|January 26th, 2012
We have been doing some research on mobile websites in the world of academia and we found that only 4 out of the UK’s top 10 universities have dedicated mobile websites. In the US the number is a more positive 6 out of 10. Here is the list with some homepage screengrabs to inspire you when planning your business’s (or academic institution’s) mobile website.
If we have missed something, let us know so that we can keep the list updated.
UK
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford
|January 16th, 2012
A year ago many companies we work with neither had allocated budget for mobile strategy and development nor saw the need for them. This year mobile business apps are all the rage. Everyone wants ideas, research, case studies, budgets, but also demonstrable value. Here are seven infographics about mobile business apps with lots of handy numbers. Unfortunately it’s all US relevant. We did try to find some UK stuff, but it seems that the infographic creation business this end of the pond has yet to pick up pace.
See complete infographic: Zendesk, 2011
|October 11th, 2011
I hate the spinning wheel. Yes, it was moderately exciting when I first used it; a new fancy way to interact with a calendar. But, soon after, excitement turned into despair as controlling three free-spinning wheels requires finger control beyond my natural abilities. I much prefer the simplicity of the good old-fashioned calendar. I tried in vain to find some usability info on the topic, but it seems that I am the only wheel hater around.
|October 9th, 2011
Most partner extranets have a public homepage that fulfils two main purposes: allows existing members to log in and attempts to attract prospective members. As part of our market research for a client, we reviewed 12 such public homepages (as well as the rest of the acquisition content) and below we present a quick evaluation. The extranets belong to global technology companies with each operating a complex network of partners. Unfortunately, with the exception of Microsoft, the overall quality of the user experience ranges from mediocre to poor.
A few notes on the evaluation below:
|September 21st, 2011
If the new BBC homepage is from tabloid Mars, then the FT web app is from broadsheet Venus. It’s a bit unfair comparing the just released BBC homepage with the fully launched and comprehensive FT web app. Nevertheless, it’s worth doing a quick comparison for two reasons: first because both brands are giants of the publishing industry and second because the world of tablets and smartphones is in such a flux that any innovation which might point to a new UX convention ought to get everyone to sit up and take notice.
The new Beta BBC homepage
The FT web app
|September 13th, 2011
I use both an iPhone and Salesforce on a daily basis. Comparing the two is like comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges. But from a user experience point of view, such an improbable comparison could lead to some interesting observations about the past and future of software design philosophy.
A big factor behind the success of smartphones and tablets has been the fulfilment of users’ needs at a micro level. The “there is an app for that” catchphrase perfectly describes the concept of developing each application to solve a particular problem. It is a simple concept consumers understand and, considering the success of smartphones, find very attractive.
Compare this approach to how Salesforce works:
Of course it’s not just enterprise software that suffers from feature bling; most Microsoft and Adobe programs fall into the same category; Word or Photoshop anyone? There is a lot of talk this year around the future of software development and how the proliferation of mobile apps and the popularity of the Apple App Store are influencing things. But from a user’s point of view, simpler software packages with a bare-bones engine sold at a lower price and a post-sales marketplace of individual features and feature packages is likely to make software use (and purchase) a lot more fun.
|August 15th, 2011
Are you an unstoppable creative force living and breathing design, typography, information and technology? Are you devoted to detail and think of the pixel as the building block of the universe? Do you aspire to make a transition into art direction?
If you have just read a description of yourself, we have the clients and the briefs to keep you challenged and to help you grow as a creative professional.
You also need to be:
We are an established agency based in central London. Our clients include some of the best known brands of the corporate world and have diverse digital communication needs: intranets, portals, mobile/tablet applications, video content, demos, campaigns, software UIs, and social media tools.
You will be an instrumental player in delivering exceptional creative thinking and doing across everything.
You can see our portfolio here www.flickr.com/photos/skyron/tags/portfolio/show/
and our thinking here www.skyron.co.uk/blog
You must have your own website (portfolio or blog) to apply. Please send your URL to yannis@skyron.co.uk
|July 25th, 2011
We have been using Flickr to hold our portfolio for a while and every so often we restructure the content to take advantage of Flickr’s ever expanding features. The new structure is using tags to drive traffic to a number of slideshows:
The complete portfolio slideshow can be seen here
Flickr is by no means perfect and it’s definitely not sexy (Behance looks much better), but it’s still an efficient way to manage a portfolio and make it socially accessible.
|July 20th, 2011
Nowadays, everything comes with features: my toothbrush comes with an added tongue scratcher, my morning cereal is fortified with all sorts of stuff and even my air freshener sports a motion detector. Enterprise software is no different; it might not come with added vitamins, but it’s certainly oozing features out of every USB socket.
Lately, we have been working with a number of organisations whose main offering comes with a screen interface: contact centre solutions, BI software, risk management tools, etc. A common problem many people recognise but most fail to do anything about, is that bad usability can make using all this stuff a daunting task.
|June 15th, 2011
IBM just celebrated its 100th birthday, so the question going around is which of the current tech super-brands will still be standing proud in 100 years from now. The obvious contenders to send the mind travelling into the distant future are Google, Apple, Microsoft and of course Facebook.
Yet, in the past couple of days I have come across alarming signs of a Facebook-less near future. First, I read a story on the CIO website that Facebook lost 6 million users in the US, then today, a comment by Richard Godwin appeared in the Evening Standard, arguing that Facebook’s good fortunes are turning. To top it all, today I also had business meetings with 7 people from the corporate sector, six of which don’t even use Facebook! What’s going on?
Could it be the privacy issues? Maybe the aging of the Facebook brand influences user behaviour more than the utility Facebook provides. Or maybe, after years of soporific wall postings, people just want to move on with their real lives.
