As with online sportsbooks, operators need to determine what added content such as statistics or news is relevant and appreciated by their users. This can be tricky, but creating an appropriate social media strategy is even harder. The news that social betting site Pikum has folded, will scare people away from experimenting with social media on their site (although there were other reasons behind Pikum’s demise).

I’ve no doubt that the most successful sportsbooks in the future will be those that create a community around their site, as the days of acquiring and retaining customers purely on the basis of bonuses are limited. What a community on a sportsbook should look like, is something I don’t know, but the important thing to remember is that a community does not have to mean a social network. Sportbooks will need to understand what media their users are currently consuming, to develop an understanding of what content and functionality they are currently missing that should be offered to them. By creating content that leads users back to their site regardless of whether they intend to place a bet or not, will build loyalty and inevitably increase revenues.

Every time I complete a form online, be it purchasing a concert ticket, subscribing to a magazine, or signing up to a retail web site, there is a different means of opting in to marketing communications. For me, this is somewhat irksome and often it’s overcomplicated. Radio buttons and check boxes, opt-in or opt-out, whole paragraphs of marketing talk that bedazzle me and that I have to read again and again until I can decipher whether I should be ticking the box or not.

Surely the same rules should apply here as for the rest of the form; keep it simple.

Language should be short and easy to understand, avoiding all marketing jargon. Get the legal information across but make sure the choice the user needs to make is obvious and does not get lost in all the text. My preference is to have opt-out as the default requiring the user to physically opt in and thereby giving them control, but there are no rules on this so long as the user is given the choice. If the user opts in then ask them by what means (e.g., post, SMS, email etc), but if they want to opt out asking them by what means is a waste of their time. Radio buttons and checkboxes should, according to accessibility guidelines, be placed to the left of the label. Checkboxes are the convention, with a tick denoting the user is opting-in, but radio buttons are fine if it makes the options clear and they are used consistently. The use of other writing for the web guidelines may also help, such as the use of white space and bolding of key words - ‘I would like to be contacted…’ or ‘I do not want to be contacted’. These are just some basic guidelines that, if followed, would make it far simpler for the users to make the right choice, quickly.

As well as providing voice-prompts (e.g. reminders to turn off a tap or cooker), they can also directly switch lights or appliances on and off in order to eliminate potential dangers. The researcher’s have been following the same design processes we do at Foviance to research, develop, test and improve it. It’s currently being trialled in two care homes and all end users are being considered - not just those with dementia but those who will need to set up the device such as local authority carers and healthcare staff. While I am keen supporter of quality care homes many people wish to stay in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes as long as possible, so it’s great to see technology being used to increase the viability of this option.

I spend a decent amount of time commuting and travelling overseas for work and in the past few months I have seen just two people use them - however, style seekers take note, as a result of my contributions to Foviance’s thought leadership, I too am now the proud owner of a reader, I wondered how the reader would change my reading habits, if at all. Would it offer everything I want or expect from a book? I have been using my reader on my commute to our London office.

It’s a bit too early to say if the reader can replace a book for me. But my first impressions were that it was super slim and sleek. And after an initial usabilty error of trying to turn it on by ejecting a memory card, I have been impressed with its range of ‘book’ features.

And, now, after a few days of reading, I can tell you what I like: I like that it was shipped with a hard cover that not only protects it but also allows me to feel like I am holding an open book. At the touch of a button I can bookmark my page. When you turn it on, the first menu item it offers is to ‘continue reading’, so it is easy to return to where you last were - no more lost bookmarks or dog-eared pages.

I know there is far more to explore in this brave new world. I am keen to get the end of my first ebook, and then I’ll be in the position to comment on issues such as battery life, how I go about buying new titles, the glare resistant screen that I hear so much about, and on whether the user experience can match the feeling of getting lost in a book.

It is an interesting concept in these frugal times, but is it one that is going to provide an insight into how to break into this untapped market? I am not convinced. I think it is a novel way to while away 5 or 10 minutes but that’s really as far as it goes. The most interesting thing about the site is what it highlights - the value of 5 dollars around the world. But of course communicating value it is not always as simple as displaying a picture of what it’s worth. Others have tried to highlight value in different ways, Boden for example have a formula that purports to measure the value of their clothes: value = price (£) / times worn.

However, highlighting the value in what we do as an industry is a different story. Companies do not always realise that investing in usability or the user experience can reap huge rewards. But I think, to be fair, a lot of companies are coming around to this way of thinking. However, with all the belt tightening and credit crunching that is going on at the moment, some have opted to try and save by cutting spending on evaluations. This could well be to their detriment as more prudent companies recognise that now more than ever is no time for cutting corners when you are trying to get an edge in a competitive market.

There are a number of ways to stay ahead of the game - analytics can help you measure success and failure and point to areas that cause users to drop off, not to mention understanding who is visiting your site and why. If this is carried out both pre and post user testing, its real value is clear. By combining analytics with user testing or an expert review you can get a more holistic view of your online offering. For cross-channel insight you can think about throwing emotional research into the mix. If your belt tightening is starting to make you feel the pinch maybe it is time to consider some of the above!

To turn this around, offering information via meaningful and useful graphics and icons can increase the usability of a product aimed at children. A site I found recently that successfully combines words with images and appeals to both those who read and those who may not, is the Lego website.

