Poor user experience with Orange leads to a happy Vodafone customer

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Today, I’m going to tell you a story of a frustrating user experience that I had with Orange but which resulted in a happy ending between me and my new friend, Vodafone.  

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My personal phone contract is with O2. I took it out many months ago before I moved into a house in which it is impossible to get a signal without standing on one leg, waving your arm out of the window and threatening it with physical abuse if it doesn’t connect SOON! This wasn’t a problem before when I had a work sim with Orange but since being made redundant I had to rely solely on my O2 sim. Anyway, I finally had enough and today dug out an old pay as you go Orange sim from the back of a draw and decided to activate it to use as a second sim.

I initially visited the Orange website listed on the card to activate it, however, the link was dead and showed the page no longer existed. It didn’t redirect me to an updated page so instead I called the freephone number and got through to an automated system where a friendly sounding female voice welcomed me (let’s call her Jane to make it easier). However, after welcoming me, Jane decided not to speak to me at all even though I could see she was still on the line. After about 10 seconds I decided something must have gone wrong so I hung up and called her back. This time I realised why she was silent. She had asked me a question and I had to answer yes or no, however as I was walking down the stairs the first we talked, I hadn’t heard say this part. When she didn’t repeat herself or mention that she couldn’t hear me I thought she had left the conversation.

Anyway, now we were back on speaking terms and she sounded very friendly. She would even tell me when she was entering my details into the system and I could hear her typing (very realistic). I had to go through several menus and tell Jane certain details like the IMEI number of the phone I’d be using (I didn’t really understand why she needed this and I hadn’t actually decided which of my phones to use yet but I gave her one anyway as she sounded trustworthy). It was a process that was lengthy enough for me to hope that Jane accepted all the details and did not transfer me to someone to redo it all again or end the call. 

Jane asked me if I now wanted to set up an ‘animal call plan’. A what??? Animals? What have they got to do with call plans? I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about and it sounded like it was going to be a lengthy task to go through all the plans to choose the best one so I thought I’d read up on this later after I’d activated the sim card. So I told Jane ‘No’. She was obviously really offended by this and very abruptly told me I couldn’t continue with the process, goodbye and hung up on me without giving me any options at all. How rude of her! She went so quickly from liking me to hating me. Well I don’t need friends like that thankyou so I went to visit Jane’s friend Vodafone down the road. I was quickly sorted with a sim that activated without needing any details such as an IMEI number  (hmmm I knew that Jane shouldn’t be trusted) and I have the best signal ever at home. I am a very happy Vodafone customer. 

What did Jane do wrong?

1. When I didn’t hear her she didn’t repeat herself or ask if I needed help.

2. Asked me questions that made me question her trustworthiness. Why did she need to know the IMEI number? If it was for genuine reasons she should have informed me of them to put me at ease.

3. Gave me no option to skip questions and come back to them later. After all I only wanted to activate a pay as you go sim card. My expectations were that hardly any details would be required and it would be a very quick and easy process. Reality didn’t meet (or beat) user expectations.

4. When I took the wrong route she offered me no option of help and no warning of the implications of what would happen.

5. No option to change my answer to the question. Had I realised I had to answer yes at the end to continue the process I would have said yes.

6. There was no option to speak to a human being. 

7. No option to navigate back up the menus. This would have been very helpful at the end.

7. I was very quickly and abruptly cut off without a chance to change my answer, which after spending a long time going through multiple voice activated menus seems an unfair trade-off for the amount of effort I’ve put in (and us humans also interpret being cut off as rude).

This all amounted to a poor user experience which ended with Orange losing a new customer but Vodafone gaining one.

Now, if only you could get the iPhone on Vodafone… I’ll keep dreaming of that one for now 🙂

 

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Free Human Centred Design Toolkit

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I really love the word ‘Free’ don’t you? So as well as checking out the free online ‘Search User Interfaces‘ book by Marti A Hearst, make sure you also download your free Human Centred Design Toolkit!

