we are: London

Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), formed in June 2007, is Abu Dhabi’s national media company which includes Abu Dhabi TV, Abu Dhabi Sports and Emirates TV Channels, four radio stations and various publications including Al Ittihad (Arabic), The National (English) newspapers, Zahrat, Majid and Super magazines.

Requirements

We are:london were appointed by ADMC to help launch ‘The National’ newspaper website and help put processes into place to help with other ADMC projects.

With ADMC building up a new digital team, we are:london were asked to provide support across the various digital media projects providing process management, project management, user centred design and development skills.

The National Newspaper website

Approach

With tight deadlines across various project channels, as highly skilled consultants, we are:london’s team were tasked to implement processes for various projects to ensure that ADMC staff had the support necessary to successfully deliver these digital projects.

Working closely with key stakeholders within ADMC, we are:london’s team identified project goals and deliverables and helped plan for the long-term delivery of these various projects, helping to minimise risk and ensure successful launches.

We are:london have continued to provide on going support throughout 2008 as ADMC has been recruiting it’s digital team, across various aspects from strategy, project planning, user experience design, graphical design and template build.

Result

ADMC have successfully launched ‘The National’ website and are in the process of launching several other digital projects over the coming months, across TV, web and mobile platforms, which have had the continuing input and support from we are:london.

Abu Dhabi Media Company, Design, Research, Strategy competitor review, information architecture, Online surveys, rapid prototyping

Website usability testing

The Metropolitan Police Services (the Met) have launched a new careers section in their website. To be successful, the new site has to be user-friendly and raise the brand profile of the Met amongst the target audience.

we are:london were commissioned to test the site by Empower, the Met’s communication agency. Our research methodology included a series of user tasks, taxonomy cards and brand-based questions to analyse the customer experience.

we are:london provided an expert team to record both quantitative and qualitative results over three days at the Science Museum ’s testing lab. This data was then translated for the Met into constructive reports on:-

User interaction - to identify the most common routes used around the site and any stumbling blocks.

Card sort - to understand any problems with comprehension of current terminology.

Brand review - to evaluate external reaction to and understanding of the Met’s brand and message.

Competitor review - to benchmark against sites operating in similar fields.

Shelley Rees, Director of Empower, said:

“Ensuring the user leaves the careers site with a positive view and complete understanding of what is involved in the varied jobs offered by the Met is crucial to the success of this site, as is the ease of use and compliance with accessibility standards. we are:london’s expertise in user testing, research and usability ensured that the project ran smoothly and has lead to what is probably the most in-depth user study of any careers site in the UK .”

Design, Metropolitan Police, Research competitor review, Lab Research

Usability for grown ups and kids

Overview

The publishers PanMacmillan were committed to develop a new e-commerce website to replace the existing site. The two key objectives in the development process were to identify and understand user requirements of the site and to stay ahead of the competition.

A combination of traditional qualitative research coupled with we are:london’s website and competitor analysis ensured the development of a site which would satisfy the needs of all key stakeholder groups.

The issue

PanMacmillan needed to test an early development of the site to substantiate their initial research and to review a number of branded prototypes to choose the optimal brand direction. It was imperative that the research covered the broad customer base; which meant reviewing the site with a larger than normal group, including children and retired readers.

Solution

In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of all issues, we are:london ran a full suite of usability tests; which included card sorts to define the taxonomy, lab-based testing, competitor analysis and quantitative analysis.

The PanMacmillan team and their design agency chose to observe each session in order to have first-hand understanding of the user requirements, which resulted in conflicting opinions between the development team and the Board.  Competitor analysis proved very insightful, especially in the children’s section, and the card sort helped to considerably reduce the amount of primary and secondary navigation.

Success measures

1. Solid recommendations through research -  following an initial usability review, PanMacmillan and their design agency added the recommendations to their final business proposal to the Board. They were able to give clear evidence and examples of user requirements, which were contradictory to early business assumptions.
2. Site improvements for enhanced online experience - consequently a number of major positive additions and changes to the site were made, based on the research conducted by weare:london.

Client Testimonial

Clare Bennett, Website Consultant, PanMacmillan

“Chris and the team at we are:london provided a professional and thorough service, allowing PanMacmillan to gain valuable insight into to the usability of their prototype website.  Their research ensured that PanMacmillan were able to identify problematic areas such as content layout (in particular, the right hand channel) and navigation taxonomy (users didn’t understand corporate terminology).

The research also highlighted that the children’s section was a critical area of concern.  By testing with children, it was clear this area held no interest for them due to the corporate interface. As a result, a key business decision was made to develop a separate children’s website, which targeted both parents and children via a child-friendly interface.

The knowledge gained through this user-testing enabled PanMacmillan to make key strategic development decisions prior to the full website build and launch – which saved the business both time and money in post-launch amendments.”

PanMacmillian, Research Card sorting, competitor review, Lab Research, Qualitative research

As part of the NSPCC’s on-going new media strategy, we are:london was employed to audit fifteen of the NSPCC’s most critical sites for accessibility compliance and make recommendations to ensure all sites could be brought into line with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

The Project

With such a vast audience for their sites, ensuring access to all information for every user is crucial. The need for accessible websites is compounded by the fact that one of the NSPCC’s most vulnerable audiences is children with disabilities.  A number of the sites were due for a design overhaul as part of the ongoing content management implementation programme.

we are:london recommended the following services:

Outcome

Using automatic and customisable tools in parallel with we are:london’ s accessibility audit a full review was undertaken of the main sites.  All changes were then implemented to budget and to deadline.

Design, NSPCC, Research, Strategy Accessibility review, competitor review