Wait, hold it right there mister… Playful Design, but you are not a designer, what will this book have to teach you? John Ferrara’s book is for anyone involved in the UX world as a matter of fact. John’s goal with his book is, as he states in the introduction:

‘to let UX designers adopt game design as a competency that they can enlist’

but he still says that the book is also for anyone who wants to learn more about how games can achieve great things in the real world.

You say potato…

Game design, gamification, aren’t these two peas in a pod? Well, not exactly. Sunni Brown, who co-authored Gamestorming, tells in her foreword that their needs to be a clear distinction among UX designers between the two. Between the ‘all lipstick and no sex’ and the ‘compelling game design that ignites our systems of pleasure’. From basic Likes to point systems, UX designers need to be able to create seductive user experiences with feedback loops and small, surmountable obstacles.

If you are more visually, than textually, inclined like myself, it can be a little hard to grasp the meaning of game design and how it pertains to this specific book. On YouTube, the are some good examples, here is one of my favorites, the Piano Staircase by the team over at TheFunFactory.com:

I can’t help myself, I need to show you one more, the Bottle Bank Arcade, also by the TheFunFactory.com:

Why so serious?

John Ferrara, in the first few chapters, argues why UX designers need to look into game design and he asks the question why serious applications can’t include game elements.

Did you know, card games in Microsoft Windows were used to teach people how to 'drag & drop'?

According to John, games solve real problems. Games have effect, both positive and negative, if meant for a serious purpose or as a leisurely time filler. From gambling to games that help improve social awareness, donations to charity, games can educate at levels that keep players engaged. More importantly, game can effect human behavior.

Past, Present, and the Future

In Playful Design, the metaphor is made that UX design and Video Game design are like siblings that were raised in separate homes. For the ‘past’ this was definitely the case, but the author (and I think anyone who surfs the web regularly) can agree that this is no longer so.

There is a clear overlap starting to emerge with respect to both fields of expertise. Both sides are starting to learn from each other, where John states that:

‘UX design creates experiences that help people meet their real-world needs, whereas game design is about the experience, for the sake of the experience’

With current developments, practitioners on both side of the spectrum will come to see both fields as fundamentally related as best practices afford successful new approaches to design.

Living Games

In Chapter 2 ‘Understanding Games’ John makes a case that a common set of characteristics defines all games. Based on that premise, as described in the book, almost anything can be considered a game, even it is part of our real life.

From a buyer's perspective bidding is the game at Ebay.

Towards the end of the chapter a great example is given on how Ebay can seriously be considered to be a game. John splits the example up into 4 parts, parts that can define a game:

1. Objectives
2. Environmental Constraints
3. Formal Constraints
4. Machine-Based Arbitration

On Ebay the Objectives are defined by your role on the website. Are you selling or are you buying? If you are selling, your objective will be to sell your item at the highest price. If you are the latter, your objective is to ‘win’ by buying an item (naturally with the highest bid).

Functionalities, in games rules you might say, are called Environmental Constraints. How long may an auction last? Can sellers reserve a minimum price to protect themselves to sub-prime bids? To make sure sellers and buys play nice, Ebay has put rules in place by which they must abide, these are called the Formal Constraints.

Machine-Based Arbitration is nothing more than an automated way of checking that there are not cheaters, that only one person can be identified as the ‘winner’ etc. Automation.

The extra features such as reward systems, user levels and seller review systems just strengthen the gamification of online auctioning, binding sellers and buyers to Ebay’s services.

Diving Deeper

With a clear explanation of the fundamentals, definitions set, the author continues his book by diving deeper into individual elements of game design. From Game Concept to Prototype. Many different, and many new (at least to me), facets of game design are discussed.

Games are not only for action and not only for learning, the direction you take your game design is only limited by your personal drive for creativity and how you imagine it to effect human behavior. John winds down his discussion on game design in what is possibly my favorite chapter, Games for Persuasion.

Procedural Rhetoric

Monopoly's Messages

When designing games for persuasion, it is all about messaging. John teaches us about Ian Bogost’s ‘Procedural Rhetoric’ theory. Games, according to Bogost, can influence people and can be just as effective as a form of communication as ‘public oratory, written language, and visual media’. All these methods can be used to communicate persuasively.

For example, the game of Monopoly, contains 3 messages:

1. Own a lot of a few things and a little of many things
2. Be willing to make big sacrifices to obtain the things you need the most
3. Owning all the railroads provides the most reliable source income

Even though these messages are not written in the manual, they are clearly the best strategies to win the game. These strategies can only be adopted (learned) by playing the game. Everyone who plays the game will eventually arrive at the same conclusion.

Conclusion

Reading the book was definitely worth my time, even if I am not a UX designer myself. Many of the topics covered were very new to myself and have really served as an eye-opener. John Ferrara helped me discover how everyday websites, serious and more leisurely, can literally contain game elements to make the use of it by visitors very pleasurable. It is down to the UX designer to make these websites playful and help enhance the overall user experience, this book is in my opinion a great place to start learning about the subject or tweak what you already know.

