Finalists have now been announced for this years incredibly competitive Salford Business Awards, which will be held at Salford City Stadium on the 31st May and we’re excited to announce that Keepitusable has been shortlisted as a finalist in two categories: Rising Star and Entrepreneur.

Our co-founder, Lisa, commented “We’re honoured to have been shortlisted as a finalist in the Salford Business Awards and we think it just goes to show how Media City is helping to shape Salford. Most User Experience agencies are based in London but we feel that Media City has and will continue to bring great opportunities for local businesses so we’re sticking around! Keepitusable now has many well known household brands as clients, including Media City’s prestigious resident, the BBC. We’re a user experience agency which means we help companies to create products and services that customers will love using. We research and analyse real human behaviour and interaction with technology then design around this to create more profitable, customer-centric products and services.”

Paul Wainwright, Chair of The Business Group commented:  ‘Once again we’ve had a record number of entries and our finalists reflect the diverse nature of the vibrant Salford business community.  Choosing the finalists has been even more difficult than in previous years and all who entered should be proud of their achievements to date.  We very much look forward to joining them in celebrating their successes and continued growth at the award ceremony on the 31st May.’

Salford’s City Mayor, Ian Stewart, said:  ‘The people shortlisted for these awards make such a great contribution to this city that it is absolutely right that they receive recognition for the fantastic work they do. Now, more than ever, we need to be supporting our business community, as they have the potential to provide the economic lift we need to bring jobs and prosperity to the city. The achievement of these companies, despite tough economic times, is testament to the great work that is going on in salford.

Mobile is big business. The iPhone paved the way for smartphones, increasing their popularity and acceptance; now 48% of UK mobile users own a smartphone and this figure is sure to grow along with the tablet market. People are also using mobiles to make purchases, generating substantial web traffic and revenue for those companies who have ensured a good mobile user experience for their consumers.

A recent Forrester report analysed what trends we can expect in 2012. Here, we present a brief summary of the main findings.

‘How’ mobile services are delivered will differentiate them, not ‘What’ they deliver

Those companies that focus on a simple user experience and convenience will be the ones who stand out from their competitors.

Walgreen recently announced that 40% of its online pharmacy sales originate on mobile devices. Its success is rooted in the simplicity and convenience offered by its mobile prescription refill functionality. Delivering convenience will demand a close partnership with customer experience professionals, as most improvements will come through the design of the experience.

New Smartphone users will be less sophisticated

In the past, Smartphones were predominantly used by business types. This is no longer the case and ease of use will become even more important.

Connective mobile technologies will continue to grow

Augmented reality, 2D bar codes, NFC to discover digital content that compliments real world experiences will continue to grow.

Connecting consumers with the right content at the right time will become increasingly important to influence purchase decisions in physical locations.

Increasing customer engagement and satisfaction: top company objectives for mobile

A great user experience is all about increasing engagement and customer satisfaction. With your competitors focussing on this, can you really afford not to?

Need for both applications and the web

Mobile shoppers are using both applications and the mobile web so it’s worth ensuring you provide both.

Social, local, and mobile (SoLoMo) needs added incentives for consumers

Apps that require users to check-in are used infrequently and need added incentives for users to check-in with them regularly.

Growth of tablets

Adoption rates of tablets are expected to reach 12% in Europe and 19% in the US by the end of 2012. If your digital presence isn’t optimized for tablets, now is the time to start working on it.

Ricardo Ortega, co-founder of Keepitusable, said: “The tablet and smartphone markets are now growing faster than PCs. People expect applications to be easy-to-use more than ever before. Those companies that invest in great apps that engage their customers will be the ones that excel in the next few years.”

Creating a great user experience is incredibly difficult because human beings are complicated and unpredictable. Software and websites are often very comprehensive, so creating something that is simple to use and intuitive is ironically complex.

The importance of accessibility is often an undervalued part of the user experience. For companies such as broadcasters, their audience range can be incredibly varied, accessing services from many devices. So ensuring good usability and access for assistive technology is vital.

