we are: London

A review in Revolution of online TV services by our MD Chris Averill brought out one factor that was really interesting to me, a lack of social media integration. A new beta version of the BBC iPlayer looks set to change that in a big way. Once users register for a BBC ID they connect with their Facebook and Twitter accounts and share favourite and recommended programs.

Hello Facebook friends! I’m watching Doctor Who

Facebook and Twitter are definitely the flavour of the moment and integrating with these services could be a very clever move for the BBC. After all I have both social media accounts linked to various things including my phone’s contact book. This integration allows users to automatically post updates to their Facebook wall. Users can also share their favourite programs with their friends and discover new shows through their friends’ recommendations. This brings a whole new dimension to watching TV that has not yet been exploited by other online TV sources.

LOL, check out this m8

A really nice feature that encourages the sharing of videos is the link to this feature. This allows users to easily access a link not only just to the video they are watching but an exact point in that videos timeline. Good riddance to scrolling through videos trying to find an exact time when someone cracks a really funny joke your friend just sent you a message about. Making it as easy as possible for users to share videos encourages word of mouth or ‘text of social media’ advertising.

What about the competition?

So how does the competition shape up? In Chris’ review both the ITV Player and 4od service did not offer any social integration and this has not changed. This major step forward by the iPlayer is leaving the competition behind at the starting gates and more features are also on the way from the BBC. They are hoping to integrate Windows Live Messenger into the beta in the coming weeks. This will provide an even deeper social media integration and encourage a more in depth social interaction between users.

usability design, user centred design, user interface Design, future, innovation, Interactive TV, Internet, social networking

Do you want to know which iPad to buy now it’s been released in the UK, or find out which apps really are worth buying?

Well we have the answers to your questions and hopefully more, so read on, review and comment if you want to know more / disagree / have more information for our readers.

Firstly to qualify this article as the REAL deal and not just some recycled jurno junk, I have been using a iPad (64Gb wifi) for the past month, in anger as both a businessman and home user / dad of a 2 year old child and husband to a media junkie wife. I also have both UK and US itunes accounts so can access all apps around the world.

Should I get one or wait for something else?

That’s a great questions, especially as Intel have just released news of their new Atom chip that will be super fast, up to 1.9ghz, and super lean, hone batteris lasting up to 10 days. But anyone who bought an iphone competitor in great anticipation should just get on and by the iPad, it’s the real deal, you’ll not be disappointed.

I’ll update the blog as I go, so all findings are in chronological order (did you need to know that?)

Wifi or 3G?

This one is easy, if you’re likely to use your iPad out of the home or office environment, which is most of you over 16, go for the 3G. It drives me mad trying to log onto these rubbish public wifi networks and at £5 an hour on some, a PAYG or cheap O2 iPad tariff will be much cheaper. You can also cut your normal SIM card down apparently so get a Tesco mobie PAYG and you’re in.

Will it replace my laptop?

Office apps ♥♥

If, like me you spend a lot of time reading and replying to emails, showing presentations, reviewing RFPs or proposals then it’s better than a laptop. But if you want to edit those documents, then forget it, the tools are just too simplistic to do anything useful.

Yep, it’s true even the wonderfully designed Apple Pages, Numbers and Keynote fail to really compare to much more than Google Docs (which does not work on the iPad yet).

Other contenders such Office HD, et al have even bigger problems, save your money for now, be content with reading documents and not editing them. It will all come soon and it will be the online apps that win out.

Cloud computing ♥♥♥♥

I have also come to realise how important cloud services are, the iPad and other ultra-portable devices will cement this as the future, my favourites are Huddle and Dropbox. Huddle has a great UI and is easy to find docs, view online renderings and generally do what you need to do, other than download and edit document; see above as to why this is not such an issue.

Creativity ♥♥

Again it seems that the promise of great creativity on the iPad has been jaded by the early, quickly designed apps that feel a bit rubbish, in fact less useful than the iPhone versions. There are a couple that people like me will use a lot, iMockups and Omnigraffle both hold a lot of promise for interactive designers and Adobe Ideas, whilst basic, is great for freehand sketches on the fly.

Video & music ♥♥♥♥♥

In a previous blog I describe how the iPad came into it’s own during a power cut in a hotel recently and it’s brilliant. Anyone who has watched TV on an iphone or ipod will know that if the content is good, you soon forget the screen size. Well the iPad has great sound, an amazing screen and iTunes integrated rocks as always. You can stream UK Freeview TV using TVcatchUp.com/iphone and whilst the video is not HD, it’s pretty good for a free services.