The key here is to ensure icons or graphics chosen convey meaning to as many children as possible.
For example, if 7 year olds were asked to ’save’ a document in Microsoft Word, would the floppy disk icon mean anything to them?     Perhaps offering a default icon of a DVD, a memory stick or even a piggy bank (one of the alternative icons you can choose in Word) would surely convey the meaning to children more easily. Adult conventions are learnt, yes, but this shouldn’t kerb designing for a specific age group.

Firstly, the layout and design of iPhone sites can be designed very similarly to real apps, which is great, as in the short space of time apps have been around, some helpful design conventions have emerged. Ensuring your site conforms to these conventions ensures that users will learn how to use it very quickly. Betfair’s iPhone site does this really well with the exception of having the ‘home’ button where the ‘back’ button is normally on an app. This frustrates me greatly when I use the site as I still continually hit it by mistake.

Performance is the second major factor in the user experience. A number of casino sites I’ve visited have failed badly in this regard. Sometimes the spin will take less the 4 or 5 seconds to complete, other times it takes over 30 seconds and then crashes. Having tried these games several times over the course of a week on both 3G and several Wi Fi networks the problem remained. It should go without saying that this has a major impact on the user experience. Mobile gaming is all about quickly opening up a game and playing for a couple of minutes whenever the opportunity arises. If you don’t have confidence in being able to do that you simply won’t play. On top of that, would you be willing to place real money on a site that isn’t stable?

Finally the third issue is security, sites need to be secure without over doing it. Users will want to quickly access sites without having to enter their usernames and password every time. At the same time there needs to be some level of security as if you lose your phone you don’t want the person who finds it to be able to access your account. Some sites automatically disconnect when you leave the browser however this is annoying if you are just quickly answering a call. The best approach I’ve seen is the use of a short pin number. It can be quickly entered and provides enough security without hindering the user experience.

We face a number of challenges for designing usable interfaces on these shrinking devices. For one we need to contend with the increase in the number of applications and games that are freely available, mobiles are being used in many new and varying ways. Addressing how to make this interaction easy and engaging while on the move is a formidable task. The change from testing in labs to testing in the field will be an important one. Testing in lab conditions will highlight a high proportion of the issues but many more will be missed. Things like mid-day sun can be simulated to a certain extent but not walking and texting at the same time or looking after a child and trying to find someone’s contact details simultaneously. By using small cameras which can be attached to the handset which records participants’ interaction is one way. Another is to make use of embedded software which records users’ interactions, relaying the keystrokes and menu selections back to usability specialists to be analysed. However it is done, mobile testing is going alfresco. Far from being left out in the cold mobile manufacturers should take to the streets.

This time it would be different. I knew the areas that I wanted to live in and the kind of place I wanted, so if I stuck to that, what could be simpler? Well… after viewing the first couple of places I realised that it was not going to be the straightforward task that I had hoped for. The descriptions of some of the rooms promised a lot, but, sadly, failed to deliver. I had resigned myself to more traipsing. This was until I spotted an ad that provided a link to a Youtube video of the available room. The video showed the room and the rest of house, which I thought was very clever. What it did was give potential tenants an insight into what was being offered and did it in a clear and concise way. Not only do you get to see the room without having to make the trip over there, but you also get the impression that there might be interesting people who approach things a little differently living there.

I didn’t get a chance to view the room, or meet the people, it was gone by the time I got round to calling them (which probably tells its own story). So the search goes on… but it did leave me thinking - How can we communicate the benefits of investing in usability studies as clearly as the video on Youtube showed the room? And what tools have we got in our kitbag that help us to do that? Research into emotional engagement is forging the way. By using tools like EEG and fMRI, we can paint a clearer picture of what keeps a customer engaged and on the website, while also placing a spotlight on the areas that are causing confusion. These objective measures provide a more reliable indicator than their subjective counterparts - interviews and surveys - which are useful tools but in some instances can be unreliable, with participants over reporting successes and under reporting failures. This type of data is pretty powerful stuff and will help convince even the most ardent sceptics of the importance of investing in usability.

Making use of this sort of technology can only lead to an increase in the customer’s user experience and may lead to products getting snapped up as quickly as the room did…

I began by carrying out some preliminary research to arm myself on the matter. I was principally looking at best practice in job search and application processes. These actually turned out to be out of the required scope.

Priorities weren’t so much focused on jobs search processes; the career website wanted to find out how to evolve the status of their site visitors from “simple users” to “potential candidates”. And suddenly a whole new world appeared to me. I realised that careers sections shouldn’t be about information bombardment and endless application processes. Focus shouldn’t be set on the jobs but rather on the potential candidates. Currently, many careers sites seem to have somehow neglected this aspect.

Usability is often present in a website’s lifecycle but doesn’t always guarantee a good customer experience (which a site achieves by living up to the users expectations- and beyond). Most of the careers sites out there are possibly decently usable, however only a few are designed smartly enough to accommodate a prospect’s needs.

More than just providing a pleasurable customer experience, the sites should deliver a real “candidate experience”. From a candidate perspective, this means guidance to access the right information in order to best inform decisions. From a brand point of view, this involves seducing the applicants with the company’s values and work style in an engaging and thrilling way.

In other words, successful careers sites aim at providing the right information to the right person in the right way. Good usability ensures applicants easily find jobs; good customer experience ensures they find the right ones.