Businesses, such as e-commerce, often see accessibility as unnecessary or are uncertain of the benefits it can bring. But focussing on accessibility for your tablet or mobile app, website or software means a lot more visitors will be able to become customers.

This article was published in Creative times.

In the next few years the number of smartphones will treble the amount of PCs! The smartphone is the lazy man’s computer. It’s also the computer they have by their side 24 hours a day, so why would they waste time turning on their PC when they can simply pick up their mobile? The answer is your customers won’t.

Having a mobile presence isn’t good enough though. We know from conducting many mobile user tests that mobile users are much more frustrated by a poor experience and badly designed apps. They’re more time stricken, less patient and more easily distracted by what’s around them. That’s why you need to make sure your mobile presence has the best user experience it can possibly have. Usability testing with real users is incredibly important to make sure you’re providing not just a user-friendly experience but one which meets their needs whilst on the move and will keep them coming back for more.

“We struggle to find good human factors people”

Jaguar Land Rover

Ergonomics and human factors specialists are very rare in the UK, so our team is incredibly unique. And good human factors specialists in particular are very difficult to find. Even a large iconic brand such as Jaguar Land Rover struggles.

Science

The added value Ergonomists provide include an insight into the more scientific aspects of human-machine interaction and physical aspects of hardware and workflow. Although more widely known for office layouts and designing work environments, Ergonomists often work directly with Designers to ensure products meet International Standards for human-centred design.

Hardware and software flow

Often within companies, hardware and software are designed by completely different departments which can result in a lack of flow between interacting with the device hardware and software for the end user. The ergonomist can bridge this gap, helping to create a seamless flow between hardware and software interaction. Ergonomists can recommend what hardware buttons are required to work with the interface, the size, type, and position they should be placed for ease-of-use, colour and grouping categories, the naming that should be used to be the easiest to understand and what force should be required to access them.

Prototype Testing

It is possible to test very early hardware and software concept prototypes via an expert usability evaluation (expert review) or even with users, much like a usability test, giving you vital feedback at an early enough stage to make cost-effective changes before it’s too late.

As touchscreens become more prevalent and are used by millions of people, the need for good user-centred designs becomes vitally important.

As opposed to standard interface design, touchscreens, in particular large screens, can require a great deal of physical interaction between human and hardware. If you aren’t careful, the user can end up suffering from a range of repetitive strain injuries or at the very least may just feel uncomfortable using your product rather than the pleasant feeling you want them to associate with your brand.

Frequency of use matters

Problems can occur when your software or product is used by someone on a daily basis. The more frequent the interaction, the higher the chance of encountering health problems.

This could be a mobile phone, a machine interface that someone has to use as part of their job, computer games, etc. The obvious knock-on effect for business is a poorly designed product that causes user dissatisfaction, health problems and bad PR.

Shopping centre touchscreens have less frequency of interaction so require incredibly high ease of use.

Trafford centre touchscreen

Implications for businesses on employees 

For businesses whose employees are using the software, the likely outcomes are a dissatisfied, unmotivated workforce, poor productivity, increased error rates resulting in tasks taking much longer, increased absence and lower morale.

Implications for software and product companies

For software or product companies, the outcomes will likely be dissatisfied customers, poor reviews, increased returns, increased calls to customer services, less return customers and bad publicity which in turn leads to a lowering of the customers perception of your brand.

How we help

Unlike other user experience and usability agencies out there, did you know we have a fully fledged Ergonomist here at Keepitusable? We also have many years experience of designing and usability testing for touch:

• We have one of the first ever mobile touch interface designers. He was busy designing smartphone mobile touch interfaces as far back as Ericsson and before the term ‘user experience’ even existed.
• We have undertook a multitude of usability tests and user research with touch devices, in particular, mobile.
• We have created prototypes and conducted research with users to determine touch hit area sizes and to investigate things like environmental effects and multitasking.
• We have a dedicated in-house ergonomist and human factors expert which enables us to not only focus on the interface but also the hardware, position type and shape of buttons, physical aspects of interaction, posture, user dexterity, etc.