Otherwise Spotify and Pandora (US only through VPN) are both great additions to your iPhone music library, infact I have sort of given up downloading from iTunes.

Battery life ♥♥♥♥♥

Is it a goer? Oh yes, it’s got more staying power than a student rugby team at a free bar. I have had at least 10 hours of continuos video play back and stand  by last for weeks even with regular use. In fact i have stopped carrying a charger at all, even over weekends, and the added bonus is you can use any iPhone charger with it.

iBook vs eBooks ♥♥♥

The Amazon Kindle and iPad book reading argument has been raging for longer than the iPad has been around, and whilst Kindle sales could do with a bit of Apple magic, the Kindle is a muh better ebook, mainly due to it’s e-ink and matt screen. As a long time Kindle owner I am impressed by Apple’s integrated book store within the eBook app, but less impressed by the weight of the iPad whilst reading anywhere that you need to hold it, and by the glare on the beach or in the garden.

However, the killer appeal to many will be the fact that the iPad is a multifunctional device, so it’s unlikely that the majority of interested consumers would buy both, only early adopters like me would bother. So there is a good chance that the iPad will become the defacto device for the casual consumer, but the Kindle will remain the leader as far as serious readers, most of whom will be big spenders, are concerned.

As a foot note to the book piece, there is an Alice in Wonderland app that is beautiful, interactive and worth every penny, my daughter loves it and I can see it becoming the DVD of the new millenium.

Will it save news and magazine publishing? ♥♥♥♥♥

Only good journalism / content can truly do that but the apps I have seen go a long way. It seems the publishers are split into two camps, it’s a digital newspaper and looks like it or, it’s a new device with new ways of interacting let’s redesign it.

The winners so far in the new new media war are:

• AP News: mmm lovely UI and exciting ways to filter
• Thomson Reuters: A bit hectic but using the space and interaction nicely
• Zinio: Amazing renders of the actual magazines in an interactive format
• USA Today: Content is still as dull as ever but the cross over design between print and digital is lovely
• NPR: Looks great but a little less usable than the rest
• Marvel Comics: The best interaction of them all, it’s amazing, very lateral

And the losers are:

• Yahoo!: Indeed an exclamation mark is needed, it’s a bad 3D sitting room for a menu, very 80’s
• WSJ: Looks kinda 1930s, which is nice if that was the brief
• NYT: Again the retor squad have been out, nothing challenging just a bit dull and detached navigation
• BBC: Not what I was expecting at all to be honest, poorly designed and too many images
• Maxim: Whilst not on my usual reading list, the app is a terrible, ham fisted affair. Get Zinio and pay for the glossy electronic version of the print, it works, simple as that.

First impressions

It feels solid, the screen is beautiful, it’s a breeze to set up and the interaction is everything you expected. As always with Apple the bits you want to work do work, from effortless touch screen interaction to fast loading apps, beautiful email and calendars and web browsing.

In fact it’s so good I forgot about the lack of camera, USB ports, coffee machine bolt on, finger print readers, etc. When you use it you know every single part has been thought out and, unlike the all singing all flash playing future competitors, it does everything you need, just not everything you want, but it does it perfectly.

It’s far better than I could have hopped and it has been well received by everyone who uses it, in fact 100% of people who have used mine say they want to buy one now!

Mobile, apple, iPad, interface design, user interface future, innovation, iPad, Mobile, navigation, usability, user experience

There are two camps out there at the moment:

• Apple are great, I want to lick everything they make
• Apple are controlling and evil

Me, well I am just undecided, but my Mac Air screen is pretty clean at the moment.

However it’s unimportant as to your views on Apple’s hardware, the fact is they have quietly created an economy that did not exist a couple of years ago. In short Apple have done for software what they did for music.

Multi-platform leader

Now the iPad has been launched, the true might of Apple’s power can be seen. In fact currently the most popular apps are the highest priced; not surprising given the early adopter market but impressive none the less.

Bring on the next generation Apple TV and your games, apps and contents will port directly to your plasma. Or even better, link up to your TV via your iPad, use your iPhone as a controller and you have a complete home entertainment kit.

Impressive? Nokia thinks so

Well that’s just my speculation, but based on the poor take up of their app store Ovi and the fact that Apple have taken a quantum leap over them as far as smart phones go, they should be.

