A radical new design of the traditional wheelchair by Tek RMD, now enables paraplegics to stand and move. This is a big step in decreasing the barriers that paraplegics face. Just being able to stand once again and to move in a standing posture must feel incredibly liberating. I also believe this kind of technology is a big step in helping able-bodied people overcome prejudice and see the person on their level. Watch the video, it’s amazing.
Using kittens to explain the power of Scarcity
(True story)
There are 4 kittens in a pet shop…
3 tabby kittens
and 1 black and white kitten
Fact: Tabby kittens are adopted much more quickly than black and white kittens.
So, which kitten do you think will sell first?
Answer: The black and white one
Why?
The principle of Scarcity
What is the principle of Scarcity?
When something is scarce or rare, people see it as more highly valued and more desirable. This is why shops often have sales and why antiques have such a high value. Scarcity is closely related to the fear of loss – people fear losing what they have and also what they don’t yet have. They will act in sometimes non-sensical ways to avoid this loss (shopaholics and hoarders are good examples).
How do I know the black and white kitten really will be sold first?
Because these kittens have been advertised on the residents board where I live and everyone wants the black and white one.
How to sell more by using scarcity in your website design
- Limited numbers of a product left? Make this information clear in the interface.
- Show an end date or time for an offer.
- Offer something free with the product but limit it’s availability.
Scarcity is a very well know persuader and influencer of behaviour. Once you’re aware of it, you’ll start to see how it is used everywhere so it’s well worth thinking of how you can utilise its power in your designs.
Amazon use 2 scarcity elements on their product page
Asos use ‘fear of loss’ to persuade within their basket page
I’m in the news…
I’ve been featured on Creative Boom talking about the amazing Salford University Carnival held at Islington Mill this week. We had a great time! Below is an extract of the article and if you want to read more just head on over to Creative Boom.
Over a hundred Salford University graphic design students showcased their amazing work at Islington Mill yesterday in a fun carnival themed event organised in conjunction with Designers Northern Alliance.
Representatives from key Manchester and Salford agencies attended the event to inspire and look for the next generation of fresh talent. Keepitusable, Magnetic North, Design by Day, Eskimo Creative, and Code ComputerLove were just some of the industry experts to attend the event.
Lisa Duddington, co-founder of Keepitusable Salford’s first user experience design agency whose clients include the BBC, saw the event as a valuable opportunity to connect with and inspire the next generation of designers.
“It’s so exciting to be part of this event! We know how difficult it can be when you’re first starting your career, so we’re eager to help students and graduates to gain the valuable experience and knowledge they need to succeed in what is an incredibly competitive industry.
We have a fantastic relationship with Salford University and are proud to be able to offer both their students and graduates incredible opportunities to gain industry experience.”
The Clever Little Bag
I just love the amazing design of this new style shoebox by Puma. Most of my shoeboxes are really dull, boring and seriously oversized for the contents. Not only does this new design function well and look cool, it’s easier for the customer to carry and might I add hurts less (doesn’t it hurt when that sharp corner of the box in the carrier bag hits your leg whilst you’re walking?). It’s also economical and saves on packaging so is very eco-friendly and no doubt will save Puma a vast amount of money to produce.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if all companies put this much thought and love into their designs? I’m almost tempted to buy a pair of Pumas now (you see how this works? 😉 when you build great user experiences, people will be attracted to your business, it’s a bit like karma, it pays to care about your users)
UX Career Guide (Infographic)
Source: flickr.com via keepit on Pinterest
Man mistakes red dog poo box for letter box (for 2 yrs!)
This is a classic case of poor user centred design and highlights the importance of why we always think of the user’s needs, wants and expectations when designing for them. This is why analysing users’ current mental models is important too – his expectation based on his past life experience was that red boxes in the street are always letter boxes. So the designer of this box definitely should not have made it red!
This photo just goes to show:
– People don’t always pay attention to what you want them to.
– They don’t always read everything.
– People make assumptions based on visual appearance, like the colour of something. Post boxes are red so he presumed the obvious!