Playful Design will be available from June 1st, 2012 at Rosenfeld Media. You can sign up to receive a notification of when the book is released, I really recommend doing this! Happy reading!

Learn more about or Playful Design by John Ferrara

What’s my relationship with books? Well, I always like to joke about the fact that I have an MBA (FYI… I am self-taught > see my LinkedIN profile); I have a Masters in Buying from Amazon. I love reading books, not only fiction spy novels by Ludlum and Clancy, but also many types of work related and self-development books.

As a quick disclaimer, especially those of you who are used to more in-depth user research articles from me, this article won’t contain any best practices, tips, or tricks. It is just a publication to share with you how I stay up to date on reading User Experience books, and how I find it hard to choose any specific platform as the platform of choice for reading work related books on.

More eBooks, but different platforms

According to a recent blog post by Luke Wroblewski ’A Shift in E-reading Devices‘:

Though more people are reading e-books each year, the devices they use to consume digital books may be changing. Recent estimates for Amazon’s Kindle line seem to highlight a shift from budget eReaders to higher end tablets.

So what is the fate of eInk? What will the future hold for the various reading platforms on the market. Will device suppliers dictate the ereading landscape or will content be in charge? I tried to ask myself these questions with regards to my own reading behavior. I might have multiple devices to read on, but what makes me want to read a book on my Kindle? Then I ask myself the same question for my iPad, laptop (browser) and even print itself.

Efficient + Easy to Use = Enjoyable… or does it?

I own an iPad and was using the Kindle app on both the iPad and iPhone. At first I found it difficult to adjust myself to reading from a smartphone/tablet. Print was my preferred method of reading, even though this would mean having to wait several weeks for delivery from the US (to the Netherlands) and paying for shipping. Let alone slugging around the extra weight… Nothing, in my opinion, beats print. Reading from a device, well, where is the experience in that?

Sure, I’ll agree to ease of use, or should I say ‘speed-in-use’. You download the app, connect to your Amazon account and (before Apple made them pull the plug on the built-in feature) you simply bought a book from within the app. In less time than it took me to tie my shoelaces, I could buy and start reading any book that I wanted. That was the cherry on the cake as far as I was concerned.

Reading ‘comfortably’, however, was something that I could not agree to. Radiating screens, bad visibility in sunlight, unnatural look, all these things made me doubt the experience I was having as being better to what I was used to, Print.

This reminded me of an equation Stephen P. Anderson noted in his book Seductive Interaction Design (recommended read!). In the book, he quickly reanalyzes the statement if something is Efficient and Easy to Use, it will be Enjoyable. Stephen flips the statement and says that something will be Enjoyable if it is Efficient and Easy to Use. In other words, don’t assume that Enjoyable will be an outcome, make Enjoyable a starting point.

The Kindle app was Efficient, it was definitely Easy to Use, but it did not make my reading experience more Enjoyable.

Enter the eReader

Little over a year ago I purchased my first Amazon Kindle ereader. I started experiencing reading on an ereader. From the start, I had to immediately admit that reading from the Kindle was easier than I had expected, easier than from a tablet. Easier for the eyes at least, because when it came down to reading the more graphically focused books, it became apparent that eInk is very limited in providing the ultimate experience.

eBook cover on iPad

eBook cover on Kindle

Book cover in Print

“Never judge a book by its cover” they say… well, I am a fan of cover art and those of Rosenfeld Media books really do stand out. Now, comparing the three different versions of the book, it is clear to see the differences. Don’t expect a colorful experience with the Amazon Kindle, and even though the cover looks vibrant on the iPad, the quality of the print is just second to none.

eInk and High Resolution Graphics

Images inside the book are a different story. Depending on the publisher, there are several methods that can be used to display graphic content in the book. Not all publishers do it, but linking the images to high-resolution versions seems to work quite well. Of course, you don’t need this in a print book, but this is where ebooks start to become unique and display their real power.

Image view on iPad

Image view on Kindle

Image view in print

The guys over at Rosenfeld Media link to high-resolution images in their Flickr accounts so that you can, at any time, get access to them. Great stuff.

Follow link on iPad

Follow link on Kindle

And what a difference it is. It is clear, to me at least, that the iPad (in this case an iPad 2) wins, it even beats print. This case only briefly covers images, but in other books, like Susan Weinschenk’s 100 Things Designers Need To Know About People, there are examples of links to YouTube videos in the text. The videos are extremely relevant to the content of what you are reading at that moment, so reading it on a platform that allows you direct access to YouTube is the right way to go.

Paying Double… It has to STOP!

On the sideline, a small but definitely not insignificant problem arises in todays marketplace. Buying a print book costs money, and if you want the digital version, you will most likely have to purchase again. Rosenfeld Media and A Book Apart seem to understand this predicament and offer a solution that I wish Amazon would seriously consider adopting. Package the books.

Rosenfeld Media owner Louis Rosenfeld had this to say on the matter:

“We’ve always bundled ebooks with our paperbacks–the cost is so low, and the customer’s delight is instantaneous. Plus it gives them a great reason to purchase from us directly–the bundle’s price is the same as what a paperback alone costs at Amazon.”