A little fact for you is that in February this year iTunes accounted for 70% of worldwide online digital music sales. (Wikipedia), not bad for seven years work.

Apple took a tried and tested application distribution model from Japan’s DoCoMo, improved on it and have created another successful business whilst all around are struggling to make sense of the new world order.

The future has been written

So forget about the arguments for or against iPhones, Nokia’s, HTC’s and the rest, just think about new business models and one company’s ability to turn the mundane into the marvellous and unimaginable into reality.

So what next? Maybe they’ll skip set to boxes and move into TV’s or coffee machines or cars, I’d buy them.

How about putting Dyson and Apple together?

user interface Design, future, iphone, Nexus One, usability

“Wake up, time to die.”

Bladerunner is possibly one of the best films ever made and all of the companies whose neon signs float in the sky during the film have gone bust, or be taken over. Not a good omen for a phone named after one of the main characters.

Is it any good?

And what’s it really like to use one in anger every day? Well I’ve handed over my iPhone to the wife after loving the Apple for 3 years. For the record I usually struggle to keep a phone for more than 6 months.

And the answer is yes, it’s good, in fact it’s really very good.

I had high hopes for other HTC phones and desperately wanted the Palm thingy to be good, but they were all pants compared to the Apple.

What’s hot!

The screen is sharp and clear and the phone is easy to navigate. Setting up email is easy, the app store is much better than I expected; forget Unix geek, think Apple chic.

Email works offline for reading and deleting, unlike the iPhone. Email, address book and social media stuff rocks. I love the widgets for news, twitter and facebook that live on the home screen.

The voice dial and dictate email is not bad either, a long way to go but it’s tempting to start everything by speaking and not navigating.

Oh and it lets you play Spotify in the background which is now the only source of music I have .

What’s not!

The only real hardware bug is the use of the back, menu, home and search  buttons printed on the bottom of the screen. Why bother? you click them by mistake and it’s a real pain.

Software bugs are wider, but with time they will get sorted and remember that Apple have had 3 years to sort out the iPhone.

1. Why does the calendar not sync with MS Exchange when mail and contacts do?

2. The screen redraw speed is slow compared to Apple, but not bad.

3. Cut & paste is not anywhere near as neat or intuitive.

Should I buy one?

Yes - not sure why but yes get one.

Time will tell.

Now that I have committed to use it for work and home life I have no choice but to get on with it, warts and all, and I guess learn to fix the issues and watch as new software updates bring all of my life, blogs, tweets, photos, music, friends, work and life together.

Or I might buy the Apple tablet, nick my iPhone back and delete this post.

UPDATE: Nexus has gone iPhone is back, read more here

http://www.weare-london.com/blog/google-nexus-one-the-real-review/

Mobile, interface design, user interface Design, future, iphone, Mobile, usability

It’s been a mad year and next year is set to be even more crazy.

2009 has seen luxury good sales boom, e-commerce sites explode and the final mass adoption of digital video and e-ink.

Mobile internet has taken off thanks to Twitter, Facebook and the iPhone. Social has started to be more powerful than most could have hoped and TV has gone down hill so fast it’s breathtaking.

2009 retrospective

Early this year we predicted a few things that have happened, some clever and some obvious. BBC iPlayer has seen an amazing take up across the country and handled 70 million requests in October,  which is about 7 Petabytes of data or 12.5 Gigabytes per second.

Top 10 key changes in 2010

1. The end of free. Well at least as we know it owing to a drop in ad revenue and cold feet amongst media owners.
2. A new media monster. As the old guard struggle to reorganise, one or two new, media goliaths will take over, buying paid content from the old order and giving it out for free to meet the needs of us consumers.
3. Mobile web will overtake fixed line. For key content mobiles will become the only way to access key info, buy stuff and keep in touch.
4. Visualisation goes mainstream. With the increase in e-commerce traffic the only way to get your head around the numbers is to change your view. Being able to represent numbers in new, visual ways will be coming to a vendor near you soon.
5. The customer will become king. Crowds are causing even more trouble for corporates, as I type, Eurostar is suffering huge PR issues; surely it’s time to wake up to what your customers want?
6. Content strategy is the new usability. Too much emphasis has been placed on cool tech recently such as augmented reality, but these are just shiny bows on a box of rubbish. Clients and customers will wake up to the power of well organised content.
7. Data will kill UK networks. As the iPlayer shows, and to some extent the iPhone, when people get going, they really get going. Streaming video and large file transfers are going to carry on causing the biggest customer satisfaction issues as networks fail over the sheer volume of traffic.
8. No one will beat Apple. When it comes to technology that has completely changed the world, the iPhone is an amazing example, and no matter how hard people try (Palm) no one can get close.
9. e-ink will become the norm. We all love our Kindles, those who have them that is, and finally there is some competition, which means cheaper, better ebooks for all. Migrate newspapers from print to digital and you have a new outlet for old media. Shame about the latency of stories though.
10. Measure your customer’s empathy. Stats, conversion and marketing data standalone to offer a crutch, but only when you bring these together can you really measure how successful your business is. 2010 will see customer empathy ratings used as the standard metric for success.