– Older people often suffer from poor user experiences. Failing eyesight makes them more reliant on good clear design.
And finally, this is why user experience designers and usability specialists will always be needed in the world 😀
Here’s a post box so you can compare:
Mobile app usage infographic
source: appazaar
Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work
An incredibly TAX ing User Experience
“Tax doesn’t have to be taxing”
I can confirm this is the biggest whopper i’ve ever heard. Maybe it’s true if you never touch self assessment yourself and leave everything in the hands of bookkeepers and accountants. But, for the average Joe Bloggs, completing a self assessment for the first time (like I’ve just done) is a very unpleasant, frustrating and stressful user experience.
Completing a self assessment for the first time will:
- Take much longer than you expect (take a guess then multiply it by at least 5)
- Confuse the life out of you. The guidelines are so generalised that finding specific answers for your particular situation is nearly impossible.
- Make you hate the HMRC helpline. They take a lifetime to answer the phone, and you can guarantee that as soon as you hang up the phone you think of one more vital question you should have asked so you have to start the whole process once again.
- Make you hate all websites associated with tax, in particular the HMRC one. There’s a wealth of information out there but trying to find answers to seemingly simple questions like how to calculate how much NI you owe is very difficult as once again it depends on your particular situation.
- Make you incredibly fearful of ‘Submit’ buttons.
- Suddenly make you religious. In your head you’ll find yourself subconsciously saying a little prayer to the Gods of software and internet that your return is submitted successfully.
- Make you hate Error messages even more than usual.
- Start treating your computer like a precious object. No one is allowed within a two metre radius of it until the self assessment has been submitted. Each entry and mouse press is taken with extra care to prevent any mistakes being made.
My expectations of the online user experience for completing your self assessment were that it would be easy. After all I’d seen the adverts on TV and the posters all over in the past claiming ‘Tax doesn’t have to be taxing’. My expectations couldn’t have been more wrong! Firstly I logged into the website using my login details and as I’d already told them I was a partnership I was expecting some kind of wizard to take me through the whole process online. But I couldn’t see any call-to-actions to say ‘Begin here!’ so I found myself aimlessly clicking on every hyperlink I could find. I just couldn’t find the starting point. I felt like Sarah in the movie Labyrinth who can’t work out how to get into the labyrinth.
So I went to my old pal Google. After some time I found an article that mentioned needing software to submit a partnership tax return. This was all a bit odd, I thought you could just use the HMRC site. Anyway it turns out you need to purchase software to submit a partnership return which is why there wasn’t a clear starting point on the website. I wish they’d explained this in big text as soon as I logged in. The site is very much aimed at people who have completed a previous self assessment and know what they’re doing.
I then had the task of trawling through lots of software websites and downloading demos to find something easy to use. This took time… Most were really, really bad. I’m so surprised that something everyone has to do can be made so complex. I’m educated up to MSc level, good with computers and I often have to understand complex problems so I can’t imagine how bad it must be for more novice users.
I finally decided on FTAX as it was basically a pdf version of the actual form. It looked more familiar and it had some intelligence – when you completed fields it automatically calculated other fields. It was still an unpleasant experience. The form started having what looked like a fit at one stage and would not stay on the page I wanted at all. Bear in mind I was feeling quite stressed at this point. The form was obviously evil and deliberately trying to wind me up even more. It wouldn’t behave itself until the following day and I then managed to complete all the fields.
Finally, I plucked up the courage to press the Submit button. It didn’t work. No response whatsoever. More stress. My partner tried it on his machine and hooray it worked! But oh no it failed! Errors written in the worst possible technical language imaginable beamed at me from the screen, giving me their equivalent of the middle finger. After a few attempts at tweaking random things I’m relieved to say that the form did eventually submit itself. Hooray! I can’t wait to go through it all again next year, not. I’ll definitely be employing an accountant next time because as i’ve found out tax IS incredibly taxing and should be left to the professionals until HMRC employ user experience designers to completely redesign the whole software!
Lisa Duddington 