January 2012

The evolution of messaging Since the advent of SMS messaging two decades ago, this method of communication has become a solid revenue stream for operators with over 350m SMS messages sent every day in the UK alone. More recently, the rapid adoption of smartphones and the increasing demand …

This article is re-posted from User Centric’s blog. Consider the following proposition: We can derive meaningful statistics from the smaller study samples typical of user research, and we shouldn’t be afraid to use these statistics to confidently guide business decisions! A lot of …

People love tradition since it reflects reliable, well known experiences and memories. But sometimes, this becomes an obstacle when people are confronted with new things. The more complex these new things are the more people tend to think and judge them in a black and white manner. People often …

The look of mobile devices has changed considerably over the past couple of years, or more precisely since Jan 9th 2007 when the iPhone was first unveiled. Since then there has been a gradual movement toward the ubiquitous large touch screen, rounded corners and thin form. To illustrate this, …

Note: This piece first appeared in Quirk’s January 2012 issue. Over the past two decades there have been few paradigmatic changes in the world of customer satisfaction research. We seek to remedy this situation through the introduction of a new, broader construct that subsumes many elements of …

As I started planning my summer holidays for this year (yes, I like to be organised) I was struck by the sheer scale of the digital footprint that I was creating. I used Google to search potential destinations, looked at travel reviews, local destination websites, tried to see what the …

This article is re-posted from User Centric’s blog. While enjoying the company of my family and friends over these last few weeks, I found myself explaining yet again what it is I “do.” Per usual I was cut off when a friend began to explain how he knew all about my profession and that …

As consumers, we’re handing over more and more data about ourselves in exchange for products and services we take for granted. It’s this individual-level data that’s likely to provide the next generation of recommendation models, and the user experiences they fortify. Recently, for the first …

The importance of the User Experience (UX) is increasingly recognized for the crucial role it has to play in take-up and loyalty of devices & digital services. The consumer devotion to their product eco-system of choice, the way in which users are encouraged to explore and discover new …

This article is re-posted from User Centric’s blog. How do you come up with new ideas or solutions? Do you stare at your computer screen hoping for an “a-ha!” moment right before your deadline? Perhaps it is time to explore new and fun ideas to bring out your creative side. UX …

Most of us love getting a link to a piece of internet material which we find amusing and then forward on to our friends. It’s harmless and generally leaves us with a good feeling so it is easy to see why many brands are so keen to get in on the act. It’s also perhaps not unreasonable to expect …

Pleasure for its own sake is becoming as crucial to the effectiveness of digital operating systems as the fundamentals of UX design. We are seeing a new dimension for UX: discoverability - the joy of discovery for its own sake. Discoverability is about three key success factors: personalized …