seen from Belarus
seen from Norway
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Georgia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from France
seen from Azerbaijan
seen from Malaysia
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seen from Bangladesh
seen from United States
seen from China
Book report of “The Dip”
Book report of “The Dip”
Before starting to tell you what I have learned about this book, I want to encourage you to learn more about this famous guy, Seth Godin. He is one of those who knows how to tell stories and go straight to the point, even though we live in an age where storytellers invade our lives, Seth is one of those that knows when to tell you a story and when to throw proof to the table and make you reflect…
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User-centricity in online content - still an elusive goal
As part of our IMMT714 course on Interactive Strategy, we were asked to document our path on completing a task on a website or app of our choice. I chose the GO transit website. http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/default.aspx
When I was new to Toronto, I remember wanting to go to Humber College to meet a friend. I remember going on the GO transit website and finding it to be such a daunting experience, that I requested my friend to meet me close to my place!
Given this assignment, I thought I should check that website again to see if I have a different experience. So here goes…
I was looking to do two things on this website: 1. Plan my trip to the Lakeshore boulevard campus. 2. Find out how much it would cost me.
1. Planning my trip: I was looking for a trip planner tool that would be easy to find on the home page wherein I could enter my start and end of journey along with other details.
This is the home page of the website:
Right away, there is too much unnecessary information on the page. The centre of the page has a news/story section that changes every second. As a user I am forced to look around the page, until I find the Trip planner by Triplinx link at the bottom right hand corner. The location of this tool (that I believe would be useful for many) along with all the other unnecessary information on the page, gives me an alienating experience. The fact that the story section of the site is given the valued centre spot is in my opinion not user centric. Rather, it is organization centric, in which the organization wants to talk about what may be important to them.
Anyways, I click on the Trip planner link and enter the Start and End points of my trip. I knew there are 2 campuses and I needed to go to the Lakeshore Blvd campus, but the suggestions in the drop down don’t give me that specific option.
Unsure, I click on the first link that read Humber College Educational Institutions. Luckily, the next page with the details of the trip show me that I will indeed arrive at the Lakeshore blvd. campus.
Great! Now I want to know how much it will cost me to get there. There is a side panel link on Fares that is very easy to find and I click on it.
This took me to a page where I had to select some more options, which took me to another link to calculate the Fare! This could have easily been taken care of in 1 link as opposed to 3! Once on the fare calculator page, I have to again enter my start and end point details and then after the last click I get this confusing information:
The diagram with the green boxes shows, under ‘Save with Presto’ that if I make 40 trips using Presto, my trip cost would be $0! And, if I make up to 35 trips, my trip cost would be $7! I am perplexed. Surely, I am reading this wrong. Why does it say my trip cost will be $0 if I use the Presto card more? I mean what about the cost of the Presto card?? Maybe I am missing something and am having a momentary lapse in thinking logically? I don’t know. I search on Google to understand ‘how Presto works’; it’s pretty straight forward but still doesn’t explain why and how my trip cost with be $0! I think I will need to consult someone who is familiar with GO to explain this better.
In conclusion, I don’t think a website should make it so confusing or difficult for a user to comprehend simple information that matters to her and pushes her to resort to other avenues to get that information. My user experience on this website left much to be desired.
Its all about knowing your end user.
Interactive Strategy (IMM714) and Content Planning (IMMT712) gave a kickstart to the Interactive Media Management program. The first session conducted by Professor Pamela Kostur provided a clear picture that a good customer experience is what organizations should prioritize when designing and developing the content for a website.
An organization can have customer centric content or organization centric content on its webpage. Customer centric content is one which understands its user and the various paths a user could take to navigate through the website. It also understands how its content is being used by the user and the possible difficulties a user could face while working through the site. On the other hand organization centric content does not strategize from the customer experience perspective. Such an organization webpage could have limited operations or could not provide ease of access to the user.
In my opinion, the example of a webpage containing customer centric content is Scotiabank. The experience of using the Scotiabank webpage as well as the application on a tablet or smartphone has been smooth and easy for me. The website provides ease of access to the user no matter on which platform is it being used. Scotiabank is also an example of a well-tested site. The homepage gives all the primary information of ones account. Every page of the website provides concise information to the user and navigation is also easy due to appropriately arranged tabs that provide several options. The webpage as well as the application on a smartphone or tablet have all the same functionalities and a very similar user interface. Take for instance the task of transferring funds between accounts. If I execute this task on a pc, which is through a webpage, still the transaction will immediately reflect if the account is accessed through a phone or tablet. Thus I feel that, scotiabanks webpages and applications consist of customer centric content due to the flexibility of options, the ease of access and also ease of overall use of the webpage.
