ExperienceLab

Guidelines to improve the customer experience of London Transport published

2012-02-02T15:55:33+00:00

Yesterday London Travelwatch, the watchdog for transport users, published '10 policies to keep Londoners moving', a set of guidelines urging mayoral candidates to put the customer at the centre of public transport policies.

Amongst the suggestions - such as providing longer trains more often, improved information, a fair deal for customers - what caught my eye and that of other bloggers such as Going Underground were recommendations to make transport more accessible and joined up for elderly, disabled and less able users.

Having experienced London Transport as a mother to be, and latterly as a mother with buggy and toddler I have some limited experience of travelling encumbered. For me lack of lifts/escalators, overcrowding on buses and tubes, inaccessible bus stops, and lack of any available staff to lend a helping hand make journeys around the capitial a drag. And even with tools such as Get ahead of the Games the idea of travelling during the Olympic Games this year brings me out in a cold sweat...I can therefore only imagine the issues facing customers with disabilities.

So it's really pleasing to see this customer-focussed thinking being published. We can but hope that these guidelines are taken to heart by prospective mayoral candidates.

Parking by phone

2012-01-17T14:05:16+00:00

Over the weekend I drove out with my girlfriend to wilds of the North Downs near Dorking. I parked up in a car park at the foot of Box Hill, looking forward to the climb to the top. As I went to pay for the parking, I stopped short when I noticed that there was no payment machine. The only option was to pay by phone. This is something I've never done before, but was keen to try out to see how it compared to a regular coin payment machine - plus I didn't have much in the way of choice to pay any other way!

The stepping stones near the Car Park of Doom

The sign at the car park gave a phone number, and a location number - presumably so they knew what car park I'd parked in. I called the number, and was immediately connected to an automated voice recognition system. My heart sank as these are usually fine at recognising that there's a voice speaking to them, but not so great at figuring out what words the voice is saying...

The first question asked for the car registration number. The next for the car make and colour. It recognised all this fine, and repeated them back to me to confirm. While this all worked surprising like clockwork, I was becoming aware that it had already taken longer than a coin machine.

Next I needed to give the car park location number - the system switched from voice recognition to keypad entry for this part. Then I entered my credit card details - a process that is tedious at the best of times, let alone when I want to go for a walk rather than loiter in a car park on my phone.

Finally, after paying, the system kindly offered me the default option of receiving alert texts to confirm the payment for an additional 20p. I'd already been on the phone for a long time at this point, and wanted to end the call quickly so decided to avoid navigating the preferences to remove the alert texts.

And then I was done. I had paid for my parking. The whole process took vastly longer than a coin system would have, even when I went through the process without any difficulties. And what if I didn't have my mobile phone with me, or I had no reception or battery left? There was no public phone provided to call the number so I would have been stuck. I've written about improving parking experiences before, and this seems to be a step in the opposite direction.

So what's could be done to improve the experience? I think payments by phone for such small amounts as parking, at times when you want the process to be as brief as possible, just isn't viable at the moment. I'd actually avoid going to that same car park in the future just to avoid the faff of going through the payment system.

The credit card payment and confirmation process was the most time-consuming and could benefit from being sped up. There are a number of improvements that could help with this in the future:

1. NFC (Near field communication). This is a new technology that works using the same technology that the London Oyster uses. It allows you to swipe a device (such as an Oyster card or mobile phone) over a reader to make payments. A mobile phone with NFC could be swiped over a parking machine reader and the payment could be made instantly rather than typing in credit card details on your phone.

Unfortunately, the technology is currently available in very few handsets, but some Android devices have them.

2. Square credit card reader attachment. Square offer a device that attaches to an iPhone that lets you swipe credit cards to make payments. It's quick, but obviously you need the attachment and a compatible phone.

3. Provide an app. I've since found out that the payment company (Ringo) offer an app to make payments but there was no mention of this at the car park. While it probably wouldn't have sped up payment the first time, it can store my credit card details and make future payments a lot quicker.

