Chris Radcliffe

Great Example of Going Beyond the Online User Experience

I was pleasantly surprised tonight to find an example of what I consider to be a strategy that supports the 'customer experience' as opposed to just the online 'user experience'. I generally consider both worlds to be pretty similar, with lots of overlapping strategies, but the good people at PC Tools have impressed me!

About 5 minutes ago I received an email from 'Element 5' on behalf of their Customer Service department to present me with a 'Credit Card Billing Reminder'... They reminded me that I'd see a purchase on my credit card shortly billed to Element 5, not PC Tools whom I purchased some software online from last week.

Check out the email:

Two thumbs-up for this proactive email! It definitely will save me from a few phone calls (and headache) trying to figure out who element5 is... Great example of how to maximize the Customer Experience outside of the purchase process online!

Changing User Behaviour in Sharepoint

Over the past 4 years, I've seen a lot of companies adopt MS SharePoint into their organization to improve the collaboration and communication that occurs among their employees. Like any application or technology, there are natural learning curves that need time to overcome if the tool is going to truly make an impact on people's day-to-day lives.

One area that I've seen particularly challenging with SharePoint is the change in behaviour that is required to improve communication and document management. Many people (including myself) find it difficult to change their behavior when it comes to emailing documents!

The problem is that it is faster to attach a document right into the email (by pressing 'one' button), than instead loading the document into a document library, copying the URL and then inserting the URL into your email. I know, sounds silly, but its true.

Generally anyone that struggles with a huge InBox feels the pain of email mismanagement (or poor info mgmt practices), and would in theory be ready to change their behavior - but this isn't always the case.

I'm curious if anyone else has experienced any 'user behavior adoption' challenges with SharePoint and what they've done to solve the issue. Comments encouraged!

Technorati

Lots of people have asked lately if there is any secret listing of great blogs out there that would be good places to glean new ideas from... While there are lots out there, I find them too general and not focused on the exact area that I'm trying to research. What works well instead is to start at Technorati , search based on the topic and then hop across blog contacts that are listed on a site that you like.

Technorati does have an interesting Top 100 list though that has introduced me to some new blogs worth revisiting...

World Usability Day

UPA (Usability Professionals Association) has created a World Usability Day for November 3rd, 2005.

This Earth-Day-style event, focused on easy-to-use technology, currently involves plans in more than 70 cities in 30 countries. The day is focused on raising awareness through local events, web presentations and stories.

Stay tuned, it doesn't look like there is anything set for Vancouverites just yet, but that could change!

Google Maps Mashing

There's been a lot of chatter lately in the web community about RIAs, AJAX and Web 2.0 - and for good reasons... We seem to be embarking on a new era where designers and developers will be once again pushing the boundaries to create better web experiences.

One commonly referred to example is Google Maps. As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and displayed to the user. When a user searches for a business, the location is pin-pointed with a red pin, which is actually a transparent PNG placed over the map. The technique of providing greater user-interactivity by performing asynchronous network requests with Javascript and XML has recently become known as AJAX.

People not only speak to the power of its model, but also love to highlight how its spawned a whole new area of innovative development with Google Map Mashing. Map mashing refers to when someone creates an alternate application using the maps/data provided by google. You can see a ton of examples on this site - Google Map Mashing ...

Make sure you check this one out too, kinda odd that they promote it - Google Stalker.