I ordered a couple of books from Amazon through a third party supplier. However, after a month's wait, I've now been informed that one of the books I ordered cannot be supplied. Annoying but it happens.
However, I noticed that several other suppliers claim to have the book in stock. Great, I can order one. But I want to make sure that I don't order from the supplier I tried before as I will just get an 'out of stock' reply - and waiting one month to get this is not going to make me happy. I could order 2 or more copies which will guarantee that I order from a different supplier but I shouldn't have to do that.
Okay next step - let's examine my orders and see who the supplier is.
Nothing.
Just the other book that was delivered. No mention of the book that couldn't be supplied. Now I cannot find out who the supplier was.
However, gmail came to the rescue and I was able to find out who the supplier was so all is okay. But I had to augment Amazon with my own stored emails.
So my question is why does Amazon not keep a record of the actual order? It feels a little bit like 1984 with un-books rather than un-persons and a little bit unsettling, particularly as I run my own business and have to account for every order and purchase. I'm sure there is a business decision somewhere that makes sense internally to Amazon, but to this customers, it leaves the UX leaving a little (and only a little) to be desired.
17 November 2010
'Live' information architecture
My most recent project (for 'LCP Automotive Components - the old site will be current for a short while yet) had an unusual set of requirements. I needed to present something other than wireframes, IA sitemaps, user journeys and the usual stuff. The client to whom the design would be communicated for a go-ahead (i.e., agree to spend the cash on roll-out) wants to see the system actually working.
This is a tall order - I have to prepare a 'working' but dummy system as the normal UX documentation will not be sufficient. This meant making something that actually worked.
I choose the open source route a) because the docs are actually quite good, b) customisation is easier, c) there are a range of platforms and d) it's zero cost. My choice was Joomla.
Before any of this, I went through the normal IA process of looking at the current IA, devolving the information therein, trying to anticipate future needs, and construct a new IA built around what information will go in there. This was summarised in a site-map and an information board (a spreadsheet detailing what information and interactions go where - quite a useful that I will illustrate later).
With an IA in place, I began to fill out the sections and categories (Joomla is limited in this aspect as it only has these 2 levels - plus the top level - of hierarchy, but for this site, it's fine). In each section, I've put down the bare minimum of information required on each page. Not proper content, but rather something like lines of text saying, "Link to product PDF information sheet here", "Tell user how to get information on this product recall" and so on. Almost like abstracted information, all ready for a copy writer to get their teeth into.
And it's working quite well. I've used the default design which we can settle on later - Joomla has a nice separation between content and style, so the main task for now is to prepare the IA on the live system to show what goes where. This is used with my client liaison who corrects my mistakes. Once all is ready, we can begin on content and detailed interaction design to be followed with the visual design.
It takes much longer to set up than a sitemap and the other IA documents, but once the content system is mastered, it's not too slow bearing in mind that the content is just abstracted summaries of what is supposed to be there.
The main thing to watch out for (as always) is the interaction design. Quite often, in top-down models of design (in which the IA is done first and then the IxD), I find the IxD presents problems which require the IA to be revised. My own work process is that I do a little IxD early on in the process to see what problems will arise and these are incorporated into the IA as early in the design as possible. This helps avoid a lot of problems.
This is a tall order - I have to prepare a 'working' but dummy system as the normal UX documentation will not be sufficient. This meant making something that actually worked.
I choose the open source route a) because the docs are actually quite good, b) customisation is easier, c) there are a range of platforms and d) it's zero cost. My choice was Joomla.
Before any of this, I went through the normal IA process of looking at the current IA, devolving the information therein, trying to anticipate future needs, and construct a new IA built around what information will go in there. This was summarised in a site-map and an information board (a spreadsheet detailing what information and interactions go where - quite a useful that I will illustrate later).
With an IA in place, I began to fill out the sections and categories (Joomla is limited in this aspect as it only has these 2 levels - plus the top level - of hierarchy, but for this site, it's fine). In each section, I've put down the bare minimum of information required on each page. Not proper content, but rather something like lines of text saying, "Link to product PDF information sheet here", "Tell user how to get information on this product recall" and so on. Almost like abstracted information, all ready for a copy writer to get their teeth into.
And it's working quite well. I've used the default design which we can settle on later - Joomla has a nice separation between content and style, so the main task for now is to prepare the IA on the live system to show what goes where. This is used with my client liaison who corrects my mistakes. Once all is ready, we can begin on content and detailed interaction design to be followed with the visual design.
It takes much longer to set up than a sitemap and the other IA documents, but once the content system is mastered, it's not too slow bearing in mind that the content is just abstracted summaries of what is supposed to be there.
The main thing to watch out for (as always) is the interaction design. Quite often, in top-down models of design (in which the IA is done first and then the IxD), I find the IxD presents problems which require the IA to be revised. My own work process is that I do a little IxD early on in the process to see what problems will arise and these are incorporated into the IA as early in the design as possible. This helps avoid a lot of problems.
16 November 2010
Google talking nonsense?
I was just doing some content-related stuff (some SEO things) for a current project. I had to find out strongly associated phrases for 'automotive components'. I know, I thought: I'll use Google's Wonder Wheel to illustrate the associated phrases.
So I entered the search into google.co.uk and requested a wonder wheel. However, one of the associated phrases is "automotive components holdings llc". Problem - llc is a US legal term. The British equivalent is "Ltd" (for limited liability company). This is very official - companies use "Limited" or "Ltd" in their name (Thought Into Design is actually Thought Into Design Ltd).