4. Provide a coin payment option. The low tech option is to provide a coin payment system. There's still an expectation that people will pay for parking with cold hard cash, and the technology isn't yet up to providing an exclusive alternative.

Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrison's, they all have them: Are self-service checkouts really the future of shopping?

2012-01-11T08:38:12+00:00

Sometimes it feels like an insult; we to stand in a queue that does not seem any shorter than it was before the manned tills were replaced, and we have to scan them ourselves, only to be told there is an “unexpected item in the bagging area”, which is an item that we scanned just seconds ago...

I have had a number of exasperating experiences myself; in Waitrose some of the self-service checkouts only let you pay by card so suddenly you find yourself in the wrong queue, in Marks and Spencer you have to pay for the carrier bags you use, but in Sainsbury’s you get rewarded if you use your own bag – surely that is a more encouraging way to combat the battle against plastic? In Morrisons the self-service checkouts don't accept £2 coins, so after trying to enter the coin numerous times I tracked down the member of staff monitoring the self-service checkouts (who was assisting another aggravated customer with an "unexpected item in the bagging area") and asked what I needed to do. They told me that I needed to go to one of the staffed check outs and get two £1 coins, I asked him kindly (as kindly as I could at this stage) if he would mind doing this for me as I didn't want to leave my shopping (and I assumed his job was to assist?!). This incident seemed so backwards I would have laughed if I wasn't so frustrated.

After a few irritating experiences, on my following visits to the supermarkets, I observed other customers to see how they got on with using these machines. I saw a number of people spending a long while trying to locate where to put the notes in, until the customer behind them in line pointed it out to them, and many times when there were customers waiting for a member of staff to override the "unexpected item in bagging area" message. Customers also waited for staff to approve their age when buying alcohol when they were clearly over 40, or searching the images to find the correct bread roll.

The design of the self-service checkouts vary a great deal between stores, and with each one the customer has to work out how to use it – I’ve never known buying something to be so challenging. However, there is a variation used in some Waitrose stores which actually seems to work effectively, where customers are provided with hand scanners and scan each item as they go round the shop. This minimizes queues at the pay point, and only slows down if you are subjected to the random spot check, though this is very occasional so no complaints.

So, I’m interested to know what are your experiences of self-service checkouts? Do you brave them, or stand in line to get the cashier to do it for you? Post a comment, and watch this space for future research into the user experience of the self-service checkout.

Images from Google.co.uk

Siri on the iPhone 4S - why people don't use it

2012-01-03T09:58:39+00:00

The voice recognition performs well, it's well integrated, it's context-aware, it's location-aware, it has some killer come backs… but do people actually use it?

I've been living with Siri on the iPhone 4S for around 2 months now and I've concluded that it's very hard to get into using it beyond the obvious novelty applications.

So why is this?

I forget Siri is there. After a decade of mobile use, doing things manually is a tough habit to break.
Siri works best if you phrase requests in a certain way, which takes time to learn.
Siri doesn't seem to save much time. Certainly not enough to make up for the initial time investment.
In many public situations, I don't want to make requests by talking out loud.
Siri is fallible. You can't rely on it to work first time.
I often seem to hear the following message: 'I will only search for businesses in the US using US English', whether I'm searching for a business or not. This also gives me the impression that Siri doesn't work properly outside the US.

If this technology is the future, then why is it so hard to start using it?

This issue aside, I am determined to give Siri another chance. I'm aiming to spend a week using Siri as much as possible... can these initial problems be overcome? I'll let you know...

Innovation in public service design and delivery - a roundtable

2011-12-08T14:11:36+00:00

A couple of weeks ago we were very privileged to host senior officers from local authorities and Serco at ExperienceLab's offices in Holborn. The discussion, hosted by LGC editor Emma Maier, focussed on the issue of innovation in service design and delivery.

