dancingmango

“The airlines have come up with a new answer to an old question: How many passengers can be squeezed into economy class?  A lot more, it turns out, especially if an idea still in the early stage should catch on: standing-room-only “seats.”" [source]

This is depressing.  It is bad enough standing on a train, I hate to imagine the experience of being crammed in a real cattle class flight, standing all the way.

What is missing in this proposition is the question of the customer experience?  Is there a customer appetite for this?  Have the airlines done market research to understand the demand for standing room only flights?  (And not just run a few focus groups but mocked up the experience  and gathering feedback on it).  It is all to easy to drive a business case based upon the extra sales volume that this shoddy experience will be expected to provide, but when it goes to market, will the demand match that predicted in the business case?

Recieved an unsolicited mail yesterday from a consulting firm looking to recruit developers (not a well targetted mail for me to receive it). What can they offer?

“Unlike many “consulting” firms, we don’t hire and fire based on client and project demand; we’re interested in a long-term relationship with people that share our drive. We hire employees because WE like them, not on the say-so of our clients!!”

Hmmm. so that’s a sustainable business model that inspires confidence…

Sometimes you have to wonder about academics in their ivory towers of research.  At the Ergonomics Society Conference a paper was presented on a usability evaluation of MP3 players and virtual jukeboxes.  The researchers used “reparatory grid analysis”, a pretty cool technique that got subjects to create their own “constructs” by which evaluations were made.  I’m not knocking their work - it was a good peice of research,  what I do question is it’s worth.  The research took several months and signficant effort to complete.  And thier conclusions?  Of the dozen or so products evaluated the iPod and iTunes were top of the class in usability.  I could’ve told you that after a couple of hours playing with all the devices (backed up by “heursitcs” if you want a veil of research rigor behind the results).  But accademics don’t do the pragmatic.  They need validity and relaibility.  Business needs results fast that sometimes only pragmatism and a healthy disregard of scientific method gives.

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Ergonomics Society Annual Conference where I presented a paper on Agile User Centred development. One of the themes of the conference was inclusive design. I think this is a concept that should gain greater prominence in software / web design.

We talk a lot about “accessibility”, and this to most organisations generally means adhering to W3C guidelines. It is driven from a fear of the Disability Discrimination Act. Yet from a business perspective there is not much of a business case for this stuff. And from a design perspective it can be a pain in the proverbial. -Being told that you can’t do all that 2.0 stuff because it relies on JavaScript (and therefore isn’t DDA compliant) stifles creativity and is guaranteed to annoy fired up developers.-

So here is where inclusive design makes things exciting. Forget about accessibility and think inclusivity and suddenly your perspective changes. You stop thinking solely about “disabled” users and broaden your horizons to a much wider audience of users. From the age of 40 the functional capability of the eye rapidly decreases; 25% of over 55s have reduced overall sensory / motor / cognitive capability which includes a declining memory. (Check out the work of Roger Coleman at The Helen Hamlyn Research Centre for more on this and inclusive design as a whole). Assumptions of what the younger population find easy in usability tests may not be valid for the over 60s.

Include the aging population into your design considerations and suddenly “accessibility” becomes “inclusivity”, a more compelling business case grows and new design decisions can be made. The “silver surfers” are generally considered to be time rich and cash rich. They are a segment unto themselves. So rather than trying to shoehorn “accessibility” into the design with the final design being compromised, isn’t it better to be inclusive and design for the needs of this different segment.

When a supermarket rolls out its in-town “metro” store format, they are not trying to shoehorn the “superstore” format into it. They design according to the needs of the task, customer and environment. Good interaction design considers these three things, but how often to we overlay “constraints” onto this holy trinity? We create personas, but how often to we create a 65 year old persona with myopia and reduced dextrous ability?

Talking of supermarkets, Tesco do inclusivity well with their website. Their retail website may not be DDA compliant, but they have an accessible alternative; a web format for the different segment. They offer a lightweight version of their site that is inclusive. And by the way, it is also muli-device compliant.

So let’s forget about making DDA compliant web sites, let’s forget about accessibility compromising the design. Let us offer compelling alternatives to the commonly excluded population, let us be inclusive rather than trying to satisfying everybody and delighting nobody.

A successful agile project depends upon open channels of communication. Unfortunately this is all too often usually between different parts of the organisation that do not have a track record of talking. Getting a conversation between the business and IT can be a challenge, especially when the two sides don’t really know each other. The trouble is that when we roll up at a client we don’t really know who knows each other - what channels of communication are open and what are closed. what is the reality that the organisational chart doesn’t show (if you can get the org chart - not so long ago I worked with a client whose org chart was inaccessible - it was password protected on their intranet).

