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After months of planning, you touch down at your dream destination. You’ve had a great flight, you’ve arrived on time and the weather is just perfect. Feeling slightly smug that your bags turned up first on the carousel, you sail through immigration and are almost ready to start your vacation. However, leaving the arrivals hall, do you ever wish that you were one of those people who has a driver waiting for you holding a placard with your name on it, ready to whisk you away from the airport melee? Or, would you rather ‘go native’ and jump immediately into a packed minibus to soak up the local culture for less than half the price of a coffee back home?
Being treated as an individual or ‘going with the flow’ is often a question of hard cash and the ability/preference to pay for a more tailored experience but should this always be the case and should this equally be applied to the online world? If a truly user-centred approach were adopted, this inequality could be designed away by increasing choice, giving control back to the user should they wish to exercise this and providing greater emphasis on information to help their particular needs (or de-emphasise information of lesser importance/relevance).
Personalisation and customisation are often debated when designing a site for different user groups. Currently, we have been working on an intranet site for a global energy provider, catering for a wide range of users from admin staff at head office, through to well engineers in Kazakhstan and geologists in Trinidad. The intranet is seen as a key way of connecting disparate groups to help share knowledge and keep updated on company activities, but satisfying distinctly different cultural and professional groups is a real design challenge. Customisation is being explored as a way to increase user efficiency and deliver content that is most relevant to them based on their team or physical location, whereas personalisation gives users control over information priorities on the site to align these to which activities they currently perform.
Aviva in their recent global rebrand from Norwich Union emphasised customisation in their series of TV ads interspersed with celeb and non-celeb types stating how they wish to be treated as a customer - “remember me”, “don’t call me by my‘stage’ name”. The rise of “I am not a customer reference number” is potentially a backlash against larger organisations who have grown considerably over the years whilst seeking to reduce their cost base through streamlining their back office processes to create greater efficiencies might have forgotten that people may want to be treated as an individual.
Another example is that of Virgin Trains recent campaign who transformed the journey of Mr Typical Businessman from a simple commute into a highly personal train travel experience where every customer touch point was an opportunity to emphasise support and encouragement transforming him into Mr Successful Businessman. Thus there is an opportunity for those organisations willing to be flexible to speak with multiple voices or provide a range of tailored services to a range of consumers whilst still maintaining the same consistent brand.
A much earlier example of personalisation was the revolutionary (well, I was 7 at the time!) concept of Salt n Shake crisps. I remember being amazed about and thefact that I actually had, within my control, the power to personalise the amount of salt in a crisp packet or even have none at all. Come to think about it, those Muller corner people have been doing this for a while too – to mix or not to mix –dilemmas!!!
However, all this needs to be caveated by the old adage ‘what users say they will do is not necessarily what they WILL do’, or simply ‘you can have too much of a good thing’. There are countless examples of projects that have gone overbudget by trying to please everyone’s requirements, reversing the 80/20 rule and implementing a complex, overdeveloped degree of customisation widgets that few bother to use and actually distracts users from their actual tasks, or worse still, displaying highly personalised information that restricts access to explore the wider picture of a site.
Back to the airport and I would still probably take the minibus option, but coming home to a rain soaked early morning Heathrow red eye arrival I would probably reconsider. Taxi!
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Are you living out of a suitcase? Is your monthly expenses form turning into more of a database? And does the hotel receptionist know more about you than your neighbours do? Welcome to the world of working away from home on client site.
Often hidden from view, the people who inhabit client side land exist in a kind of parallel universe, that is very much Conchango in nature, just transported far far away from Egham and Notcutt land, often north of Watford. Yes, there are a few plum assignments that have cropped up in other parts of the world (Romania, Switzerland, US) – its kind of the same experience only the accents are different, service is slightly better and your most valuable possession apart from your iPod, but your power adapter. These people have stayed in more hotels than a game of Monopoly and had more croissants for breakfast than the average Parisian.
Finding a ‘creative space’ can be quite challenging as most office blocks and out of town business parks tend to cater towards more of the, shall I say, ‘traditional’ meeting environments where Blutack on the walls can seem an alien concept. Food can also be an issue, particularly if one used to the culinary delights of browsing Borough market of a lunchtime. Then there is that unattainable challenge of finding the holy grail of hotels, i.e. central, close but not TOO close to work, great gym, free wireless, great food and there is enough room to swing a cat should you wish to do so. If only they did your laundry at the same time as cleaning your room, life would be so much simpler. And what’s the deal with the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door anyway? It doesn’t stop doors slamming at 2 in the morning or throwing your ‘complimentary’ newspaper by the door – don’t get me started!!!
This practice of working out of the client’s offices does have its benefits too – you get to understand the client more within their own environment and it definitely improves communication. It avoids lots of tedious conference calls, status reports and progress updates as the work is all there to see (OK, I guess the PMs will disagree with me on that one). It also helps you get to know and understand your colleagues better too with useful trivia about each others dietary requirements, alcoholic limitations, ten-pin bowling ability..the list is endless.
