Category Archives: User experience

You need answers to these two questions

Starting a web project?

There’s two questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Who are our audience?

2. What would we like these people to do?

That’s it.

For example:

We’re a B2C retailer selling hanging baskets. Our audience is over 50s gardeners and we want them to fill in an enquiry form.

From that core statement, you can build out your information architecture, visual design, copy and feature set.

In this case, it has to have a contact form, a clear call to action and – quite probably – pictures of hanging baskets and prices.

Too often the basics of a project are not aligned with its core objectives, and these two simple questions seek to align purpose and strategy.

Two simple questions with a massive amount of complexity involved, but if this is your staring point you’re at least on the right track.

Don’t start a web project without them.

Improving email performance with simple usability practices

Simple usability changes resulted in a 1.3% uplift in click-through rates.

Our client’s email campaigns deliver to a high volume of users and generate monthly revenue by driving traffic to an online store. The emails typically feature offers such as ‘money off’ vouchers or exclusive ‘web only’ deals.

The client’s email template features a header, product images and body copy in the following layout:

Original email layout

We suspected that users would be seeing a large part of their mail preview panel filled with that initial image, which on some mail clients wouldn’t load by default.

This resulted in a large ‘broken image’ placeholder filling the message screen, and causing more users to ‘delete on sight’.

The revised design (below) splits the header image into an offer message and product shots and places an introductory paragraph between them.

Revised email layout

The results

An A/B trial was used to determine a performance difference between the two layouts.

The average click-through rate increased from 1.5% on the first design to 2.8% on the revised version.

The 1.3% difference might not sound like much, but it’s all about the numbers. On an average campaign revenue of £800,000 that’s £10,400 extra revenue each and every time that campaigns are sent in the new format.

September 2011 at Bitcala

September in summary…

  • User Experience consultancy for two large organisations
  • Website and CRM integration for a training company
  • A new server infrastructure build for a media firm
  • Talks at Econsultancy and a panel at Retail Systems

Will Grant speaking at Retail Systems 2011

Panel discussion

Retail Systems Multichannel Summit – London, September 13th 2011.

The Millennial era – how retailers will need to operate by 2020.

This discussion panel will highlight the factors that retailers will have to consider as the industry moves forward into an increasingly technological age. “Net generation” consumers currently between the ages of 11 and 30 have grown up steeped in technology and the internet, and will challenge how retailers drive their products and services to market, and satisfy an increasingly demanding demographic.

 

Not Feeling Lucky

Google’s famous “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on their sparse homepage isn’t actually in use anymore.

Because of Google Instant Search, as soon as you begin typing – you’re whisked to the results page.

So, why is the button still there on the homepage?

Often, a good user experience is more to do with creating familiarity than novelty.