ExperienceLab

Museums & galleries: online digitisation

Many museums and galleries are undergoing online digitisation projects, and there are a vast array of approaches out there. In this brief summary we assess the state of play and highlight interesting examples. 

Apple: Connecting customer service to service design

In the early days of ink-jet printers (remember the StyleWriter?), I worked for Apple in Cupertino and discovered that a shocking number of calls to the customer service centre in Texas were about printers printing blank pages. Many were returned for repair or refunds.

Ten reasons why customers abandon online shopping carts

Online shopping cart abandonment rates are currently hovering around 60% (according to the source you choose), and there's no doubt that it's crucial for today's online retailers to understand the reasons behind this behaviour. We recently put together a short paper examining  why customers abandon online shopping carts, based on our many years of research experience. 

Oh-Barcelona: Great use of social media in the travel industry

I recently visited Barcelona and it struck me that there was a difference in how I researched the trip compared to previous city breaks. I engaged with and used value-added content provided by the website I used to book my accommodation: oh-barcelona.com run by The Open House Group. 

I also realised that I didn't spontaneously visit the website to look for information, my use of the content was driven by their Facebook page, which I was prompted to visit in a follow-up 'plan your stay' email after booking.

Thinking Digital 2013 - an awesome and engaging event

After hearing nothing but great reports in previous years, I attended this year's Thinking Digital conference, which I believe is in its 6th year. I totally agree with all the reviews - it is an awesome and engaging event. Great speakers, great conversation, and definitely food for thought. It has a totally different vibe to any conference I've been to before, with The Sage, Gateshead, being just right to maintain a more intimate, personal connection between the speakers and the audience. 

As a three-day event, the conference brings together people from the worlds of technology, media, science, industry and the arts. The line up of speakers reflects a really eclectic look at what’s happening in the digital space right now. Also, aside from the speakers, one of the pre-conference events was a start-up competition where companies pitched their business models to the audience, who then voted for their favourites. Ventures ranged from data security solutions, mobile apps and accessories, to Internet-connected lamps. YPlan and Bubblepix went through to the final, with Bubblepix being crowned TDC13's start-up champion.

In terms of the conference itself, with its diverse roll call of speakers, I was taken on a journey of discovery through subjects and ideas I'd never considered before. Although a bit unfair to single out specific talks, particular highlights for me were: 

• Alexander Reben introducing us to BlabDroid - a super cute robot, with quite a squat, boxy look and wide-set eyes, and the voice of a 7-year old boy. We saw video of BlabDroid as a robot documentarian, roaming the streets and asking questions of random people and recording their answers. The friendly, cuteness of the robot induced people to let their guard down, and we saw people 'fessing-up to all sorts, with questions such as "What's the worst thing you've ever done to someone?"
• Professor Sugata Mitra talking about his 'Hole in the Wall' experiments, where he embedded a web-enabled PC in the wall of a New Delhi slum and found that, with little formal direction, the children Began to learn, teach themselves and each other. We also learnt about Sugata's success using the 'Granny Cloud', where retired teachers in England acted as e-mediators, Skyping once a week with classrooms in India to provide encouragement and praise to the students.
• Maggie Philbin's Never Mind the Digits Quiz, and walkthrough of things we saw first on Tomorrow's World. In addition, Maggie talked about TeenTech, which endeavours to inspire young people, especially girls, to consider a career in technology, science and engineering, by getting them engaged by doing things rather than just talking to them.
• Alexa Meade's talk about how her interest in shadows inspired her to create innovative and visually stunning art, where she paints directly onto live models in 3D space, making them look like 2D paintings.
• Seeing the BBC's Future Media North Lab showcase their innovative ‘perceptive radio' was exciting. Attempting to move away from the 'one size fits all' radio, the radio changes content according to the listener’s location, weather, and time of day, in order to create a more compelling experience. To hear more about the radio, I also attended a lunchtime session and listened to a proof-of-concept drama, which used a computer-generated voice for one of the characters, that adapts according to data pulled from external sources. 
• We heard Jack Andraka talking about his development of a test for Pancreatic Cancer that can detect tumours before they are too advanced to treat. Starting his journey at just 15-years old after his uncle died from the disease, Jack initially used the power of Google and Wikipedia to develop his breakthrough dipstick paper sensor, which is estimated to be 168 times faster, 26,000 times less expensive and potentially 100% accurate in its diagnosis.
• Dr. Sue Black talking of her campaign to help save Bletchley Park, and her interest to encourage more women in tech-related industries. Having not been to Bletchley Park before, I pledged to Sue that I would rectify that this year. So watch this space ... I'll blog about it when I do. 
• Graham Hughes talked about his Odyssey Expedition, where he visited every country in the world (201) without ever once resorting to an airplane, raising funds and awareness for WaterAid in the process. Graham's exploits sounded exciting and very scary at times, especially the 4 days he spent in an open fishing canoe from Senegal to Cape Verde, only to be arrested and jailed for 6 days when he arrived, with officials believing he may be a spy! After I think it was 3 years, 10 months and 63 days, Graham's World Record Breaking expedition ended in South Sudan which wasn't even a country when he first set out.

Only hope I get the chance to attend again, next year. A conference thoroughly worth going to. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Xbox One as an Entertainment Hub - how will it work in shared households?

Following on from Ben's gaming focused blog, this post looks at the wider entertainment features offered by the Xbox One. 

During the Xbox One announcement, Microsoft clearly re-positioned the Xbox One as an entertainment hub – a one stop shop for apps, gaming, TV, music, internet and anything else you might want to access. This is not particularly surprising, given the developments made throughout the Xbox 360 lifecycle. 

Xbox One as a games console - our initial reactions

The Xbox One has finally been unveiled. There weren’t too many big surprises, and some of the details, such as the issue of pre owned games are still a little unclear, but it seems to have been positively received in general.

UX Gold Star: Yahoo Fixes Ancient Email Problem

We live in a UX era of big rewards for big innovation. New form factors for phones, new cloud services come out every month. They deservedly are heaped with praise and cash.

But for those of us who use interfaces, small improvements can make big differences. I’d like to introduce the Gold Star award for the people and companies that address small issues that would be just as easy for them to ignore. 

Let’s start with a gold star for Yahoo.

Yahoo Mail recently added an innovation to their web mail interface that was really clever. 

Like all other mail programs, Yahoo Mail lets you choose between REPLY and REPLY TO ALL. REPLY sends the response to one person; REPLY TO ALL sends it to everyone. But unlike any other mail program that I know of, they now also let you switch between them after you’ve started composing a response. 

It’s not a big deal, but that’s exactly why it’s praiseworthy. Mail is old. Yahoo Mail is old. And the problem of selecting the wrong kind of reply is old. It’s rare for someone to see an old problem, realize it can be fixed, and do it knowing that while there will be no PR trumpets blaring their thanks, it will save countless users countless seconds of irritation.

Thank you, Yahoo. Well done.

Moves app ... it will get you moving!

Over the last few weeks, some of us at ExperienceLab have been trying out the Moves fitness app. It’s actually causing a bit of rivalry between us, we’ve been emailing screen shots to each other showing how many steps we’ve taken! My colleague is definitely winning so far with 32,589 steps in one day as he explored NYC!

In-flight entertainment systems

Gemma and I have just returned from a round the world tour for a global project. This gave us a lot of opportunities to use, analyse and discuss the pros and cons of the in-flight entertainment systems of the different airlines we travelled on (what else are two user experience researchers to do on a flight?).

Here are some of our thoughts:

• Personal in-flight entertainment systems are essential. The patience for coordinated viewing and straining your neck into the right angle are long gone.