ExperienceLab

Guidelines to improve the customer experience of London Transport published

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. 

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

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...

Keep it simple

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:

1. Your 'grandmother' is busy and doesn't have time to read loads of pages so start with the most important message
2. Use short sentences so your 'grandmother' doesn't forget the point you're trying to make
3. 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.

 

 

Smoke signals

For me a hospital environment isn't usually a happy place. I imagine dreary walls, a quiet, dull, sterile environment, strange smells, boredom of waiting, and more waiting, pain... or is that just me?

However, I recently visited the nicest hospital I've ever been to and for someone like me, who's often waiting whilst another person has treatment, I found enough to do to keep me occupied and remove my worries!

An un-SIGHT-ly check up!

I visited the opticians for a regular sight check up and found myself in an awkward situation!

As the optometrist needed to examine my eyes, I was instructed to place my chin on the rest and put my forehead against another. No problem. Now it just so happened the device required a height adjustment so that I was sitting comfortably and in the correct position for the optometrist to look in to my eyes...sounds romantic doesn't it...but let's take a closer look at the device:

Advice on international user experience testing during travel disruption

Northern European airspace has only just opened after nearly a week of closure due to volcanic eruptions in Iceland. It's likely to be May before things return to normal and the possibility of future disruption cannot be entirely ruled out.

While not wishing to court doom, those of us involved in global research need to be ready for this. So what do we do? Here are 10 things to think about.

Election 2010: Britain’s first digital election?

During the campaign for the 2010 Election voters will be able to search the parties websites, read their blogs and contact them via Facebook and Twitter.

So its no wonder the press are dubbing the 2010 election as the “first election of the social network age”, but how much will the Internet and social media shape the election and campaigns?

Trapped in a restaurant before midnight

In a restaurant the other night with friends, the food really was great, the wine lovely, the ambience perfect, the décor the right side of minimal and a good time was being had by all. Throughout the service had been flawless, until, with an 8.20 film to see, we tried to get the bill. With neither the waiter nor the bill forthcoming, try turned out to be the ‘inoperative’ word.

Are 'casual' interactions something to aspire to?

Recently the notion of 'casual' games has gained prominence in the video game industry. Casual games are big business and in many ways ideally suited to mobile gaming devices and mobile phones. The player is offered an experience that they can pick up quickly and play in short bursts. This is perfect for the commute or as a way to use those few minutes waiting at a train station or bus stop. Casual games are also said to be a way to reach a wider audience that is not experienced at playing more complex and expansive games. 

Corsa know how to use it!

My colleague Anna and I recently hired a car for client research we were conducting in the Midlands. We decided drive up, so we wouldn’t have to lug loads of cables, cameras and computers on the train. Plus we thought we could have a relaxed journey listening to some tunes on the way… most importantly, some Bhangra and Bollywood.

Our car happened to be a Vauxhall Corsa, which was OK - any car with a media player would have been fine. It was the radio we particularly wanted access to… but could we work it? No, not immediately and definitely not without endangering that relaxed journey we envisaged.