The Toolkit, designed by the guys at Ideo, is divided into four sections:

The Introduction will give an overview of HCD and help you understand how it might be used alongside other methods.
Download the Intro Guide.pdf

The Hear guide will help your design team prepare for fieldwork and understand how to collect stories that will serve as insight and inspiration. Designing meaningful and innovative solutions that serve your customers begins with gaining deep empathy for their needs, hopes and aspirations for the future. The Hear booklet will equip the team with methodologies and tips for engaging people in their own contexts to delve beneath the surface. 
Download the Hear Guide

The Field Guide and Aspirations cards are a complement to the Hear guide; these are the tools your team will take with them in order to conduct research.
Download the Field Guide
Download the Aspirations Cards

The Create guide will help your team work together in a workshop format to translate what you heard from people into frameworks, opportunities, solutions, and prototypes. During this phase, you will move from concrete to more abstract thinking in identifying themes and opportunities and back to the concrete with solutions and prototypes.
Download the Create Guide

The Deliver guide will help catapult the top ideas you have created toward implementation. The realization of solution includes rapid revenue and cost modeling, capability assessment, and implementation panning. The activities offered in this phase are meant to complement your organization’s existing implementation processes and may prompt adaptations to the way solutions are typically rolled out.
Download the Deliver Guide

Thanks to all the guys at Ideo for sharing this fantastic Toolkit with us.

How Personality Can Predict Media Usage

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Just read this really interesting article on how our personality may be a better predictor of our media usage than standard focus group tests. 

Here is one example of a ‘dynamic person’:

“Dynamic people don’t watch TV… are 50% more likely to watch less TV than the average person and are 59% more likely than the average person to watch less than an hour of TV daily. Dynamic people are also 45% more likely to buy movie tickets online and 26% more likely to describe themselves as Mac people. “The lesson here is that if your core target is really dynamic, open and assertive, TV may not be the best place to reach them.”

It seems I’m dynamic as I only have a few tv programmes that I must watch (Lost, The Apprentice, Come Dine With Me), I prefer to buy cinema tickets online so I can walk right past the long queue of people waiting in line and I am definitely an Apple fan. So bearing this in mind, the TV is definitely not a good place to advertise to me. In fact, most often I haven’t got a clue about adverts as I never watch them – I’d rather skip channels. 

Read the article and see which category you fall into!

Ergonomics Society 60th Anniversary Conference

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Last week I attended the Ergonomics Society’s 60th anniversary conference. I’m aware that a lot of people don’t understand what the term ergonomics means so here’s a definition I’ve found for you:

“Ergonomics and human factors use knowledge of human abilities and limitations to design systems, organizations, jobs, machines, tools, and consumer products for safe, efficient, and comfortable human use.”

So I hope you can see that having a good knowledge of ergonomics enables a person to design and evaluate something which is easy to use.

Anyway, back to the conference. This year was my third visit to the Ergonomics conference. My first two were in 2004 and 2006 when I was a student. Basically, in order to attend the event for free I volunteered to help run the event as a member of the secretariat. We set up the rooms, signage, general background stuff that helps the conference to run smoothly and we also time the sessions so the speakers don’t overrun. The days are really long but it is fun to do and the networking opportunities are brilliant. I saw an article in the Ergonomist magazine asking for help from past secretariat to run the 60th anniversary conference this year, so I thought ‘hell why not I always enjoy it’ then I was made redundant so it all fitted together rather nicely in the end!

I made it down to London on Tuesday afternoon, checked into the Premier Inn (who btw lost my business cards so unfortunately I had none to hand out at the conference…) and made my way to the conference venue to help set up, which I have to say was very impressive this year. That evening all the delegates arrived at the venue for the welcome reception and drinks. I thought it went really well and I met some very interesting people. It finished pretty late so I headed back to the hotel afterwards though the more hardcore stayed up. They suffered the next day though! We all had an 8am start on the registration desk and it was BUSY! 

This year differed to previous years in that sessions were over a shorter number of days and were condensed into 15 minute presentations with 5 minutes of questions. This proved quite tricky for a lot of presenters but we were there with our warning cards to keep them to time! 

At the end of the first day we were all pretty tired as it is always the most hectic. But everything thankfully ran smoothly and we headed back to the hotel to get changed for the gala dinner. The food this year was amazing. My only complaint would be the minute size of the yorkshire pudding they served with the beef. It must have only been about 2cm in diameter! I wouldn’t have thought it was physically possible to make them that small…

The following day I had a hard choice to make… do I attend the road transport session and learn all about motorcycle ergonomics (sounds exciting doesn’t it?) or seeing as nuclear is a massive area for ergonomics do I attend the Human Factors Integration session? I decided to learn more about the nuclear side, especially as Neville Stanton was presenting and I’ve not seen him present before. I’ll admit some of this went completely over my head, but it was really interesting to learn how missions are planned and how ergonomics effects the soldiers involved. 