A number of exciting ideas for future exploration were discussed such as the importance of moving from data to insight, of uncovering the unspoken needs and desires of users, and the possibilities of playful design in service delivery.

Read the full article "Ten Steps to Transformation" at the LGC website.

Mac vs. PC: an open minded debate

2011-12-07T11:32:13+00:00

My MacBook Air died about 4 weeks ago, right in the middle of a busy work period. There were no other spare Macs around at work, but there was a nice new Vaio laptop. I thought it was about time I used a PC again, to keep my hand it, so I was fine about switching. I don’t want to be someone who raves about how much better Macs are than PCs, so I went into it with an open mind.

The initial switching of devices was pretty straightforward, thanks mainly to cloud storage of all the project documents I was working on. I just logged in to the cloud services, and was pretty much back where I should have been. My emails, calendars and contacts are in IMAP and Exchange servers, and they were pretty easy to set up and retrieve too. I felt like I was back in business, without much bother. Hooray for cloud computing.

I’ve been using the PC for about 4 weeks now. I’ve got used to using Control instead of Apple when using MS Office, and there were bound to be procedures that just took a bit of learning and getting used to. However, I still miss the old Mac, and here are some reasons why:

Things I like about the Mac (OS X Lion)

Reopening my Finder windows after a restart.

It’s great to know that if I need to restart the Mac after a software update my windows will reopen exactly as I left them. I’ve really missed this, especially because the PC keeps updating its software without asking me to, and once happily restarted without me expecting it. Grr.

Being able to click on a date in a message and add it to the calendar.

I find it so much easier to read an email, control-click on a date in it, and save it to my calendar, as in the Mac. In Outlook, it’s a tortuous process of actually having to remember the date (I have a terrible memory), switch to the calendar, manually move to the date in question, and then click to insert it. Too much mental load.

Being able to write an email, grab the icon of the document I want to attach, and pull it into the email body to be an attachment.

I spent ages writing an email in Outlook, and wanted to add in a document I’d just written. I couldn’t work out how to just put that document into the window next to it. Someone had to show me the right menu section in Word that would then let me open the document’s location in a new window, cluttering up the desktop, and then drag it into the email. Too much work.

Quicksilver or Spotlight to find and open files.

Due to my poor memory, I often can’t remember where I save files, even if the save locations are pretty intuitive to me. The use of Quicksilver on my Mac, or just Spotlight is a simple way for me to locate files. I can’t find anything on the PC that works as well as Spotlight used to on the Mac. When I’ve tried a search I’ve never been sure exactly where it’s searched. I have the same problems when searching for an email in Outlook. I know that a message is in there somewhere, but the search option just doesn’t find it.

Quicksilver to open and process files

I know that Quicksilver is a 3rd party app, and I’m sure there must be similar apps for Windows. But I rely so much on just typing in the name of the file I want and Quicksilver just locating and opening it for me that actually having to search through my PC and the server slows my pace of work right down.

Synchronize X to take ensure I have the most up to date copies of files that I can work on offline or away from the office, and then put back on when I’m back in.
- Synchronize X to do this as soon as it detects that I’m connected to the server.
- Auto location detect by wi fi network when I’m in the office, to auto run events, like connect to the server, adjust volume, etc.

Working out of the office is essential. I get loads done on the train to work. That means that when I get to work I need to make sure that my updated files all go back on the server, and the most recent files are synced up. Using a chain of events with a small location detecting app, which detects the work wi fi, and then connects to the server, and another app that then syncs up all the files makes my life much easier. It does it all in the background, and I can get on with more important things.

My Mac remembers my screens resolution settings and what my main monitor is when I unplug and plug it back in again. The PC has to be told every time, and the resolutions of both monitors reset.

For some reason, every time I unplug the PC laptop from the external monitor and take it home, then bring it back and plug it in again, I have to rejig the screen resolution and tell it which is my main monitor. The Mac didn’t do this. It’s a pain.