An example of organization centric content found on the web that I take into consideration would be Fido. I consider fidos content to be organization centric because of the restricted options provided on the webpage. It is a perfect example of content that is based on the organizations perspective of use of the webpage. Navigation is not easy on this page which is a fact that I have come across on several occasions. As compared to Scotiabanks web content, Fidos web content is not flexible enough in terms of the options. For instance, on Scotiabanks webpage there would be different ways to navigate or perform a particular task whereas Fidos site would have only one method of performing a similar task. Even when I took into consideration the cross platform performance of Fido, it lacked in comparison to Scotiabank. The content on the Fido webpage simply does not translate when accessed through its smartphone application. In fact the application is limited to a few platforms and is not available on all mobile devices. It is simply not user friendly when one has to pay their bill using a desktop site on a mobile device.
If the content on Fidos website could be developed by keeping in mind the customers difficulties and paths of navigation then it could increase its usability factor.
On a whole, customer centric content is what the users are looking for and organizations must focus towards understanding and getting to know their users.
In the end, its all about knowing your end user.
Learn how to listen your customers and they’ll remain loyal to you.
One of my favorite websites is nike.com. This site is nike’s online store.
Nike’ s site is a great customer-centric example. Upon entering the site, you find an engaging picture and clear navigation. The navigation uses icons with text to make it easier to figure out where to go. You have several options to search the item you are looking for: by gender, by sport, or by type (shoes, tops, pants and etc). Easy navigation, clear structure and great colours make one’s experience on the website pleasant.
My favorite feature of the website is that you can “customize” your product. You can choose your favorite colors, select the weigh of shoe that feels best, and even add a personal message. Furthermore, it’s very easy to order, and before checking out you know how long delivery will take. Additionally, you can share your design with your friends via social networks.
There is only one disadvantage I found, that delivery to Canada will take approximately 30 days (“Customize” option is a great gift idea, but often gifts can be last minute buy, so that is where Nike will lose its customers).
For comparison let’s have a look at an organization-centric website of Sunlife insurance. As an example, my goal would be to find out about life insurance plans and make a decision which one will be better for me.
There are several live insurance plans I can choose, first I go to the section of “Term life insurance”.
http://www.sunlife.ca/Canada/sunlifeCA/Life/Term+life+insurance?vgnLocale=en_CA
Let’s take a closer look at the content:
“What is term life insurance? - Term life insurance provides temporary protection for temporary needs. It also has some flexibility, so you can adjust your insurance as your needs change.
Term life insurance is a popular choice for:
individuals focused on affordability and flexibility
business owners with complex needs like key person protection"
Information above didn’t give me any clear answers, on opposite side it created more questions.
Let’s continue to search the content on the page. Next follows the long table which gives five term life insurance options:
SunSpectrum Basic Life
SunSpectrum Basic Life
SunspectrumTerm
Sunspectrum Joint Term
SunTerm
FutureInsure Term Life Express
A first criterion in the table is “Guaranteed premiums”. Will look at this criterion among five plans.
SunSpectrum Basic Life: Your premiums are guaranteed for 25 years or to age 65, whichever comes first.
SunspectrumTerm: Your premiums automatically renew (at guaranteed rates) at the end of your term.
Sunspectrum Joint Term: Your premiums automatically renew (at guaranteed rates) at the end of your term.
SunTerm: Your premiums automatically renew (at guaranteed rates) at the end of your term.
FutureInsure Term Life Express: Your premiums may change annually but only on the policy anniversary. If the premium does change, we'll give you 30 days written notice before the change is made.
There are other criteria I’m suggested to look at and other plans (“Permanent life insurance” and “Universal life insurance”) that I suggested to compare with, but at this point I don’t want to read the website anymore. I know that I won’t be able to make a decision based on the website content and I would need to call to Sunlife or book an appointment with an agent.
Customer-centric versus organization-centric is like a conversation with a good friend versus conversation with a stranger. To be customer-centric, first of all, means to be able to listen carefully and understand your customers' needs and then take care of them. Furthermore, customer-centric means to be flexible and inclusive (let customer to be part of the process). My experience on the Nike’s website was pleasant, because it was easy,efficient and allowed me to use my creativity, versus experience on the organization-centric Sunlife’s website, which was not very helpful.
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