Social Network Analysis is a useful technique for identifying and visually representing the way that individuals are connected within a social structure. It can be as simple (does Jack communicate with Sarah) or complicated (is Jack a casual acquaintance of Sarah or a trusted friend). I’ve a feeling that when we first start working with a client who is new to agile, there should be an element of “organisational readiness” that would include SNA to identify the channels of communication. I’ve been playing with Agna as a tool or doing this, and am looking for others to play with.

Passing through security at Gatwick airport this morning and there’s a sign showing forbidden items.  It includes razor blades.  By the x-ray machine there’s a bucket where people leave behind their forbidden items - there are plenty of safety razors in there.

Past security, airside and there’s a Boots.  And they sell razor blades.  Making a mockery of the security policy.

The customer experience doesn’t end when the product has been sold.  Yeah, so you’ve got a compelling proposition, your web site is beautiful to look at, is easy to use and would have Jacob Nielsen giving you accolades for its usability.  But how does the off-line fulfilment match your on-line capability?  Sadly with Norwich Union the answer is not much.  Water dripping through the ceiling and no obvious source (I pulled up floor boards hunting the leak, but it was spouting out of a joist under a wall…) I called the insurance company.  The call was answered pretty promptly by a friendly chappy (especially given that he was working late on a Sunday night).  He took my details and informed me of a great service whereby a building services company (Mowlam) would be sent an emergency notification and send someone out first thing in the morning.  Rather bizarrely this company would find the source of the leak but it would be down to me to finds a plumber to fix the leak.  (Norwich Union did not seem to think it worthwhile trying to cross sell me a more comprehensive policy that would cover me for them to sort out plumbing problems - I mean if I’ve got a flood, chances are I’d like someone to fix it…)

Monday morning and I ring the building services company to be told that they had no record of my problem- I should ring NU to confirm the issue had been logged.  I rang NU, unfortunately when I left the house this morning I scribbled down the wrong number - I had the customer services number.  Usual wait to be connected and then was transferred to the claims department.  This was in India, the woman I spoke to seemed clueless, knew nothing of my claim and put me on hold for an age. She told me I should be speaking to the new claims department, took my details again (I’d already given them the previous night, to the guy who initially took my call and again when I first started talking to her.  She put me on hold again.  Five minutes later she informed me that a fax was sent to the company the previous night and I should ring them again to confirm this had happened.

I rang Mowlam again and was again told that no emergency had been logged.

Back on the phone to NU.  A bit more savvy I ask to be put through to the new claims department.  I get put through to new motor insurance claims.  I ask to be put through to home insurance, wait a couple of minutes and the line goes dead.

I try again.  Once again I get routed to India, explain my situation and get routed back to the UK where I once again give my details (can’t they follow be round the telephony system?) and am informed that yes, a fax was sent to Mowlam, but maybe they didn’t receive it so she’ll send another fax just to make sure.

An hour later I ring Mowlam to find out when the plumber is coming.  “Sorry Sir” I am told, we have no record of a emergency at your postcode.

Back on the phone to NU.  More time spent getting pushed around departments.  This time the lady I speak to tells me she’ll phone Mowlam and verbally inform them of the job.  She puts me on hold.  And the battery on my phone runs flat.  I immediately find a charger and plug it in.  I wait for the customer service agent to ring me back (she has my number) with the outcome of the call but she never gets back to me.  I assume the call has been made.  Half an hour later I ring Mowlam.  Still no notification.  I’m wasting time here.

Back on the phone to NU.  Finally I’m told that a third fax has been sent to Mowlam.

An hour later another company calls me informing me they are about to send a plumber out.  But I don’t want a plumber.  I want someone to find the rout cause of my problem (because NU don’t fix plumbing problems) and besides, I’ve already contacted my mate who is a plumber who says he will fix the problem once it’s source has been identified.  I get transferred to someone else who tells me that the insurance will cover temporarily fixing the problem.  Which leaves me wondering what the meaning of the word “temporarily” is, a bit of tape around the pipe?

Eventually the plumber comes round and finds the problem (it was a shower pump hidden beneath a staircase).  He fixes it and switches the heating back on, but it’s been a day of distraction and stress that a joined up approach to customer service at NU (and it’s suppliers) could have avoided.

Grrrrrr.  Drip drip drip.  Water dripping through the kitchen ceiling.  So I rush upstairs, pull back the carpet, rip up the floorboards and hunt the leaking pipe.  …to no avail.  I locate a stream of warm water, trouble is it’s not coming from a pipe, it’s pouring down the inside of a partition wall and there’s not a pipe around.  So the only way to find it will be to knock out the wall and hope there’s a pipe somewhere behind.  Quick call to the insurance company - I’m covered for the search and find, but not the plumbing.  Grrrr.  If this house was software it would be a pizza house.  Everything is so tightly connected, you can’t just pull something out - it’ll pull allsorts out with it.  Better start again.   But in software you don’t have insurance for the mistakes that some  foolish previous owner made.