Make it possible to buy the print and digital version of a book all at the same time, even if it costs a small premium to do so. Although I am a fan of Amazon, I can admit that they too can fail, and this is an example of how.

Conclusion: No Single Right Platform

Print, tablet, ereader… they all have their pros and their cons. Print is definitely preferred because of the quality and clear presence. Where mobility, ie. traveling to work or going on holiday, or a text-only book (novel) is concerned I can live with carrying all my books in my ereader. For the total media interaction experience, I would have to recommend using a tablet.

I think that the way publishers package and sell books will have a large impact in the overall user experience of reading digital books. For some segments, such as graphic/media heavy books, publishers, like Rosenfeld Media and A Book Apart do, should look more into how their books are read. Text only, text and media, text and interactive media, with the plethora of platforms out to consume this information, how do you go about giving the customer what they really need. There is much to gain in matching user behavior with selling methods.

Tell me how you read your User Experience books

I think this is where I discover why I wrote this article to begin with. I have my methods for reading books. The goal of this article is to basically start a conversation with you, and let you share your reading methods with me. I am just curious.

How do you read your User Experience books? Tablet, Smartphone, eReader, Print, Browser (Amazon’s Cloud Reader) or other apps? Tell me.

The books that I discuss, put in the spotlight, are books that I would personally recommend to anyone who has enjoyed at least one article on this blog. I am self-taught and in doing so, I have been able to undertake many professional challenges in my career. The work in our profession is very fragmented, there is so much knowledge out there that I cannot imagine one person knowing it all. Reading articles online, reading books on my Kindle (and sometimes print) allow me learn so much more, I feel an obligation to tell others of how to do the same.

Books are released quite regularly and I think that it would only be fitting to keep my readers up to date on some upcoming books that have caught my eye.

This time around I will introduce 3 new books, all still in their pre-order phase, so I won’t be able to give you my personal opinion about them… yet.

The UX Books

• Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience by Jeff Gothelf
• Smashing UX Design by Jesmond Allen & James Chudley
• Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research by Mike Kuniavsky & Andrea Moed & Elizabeth Goodman

Lean UX

Jeff Gothelf isDirector of User Experience at TheLadders.com, a website built with the purpose to put job seekers in touch with recruiters. Besides his day job Jeff is Lean UX evangelist, spreading his vast amounts of knowledge and vision during frequent public speaking events and his personal blog.

In Lean UX, Jeff describes his 5-step program to building a lean user experience environment. The 5-steps being:

1. Solve problems together
2. Sketch
3. Prototype
4. Pair developers and designers
5. Create a style guide

Now, although this methodology doesn’t sound new, what Jeff will do in his book is talk about actually taking these steps. Jeff will discuss why past attempts at creating a Lean UX environment have failed and how, now, to properly breakdown the silo’s restraining creativity and development within your business environment.

Order at Amazon.com

Smashing UX Design

The folks over at Smashing Magazine need little to no introduction. Their blog is the place where I regularly catch up on industry and technological developments.

In this book, part of the Smashing Magazine Book Series, authors Jesmond Allen and James Chudley walk you through the advent of user experience design and how it has closed the gap between technology, e-commerce and users. The book discusses the following (copy & pasted) items:

• Examines the essential aspects of User Experience Design (UX) and looks at how it has become a vital part of a successful user experience
• Provides a solid foundation to implementing UX techniques while not sacrificing the user for the search engine
• Shows you ways to go from good to great user experiences, and points out ways to identify bad user-experience design
• Clarifies how to use the right UX tools

All in all I think that this book will be a good addition to anyone’s UX library. It might not necessarily be a book that you’ll constantly be using as a reference, but I can definitely imagine myself using this book help educate others in the field of User Experience… a great loaner!

Order at Amazon.com

Observing the User Experience

This is the book that I am personally looking forward to the most. As I mentioned at the start of this blog post, the user experience field is huge. With many angles to cover, it is hard for anyone to really stand out in all fields considered to be user experience. I consider myself to be more of a user researcher, with a specialty in voice of the customer research, so this book has already been pre-ordered!

In this book, authors  Mike Kuniavsky, Andrea Moed, and Elizabeth Goodman will walk us through 13 proven user research techniques. Techniques that have been thoroughly used in the development of better web sites, software, and mobile applications. The sentence in the summary that got my attention the most was “provides advice about how user research can be done cheaply, quickly and how results can be presented persuasively”, something that I have been doing for quite some time on this blog with my Tips & Tricks posts. It is great to see how more and more user experience professionals are sharing affordable methods for performing research.

Order at Amazon.com

What I had not done, yet, was share my experience with performing remote user research. Technically I did, with my presentation ‘Prospective Optimization‘ at the Dutch Web Analytics Conference back in March, but not specifically on this website.

In this blog post I would like to share with you, a real life example of working with UserTesting.com. To be more precise, a comparison between Airbnb.com and Wimdu.com.

SKIP TO: User Testing Videos

Why UserTesting.com?