I also enjoyed Ian Hamilton’s quite controversial talk on human factors where he highlighted the differences between those in industry and those in research and how the society and university courses cater (or rather don’t) for these differences. He made the interesting point that if you are going to work in industry, university courses don’t always teach you all the knowledge/skills you need. To some extent I agree with this. I knew I would be joining industry after university so in hindsight there was no need for me to suffer all those hellish hours of SPSS because in industry most people use excel to record their data. I would have been better doing a module such as ‘how to sell usability to business’ or  a design module to apply some of the principles and see things from another angle. I would actually like to see a course which is more focussed towards those not wanting to do academic research afterwards, but as ergonomics is still such a small area I don’t think we can expect to see this happening for some time yet. 

It is quite telling that my favourite module at university was ergonomics and it was taught by someone who worked in that profession day-to-day when he wasn’t teaching us. I thrived on his ability to tell us of practical applications rather than present abstract theories.   He also had a passion and quickness about him that was missing from some of our other lecturers who were used to the slower academic lifestyle 😉

Overall, the conference went extremely well. I hope in the future we receive more visitors from industry and that people who aren’t necessarily trained in ergonomics can come and appreciate the conference just as much as those who are specialists in the field. 

WordPress Usability Gripe

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Argh! Enough WordPress! After several months of blogging with you I now have to vent my frustration of your poor user experience for the task of inserting an image into a post. You would think it would be easy just to insert a picture wouldn’t you? Well it turns out it isn’t quite so simple… Here’s how I do it:

1)  Select the ‘Add an image’ icon

This is the far left square box. If you hover over it, it helpfully says ‘Add an image’. Thankyou.

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2)  Choose the file you want to add by using the ‘Select Files’ button. Simple.

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3)  Now the file name will appear. You assume that because it is now shown on the page that it has been uploaded, but actually there is another 2 or 3 second delay before it is uploaded and the rest of the form appears. During this delay I often find myself automatically pressing the ‘Select Files’ button again to (obviously) select the file I thought I’d just uploaded.  Fail! This takes you back to the upload dialogue.

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4)  The form appears. I have learnt that it isn’t necessary to complete all the many fields it presents you with so often I do just skip these. Then I automatically click the big button at the bottom which I assume is the final ‘yep that’s it I’m done, Save it’ but NOOOO this takes you to some library and doesn’t insert the picture! The big button at the bottom just conned you into doing the wrong action! Damn you WordPress! On other sites the bigger button at the end is always the final ‘I’m done’ button. Consistency please!

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As you can see, the actual button you need to press is slightly higher up and is labelled ‘Insert into Post’. It’s position with the border of the upload box suggests it is an option and not a ‘DO’ button. Just in case you do find it, there is a nice ‘Delete’ link placed right next to it just to try and catch you out at that final moment. Even though I learnt this weeks ago, it is still catching me out. After just choosing to ‘Add an image’ into my post why would the main action be to Save it to my library? The big ‘PRESS ME’ button on this page should be to insert the picture. 

Lesson learnt:

Think about what the user has pressed to initially carry out the task and ensure that you design for this task from start to end.

WordPress have tried to incorporate multiple actions (upload and insert) into the same dialogue and it doesn’t work. They assume that most users want to upload and not insert a picture. Thus they have chosen to give emphasis via placement to the ‘Save’ button. The end result is the user is caught out and frustrated. They may not even know why they went wrong which reflects badly on your site.

usabilitygal is now redundant/available!

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It’s official. I am now unemployed. Hasta la vista Sony Ericsson… Hello world! 🙂

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Back at the end of September, all the employees of Sony Ericsson Manchester sat in a big room together, facing the heads of the company all dressed in black (big giveaway of what was to be announced) to be told that sadly the Manchester site would be closing on March 31st. The mobile phone industry is really struggling in the recession and there have since been similar announcements for Vodafone and Nokia. The Manchester site was the Smartphone division (simply AKA touch phones) so it is perhaps ironic that just as the world starts to take notice of smartphones and they begin to filter into the mainstream market, Sony Ericsson closes their dedicated site and moves the work to another site. Hopefully it will work out for them, it is certainly a brave move!

