January 23, 2012
If you’re a retailer, this year might be your last chance to take advantage of your online and mobile channels. If you don’t, you’re going to miss out.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that a record number of Australians did their Christmas shopping online last year. More Australians chose online to discover interesting products, conduct research, avoid crowds, and save both time and money.
January 18, 2012
January is the time of New Year’s Resolutions and let’s face it, you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. If you’re still with me – great! Here’s some ideas you can use to improve your website, app, intranet, [insert new 2012 digital thing here]…
December 20, 2011
Christmas shopping can be an overwhelming and stressful experience. It involves stalking the carpark looking for that elusive empty spot, fighting the masses for that right gift, followed by lines and more lines at the checkout. Is it any wonder that Australians are turning to online shopping in droves?
By offering a stress free end-to-end experience, you can help to build brand loyalty with existing customers and increase revenue by reaching out to a broader range of customers who cannot access your physical store. But what happens when a retailer doesn’t get the end-to-end Christmas shopping experience right?
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December 15, 2011
It was late at night, and over cookies and tea, we were preparing for a presentation at OzeWAI 2011 about Dealing with the 7 Attitudes to Accessibility. It was a tough topic – culture change is hard. It’s not an overnight process, there’s no magic wand, and regardless of whatever idea you’re introducing, it all boils down to people and how they react to that idea.
As always, we found the answer was in asking the right questions: Who are you dealing with, why do they think that way, and what can you do about it? Immediately a flood of stories, hilarious situations and tactics burst forth – and with that, the Attitude Adjusters card pack was born.
November 30, 2011
A recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers highlighted that out of developed nations, Australia is one of the worst at providing opportunities for employing people with disabilities in our workforce. What is not mentioned enough, however, are the many collateral business advantages that accessibility can bring. With the rapid expansion of digital devices in the workplace, it’s never been a better time to reap the benefits of being an employer with accessible systems.
“Our intranet doesn’t need to be accessible because we don’t employ any blind people.” Our consultants hear this catchphrase all too often in Australian businesses. It is an excuse that encapsulates some of the denial and hopelessness that businesses feel about making systems like company intranets accessible. In any business, poor accessibility of company software and systems can be just as much of a barrier online as a lack of physical aids such as lifts or ramps.
Excuses aside, internal business systems like intranets, reporting tools and email directly aid workforce productivity. Making these systems accessible has collateral benefits beyond just allowing a wider workforce to use them. Much of the workforce that would not be considered ‘disabled’ actually benefits too – from things as simple as making text easier and faster to read on screen – and that can mean productivity gains across the board.
November 29, 2011
eBay’s interface doesn’t do much to help people understand its core piece of bidding functionality – the ‘proxy bid’ – but perhaps this is a usability problem eBay would prefer to leave un-solved? Here’s a heckle to eBay to make bidding more usable (plus few tips on picking up an eBay bargain for Christmas).
With the silly season approaching, many of us are scraping out the last shrapnel from our wallets and turning on the bargain radar. eBay is a great place to get a bargain, but for one of the best known sites on the internet, it astounds me that they haven’t nailed the usability of auctions yet. People just don’t get eBay’s automatic bidding system. It’s a pretty big usability hole considering it is a site almost solely based around bidding.
I’m going to go through four steps of getting an eBay bargain while looking at the usability of eBay-ing along the way.