I like to write my articles based on real life experiences in the world of conversion rate optimization. Although there are many worthy alternatives out there for remote user testing, such as Loop11, TryMyUI and YouEye, my practical experience with UserTesting.com is the most extensive.

In future articles I will definitely take the time to focus on the alternatives. Not only for remote user testing, but for all aspects of user research.

Comparing Airbnb.com with Wimdu.com

Airbnb has certainly established itself as a serious player in the field of travel. By creating a network of hosts, who make their homes, or rooms, available for (short) rental to travellers, it undoubtedly tapped into a vast resource of revenue still available in the online travel agency (OTA) world.

Is Airbnb unique? Some beg to differ, because they were not the first. The same goes for Wimdu. Is Airbnb an improved idea inspired by the likes of Couchsurfing.org? Is Wimdu another spin-off, of a spin-off? My opinion is… who cares. It should be clear that all of these companies are doing well, not only financially, but also in filling a requirement in today’s travel market. So, who are we to criticize?

Well, enough politics for now…

Let the users speak!

This research was basically performed with two goals in mind.

• First is to show you how I use UserTesting.com to gain insights from participants.
• Second is to learn more about this niche in the travel industry. Pure curiosity.

This form of user research, recording participants’ screens and audio while they perform a set of tasks is great because it allows you to do several things.

• Listen to the participants speak their mind. If you get good participants, they will clearly speak their minds. They will share the positive and negative thoughts they have while participating in your test. In some situations, you can even hear a participants’ anxiety, or pleasure in performing the set tasks or using certain functionalities.
• You get to see how participants use your website (or whatever it is you are testing). How they move their mouse, what links they click, and how the website performs for them.

Basically, where analytics and feedback forms leave off, (remote) user testing picks up. This is true in more ways than one, because what (remote) user testing lacks is an easy way to quantify the findings.

User Research = Manual Labor

Nothing is more laborious in the online world than performing and analyzing user research. It is good for the hours if you work freelance, but notoriously time consuming nevertheless. We have gotten lazy with all the great analytic tools on the market these days, that we forget that real insights, takes real-time, real effort… a lot of both to be honest.

The same is the case with remote user research. In several cases I have spent up to 1 hour setting up a test, 5 hours analyzing the results (average video length 20 minutes, analyzing takes me 1 hour per video) and around 8 to 16 hours compiling and documenting the results. Time and effort ultimately depends on the test in question.

Still, it is quicker than alternative methods of performing user research like in a lab.

The Comparison Test: Airbnb vs Wimdu

So how did I go about setting up the test? In this specific test 5 participants were invited to perform a series of tasks defined around a single scenario. The tasks (some default ones from UserTesting.com) were meant to let the participants compare both websites and give their opinion on the experience.

FYI… The participants are pulled from a legion of testers who have signed up at UserTesting.com. In return for a small fee, they perform the test for you, which is included in the ‘per test fee’.

I have conducted of 100+ tests and I can happily report that the quality of participants is good. The only barriers now are geographical ones as the location of the participants is limited to USA, Canada and the UK. YouEye does support European testing at the moment, in case anyone was wondering.

I formulated the following scenario for the test:

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who wants to compare two sites before booking a Bed & Breakfast accommodation for your upcoming holiday to New York City. You will be visiting two sites to compare offerings.

Within the scenario, participants were asked to perform the following tasks:

1. Go to www.airbnb.com. Look at the home page for five seconds. Then look away and answer this one question (without peeking!): What do you remember?
2. You are looking for a place to stay in New York City. You and your partner will arrive on Friday, April 20th, and return home on Monday, April 23rd. Go ahead and look for a suitable place to stay.
3. When you are happy with the place you would personally want to stay at, go through the motions of booking the accommodation. Make sure to stop just before ‘actually’ booking. Remember, please talk us through your journey. Tell us what you like and what you found distracting.
4. Repeat steps 1,2, and 3 for www.wimdu.com
5. Which site did you prefer? Why?

Findings

When viewing the recorded test sessions, I take it upon myself to use a ‘Create Clip’ function whenever I find something that might be useful to discuss. In this case, I have done the same. Now, I did test 5 participants, but I will only show you the findings of 1 of them, just to prevent taking too much of your time and keep this article as enjoyable as possible.

Creating a clip helps you find a certain issue after reviewing.

Anyone interested in discussing the findings with me, you are welcome to do so by contacting me, or by sharing your thoughts in the comments below. I will consider making a compilation video of all the sessions and publishing them, but for now, I will limit the compilation video to just 1 participant, just to save some (personal) time.

DISCLAIMER: This list was created by myself and is in no way ‘complete’. Some shortcuts were taken for the purpose of publishing this blog post since I do all of this in my spare time, which, with 3 kids, is not much. I like to consider myself objective and skilled enough to detect possible issues on a website. I agree that because only 5 users were tested it is hard (near impossible) to claim significance, but I know that any finding could be a catalyst to improving the website. Since I work for neither Airbnb nor Wimdu, I cannot say what has already been tested and what has not. It could be that certain functionalities have been designed just as the user has experienced them (ie. Search Button on Homepages).

