User Experience

The Jitterbug cell phone for baby boomers takes the complexity out of a cell phone by removing many of the features. Jitterbug concentrated on both the physical (industrial) design and the user interface.

For example, the physical design of the phone introduces a soft rubber cup around the earpiece that doesn’t just make the phone more comfortable but also blocks ambient noise, making the phone easier to use for the hearing-impaired.

The graphical user interface eliminates icons or menus and offers series of simple questions to the users. Users can simply answer using the big bold YES and NO buttons on the handset. For example, in the screen below phone offers the user to listen to their messages, the action required by the user is either YES or NO by clicking those buttons.

Overall Jitterbug is another good example of a company that designed a product by keeping the user in mind.

Take a look at their demo and you will notice that each feature is introduced by the words “Easy to use”, or visit their website.

Today there is hundreds of video camera in the market, each coming with tons of features, but can you remember all the features? Are these features useful? How many times have you felt lazy to pick up your camera, shoot and captured video to playback on your PC or TV because it takes up too much effort? And then the memory tapes (Mini DV, H8), card, batteries to worry about.

And, what about the parents who have a running toddler and a baby to carry while shooting – how easy is are these cameras in situations like these? Not much!

PureDigital thought about all these factors and focused on a camera that is really easy to use, so you can focus on what you want to capture in the easiest and quickest way.

Here are some of the quotes they have recived:

• Wall Street Journal: “Stunningly simple to use“
• BusinessWeek: “A Sweet and Simple Camcorder“
• CNN Money.com: “YouTube for Soccer Moms“
• Chicago Tribune: “Catching life’s little wonders on video just got easier“

See the picture below of Flip Video or learn more about the camera at PureDigital product page.

I read this article in business week on Philips’ customer centric design process to redesign their electric shaver. The ROI is yet to be measured on this product but I can say for sure that after listening to 5,000 men in U.S., Europe, and China this new electric shaver would be an easy sell.

Here are some highlights from the case study, if you want to get a quick snapshot:
Research:
• Philips interviewed 5,000 men in U.S., Europe, and China between the ages of 35 and 54
• Target users are experienced shaver who is comfortable spending more for a premium shaver

Findings:
Men didn’t have problems shaving the face but had problems with hairs on the neck under the chin.

Solution Idea:
To design an electric shaver that can easily maneuver around the neck, with least irritation.

Prototype:
Among other finds from the customers, the design was inspired by many ads showing cars, phones, and men accessories and color was inspired from the Silver Motorola RAZR phone, BMW Z4 Coupe, and the Volant silver series skis.

You can read the full article on Businessweek.com

“Call to Action” is a marketing concept that is also applied to the web. In marketing, it’s used to make the advertisement effective by telling prospective customer what steps they need to take next. You can see this prominently in infomercials where the advertisement would say that you need to “pick up the phone and call the number on your screen now to order” because they don’t know how many of these products they can sell at this low price, and how long the free gifts would last.

The meaning of “call to action” remains the same on web too, below is a email from”Feed the children” with prominent “call to action” telling me the “options that I have”, “steps I should take next” and “how I can take those steps” and making those as clear as possible. Take a look below, and while you are at it you can help by donating too.

Here is another article on “Call to Action” and a link to Feed The Children’s website.