However, it’s not all room service breakfasts and hotel reward points mind you. The experienced consultant needs to be constantly wary of that ever-present danger of ‘going native’ – subconsciously adopting the vocabulary (and even the attire?) of the client, not being as objective as possible and using ‘home’ and ‘hotel’ in the same sentence. Regular doses of community day with intermittent IM-ing will to some extent prevent this symptom from occurring.
Enjoy your weekend at home – I know I will!
(Inspired by the Aviva team up in York – Ben, Tracey, Fredy, Joelle, Pedro, Gary, Louise and Christine)
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After many stories of laptops going missing with sensitive Government information, it is mildly amusing to hear that in Italy the outgoing Government there actually published the declared earnings of each individual including tax liabilities on a website.
You can just imagine the suspicious/envious looks people get in downtown Milan whilst downing the first espresso of the day.
Sadly the site has been closed down, but I did wonder if you could sort the results by geography/income/degree of tax evasion, etc.?
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Following my recent post prior to T5 launch, it was interesting to see how the other airlines reacted to the chaos and disruption at BA, seizing the opportunity into a marketeer's dream to emphasise that not only is the airline and levels of service are key differentiators, but also the terminal from where they fly to, encapsulating the whole idea of an airline experience as being more than just check in and inflight services.
Here's Virgin's response:
"Virgin Atlantic flights are unaffected by the ongoing disruption involving BA flights at Heathrow Terminal 5.
Virgin Atlantic's new Terminal 3 features fast and seamless Check-In for all passengers via the new , and a new private security corridor for Upper Class and Flying Club Gold Card passengers - who are able to whizz through the new Upper Class Wing and into the Clubhouse in minutes."
...and from BMI:
flights take off as scheduled from Heathrow’s Terminal 1
"bmi, London Heathrow’s second largest airline, is continuing to operate all flights as scheduled from its main hub at Terminal 1 despite disruption at the newly-opened Terminal 5.
Problems at Terminal 5, which opened to passengers yesterday (Thursday 27 March), have resulted in significant delay and disruption to BA flights operating from the new facility. In contrast Terminal 1, which now has 40 per cent less passengers to accommodate following BA’s move to Terminal 5, is running like clockwork as is bmi, the principal competitor to BA at Heathrow.
bmi operates all its services from Terminal 1 to key UK and European destinations such as Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Belfast City, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.
Nigel Turner, bmi chief executive officer, said: “Heathrow’s reputation has taken yet another blow with operational failures causing serious disruption at the brand new Terminal 5, which was built for the sole use of BA at a cost of £4.3 billion.
“But the fact is that BA’s problems at Terminal 5 do not mean that the whole of Heathrow is in meltdown. We and other airlines continue to operate normally from the main Heathrow central area.
“One in every eight flights at Heathrow is a bmi service and yesterday we had a punctuality record of 94 per cent flights on time, reaffirming our position as Heathrow’s most punctual British airline.”
From 'the world's favourite airline' to 'the world's least favourite terminal'.
p.s. Ian Shaw, Paresh Gandhi, Louise Veryard and I will be travelling out through T5 on Monday so no doubt a further update will ensue (IF we get there that is!)
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Sometimes it is the little stuff that makes for a memorable user experience beyond the accepted view of what constitutes a ‘user journey’ or a ‘transaction process’ for example. Recently a colleague sent round an email explaining about the great experience she had received using a US clothing retail site. Yes she could browse for clothes, select a size, order and pay and was delighted when the item promptly arrived but it was the ‘other stuff’ that contributed greatly to the whole experience and made it so memorable for her, such as live chat help and a personalised, friendly confirmation email.
Then, I read Jamie Thompson's 'Conchango Blogging on the Upturn' about 'things we are good at' in Conchango in terms of technical capabilities, user experience, BI and all the other work-type stuff that fit neatly into a blogging tag cloud. Putting the two together got me thinking about what makes a good ’organisational’ experience which often extends beyond core capabilities into the ‘other stuff’ - the stuff that doesn’t necessarily fit in a pitch document but yet is an inherent part of the ‘experience’ of working within an organization.
Now I've passed the one year on stage at the company, and without trying to sound like an enthusiastic recruitment ad, I thought I'd write an alternative 'things we are good at' that have influenced my own ‘organisational experience’ here.
· Making company updates entertaining
· Getting good, interesting people…and keeping them!
· Not being reliant on employment agencies
· Creativity
· BLOGGING! (OK, well, we are improving)
· Providing lots of fruit and the odd cake now and again
· Not feeling like an anonymous ‘corporate’
· A flat hierarchy (is that an oxymoron?)