Airbnb User Research Findings

TIP: Click on the toggle below the video for a (short) summary of the findings in the Airbnb user research session.

Wimdu User Research Findings

TIP: Click on the toggle below the video for a (short) summary of the findings in the Wimdu user research session.

Conclusion

The preferences were evenly split. Wimdu did get some credits for being easier to book, but lacked in recognition. The latter is most likely (very non-scientific term) due to the fact that Wimdu is European based (Germany) and Airbnb US. Not an excuse, but surely worth considering. I think that both websites have enough work cut out for them in optimizing the user experience. My advice: Just keep testing.

Conducting user research this way is… well, call me a nerd, but it is fun. You are in charge of what you want to test, when, and to a large extent where. The insights gained through this research are powerful in a way that it is the users/visitors themselves that indicate what they like and don’t like. Gut feeling plays a small part, so the possible positive effect on conversion rate optimization based on user feedback is potentially huge.

No, there is no contact with the testers to ask additional questions or to steer a test while in progress. Some things you need to take for granted and take the feedback at such a value that it keeps your user experience and conversion rate optimization brain cells in motion.

When viewing the tests, I was glad that my trustlogo research importance was mentioned on several occasions, but I did miss a critical (or at least so for me) item. During my own pre-test, so to speak, I noticed that both websites don’t utilize some very key USP’s (unique selling points) at important stage in the booking process.

The one that caught my eye the most, and which was not visible while booking, was the payment process at Wimdu. So, in closing, please consider this…

At Airbnb, your are charged for you stay as soon as the host accepts your booking request.

Airbnb's payment method differs from Wimdu. Critical, yes or no?

At Wimdu, you are not charged until 24 hours after arriving at your destination.

An important Wimdu USP hidden from view.

1. How does that make you feel?
2. Would seeing this USP make you feel safe booking?
3. How would you test to see who else felt the same?

Exactly, (remote) user testing! Please share your experiences with remote user testing!

Need help performing user research? Feel free to contact us.

Why move to a WordPress responsive web design theme? It is simple. With many visitors accessing this or any other website via a multitude of devices means that the website must be accessible and readable on all of them. Well, at least if you care for your visitors.

True, my website, Actual Insights, has no e-commerce goals so the need to make it accessible, on a variety of different devices, and readable on a growing number of screen resolutions, is not an urgent one. Nevertheless, I have seen that the number of visitors accessing Actual Insights on mobile (mainly iOS) devices is growing steadily.

Visitors Overview by Operating System - Google Analytics

Why Responsive Web Design?

I use WordPress to power this website. It is flexible and easy to use. In a nutshell, it fits all my needs. However, making your website suitable for mobile devices is where WordPress’ scope ends and you are on your own to solve the problem. In the past, I have resorted to using wpTouch to make my website look relatively decent on a smartphone.

Bravenewcode’s wpTouch strips, unless you pay for a Pro version or are yourself a web designer, your website of everything visual. So devoid of what might be your ‘personal brand’ you end up serving your content in a very bland manner.

Todd Follansbee wrote an interesting article titled “Your Customer’s Memory — and Website Design” in which he discusses the effects of (and differences between) Recognition and Recall in human beings. Todd goes on to say that Consistency in web design should be guarded in order to positively influence the user experience (and theoretically conversion). Responsive Web Design solves this problem.

Responsive Web Design allows you to serve your content in such a way that your look and feel remains untouched. Maybe not so important for personal websites, but crucial for businesses.

Responsive Web Design Fluid Layout

As you can see in the example above, the look and feel will generally remain untouched, only the content is shifted around to accommodate the screen resolution it is being served in.

Content Shifting

Now, I won’t tell you what the website looks like now, because at this point it does not really matter. I don’t know what platform you are on and what your screen resolution is. With Responsive Web Design the site will adjust itself.

For the purpose of giving examples to accompany this article, I have taken the liberty to take some screenshots to show you how content is shifted.

Responsive WordPress Themes

Yes, I kind of cheated. *busted*

I am not a web designer or a front-end developer. So, where can someone like me get a good responsive wordpress theme?

Personally I used Envato’s Themeforest to hunt for this theme. There of course many other resources out there, but one thing you might want to keep in mind when migrating to a responsive wordpress theme, is that you want to make sure your previously published content is easily adaptable.

In WordPress you can use shortcodes to add funky bits to your post. WordPress comes with its own set of shortcodes, but themes do too. So make sure that you check your post after your migration to make sure your articles are still being presented as you intended them too.

If you want to test a responsive theme for your WordPress website, make sure to check out Yoko. Yoko is a free responsive wordpress theme that will allow you to test drive the concept prior to taking the big leap.

Recommended Reading

There are not many books (yet) on the subject of Responsive Web Design. I am a firm believer in the sharing of knowledge, so I don’t want you to leave this website empty-handed. Here are some links I would recommend visiting. One is of a book that I can recommend reading, the other a presentation worth watching and the rest some interesting articles I found around the web.