• Acquire more customers via your website
• Increase the amount your customers buy from you
• Keep people on your website for longer
• Improve the design of your website
• Increase newsletter signups
• Increase views to a specific page

Then you must read this ebook. Sign up to our newsletter for future chapters packed full of not-to-be-missed advice.

Simply click on the image below to view the ebook or click here.

We know so many expert tips to increase your conversion that we just can’t keep them to ourselves any longer! Each month we’ll be releasing a new chapter of our kick-ass conversion ebook, packed full of all our expert secrets, tips and advice to improve your user experience.

Co-founder of Keepitusable, Lisa Duddington, has appeared on Creative Boom talking about the amazing Salford University Carnival held at Islington Mill yesterday. We had a great time! Below is an extract of the article and if you want to read more just head on over to Creative Boom.

Over a hundred Salford University graphic design students showcased their amazing work at Islington Mill yesterday in a fun carnival themed event organised in conjunction with Designers Northern Alliance.

Representatives from key Manchester and Salford agencies attended the event to inspire and look for the next generation of fresh talent. Keepitusable, Magnetic North, Design by Day, Eskimo Creative, and Code ComputerLove were just some of the industry experts to attend the event.

Lisa Duddington, co-founder of Keepitusable Salford’s first user experience design agency whose clients include the BBC, saw the event as a valuable opportunity to connect with and inspire the next generation of designers.

“It’s so exciting to be part of this event! We know how difficult it can be when you’re first starting your career, so we’re eager to help students and graduates to gain the valuable experience and knowledge they need to succeed in what is an incredibly competitive industry.

We have a fantastic relationship with Salford University and are proud to be able to offer both their students and graduates incredible opportunities to gain industry experience.”

Read more on the Creative Boom website >>>

Have you spent money on marketing to drive more traffic to your website? Have you used Google’s paid search or Facebook advertising? Well, did you know that spending money to get more people to your site is money down the drain if they’re not converting into sales? Most companies concentrate solely on increasing the numbers of visitors to their site in the hope that this will lead to more sales, when in fact, they would be much better focussing on converting their current traffic. For a minimal cost, it is a much longer term solution that results in actually costing your business much less than constantly paying out for lower converting traffic.

Here’s an example of your users’ behaviour:

1. User is looking at a page of Google search results.
2. They click on your paid link.
3. They arrive at your landing page.
4. At this point many factors influence whether they stay and progress further into your site or bounce back to the list of results.

Money spent on marketing is wasted with low converting landing pages

If you’ve spent money getting traffic to your site, the last thing you want is for the landing page to be a barrier to the user progressing further. This is why analysing and understanding the user’s behaviour and designing your pages with this at the forefront of your considerations is vital to keeping traffic on your site, increasing conversions and increasing sales.

Your primary focus should be ensuring the following pages are as effective as they possibly can be:

• Landing pages
• Top use cases
• Contact
• Basket
• Checkout
• Registration (if you require this)

Over the coming months we’ll be releasing a series of pdfs, each is a chapter in our unmissable kick-ass conversion handbook, written by our experts to increase your website conversion for free! Together, all the chapters form the best conversion eBook around so make sure you don’t miss out by signing up to our newsletter right now.

Sign up to our newsletter (on our home page) and we’ll send you each chapter as soon as it’s released so you don’t miss out on your free amazing kick-ass conversion handbook. First chapter: Who the f*** are you? will be sent to our mailing list on 1st March

If you think your website could benefit from increased conversion, get in touch with us as we can help.

The first talk by Amnesty International’s Irene Khan was the hardest hitting. She spoke about human rights in other countries, in particular, women’s rights (or rather the lack of). It was eye opening and a stark reminder of how lucky we are. It was also uplifting to hear of how Irene’s work is making a positive change to many women’s lives.

