The online (and mobile) life of a traveler.

While it is easy to think of online activities in a vacuum, we need to remind ourselves our online behavior is affected by the context of our offline lives. How we work, how we use the Web, what type of equipment we use (e.g. desktop, laptop, handheld device), and how we conduct our daily work will all greatly affect our interactions with online services. Here’s a recent example: while I don’t own a Blackberry, I was recently traveling out of town for a wedding and I wanted to check the status of my flight. My friend graciously offered his Blackberry for me to use. I navigated through the various menus, and finally navigated to United to check my flight. I was astounded. The site was coded in a language that clearly did not communicate well with mobile devices. The page was virtually blank and only displayed the most prominent main navigation links. I was, however, able to find the “contact” link so I could get their phone number (which, of course, defeated the purpose of visiting the site). Upon navigating to the “contact” page, I received an odd error message. Although tempted to throw the Blackberry out the window, I hit “quit” and placed the device back in the car’s storage console.

This interaction struck me as odd, but not surprising. United is in the travel business, right? One of their primary target audiences is the business traveler, right? Most business travelers probably use handheld mobile devices, right? Imagine how much United could increase customer satisfaction if they better understood who was using their site and how they use it.

Peyton Lindley, Interaction Design

User Research & What It Means To Your (Online) Business

When engaging in any online initiative, it is often easy to focus on the obvious: the end product. When can we launch it? What assets will we need to build it? What integration issues will we face? Will it meet our revised business goals? Not surprisingly, these questions do not typically take into account those who will ultimately determine a site’s relative success or failure: the end user.

Whether you are building a new B2B portal or a promotional microsite, the more that you can truly understand the users going your new online property, the more effective your efforts and ROI numbers will be. texturemedia understands and values the need to get projects to market as quickly as possible, and we always welcome as much contextual information as possible to inform collaborative decisions. While we will make every effort to understand your current users and your future target audiences, nothing can replace real-time interaction with actual people.

User research, in its simplest form, calls for inquiry with a targeted user base and seeks to understand user behavior in the context of online usage. While user research can be conducted at various points throughout the early site definition phase, the earlier the better. However, it’s never too late to begin investigating weak spots in your approach. During our “define” phase, we like to “measure twice and cut once.” As the old adage goes, part of measuring twice means getting a trusted friend to look over your shoulder to check your work. In the case of building sites, that trusted friend is your end user. And believe it or not, they are more than happy to correct you when you might be measuring incorrectly.

Recently, texturemedia conducted a number of user-focused feedback sessions for one of its clients. While this client had already built out a beta version of their online platform, they wanted to gain feedback from their end users to understand how well their site was servicing user needs. Not surprisingly, the results were illuminating. After several focused, facilitated sessions run by texturemedia’s Interaction Design and Client Services teams, the amount of valuable information we received has given us clear direction as to how we’ll implement iterative changes in phase two of the project. In addition, it gave our client critical insight as to how they can better support their users both on and offline. Without these insights from core users, we would have likely continued down the path of making assumptions for the user instead of validating those assumptions early on in the process.

User research and usability assessment come in many forms. The key point here is to make sure that you initiate the process; it’s never too late to start. Feel free to give us a call and see how we can help you dig into your users’ true needs.

Peyton Lindley, Interaction Design

Texturemedia is proud to announce the launch of Pentaxian.com, the second site in a series of sites that piggy-back off of the national campaign in celebrating the PENTAXIAN community. Following in the PENTAX Photogallery’s footsteps, the PENTAXIAN site both dissects what PENTAX considers to be their most diehard photographers, as well as allows all other PENTAXIANS to unite and show their loyalty. Watch elaborate documentary style videos, take the quiz to see what type of PENTAXIAN you are, and check out how diehard, and international, the PENTAXIAN community really is.

David Schell, Creative

I know this has been around a while, but I keep revisiting it. Talk about making education fun, and on a subject that is hard to make exciting. Very original, fun, and fresh, for the folks at EatBetterAmerica. Get your food fight on!

David Schell, Creative

The UK communications company, Orange, came out with this fun site that continues on their “Good Things Should Never End” campaign. For those integrated marketing geeks out there, check out the commercials on the site. This is a good example how a concept can really take off online. If you give it some time to load, it really is a fun site, and some might argue it does a good job of not pushing logos, rebates, or call outs at all.

http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go

David Schell, Creative

According to a new Forrester Research report released at the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 in Chicago, interactive marketing spending in the US will more than triple over the next five years, reaching $61 billion by 2012. The growth in interactive marketing spending represents a 27 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years, and interactive marketing, 8 percent of all ad spending, will grow to 18 percent of total ad budgets in five years. Forrester Research Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk, said “These changes will… give interactive marketing professionals a more legitimate seat at the marketing table… with interactive marketing gaining executive visibility.. for its popularity with young consumers (as well as) measurability and cost effectiveness…”

With clients, the variety varies. Most successful companies (clients), the ones that realized the value of Interactive some time ago, have 7th or 8th generation Interactive best practices alive and well within their organization. These companies could be referred to as the Wise ole’ Grandfathers or Astute Ivy-League Uncles. These are the companies that get it, invest in it, challenge it, demand it, leverage it, praise it, and share it (it = Strategic Interactive Practices).

What about the rest of the family? We can’t forget about the odd step-sisters, misbehaved nieces/nephews, or the cousin-you-never-met-before companies…

These are the companies that offer the most challenge, though worth the effort. They could be referred to as the companies in mid-life crisis: I must have that ‘new thing’, I must have it first, I must finish this project tomorrow, I want it shiny and sporty, I want it to look hip, and I prefer to date a younger agency.

At texturemedia, we believe in the power of client diversity. Come on over crazy cousins-we-never-met-before!

Allison Kent, New Business