• Book – Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte (A Book Apart)
• Presentation – What the heck is Responsive Web Design by John Polacek
• Article – Responsive Web Design – What it is and how to use it (Smashing Magazine)
• Article – How to build a Mobile Responsive Website (UX Booth)
• Tools - Responsive Web Design Techniques, Tools and Design Strategies (Smashing Magazine)
• Examples – Responsive Web Design: 50 Examples and Best Practices (DesignMoDo)

This year Morgan Kaufmann looks to be hitting the ground running. With no exact release dates being communicated, Morgan Kaufman nevertheless looks to be releasing two new UX books this year. The topics set to be covered are topics that I personally think need more attention on the work floor to further advocate the importance of User Experience.

• It’s Our Research by Tomer Sharon
• Guerilla UX Research Methods by Russ Unger & Todd Zaki Warfel

It’s Our Research

Tomer Sharon‘s first book is set to be released this year. Tomer, a user experience researcher at Google Search, is focussing his first book on the advocation of user experience on the work floor. UX projects cost money, and with many companies keeping a close eye on expenses, it will be hard to get any kind of project started without the buy-in from a stakeholder.

Tomer will show you how to make yourself heard by using a strategic framework for UX practitioners. “It’ Our Research” will discuss how to consistently keep your stakeholders involved throughout the user experience research process. By keeping them involved you can (theoretically) guarantee the support of the stakeholders backing your research.

Order now at Amazon / or from Amazon.co.uk (not available) **

Guerilla UX Research Methods

Russ Unger and Todd Zaki Warfel are not newcomers to the UX books realm. Russ released his first book A Project Guide to UX Design several years ago and Todd Zaki Warfel’s Prototyping book inspired many UX practitioners. Now they have joined forces to release Guerilla UX Research Methods.

Guerilla UX Research Methods will be a perfect buy together with Tomer Sharon’s book. Where Tomer will focus on how to get the stakeholder’s attention, Russ and Todd will show you how to do low-cost UX research that will be both powerful and reliable. (A great way to please any stakeholder) As we have discussed before, even though intuition might be free, good research can take you further.

Order now at Amazon / or from Amazon.co.uk **

** Links are affiliate links to Amazon.com. The affiliate links help keep this site up and running, and prevent the placement of irrelevant banner ads.

My keynote presentation titled “Prospective Optimization: Thomas Cook’s Travels Beyond Web Analytics (Data)” which I presented at the Web Analytics Congres 2012 in Houten, Netherlands, focused on how to research optimization opportunities when web analytics data tells you that something, somewhere is performing sub-optimal on your website.

Drilling for Conversion

With practical tips and advice anyone can discover what the real problem is and which optimization opportunities to execute. I used ‘Drilling for Oil’ as a metaphor for discovering optimization opportunities (let me know if you like it).

With this presentation, some narration is required because of the lack of bullet points, I go to show which roads you can take to find out WHY conversion rates are performing poorly and how to take action using real world examples.

Knowing how to swim isn’t enough

Keeping your head above water is just not enough anymore. We often get drowned in web analytics reports, if the Brady Bunch were web analysts you can imagine them screaming “It’s always Data, Data, Data”.

And so the office world goes on… Scrum here, Sprints there, but what are we really improving on the website? What information are we not getting out of web analytics to help us on the road to conversion rate optimization (and visitor satisfaction)?

Simple. Focussing too much on data will make you blind. I know, a strange analogy, but it is true. Use the steps discussed in my presentation or in previous blog posts to better understand your visitors’ needs.

Combining Research Methods

As with previous posts, the methods used in the presentation are methods that I have covered before on my blog. Methods such as:

• Interaction Analysis
• Voice of Customer Research (Attitude)
• Web Performance Monitoring
• User Research (Behavior)
• True Intent Conversion Rate calculation

Putting all these methods to work, in other words joining the insights gained from these methods… now that is where the magic begins. And this time, even you can be the magician.

My #WAC12 Keynote

View on Speakerdeck.com

• You have a fancy account at Hitwise
• You have nothing

In a previous article, ‘Complete Web Monitoring for $65‘, I quickly touched based on Competitive Analysis. This article, part one in a two-part series, will take you further.

Ok, ok, I must admit. The options mentioned above are poor, and probably not even realistic, but how much do you really know about your competitors? How much do you really monitor them?

Immediate Effectiveness

With the various SaaS tools around these days, a lot can be done to gain actual insights (no pun intended) into the effectiveness of your competitors online presence. It is easy to learn more about the user friendliness, performance, marketing activities and online sentiment.

It is not a question of ‘if’ you should do this, but how soon you can start doing it, because nothing gets a manager’s mind going then when you draw comparisons between ‘yours’ and ‘theirs’, ie. the ‘Neighbors New Car’ syndrome as I like to call it.

Researching Your Competitor

As I have just mentioned, there are several different approaches that you can take to investigating your competitor online. Prices vary too. While some methods are free, others require some investment, but all methods will help you learn more about the differences between you and your competitors.

The following list has been sorted to my personal preference, ie. from top to bottom what I find the most interesting and effective to less. Opinions might differ on the order, but let’s stay focused on the end goal… Effective Competitor Intelligence.