When you move something to the trash, you don’t have to confirm you want to do it, as on the PC. Why should you need to confirm this? You only need to confirm when you empty the trash.

Threaded email in Mail

I hated this when it was first introduced, but now I have trouble working without it. I’ve missed messages without the threads.

I prefer having separate Mail and Calendar applications, so I can view them side by side on different screens.

Outlook is calendar and email and contacts all bundled up together, so I can only see one at a time. Often I want to compare email with my calendars, to work out when to set up a meeting. On the Mac, this is easy. On the PC, I have to switch between Outlook views.

Spaces

A great way of working when there’s a lot going on. I can stuff documents in a space and come back to them later. My PC desktop is often cluttered, with loads of windows minimised in the task bar. The less clutter for me, the better.

The Outlook mail search isn’t through everything by default, just the folder you’re in. Even then, when I think I’ve done a search through all folders and accounts, it still doesn’t find an email that I know is somewhere in Outlook.

When I do a search, I want to see EVERYTHING. I don’t see the point of a search that won’t search through every possible place. I’m not going to be overwhelmed if I can filter down that massive search return list, or order it along dimensions like date, name, subject, etc. But I don’t want to know that I’ve searched everything.

Things I like about the PC

It’s faster than my old mac. No spinning beach ball.

More an issue of hardware though, I would think.

I can set up calendar invitations that appear to work. On my Mac Exchange calendars would occasionally change back to ‘New Event’ headings.

OS X Lion had some issues connecting to our work Exchange server. It’s nice to know that if I set one up now, it’ll stay there and I can forget about it until the reminder pops up.

So not much in the PCs favour. I expect some of this is just a case of me being used to one system, and having to learn another, but my method of working seems to be much more suited to the way the Mac works. I think that’s because over time my working style has adjusted to fit the Mac’s style, but it’s also because the Mac is flexible enough to fit to the way I want to work.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Keep it simple

2011-11-16T16:08:33+00:00

An interesting Ted talk (TedxO'Porto) by Sandra Fisher-Martin about keeping documents simple and easy to understand. If you've got time watch the video (it's 15 minutes long and in Portuguese with English subtitles).

Her aim is to simplify the language used in contracts and other official documents so that they are easy to understand by everyone, rather than only by experts. The main message of the talk is to ''write for your grandmother'' by following these 3 rules:

Your 'grandmother' is busy and doesn't have time to read loads of pages so start with the most important message
Use short sentences so your 'grandmother' doesn't forget the point you're trying to make
Use simple language that your 'grandmother' already knows

The idea of having a particular audience in mind when writing is a useful practice and helps you to focus your writing. Legal and business documents tend to focus on getting very exact and precise points across to defend a position or state a claim upon which a lot depends. However, this often comes at the cost of clear, concise language - making these documents appear less "human".

However, Sandra clearly believes that the two aren't mutually exclusive, and we'd agree with her. For example, when we write our reports we strive to make sure that they speak our clients' language and are as usable as the practices that we preach. We feel that we've failed if a report isn't easily understood by our clients. There's no reason that other businesses shouldn't adopt this exact same belief.

Guardian iPad App: a sign of things to come?

2011-11-10T15:46:29+00:00

Along with the new Newsstand feature in Apple's latest iOS 5, the Guardian has launched its iPad version of the paper. We've spent the last few weeks using it and thought it's about time we shared our opinion with the world.

Getting the issues

The paper is delivered via Newsstand. So the presence of new issues are brought to you via a notification. Our experience seemed to suggest that issues are downloaded in the background because whenever a notification appeared, the latest issue was already downloaded and ready to read.

While it's nice not to have to wait to download the issue, it also raises some concerns. Does the app download via wifi only or via 3G too? If you have a 3G iPad there's the possibility that every issue is downloaded at the expense of your 3G data allowance. There's also the possibility that the app is busily downloading the latest issue while the user is trying to watch a video or do some other data-intensive task which could be slowed by another big download happening at the same time.

