being in the ‘To’ field, why are they receiving this email? Remove them, save them time, and if you need to communicate with them email them directly.

4. Keep it short

Long emails are laborious to read, and often most of the information isn’t needed. Use emails to stick to the point. If a deeper level of discussion is needed, pick up the phone (see #5), or if you have a lot to say to lots of people, don’t write a long email and send it to everyone (see #3), write a few short emails and send it only to those that need it. If you have lots of discussion points and activity to go through, use collaboration tools like Basecamp, Evernote, and Pinterest.

5. Pick up the phone

When you have quite a bit to say, or the subject matter is quite difficult to word in an email, just pick up the phone. The amount of lost  time mulling over the content of your email, combined with the time for the recipient has to decipher it is rarely worth it, especially when the thread can get quite long. Often the whole point can be resolved in a five minute phone call. So ask yourself, will this be easier to talk through? Will the back and forth emails take too long? If yes, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone!

 
This may not be what they teach in GSCE business studies, but if we all apply these tips we’ll all be much happier receivers of email, and our inboxes might be a little more manageable.

If you’d like to chat about how we can help you communicate better with your users, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

About Ali Carmichael

Ali (or Alasdair) is an experienced project manager who loves his Gantt charts and milestones! He has over 12 years' experience managing successful online experiences for world class brands. Ali is responsible for ensuring our clients love what we do for them. Follow Ali on twitter @AliJCarmichael

So you have an idea for an app. You have visions of it hitting the top ten lists, going global and earning you plenty of cash. You’ve been fantasising about giving up the day job and making a business out of your app idea right?

You’re excited right now, and you should be. There are some very successful apps out there and once the ball starts rolling and people spread the word, you can find success quickly. But sometimes excitement can lead to blindness to some of the limitations of the idea because you’re so optimistic about it working. So before you hand in your resignation, let’s take a step back for a second and answer some questions to help you focus and make sure the idea really has legs.

Be honest with yourself and try to remain as objective as possible when answering them. It might help to talk them through with a friend, your family or your partner too.

About your motivation and commitment

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much better is this idea from your previous ideas?

2. Think back to the last app idea you were excited about, what were the reasons that stopped you from following through with it?

3. Are any of those reasons valid with your new idea?

4. Some app ideas take a while to realise. If you were to just focus on this app for the next 18 months will it hold your attention? Will you still be excited about it then?

About your app idea and its potential

We all have ideas for a new app or a new business but commitment and courage are what turns an idea into reality. But just making the idea happen doesn’t mean it will be successful. The idea has to be a good one and has to offer something of value to the people who will use it.

5. Do some research, how many other examples can you find of similar apps. How different is yours? Realistically what do you need to do to make yours even better?

6. If no-one else is doing it, why do you think that is? Is there a good reason why other people or companies haven’t taken advantage of a similar idea?

7. What problem does your app solve? How big a problem is it? How do people currently resolve this problem?

8. Be as specific as possible, who would use your idea? Why would they use it? When would they use it?

9. Why would they use your app instead of what’s already available to them?

10. How would they know to use your app over current alternatives?

Making sure your idea is not just another one in a sea of similar ideas is critical to success. If there are already lots of people doing something similar, yours has to stand out and offer something better or different. You also have to be sure that people will use it over their existing choices and even more important, will be aware of your app as an option. Be really honest with yourself here, if you can’t get past these questions you could end up wasting time on a bad idea, instead of starting again with an even better one.

Practical considerations to creating your app

Ok, so if you’ve got this far and you’re still going strong, now you just need to get a bit more practical on how you’ll fulfil your idea

11. What resources will you need to make your idea happen? People, equipment, skills and so on.

12. Are these resources within your reach? Can you overcome the obstacles to find these resources?

13. How much money will it take for you to gain access to all these resources? How will you raise this money?

14. Imagine your idea is now complete. Working backwards, what were the major steps involved in getting there?

15. How much time will each of these stages take you? How will you find the time among your other commitments?

This last set of questions was designed to help you get a grip of the realistic and practical aspects of turning your ideas into reality. You’ll need a clear project plan and a clear vision to get there, especially if you’ll be bringing others in to help you create the app.

Most app ideas end up staying in someone’s head or notebooks, and rarely get past the kind of questions and thinking set out above. Coming up with an idea is the easy part. Making it happen takes far more time and effort than some people realise. But, if the idea is good enough and your passion is strong enough, you might just find that you’re at the beginning of a very rewarding and exciting journey. Good luck!

About Damian Rees

Damian has worked as a usability and user experience consultant for over 13 years. He has worked in senior roles within companies like the BBC and National Air Traffic Services where he has researched and designed for users in a variety of different contexts including web applications, voice recognition, and air traffic control interfaces. Follow Damian on twitter @damianrees