Usability Task Testing

Remote Usability Testing is a hot topic these days. With SaaS tools like UserTesting.com and Loop11 you are able to remotely test your website and quickly get results back for you to analyze.

“best Usertesting.com is by doing 2 tests: showing the CEO that his site sucks, then show that his competitor is better.”

Avinash Kaushik @ Web Analytics Congres 2012 Workshop

With both tools you simply define a set of tasks you want the participants to complete, enter a URL where you want the test to begin and voila… testing has begun. What I found interesting, something I found out when doing some performance monitoring, is that these tools do not require you to place a javascript tag on your website in order to use it. So why not perform similar tests, but instead of pointing participants to your own site, point them to a competitor’s website.

UserTesting.com already mentions that you can test a competitors website.

The great thing about performing these kind of tests is that your competitor doesn’t need to know what you are doing. The downside is that this method costs money. Less expensive alternatives are using local tools like Silverback App and invite colleagues or family members to perform the tasks.

Usability Feedback Testing

In many previous articles I have spoken about Usabilla. With Usabilla you can perform similar tests as previously described with UserTesting.com and Loop11, but this time, you research competitor design.

Usabilla research can also be done on a competitor's website.

By using screenshots from your competitors’ websites, you can run off a series of questions geared towards finding out what people like about a design. Comparing these results with your own website will give you plenty of input for A/B or Multivariate Testing.

Usabilla often conducts research between different websites by itself and publishes these. Working in the Travel sector myself, this report on the user experience of 18 different travel websites was very insightful.

If you need help with building a panel to conduct Usabilla style tests with, make sure to read my article ‘Guerilla Online Panel Recruitment‘.

Performance

Again, a hot topic that really gained momentum in 2011… performance. In other words, how fast and efficient does your website load in the end users’ browser? To get insights on this topic, there are 2 different roads that you can take. A paid road, or the free road.

Manual Performance Analysis

The free option will push you in the direction of WebPageTest.org. The website’s service (remote performance testing) is free to use as it is sponsored by a variety of companies offering consultancy services on the same topic.

On the website, you can enter the URI of the webpage you want to test and it will produce a superb analysis for you to dig through. Testing is done manually and there is no historic comparison feature for similar test setups. This, however, is not my most favorite functionality of the website.

The best feature can be found under the tab ‘Visual Comparison‘. Enter multiple URI of pages ou want to test and get a mind-blowing video display of how the pages load… compared to one another. Here is an example:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Paid Performance Analysis

The second road is a paid road, toll road if you will. There are many tools out there that will automate performance monitoring for you. You should of course focus on monitoring your own performance, but there is nothing stopping you from monitoring your competitors.

In the example below, using Watchmouse as the monitoring tool, a clear analysis can be done of the performance of our websites with those of competitors (whited out for privacy reasons).

From this information you can keep a close eye on the progress competitors are making in page speed optimization. The test is limited to what you are willing to spend, but an initial setup including a comparison between your key pages and comparable pages on your competitors’ websites is recommended.

Monitor the performance of competitors and compare it to your own.

Conclusion

Since this is the first part of a two-part series on Effective Competitor Intelligence I won’t write an extensive conclusion. The examples speak for themselves. Staying on top of your competitors’ activities is paramount to maintaining a lead or gaining a lead in your online market segment. Although heuristic evaluation of your own is still crucial to building a clear picture of your competitors’ capabilities, the techniques described above will definitely help you get started.

Recommended Books

Complete Web Monitoring ;by Alistair Croll, Sean Power

Recommended Articles

The Definitive Guide To (8) Competitive Intelligence Data Sources! by Avinash Kaushik

21 Tools to Legally Spy On Your Competition by Bryan Eisenberg

But for some of us, using these tools is just not an option… yet. The price tag, although fair with regards to what you get in return, can still be a blocking factor for some. In this post, I want to describe a cheaper alternative to conducting usability testing, mainly session recording, on iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. [Go straight to demo video]

By using this cheaper alternative, you might be able to grab hold of some internal research funding and get busy with the more premium tools, which in all honesty are a lot less hassle free.

Jailbreak it!

To be able to do any of the things I am about to describe you will need access to a jailbroken iOS device. Jailbreaking is required because there are no apps, approved by Apple at least, that allow you to perform screenrecordings. To get your device jailbroken… well, there are enough sites out there that will tell you more on getting that done. A quick Google search will reveal a lot of information to get you started.

When your iOS device has been jailbroken, you will need to open up Cydia, which is comparable to the App Store on your iOS devices, and purchase an app called Display Recorder. This application allows you to do just what is says, record your iOS display. The output from the recording can be in MPEG format or Quicktime’s MOV format. The latter format will help you in the long run… if you are a Mac user at least.

Microphone Check

The second thing you need to do is make sure you have a voice recording app on your iOS device. I like to use Cohdoo‘s Highlight (App Store $4.99). There are several reasons for this, the main one being that it allows me to make markers during a voice recording with a -2 second offset. This is great for interviews and you want to quickly find quotes after you have completed your interview.