We looked but couldn't find a way of turning this auto download feature off or easily finding out whether the app downloads via 3G or not. Some users are likely to want to be reassured about how and when the app is being downloaded, and may even want control of this so we'd expect to have seen some settings giving more options.

On the plus side, once the issue is downloaded, the app loads quickly and soon enough you're looking at the front page.

Look and feel

The look and feel of the app (which, after all, is essentially what it is) is very slick. Everything from the typography to the page layout to the photography has a very well-put-together feel suggesting that a lot of hard work has gone into it.

The Guardian has also catered for those who prefer to hold their iPad in the landscape orientation - all content works well in both orientations. Considering this is a system-level function, it should be taken for granted that this works, but the number of apps that don't support this is surprising, so it's nice to see the Guardian has made the effort and to good effect.

Homepage

Bizarrely the Guardian banner showing the paper's logo appears at the bottom, or sometimes centre, of the first page you see. The aim appears to be to separate the leading story from the other top stories of the day, however it's slightly disorienting at first as you expect the banner to be at the top, and then realise there's more content below it.

Below this banner, there's a few headlines and a breakdown of the sections in the paper (e.g. UK, International, etc.). This works well - you simply tap on the section to bring up it's page and related stories - but it would be nice to see some stories from each section listed on the homepage to give you a preview of what to expect and lead the user into the section. These section tiles have photos associated with them, but there's no text so you're left not knowing which story the photo relates to.

Navigation

The navigation works very well. The sections are clearly listed on the homepage, as well as shown permanently at the top of the screen, together with an indication of where you are in the 'paper'. Moving between sections is as easy as swiping across the screen, or using the section navigation bar at the top of the screen.

Other features

Obviously the resources that the Guardian has available are limited (as is the size of the app that users will be willing to download), so a number of stories are listed as "On the website" which, when tapped, bring up an in-app browser that shows the story on the website. It works, but it's not an elegant solution and takes you out of the experience of an otherwise very pleasing app.
We liked seeing the sharing options available - and hope that this feature is maintained once the app transitions to a subscription model.

A slightly subtler, but very useful feature, is the automatic bookmarking. If you read part-way through an article and then navigate away, you'll be returned back to the point in the article you were up to when you come back. It's handy feature that saves time and shows attention to detail.

One feature that was notably absent however, is the ability to resize text. It's a handy feature to have in any text-based app, but it's crucial to those with visual impairments - and a clear advantage to digital devices over print-based offerings.

That said, this is clearly version 1.0 of the app, and the Guardian has worked to get the basic functionality working and working well which, in the main, it has. In future releases, we'd like to see some of the issues listed here addressed, but for now, it's a very pleasant reading experience has got us excited to see what's around the corner.

Lost in translation: tips for usability testing in a foreign country

2011-11-09T14:15:23+00:00

As part of our activities to celebrate World Usability Day 2011 ExperienceLab and the UXalliance have published a report looking at cultural aspects of usability testing in UXalliance countries.

Drawing on expertise from over 20 partner countries, the report covers planning and running sessions, how to interpret the results and pitfalls to avoid when testing in a country other than your own.

View the report here! Download Cultural-differences-in-usability-testing

Special thanks to our partners at Optimal Experience and Optimal Usability for putting this together, and all the UXalliance partners for their input!

For more articles and publications on global user research, visit www.globaluserresearch.com.

OnLive: the future of gaming?

2011-09-30T14:22:07+01:00

Thursday 22 September saw the UK launch of revolutionary new gaming service: OnLive.

OnLive is essentially games in the cloud. The advantage being that you don't need an expensive games console to play the games - you can stream them via your computer, and you don't need the latest, more expensive 25-core processor to run the games: if you can watch fullscreen YouTube videos on your computer, then chances are that you can also use OnLive.

So, we decided to give it a go….