· Willingness to try new things
· Developing and running the Consultancy Skills training course (if you haven't gone on it yet, book yourself on it)
· Evangelising about Agile and applying it (someone I met recently on an external training course had heard of Conchango with reference to Agile – what surprised me though was that they were from Brazil)
· Creating great relationships with industry analysts (thanks Forrester)
· Diluting the distinction between skill sets in teams
· Free physio sessions
· Variety - type of work, project teams and people
· Using IM
· Resisting the temptation to reply to all in emails;)
· Raising money (cycle ride, 3 peaks and more)
· Getting everyone's photo on the Intranet so you can see who everyone is
Of course, everyone will have their own list of 'stuff we are good at' based on their personal ‘Conchango experience’ - if they didn't then that would be missing the point about what makes an organisation such a dynamic and experiential entity - a collection of a variety of individuals doing a variety of work in a variety of ways.
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Inspired by James Saul's recent post, I thought I'd blog about London Heathrow
LHR - Late, Hectic and Rushed like its passengers or Long overdue, Hassle-free and Refined like its new terminal 5?
The launch of a new website (for example www.conchango.com!) is one thing but the launch of a new airport is something else - or is it? Millions of people will use it, it takes many hours to build it, test it and get it right, can be easy to get lost, increasingly focused on selling and can either help you on your way or waste your time.
One clever device often used to help people around in both worlds is colour coding and can save reading time by up to a third. For example:
Green for Exits
Black text on Yellow for flying information
Yellow text on black for the toilets
Blue for food and retail.
Such intuitive systems reduce cognitive load and bypass all translation requirements too.
In terms of overall passenger experience, time will tell how T5 compares to other airport UX 'winners' (Singapore's Changi, Hong Kong's Chep Lap Kok, Marseilles MP2 and Madrid' s Barajas) in terms of their overall sleek design, attention to aesthetics, user journeys through the airport from departures and security through to arrivals and onward travel.
What would YOU like your experience to be?
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It will be interesting to hear from any Conchango India bloggers out there as I understand that Hyderabad's swish new International Airport is opening this month after Begumpet is being decommissioned and Bangalore (apologies, Bengaluru) Airport also opens later to see what the experience is like over there?
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Now that I have your attention, I thought I'd blog about telling people what to do (groan!) inspired by a current campaign that Transport for London is running on bus stops and also on their site www.tfl.gov.uk.
I was surprised (and a bit saddened) to see that there was a poster telling people how to behave on public transport - not only about giving up a seat but also telling people to say thank you...
...with a colourful character set of people who pledge not to shout on their mobile or eat smelly food, and to keep their temper down:
There's also a film you can watch to learn to be considerate too:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/projectsandschemes/communityandeducation/asb/film.aspx
However, it was interesting to note that other people (whether we like it or not) are also part of the user experience of travelling on public transport - not just the seat (if you can get one!), journey duration and route.
But maybe we all do need a good talking to now and again? Recently, a colleague recently spoke to a heavily pregnant friend of hers who asked a fellow female passenger to vacate her seat as she was feeling rather faint, to be promptly rebutted with the reply 'PROVE IT!'.
A mate of mine from overseas always knows when he has arrived at Heathrow as there is a plethora of 'Don't do this/that' signs all over the place - some are required for health and safety. This instructional overload reminds me of a scene from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where a reluctant hero presses a button next to a 'Don't press this' sign which illuminates a screen saying 'Please do not press this button again'. But I do wonder whether careful design can reduce all this visual instructional clutter? For example, at the British Airways HQ at Waterside in Harmondsworth, there are no 'authorised personnel only' signs at reception but there is an actual stream of water that you can only cross via a manned bridge - back to nature simplicity, but it works!
Fortunately in the online world we are moving on from shouting 'CLICK THIS BIG BUTTON HERE TO BUY THIS ITEM' to more subtle, conversational ways of instructing users - building links into a grammatically correct sentence or encouraging more exploration and play rather than restricting users to a predetermined route.
Maybe there is still a childish element in all of us whereby the degree of action is inversely proportional to the amount of instruction we receive. So maybe the solution is more positive instructional messaging - 'please explore', 'you may find it easier to carry your trolley on the lift instead of the escalator', or even 'to make yourself deeply unpopular with fellow travellers, please shout into your mobile'?
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Recently at a seminar on the wonderful world of Web2.0, blogging was mentioned which caused me to experience a slight sensation of blog paranoia - was I blogging as much as other people and also, what should I be blogging about? There has been some recent debate within Conchango about the relevancy of email content and whether this should be targeted or not to distinct groups of individuals within the company. Rather than open up that can of worms, I was wondering what makes a good blog? A few months back, rather than make copious amounts of pasta, a 70+ Italian grannie hit the headlines as the 'blogging grandmother', writing her own homespun views on life that other people, many millions in fact enjoyed reading, much to her own amusement. Maybe the problem with blogging is that people tend to censor their own views based on a self-imposed assessment of whether a topic would be interesting or not and in the end don't write anything, unlike our mamma italia above. Maybe nowadays, sensationalism and celeb gossip is out and realism is in? Just look at ebay - what is garbage to someone can be a kitch, retro relic to another. Now I'm not suggesting you can make silk out of a sow's ear because 'dull' will always be dull as far as postings go, but sometimes just a spark, a random thought even can make a posting into an enabler for wider debate or to prompt new ideas and ways of thinking.
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