The default Voice Memos app works fine, too. However, both apps display a red notification bar in the top of the screen when you multitask in another app. I am sure there is a Cydia app to resolve this, but I have taken it for granted in the demo video down below.

iOS Device + Headphone = Results

Finally… getting started. So we have set up our iOS device with the necessary apps. We now need to plugin a set of headphones with a microphone. I like this option because it does 2 things. First it blocks any sound from outside (well, most sounds) for the participant, second the microphone will allow you to record the participant’s thoughts while he is conducting the test.

My tip would be to first start the audio, prior to starting the display recording. The reason for this is that in the audio you can mention when you actually start the test (and hand the device to the participant). This will help you merge the video and audio files later and match the timings of both.

Post Processing, Create the Video

I won’t go into how you should conduct your usability test, so I will skip to post processing. The most important thing is that you are recording the screen of your iOS device and the thoughts of the participant. The post processing will be done using iMovie, and Highlight Player (App Store $4.99) which we need to convert the audio file to M4A format. There is a converter only app in the App Store, too, called Highlight Converter which only costs $0.99

Now, with post processing comes the most exciting part. We create the video of the participant in question, a video we can show our team and stakeholders. Keep in mind, that after you have generated the video, you can again take parts of many videos, highlights if you will, and generate an executive summary video of the conducted usability test.

Importing The Files

The Highlight app produces audio files in CAF format which I have been unable to import into iMovie. After converting to M4A it works fine.

So along with the audio file, we need to import the video file (saved to camara roll from within the Display Recorder app and imported to iPhoto).

Using iMovie I sync the video with the audio and export it all to a video file. As you can see below.

Demo iOS Usability Test Recording

Click here to view the embedded video.

Like I have mentioned before. This is not the easiest way to do it, but it surely allows you to get started with iOS usability testing at a minimum cost. I hope this helps you along your way to gaining more actual insights about your users!

In this amazing BBC Horizon episode “The Secret You” from 2009, Professor Marcus du Sautoy takes a deeper look into these questions and tries to show us the evidence of consciousness and its effects on ‘being’.

True, there is no direct link between my blog, on how to gain practical insights into online optimization, and this BBC Documentary (although I will try to make this link later), but the Neuroscience element is simply intriguing and I am confident many of you will find it interesting, too.

The most interesting evidence shown, was from an experiment that proves that we subconsciously make decisions long before we are consciously aware of them. In this specific experiment up to 6 seconds!

The Edge of Awareness

The presenter, Professor Marcus de Sautoy, takes the viewers on a journey into real world experiments being conducted that help answer these questions.

Program Synopsis: “With the help of a hammer-wielding scientist, Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science’s greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are? While the thoughts that make us feel as though we know ourselves are easy to experience, they are notoriously difficult to explain. So, in order to find out where they come from, Marcus subjects himself to a series of probing experiments.

He learns at what age our self-awareness emerges and whether other species share this trait. Next, he has his mind scrambled by a cutting-edge experiment in anesthesia. Having survived that ordeal, Marcus is given an out-of-body experience in a bid to locate his true self.

In Hollywood, he learns how celebrities are helping scientists understand the microscopic activities of our brain. Finally, he takes part in a mind-reading experiment that both helps explain and radically alters his understanding of who he is.”

6 Seconds

As I mentioned before, the experiment I find the most interesting is the last one. In the experiment, Professor du Sautoy is given 2 controllers, one in each hand and is asked to lie down in a MRI scanner. The controllers are to be clicked at random. Professor du Sautoy thereby has full control and can click a controller, left or right, at his own command.

While the Professor is being monitored in the MRI scanner, the scientists go on to show how they can predict which controller the Professor will be clicked… in most cases up to 6 seconds prior to the Professor consciously knowing himself.

So while the scanner tracks when the brain makes the decision, the controllers track the actual moment the conscious decision is made, in essence proving that our subconscious is actively making decisions to situations that are not directly obvious to us long before we are aware of the decision needing to made. [direct link to last experiment]

The eCommerce Connection

Let me try and make this post relevant to my blog… How does this effect online behavior. Is the decision to purchase/sign up being made prior to a visit, during or only prior to the actual conversion action itself? Do the findings from the BBC Horizon documentary debunk conversion optimization to some degree? Is conversion optimization only affecting those who have the intention to purchase/sign up? In another article on my blog, I displayed the insights gained from an exit survey using iPerception’s 4Q with which you can measure the leaks in conversion based on visitors who had the intention to convert.

So how do we go about influencing a visitors’ subconscious, to drive them towards converting? I believe that Robert Cialdini has pointed us in the right direction with his ‘Influence‘ approach, but we must all realize that even influence has its limits. So what will be the next step, beyond influence? How do we go on to predict? I will try to dive deeper into this question in a follow up blog post.

BBC Horizon’s The Secret You

For now, and if you have time, watch the Horizon episode in question and be amazed. I have always been a big fan of BBC Horizon, but this episode is definitely one of my favorites.

Click here to view the embedded video.