We will have a review in the summer of 2010 and see what’s on, what’s not and what needs to be added.

customer insight, e-commerce, information architecture, market research, usability design future, Our news

Last night I had the pleasure to mix the elite of the global mobile industry at the 2009 Meffy awards in London.

The great and the good were there from O2, Vodafone, CommScore and many more. I had the honour of presenting the award for “Quality of Experience”, which in our view was the most deserved as it was picked by the public. The short list of entries were:

• Dolby Laboratories for ‘Dolby Mobile’
• Skyfire for ‘Skyfire Mobile Browser’
• Telenor Pakistan for ‘Telenor PhotoExpress’
• Thumbplay for ‘Thumbplay OPEN’
• Telefonica for the‘O2 mobile internet portal’

And the winner is…

The winner was Dolby Laboratories for “Dolby Mobile”, and although no official runner up was presented, O2 mobile portal was a definite second and much loved by the panel, but the new experience of Dolby surround sound on your mobile was just too good an entry for O2 to beat.

How the winner was chosen

We have been working with MEF for the past couple of years, setting up a panel, who are members of the public who review each of the entries and vote on their favourite experience. Their scores are complied and a winner is picked.

We have undertaken a wide range of mobile usability research along side web and interactive TV and have our own panel of participants in and around London, numbering over 7,000. We also have a large number of UK and global research panellists too as well as a proven network of recruitment agencies.

To find out more about our research services contact us here, or call Chris on +44 207 1991 321.

usability research future, insight, Mobile, navigation, Our news, social networking, usability

In January I made a few predictions about what the year had in store for the digital world. One that I did not put in but have talked about for ages is the end of free online services.

Basically as ad spend decreases and take up of online services increases, something has to give. A recent story on the BBC website shows BT’s new aggressive stance on asking iPlayer to pay for bandwidth.

More of the same will come as people watch more video, save more photos and re-post more content via social networks. Add to this the cut throat pricing of broadband, reduced advertising revenues and suddenly you are looking at an unsustainable business model.

So, a quick review of my predictions from January:

1. Video on Demand finally gets in to peoples homes for real (iPlayer) √
   
2. Video on Demand gets a new name (iPlayer) √
3. Interactive TV advertising (Sky green button) √
4. BT Vision moves from Microsoft to open platforms (Or Sky goes onto xbox 360) √
5. DRM free VOD (can’t win them all!) x
6. Mobile web (go go iPhone, Nokia and Andriod) √
7. Nokia Tube turns out not to be an iPhone beater (yep I own one, it’s pants) √
8. iPhone Nano (By Autumn, I promise) x
   
9. Mac tablet (See above) x
   
10. No one buys Twitter (still) √

So 7 out of ten is not bad considering we are only at the start of June. And whilst you may or may not agree with all of these it’s pretty interesting to see how fast things change.

Another foot note from January was my prediction that Apple would start to slip form wonder kid to main stream business and given the recent launch of new iPhone, this seems to be happening.

Although I would hate to see Apple done anything than succeed as I love how Steve has turned a business round by giving customers what they want! And that’s where we are, helping you give your customers what they want, although I am no Steve Jobs, I know we can help you make a big difference.

Let’s see where we are in another 6 months:

1. Windows 7 is just as rubbish as Vista?

customer insight Design, future, Interactive TV, Microsoft, Mobile, Predictive, Twitter

Can Microsoft challenge Google?

Having just watched the video for Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, I am rather impressed. Bing seems to cover off many of the actions that a normal punter would make after clicking on a number of links.

For example, search for a flight to London from Hamburg and not only will it find you the cheapest flights but also show when the best time to buy them is, guaranteeing the lowest fare.

