Articles

Articles

Alternatives To User Requirement Gathering

Focus groups, customer feedback, questionnaires and the views of frontline staff all have a role to play in forming a usability strategy, but can they really replace formal 'user requirements gathering'.

Three Questions For Your Web Agency

With so many companies claiming to build usable sites, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? The simplest method is to ignore what they want to tell you, and ask specific questions designed to determine exactly what they know and how they would go about the work.

Designing Scalable Interfaces

Building 'scalable' interfaces in the first place will save time and cost in the long term - and make coping with upgrades easier for your customers.

The Future of the 'Mobile Internet'

It seems obvious, but the future of the mobile Internet is best predicted by thinking about what sort of services are typically needed by those who are out and about. It helps to look at the sort of information already obtained by phone.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation now involves two basic challenges - attracting visitors and links from other sites. High quality sites providing valuable content are almost inevitably gravitating towards the top of most search results tables.

Usability and Online Branding

Online branding is fundamentally about the direct experience that the user enjoys. Whilst much offline branding and advertising is about creating a 'feeling' about a certain product or service, usually though advertising and sponsorship, in the online environment the website IS the product or service.

Usability and Online Bookmaking

Online bookmakers are relying on attracting new audiences previously excluded to some degree or other from the traditional betting shop. With this in mind it is imperative that there is a deep understanding of what these audiences require from an online bookmaker.

Beyond Usability Testing

Traditional usability testing and even detailed log analysis will miss some of the user experience feedback required to make a site great. This article looks at why.

Download Speeds And Usability

Simply put, download speeds matters – it always has mattered, and it always will matter. Just visit an Internet café and watch web users in action. Before long you’ll notice how often the back button is used by those too impatient to wait for content, particularly when much of it will be available elsewhere.

Usability in CRM

In CRM, user acceptance is a huge issue. End users, who are rarely the same people who choose applications in the first place, can be extraordinarily resourceful when it comes to undermining or working around new products or implementations introduced by manager. All this means that creating applications that are efficient and enjoyable to use is imperative for both ISVs and CRM implementers.