Ah - my mistake. I didn't filter in only pages from the UK - so I did.
Fantastic - now I get results only from the UK. But the wonder wheel remains the same. I'm not getting phrases associated by searches for British websites - rather worldwide. And anyting llc is of little use to a British company.
In UX terms, my problem is that restricting the search to UK only pages implies that the wonder wheel will product UK only content. In this case it isn't (unless British people are searching for "automotive components holdings llc" which I plausibly doubt).
Screenshot below.
So I entered the search into google.co.uk and requested a wonder wheel. However, one of the associated phrases is "automotive components holdings llc". Problem - llc is a US legal term. The British equivalent is "Ltd" (for limited liability company). This is very official - companies use "Limited" or "Ltd" in their name (Thought Into Design is actually Thought Into Design Ltd).
Ah - my mistake. I didn't filter in only pages from the UK - so I did.
Fantastic - now I get results only from the UK. But the wonder wheel remains the same. I'm not getting phrases associated by searches for British websites - rather worldwide. And anyting llc is of little use to a British company.
In UX terms, my problem is that restricting the search to UK only pages implies that the wonder wheel will product UK only content. In this case it isn't (unless British people are searching for "automotive components holdings llc" which I plausibly doubt).
Screenshot below.
14 November 2010
SEO and rankings?
So Assured yesterday appeared on the 24th page for a related keyword search. That's not bad considering it's only been operational for a couple of weeks (arguably less). This morning, it appeared on page 21 which is an increase of 3 pages in 12 hours. Quite surprising and things are only beginning. The better news is that Assured has appeared ahead of some quite long established businesses. For now, this is great - we're doing okay considering the long term goal is months away.
However, this is not enough: the position needs to be much higher which requires more SEO ninja-fu. However, I'm pleased with progress so far.
However, this is not enough: the position needs to be much higher which requires more SEO ninja-fu. However, I'm pleased with progress so far.
The key thing is really to get useful content up on the site: something that people want to hear about. Moving up and down the rankings this far down is relatively easy - the challenge is to get to the front page and move up to top.
12 November 2010
Google rankings
SEO is not my job but I have to pay attention to it.
However, I was pleased to note that my personal site (alansalmoni.com) is on the fifth page of results for 'user experience consultant' - and that's without playing any of the SEO game. I was quite pleased about this because there are lots of other sites.
Being a good net citizen runs parallel to recommended techniques from the search engines which explains the relative success, but I'm wondering if a more dedicated approach to SEO will pay off in terms of ranking?
Assured: The process
How is Assured being made?
First of all was eliciting requirements. The main objective was the most important: getting people to use the website and sign up for insurance advice. From this, all else derived.
From my experience, these one line 'orders' are very useful because they carry the essence of what should be done. When working on projects, sometimes it's easy to get lost in details. It's important to keep dragging back to this 'order' to see if what is being done contributes towards it or not.
Resources: low, pretty much on my own here.
Tasks: Design and develop the site.
Requirements: don't turn users away! This means supporting lots of older browsers so that pretty much any customer can use the site. Of course this means lots of technical requirements in terms of supporting lots of browsers. The full list is:
First of all was eliciting requirements. The main objective was the most important: getting people to use the website and sign up for insurance advice. From this, all else derived.
From my experience, these one line 'orders' are very useful because they carry the essence of what should be done. When working on projects, sometimes it's easy to get lost in details. It's important to keep dragging back to this 'order' to see if what is being done contributes towards it or not.
Resources: low, pretty much on my own here.
Tasks: Design and develop the site.
Requirements: don't turn users away! This means supporting lots of older browsers so that pretty much any customer can use the site. Of course this means lots of technical requirements in terms of supporting lots of browsers. The full list is:
- Firefox
- Opera
- Chrome
- Safari
- IE8
- IE7
- IE6
- IE5.5
The IA was next: quite simple indeed and for now there is no need for it to be complex: there is little dynamic content, no online quotes (due to resource constraints), and not much to communicate. This meant that a simple home page as chief with 5 pages in the second level hierarchy was all that was needed. Information was then partitioned throughout the site.
The initial template design was done by an external company, Downing Design, and their template required some modifications for information outside of the landing page. This was coded by hand and Chrome was used as the primary testbed. Firefox and Safari rendered pretty much the same as did Opera. IE was the usual kettle of fish but the CSS hacking got around most IE problems.
There are still outstanding tasks for the design - the main requirement was to create something that works and worry about the working well bit after.
So remaining to be done:
- Improve the content mindful of SEO
- Improve the form's design
- Review, test and get feedback
My thoughts on the form were to have 'help' bubbles alongside each of the two fields: both would have a muted colour (e.g, light blue) when and only when the associated field has focus - in which case, the bubbles would be highlighted (e.g., orange). This requires some jquery code but I'm very comfortable with it.
Been a while...
It's been a while since I last posted anything here. In the meantime, I've been busy bringing up my first-born daughter, and working around the world in the field of user experience.
My most recent project was for Assured, a New Zealand based insurance brokerage and financial advice firm. The project was small in terms of design but has three tasks:
1) Online strategy - making Assured a first-class presence from nothing
2) Conversions - getting people to contact the company after encountering the website
3) Developing it
I'm quite happy to publish information about the design openly as none of it features trade secrets.
More in another article but for now, here is an IE8 screenshot.
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