ExperienceLab

UX Gold Star: Yahoo Fixes Ancient Email Problem

We live in a UX era of big rewards for big innovation. New form factors for phones, new cloud services come out every month. They deservedly are heaped with praise and cash.

But for those of us who use interfaces, small improvements can make big differences. I’d like to introduce the Gold Star award for the people and companies that address small issues that would be just as easy for them to ignore. 

Let’s start with a gold star for Yahoo.

Yahoo Mail recently added an innovation to their web mail interface that was really clever. 

Like all other mail programs, Yahoo Mail lets you choose between REPLY and REPLY TO ALL. REPLY sends the response to one person; REPLY TO ALL sends it to everyone. But unlike any other mail program that I know of, they now also let you switch between them after you’ve started composing a response. 

It’s not a big deal, but that’s exactly why it’s praiseworthy. Mail is old. Yahoo Mail is old. And the problem of selecting the wrong kind of reply is old. It’s rare for someone to see an old problem, realize it can be fixed, and do it knowing that while there will be no PR trumpets blaring their thanks, it will save countless users countless seconds of irritation.

Thank you, Yahoo. Well done.

Moves app ... it will get you moving!

Over the last few weeks, some of us at ExperienceLab have been trying out the Moves fitness app. It’s actually causing a bit of rivalry between us, we’ve been emailing screen shots to each other showing how many steps we’ve taken! My colleague is definitely winning so far with 32,589 steps in one day as he explored NYC!

In-flight entertainment systems

Gemma and I have just returned from a round the world tour for a global project. This gave us a lot of opportunities to use, analyse and discuss the pros and cons of the in-flight entertainment systems of the different airlines we travelled on (what else are two user experience researchers to do on a flight?).

Here are some of our thoughts:

• Personal in-flight entertainment systems are essential. The patience for coordinated viewing and straining your neck into the right angle are long gone.                                                                                                                                                                                     

UX London 2013

Magdalena Marek, one of our interns, volunteered at UX London this month. Here's her review of the event.

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The week before last I volunteered at UX London. Despite the excitement of being able to attend the conference and listen to some talks I also did lots of other less glamorous duties involving early mornings, registering attendees, distributing goodie bags, helping out with workshops, but also consuming litres of coffee and eating the fabulous food from Kerb Food!

At the end of the last day my head was spinning from the amount of information I consumed within those 3 days. Luckily I was able to wash it down with magical (literally magical) and wondrous drinks prepared by some skillful mixologists during the after party on Friday. 

These 3 days were dedicated to different aspects of User Experience, talks on Wednesday mainly covered product design,  Thursday - behaviour design and the main focus on Friday referred to design strategy. 

Wednesday started with Tom Hulme talking about how the art of design is changing with shifts in technology, tools and participation.

How Click & Collect is Moving the Online Shopping Experience In-Store

The e-retail sector is evolving with many retailers implementing multi-channel solutions with the ultimate objective of creating an omni-channel by offering a truly integrated digital and physical consumer experience. Increasingly, Click & Collect services are becoming more important to consumers, although Click & Collect is currently offered by less than half of Top 50 UK retailing brands. 

The Gesture Chair: Designed to support users' tech interactions

Having gotten dangerously obsessed with chairs during our recent studio build, we're loving what we've seen so far of this unique office chair, designed by Steelcase. The Gesture Chair has been designed to support our present day interactions with the various technologies - be that tablets, smartphones, ereaders, laptops or pcs. 

Welcome to our new research studio - The Insight Lab!

Our new studio - The Insight Lab - is up and running and ready to welcome you! We wanted to share some pictures, and also our thinking behind this new space.

Why you need variety to build the best User Experience team

Was interested to see this on FastCoDesign: Infographic: The Intricate Anatomy Of UX Design.

The Disciplines of User Experience Design infographic by envisprecisely.

 

Like the author, I was at first preoccupied with the 'missing' disciplines, but after that I got thinking about how important it is to get the right mix in a user experience team - in background, formal education and experience. 

Spotify apps coming to mobile... finally!

Much of my music life is lived through Spotify, so I was excited to find out that Spotify apps are coming to mobile (and web) in January (find out more here).  

Spotify apps is an interesting offering. You don’t have to ‘download’ an app and many don’t require sign-up. You can explore whichever app takes your fancy and choose whether you want to add it to your favourites. The apps are integrated into the platform, offering a more seamless experience where there are fewer barriers to trying things out. 

Here are 3 Spotify apps I look forward to using on my mobile:

 

Soundrop. Soundrop works like a shared playlist. Users choose a ‘room’ to listen to a particular genre of music or even a particular artist. Users in the room can vote for tracks and add tracks to the playlist. There’s also the option to create rooms. 

Great for: Discovering music, visual interface.

Any drawbacks? The recent re-design can look messy (especially if the people list is open to the right) and track / artist names are often truncated. You also have to sign into Facebook to vote for tracks (I’m not quite on board with sharing my listening habits on social networks yet), but at least you can still use the app without signing in.

No more wrap rage

You know the feeling, you’ve bought something and it comes in that dreaded clamshell packaging. The one that feels as though it has been superglued closed and is impossible to open.