communication cloud

10 reasons APIs and development platforms are difficult to use

communicationcloud — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:06:03 +0000

In 2012 I worked for several customers on a range of projects which were essentially about making it easier for people to use APIs, SDKS, Standards or development platforms. What all of these have in common is that they’re tools people use to build their own custom applications… and they’re tools which are expensive to [...]

Self-service support starts in the UI

communicationcloud — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:48:00 +0000

“Online self-service” is big news in software companies’ customer service strategies, and something I often get involved in implementing. The theory goes that if customers can solve their own problems with learning, using, and upgrading software then they won’t contact the company’s customer service team. It’s cheaper to write a good piece of information once so that [...]

What’s the real cost of adding a feature to software

communicationcloud — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:40:43 +0000

I’ve been re-reading Getting real, which recommends: “Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. “ http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch05_Start_With_No.php It got me thinking about what’s involved in adding a feature to software, beyond initially coding it… It’s not at all uncommon that features get added to software applications without really thinking through the consequences. I’ve [...]

Are FAQs a sign of a poorly designed software?

communicationcloud — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:53:43 +0000

If software was perfect, could we finally get rid of FAQs? Earlier this week I joined one of the online events that were presented as part as the first ever Web Heroines conference, and an interesting discussion ensued… The session was a presentation by Rachel Andrew, talking about lessons from launching a product (their Perch [...]

How do user experience specialists fit into software companies?

communicationcloud — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:51:13 +0000

What roles do usability and user experience (UX) specialists take in software development companies? How do UX teams organise themselves within software companies? What is the scope of their work? How do they fit with development processes? Here’s some insight from the the conversations I’ve been having with UX and usability specialists about their experience [...]

My 3 favourite design pattern libraries

communicationcloud — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:25:56 +0000

A bit about design patterns first (I wrote this bit for anyone who hasn’t heard of design patterns – feel free to skip down to my list of libraries if you like) A design pattern is a generic solution that has been used multiple times to resolve a particular problem or achieve a particular goal [...]

When’s the best time to usability-test software?

communicationcloud — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:27:39 +0000

I’ve been talking to people at a lot of software companies recently. On the one hand, I’ve been talking to managers and members of User Experience teams about how they “do” usability for software. At the same time, I’ve been talking with software product managers, development managers and others who want to know how my [...]

Measuring success. Part 2: Creating a measurement framework

communicationcloud — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:27:26 +0000

As I mentioned in a recent article, it’s not uncommon for people to ask me what are good measures for successful software customer experience. My answer is probably not particularly helpful: it depends what you mean by “successful”. In an attempt to give a more useful answer, in my last post I wrote about how [...]

Measuring success in UX and customer-service teams. Part 1: defining success

communicationcloud — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:06:01 +0000

How do you know you’re successful at work? How do you demonstrate to colleagues and peers that the work your team is performing well? How do you build your case for expanding your team? I’ve been talking to several people involved in designing and communicating about software products in various companies recently about how to [...]

When software UX met museum curation

communicationcloud — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:00:45 +0000

In a recent blog post, I invited any museum curators who would be interested in talking to technical communicators about how museum exhibitions are put together to get in touch. So, you can imagine that last week I was very excited to be meeting up with Katie Eagleton (curator) and Anna Bright (interpretation officer) from [...]