As you can probably imagine, there was a lot of alcohol consumed in Manchester that evening and anyone in Dukes 92 was probably baffled as to why on a tuesday, the place was so busy and full of very drunk, geeky looking guys (who aren’t the usual clientele!). I will miss them all!

I believe being made redundant is a fantastic opportunity to do those things you always wanted to. I have created my ‘Action Plan’ and have put together a list of things I want to achieve. These include numerous activities such as learning new skills, freelance work, guest reviews, networking… I will even be helping to run the Ergonomics Conference in a couple of weeks. I used to do this as a student and always really enjoyed it even though it is hard work and long hours but because it is an intense experience you form a strong bond quickly with the other members of the team.  So, I’m feeling excited and motivated about the future. I’ve already met and spoken with some amazing people and look forward to meeting more!

Feel free to get in touch if you need any work doing or if you just want to say hi! I may even see you at a future networking event 😉

Good luck to all the ex-Sony Ericsson employees out there coming to a city near you!

New iPod Shuffle Usability

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This weekend I managed to check out the new iPod shuffle in all its glory. I couldn’t believe how small it was! It seemed smaller than I expected. Almost too small. Very plain and simple, in just two colours; black and silver (disappointing for me as I prefer colourful iPods). What roused my interest was that the hardware contains just ONE button!!! It has three switch positions to either turn off, loop or shuffle tracks. All your other functions are accessed via a ‘+’, ‘-‘ and centre press on the headphone controls. Yep just THREE buttons! 

Of course it is lovely for the user to be given such a small array of buttons. It simplifies the experience, gives them less choice so less confusion (normally). I wish remote controls would take this approach more often!

The one thing that I found quite odd was the high positioning of the controls on the headphones wire. They are very high up. So high that you can’t look at them unless you take the headphones out of your ears. So you are really relying on your sense of touch to find and press the 3 controls. I didn’t think this was too difficult but it wasn’t as easy as I would expect, considering this is the only way to control the device. I felt these buttons could have benefited from some added tactile definition. Positioning the controls lower down the wire would have been ideal and meant less movement required by the user’s arm to change tracks, which would be most welcomed when exercising.

I did consider whether they would have been better placing skip tracks on the volume keys. So that, for example, short press changes volume and long press changes tracks. But I remember conducting a study in the past where users were very split on what short press and long press would do. It was very easy for them to confuse the functionality of volume and skipping tracks when placed on the same key. So I fully believe Apple have made the right choice to place these differing functions on separate keys.

So this is one iPod where I’m afraid you will need to read the instructions as the functionality is very hidden. I suspect quite a few people will at first try changing tracks by using the + and – buttons. Navigating track lists sounds tricky. In fact, I’ve just read it twice and have forgotten how to do it already. But to be honest, I think although skipping tracks by double and triple clicking is completely new and requires some cognitive effort and learning, it is actually surprisingly easy to remember. It also helps that fast forwarding and rewinding require the same number of clicks as skipping tracks – you just have to remember to hold down on the last click. In essence they are the same actions. 

Apple are renowned for their ease of use so this new Shuffle will receive a lot of attention and no doubt some negative press surrounding the fact that learning is required to use this product. But we must remember that more buttons do require more hardware space, and if buttons are important to you, go and buy the other Shuffle version. If a small size and sleek look is important then Apple are offering this compact version with the trade-off that it will require actually reading the instruction manual on this occasion. But as the manual is a page long, hey it’s no big deal really. Personally when I’m at the gym I like buttons so I’m sticking with my current Shuffle 🙂 But thanks Apple for giving us the choice!

The wonder of the Underground

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For those of us not based in London, the Underground is a very strange and alien world that we have never experienced before. Having visited London many times, I am now used to the wonder and excitement of the Underground but for this article I will be casting my mind back to my first experiences and how bewildered I was by how staggeringly difficult the whole experience was. So let me take you on a journey…

Firstly, there are the masses of crowds, pushing you along, forcing you to go at a pace that as a newbie you really shouldn’t be going at. You want to stop before you get lost but you can’t so you slow down slightly, get pushed to the side and finally find a little space to get your map out. Back on your way you go. Now you get to a junction where you have to decide which line you need to take. So, you walk over to the large tube map on the wall looking for something large that shouts ‘YOU ARE HERE’ but there is nothing. You have no idea where the name of the place you are is in London so you don’t even know which vague area of the map you should begin to look for your starting point. You start looking in the centre, but you just cannot find where you are, nevermind where you want to go. So you look around for some help… in the north we are used to men in uniforms hovering about to guide you in the right direction…hmmm no such look here and all the passers by seem so pre-occupied and are rushing past you so quickly that you cannot ask them either. 