Left navigation, back with a vengeance

The next trick in bings box of magic is a left navigation that makes moving around different content quick and easy. So searching for a digital camera, say a Nikon D90, Bing brings back popular searches along with links to reviews, shops, pictures and even manuals, all arranged in a neat left nav.

It’s got a real time suggestion engine so a nice list of drop down choices appear as you type, similar to Google. Maps, images, video and other non-text content seem to fit within the search window nicely too, so searching becomes a lot more visual.

Snake oil or Google beater?

Our vote is still our here are we are:london, mainly due to the fact that until it’s launched for real, it would be foolhardy to judge. But Google’s killer USP was it’s speed and size, as a tech colleague of mine pointed out seven or eight years ago, “it’s (Google) got millions of web pages saved already that you can search through”.

What’s important about this statement is that Google were solving a problem that most had never realised was actually a problem. So will Microsoft’s attempt at improving the search experience be enough to topple Google and will they have a simple and effective paid search service that can be used by massive firms or individuals to the same ends?

Time will tell, but in a lot of ways I hope it is as good as the hype, mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a travel search system that is very similar and will therefore hopefully see the average web customer happy to search in a whole new way.

Uncategorized future, Microsoft, Search, usability

Older users get connected on Facebook

For a long time a large number of people have been disagreeing with me on the future of Facebook.

Normally one for predicting the demise of such sites, I have felt for a long time that Facebook would become a destination for more than just the youth audience, after all how many over 60’s have mastered iPods and Skype?

The answer is of course loads. Just because they are not the current target market, does not mean they won’t adopt a great piece of technology if it meets their needs.

US research findings

In some recent research data released by Neilsen and reported on Net Imperative Facebook users aged between 50-64 year old increased by +8.3m compared with under 18 year old visitors  who only grew by 1.7m in 1998.

These figures make some compelling reading and highlight the fact that older users are switching on to new ways of keeping in touch and are not shying away from new technology as many people think.

UK growth market

The UK should learn from this growth and prepare to welcome an ever growing population of older customers onto channels that young, naive digital thinkers write off of non-starters. In a country where there are more over 60s than under 18s, who can afford to ignore such trends?

Want to know more?

If you are interested in finding out more on how the older generation interact online and what impact other social media channels can have on this market just call Chris, Kelsey or Laura on 0207 1991 321.

customer insight, market research Facebook, future, over 60

The missing link in the connected home!

Never to do things by half, we are the proud owners of two O2 Jogglers. Three days in and I am loving them and actually using them all the time! You can follow life in detail on Twitter.com/02JogglerAddict

Part of the new  O2 family pack, Joggler replaces post-it notes and calendars at home, or as O2 like to say, “it’s your new fridge door”; really?

Is it worth it?

Well, if a decent wifi digital picture frame costs £100+, and O2 will not be happy with the comparison I am sure, then £150 to get a device that organises your life, is a networked home media player and looks so good is a bargain. Add to this the 1Gb of internal memory, USB connection for external drives and a never ending line up of applications to download in the future, and you would be mad not to get one.

Set up

The box and presentation are very Apple, simple, no wrapping, just a shiny new Joggler sitting there ready for use.

• Plug in to power and it switches itself on, say hi, plays a cute tune, and then takes you through a simple set up process.
• You’ll need to know your wifi password, etc, or you can plug it straight in to your router.
• Once online, it will automatically download and install a software update, restart and you’re off.

Features

• The main selling point is the shared calendar that you can add lots of people to and sync with the online calendar on O2.
• The calendar will send SMS alerts to O2 phones if you set a reminder on an calendar entry.
• Screen wise this is better than my top of the range Sony digital picture frame and plays back movies and photos in loads of formats amazingly well.
• Audio playback is not bad, you can stream AV from your PC too over the network, and once the digital radio is switched on, you’ll have a great little home media player in your kitchen.
• There are neat little news, weather, sport and traffic feeds, although I am not sure what the traffic one is telling me.

Other nice features are coming such as the ability to send and receive text and picture messages, turning this, already amazing device, into an electronic post-it note.

What’s missing?

Key features missing are web browsing, YouTube playback, Twitter client, ability to basically edit photos such as rotate and crop and an app store.

I really think that this device could the piece of tech that finally connects the digital home.  Can you imagine how cool it would be to browse recipes on it whilst watching demo videos of how to cook and even being able to order your shopping by clicking on pictures and ordering direct.

Watch the O2 Family advert

interface design, usability design, user interface future, Mobile