Setup

The setup process starts with a visit to the website, a relatively simple sign-up process and then the installation of a small app on your computer. Once OnLive is up and running, you're presented with a 9 x 9 grid menu screen. Most of the options are self-explanatory although we felt some help-text wouldn't go amiss.

For example, the Arena is where you can go and spectate on other gamers using the system. As a seasoned gamer, my first reaction was that the Arena would be where I go to actually play games, as it's a common term used in multiplayer modes. 'Spectate' or 'Watch current players' might be a better description, or even suggesting that it's a TV allowing you to tune in to watch games live.

There's also a good level of thought that's gone into the social integration. Within the Arena, you can 'like' or 'dislike' a game. But as a player you can save clips where you've performed particularly well as a 'brag clip' and post the 10-second video to Facebook. You get to show off to your friends, and of course OnLive benefits from you advertising its system, at no cost to them.

Playing

So how does it stack up against playing on a console or a standard, non-cloud game on your computer?

The answer is actually quite well, as long as you have a reasonably quick internet connection. OnLive state a minimum requirement of 2Mbps, and a recommended speed of 5Mbps. Given that the average broadband speed in the UK is just over 6Mbps it should work well for most people. How well it fares for those with slower connections remains to be seen, but that’s more of an issue for the broadband providers than for OnLive. Plus, if it doesn’t work because your connection is too slow, at least you haven’t forked out loads of money for a console that you can’t use.

In practice, a slow connection can rapidly kill any chance of enjoying the gameplay, with video quality rapidly degrading and a fair amount of lag. When you're trying to destroy that giant laser-wielding troll with some quick moves, lag does not a champion make. We also had a couple of moments where the connection dropped completely and reconnection took a while.

On a good internet connection (and average broadband speed is only going to increase) the system works surprisingly well. We tested a number of fast-paced games such as DiRT 3 and it felt no different to playing on a PC or console.

To play a game you must first visit the Market where you find the selection of available games. There's a generous 30-minute free trial of each game so you can try before you buy. Games are around the same price that you'd currently pay, although some have options to pay a reduced price for only a few days access. This stings slightly - given that the game distribution model is completely digital, you might expect a reduced price for games. But there are bundle offers on older games, such as £6.99 a month the get access to over 100 games - although the selection is preselected by OnLive.

Another factor that may well determine the Onlive's future success is how quickly new games reach the OnLive market. We'll wait and see. If it means you can play a game within minutes of its launch, OnLive could have a massive advantage over traditional consoles, and their ‘traditional’ software distribution methods, like pre ordering on Amazon or buying from the store, at least until the console manufactures start to distribute more titles through downloads. And even then, OnLive means that you’re playing straight away, rather than downloading multi-gigabyte files over your home broadband, where in the UK at least, download data quota capping would be a common hindrance,

Games launch really quickly, but the lengthy intros of most modern games makes you realise why the 30-minute free trial was needed. You also need some time to work out the controls for each game - although OnLive have done a good job of key mapping and giving in-game instructions as required. Nevertheless, most console devotees will want a controller. The good news is that you can use a number of existing standard controllers to play the game, such as the Logitech F510, or the Microsoft Xbox controllers for Windows. We've not tested the service with these, but would expect the in-game onscreen control instructions to adapt to the controller you're using.

Conclusion

As more and more games consoles move to an online model for games distribution (including 'consoles' such as the iPad and iPhone), the barriers to a purely online service such as OnLive seem increasingly trivial. One interesting barrier, however, is that many UK households have broadband deals that include usage caps. This could be a major deterrent to signing up to OnLive - although deals between OnLive and ISPs could help overcome this.

In conclusion, the service works better than we expected, with the big caveat that you need a solid internet connection - ideally something around the 5mbps+ range.

There's also an OnLive TV adapter that removes the need for a computer altogether, so you can play direct through your TV. It comes at a price of £69.99, which seems very reasonable compared to most of the current generation of games consoles. Once we get our hands on one of these, there'll be a follow-up post to see how the experience compares to the computer-based service.