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Back to the map. Suddenly a lady comes over, also looking at the map so you grab the opportunity to beg her to tell you where on the map you are, but unfortunately she is also trying to find her way and begins to complain about the map. All you want at this stage is a list of stations so you can choose where you want to get to and it will helpfully tell you which line and importantly which direction (oh yes we’ve all made that mistake!) you need to go in. 

You finally work out which line it is, yes the yellow one (it helps us visitors if you use this terminology rather than saying the name of the line). So you take the escalator, however, everyone strangely seems to know this alien rule to you which is you should stand to the right and if you don’t people will tut and push by you as if you’ve done the most horrid thing in the world. But hang on we’re in the UK, we overtake on the right not the left so where did this odd rule originate? 

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You make it to the platform and you have never seen so many people in such a small space in all your life!!! You consider turning back but it is impossible, the exit is totally blocked with commuters and the person on the tannoy system is telling you to move further down the platform. There is NO going back. There is an odd musty smell which makes you feel uneasy but how cute! there are rats running around on the tracks! Eventually you make it onto a train after lots of pushing and watching someone get trapped by the doors – what is all that about? What is this weird world where doors open and close on their own within a matter of seconds? 

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Suddenly, I remember that I was told by some fellow UX Londoners not to touch or look at anyone. But I can’t help watching these people because they are so fascinating. It becomes apparent that they really do not look at each other! I also notice people who get on, read a book for literally 1 minute before getting off – what is the point? How much can you really take in in a minute? But everyone is doing it…

I finally make it to my destination and pop into a cafe to reflect on my experience. I realise I’ve not seen any wheelchairs or pushchairs on my travels. Is the tube accessible for these people? I didn’t notice any lifts at all. 

Now that I have been to London many times I have fallen into the trap of behaving in this strange manner myself. It is so easy to slide back into it. But it really is alien to the rest of the UK. The next time you see someone staring at the map or someone stood to the left not the right, just remember that it is your world, not theirs that is odd and you must forgive them until they learn the ways 😉

Please share your thoughts with me. I’d love to hear them!

Creative Designs (toxel.com)

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Whilst drinking my morning coffee and carrying out my internet browse ritual, I came across a great site called toxel.com. This site is full of amazing real and concept creative products pulled from across the web into one place. If you’re looking for inspiration or just looking to be entertained by clever designs, this is the place for you.

Being an Apple fanatic, my personal favourite is the ’10 Beautiful Apple iPhone Concept Designs’ page. The transparent phone looks awesome but still too large for my liking. One of the downsides of the iPhone for me is the grip it requires to use. As a woman with woman hands I find it too bulky to hold securely. If it had a smaller width or if it went on a diet to become a bit thinner, it would enable me to gain a more secure power grip on it, to use comfortably and confidently one-handed.

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Personally I would go for either the ‘iPhone Concept from Japan’ or the ‘iPhone with ichat Concept’ because they look like phones that I could actually use but they are still cool and stylish. Importantly, the large screen size is also retained for watching videos and browsing the net.

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And if you missed it last year, take a look at these concept designs and watch the youtube video at the bottom of the page. Fun fun fun!

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For all you fellow coffee lovers you must check out the ’24 Modern Mugs and Creative Mug Designs’ page. There are some amazing designs that are purely fun but also some really well thought out ergonomic designs too. I really like the Me cup:

The cup has empty chambers in its wall to prevent burns and to isolate the hot liquid. The cup comes with a saucer, which also has its role to play because it can be transformed in a lid to keep the heat inside and serves as a locking system to stack and store them on top of each other – Nice!!!

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And finally, check out the ’14 Creative Advertisements’. There is great one by 3M who chose to advertise their unbreakable security glass by placing hundreds of dollar notes inside the glass at a bus stop. What a unique and brave idea! Well I thought so until I found out that:

‘Actually, it was only $500 of real currency stacked on top of fake money, and people could only use their feet to try to break it. A security guard was present to make sure no one broke the rules and that people couldn’t get to keep the money if they broke it’.

Suddenly their unbreakable glass is not sounding so unbreakable anymore…

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