The next two talks were both by explorers. Edward Stafford was the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon river, you may have seen the TV documentary of his journey ‘Walking the Amazon’. His talk was incredibly engaging and entertaining. Unlike Ed who employs locals along his journey to accompany him which helps his safety, the following speaker, Benedict Allen, conducts all his explorations alone. Placing his trust in tribes he meets has both been a life saver and nearly resulted in his death on several occasions.

The futurist Anne Lise Kjaer (shown in the photo below) enlightened us into how the world will be more women-dominated in the future and how we will change from the current ‘me’ economy to a ‘we’ economy. The date on her slides showed 2020+ but we believe it will take much longer than this. Anne described an exciting prototype mirror being built right now that will enable self-diagnosis of things like skin, weight, dental and medical problems! As specialists in touchscreen interface design, we’re really excited about new technology developments such as this. These are the kinds of products we adore designing and usability testing – touchscreens will rule the future! In the meantime we hope the self diagnosis mirror doesn’t take too long to reach the market as we reeeeaaaally want one!

Trevor Cox is a sound scientist. His aim was to make us more aware of sounds in our everyday lives. Often sounds aren’t something we pay much attention to, but he played audio of a clap being made in different environments and there was a huge difference between the sounds with some not resembling a clap sound at all. We never realised there was such a large impact from the environment on the sound we actually hear.

Two musicians spoke at the event. Tom Hingley from Inspiral carpets (who’s roadie used to be Noel Gallagher!) talked about copyright in the music industry and John Robb (pictured below) who used to be in the punk band Goldblade captured us all with his very honest talk. He had no slides and no notes yet his relaxed style and his stories of the rock and roll days had everyone rooted to their seats and talking about it over lunch!

A couple of scientists from CERN explained their research on neutrinos. Neutrinos are the smallest particles to exist, they travel faster than the speed of the light, we have them inside every one of us and they can penetrate a block of lead 1 light year thick! Wow!

Have you ever met an astronaut?

Well we are excited that we now have! Possibly the highlight of the event was Ronald Garan, a NASA astronaut all the way from Texas. He shared with us beautiful videos taken from space and tales from his journeys into space.

Other speakers at the event included Julie Summers (author and broadcaster) and Heather Witney (plant biologist) – did you know there is a plant that mimics rotting meat through it’s appearance and smell? it really is incredible how clever plants can be. We had to leave before the last few speakers came on but we managed to catch Dawn Gibbins (MBE and founder of Flowcrete) talk live online which made us wish we could have stayed! She had so much energy and passion and at the age of 50 is a true inspiration to women young and old. She had a great attitude to business.

Overall the day was full of enthusiasm, positive energy and the next day I awoke full of inspiration with lots of new ideas for Keepitusable. Keep an eye out for TEDx events near you. They are awesome!

2 HCI Models, Theories and Frameworks: Toward a Multi-disciplinary Science by John M. Carroll

3 Search User Interfaces by Marti A. Hearst

4 Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell (patterns only)

5 Designing Mobile Interfaces by Steven Hoober and Eric Berkman

6 Web Style Guide by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton

7 Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design by Shawn Henry

8 Building accessible websites by Joe Clark

9 The Fable of the User-Centered Designer by David Travis

10 Converting The Believers by usereffect

11 Elements of psychology by Henry N. Day.

12 Learning, Remembering, Believing: Enhancing Human Performance by Daniel Druckman and Robert A. Bjork

13 Psychology and Industrial Efficiency by Hugo Münsterberg

14 Getting Real by 37 Signals

15 Time Management for Creative People by Mark McGuinness

16 Designing for the web by Five Simple Steps

17 Taking your talent to the web by Jeffrey Zeldman

18 CSS Cookbook

19 Knock Knock by Seth Godin

20 Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML by Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman

and here’s one extra!