Building a dynamic web team without the silos
I came across this post while scanning my RSS feeds and it made me think about the group of designers and developers we've got. The "silo'd" effect is really common in web development. Project manager, developer, designer...and the only links in between are a task list with due dates. While this is effective for some companies, I don't believe it lends itself to an outstanding online experience, whatever the desired goals might be.
The end-user savvy developer & designer
Having developers who are usability-savvy and having designers who are development-savvy (may not be experts, but understand the general concepts of abstracting out CSS classes and approaching it like a developer would) is the perfect blend of talent. It's why I'm also not a huge fan of completely separating design elements from development elements in the code on a site.
A designer who's primary responsibility is interface design and usability is of much higher value to me if they know some code and can navigate around some of the simpler concepts with languages like PHP. Likewise, a developer who understands the value of making an effort to build a usable application is also highly desired. It's less work in the long-run for everybody.
It's hard to go into too many specifics without divulging our internal projects, but the above article was a really great overview as to why you've got to encourage collaboration and hire individuals who take interest in what the other aspects are of web design and development. Sprinkle in some marketing savvy amongst the designers and developers and you've got a very efficient team. It gives the project manager more time to spend with the individuals to brainstorm ideas rather than being the "bridge" between design and development.
Silos are bad in many areas of business, web development is just one of them
I prefer working with people who themselves don't act like their job responsibilities are in a silo. This is true in many aspects of business, not just web development. It's a concept that many developers don't fully realize and as a result, they may be limiting their potential growth within their organization/career path.
Blackberry 8703e Review…still not perfect
I recently upgraded from a Blackberry 8700 (on the T-mobile network) to an 8703e on the Sprint network. The primary reason was so that I could get a local phone number for business as well as access corporate e-mail, etc. Previously, I did not have cell phone service with my 8700, just enterprise e-mail service. Now I have the best of both worlds.
My main gripe right now is that the phone quality is really poor. I can't tell if this is the design of the Blackberry or if it's Sprint's network. Calling my wife's cell phone our or home Vonage line with my old Nokia 6820 on Cingular's network results in a much better quality call that doesn't drop. In a week of use, I've experienced poor phone quality and more frequently dropped calls. Apparently it's also difficult for people on the other end of the line to hear me at times, whereas with my Nokia, they can hear me just fine.
Phone quality problems aside, my life is just about perfect with this phone. E-mail, internet, ssh client, AIM, Yahoo! IM, Google Chat, Gmail, SMS messaging, and the ability to look at Word/PDF attachments makes traveling much more convenient. It's a great enterprise phone for the business user, but still lacks the following:
- mp3 playback
- video playback
- HTML e-mail support
- no camera
- web browsing experience is OK, but still is not a "true" browser, despite its emulation capabilities
I still am highly anticipating the iPhone. However, with just about all of my life consolidated into one device (I forward my calls from my old Nokia on my Cingular account to my BlackBerry, now), I may wait until the second generation iPhone instead. This is almost good enough for me to not really need the iPhone, but it still doesn't quite do everything. I have yet to purchase a true iPod (I just have an iPod Shuffle), so the iPhone essentially solves that need, plus gives me the added benefits of being able to do just about everything else I could ask.
For now, The Blackberry continues to be an excellent tool for business use.
Airline customer service
I'm sitting in the Boston airport living in the wonderful world of customer service in the airline industry.
When checking in at the kiosk today, my reservation wasn't found either when I used my credit card or when I entered my confirmation number. I proceeded to wait in line for an agent to help me. While waiting in line I witnessed the classic display of not servicing a customer:
A man, his wife, and 2 kids were checking luggage. I heard him ask why his seats were no longer next to each other (for his family) on the flight. The agent replied with, "I don't know" and refused to help offer an explanation or reconfigure his seating arrangement. I could see his frustration, but because it was not worth his time to pursue it further (2 antsy kids clawing at his feet), he reluctantly lunged his bags onto the scale for the agent.
I couldn't help but wonder why the experience at the airport check-in counters is always like this from airport-to-airport. It was as if this man had personally wronged the agent behind the counter!
On the flip side of the coin, I was dealing with a cancelled flight. I really wish the kiosk would have told me it was cancelled and that I would need to use those mysterious-looking black phones near the kiosks that are only designed to dial into customer service -- a simple notification would have saved 10 minutes of my time waiting in line. Instead, I.waited, only to be told to use the phone to rebook my flight. Fine.
I spent more time on the phone on hold, at the airport. The agent on the phone couldn't figure out why the flight was canceled, so this made me more confused. He could have put me on standby to fly me to an airport within an hour of my house (instead of the one only 15 minutes away). This one wasn't cancelled. Since it was only standby, I didn't want to check my bag and not get on the flight. Because the cancellation was "weather-related", Delta couldn't get me on another flight because "all other airlines will experience the dame weather-related issues."
Unsatisfied with this answer, I thanked the agent for trying and proceeded to call American Express business travel (through our office). I hopped in a cab to get driven to the united airways terminal while I booked a flight over the phone for a flight out this evening that wasn't cancelled. After getting my confirmation # seconds before getting to the kiosk to check in, I was all set.
The AMEX business travel agent was fabulous in accomodating my travel needs and dealing with my distracted attention span while I hustled from terminal-to-taxi-to-terminal-to-kiosk. Likewise, united airways was curtious during check-in too, and fielded my stupid questions about the weather causing delays.
Delta could take some customer service lessons from other folks in the industry. The airline industry in general could do a better job managing traveler expectations during inclimate weather situations as well.
iTunes usability blunder while purchasing multiple songs
I'm traveling this week for a web usability study and before my trip, I made a stop by the iTunes store to load up on some new music. Apple, who I normally praise for excellent usability and simplicity in user interface design, has made a rather annoying usability blunder in their iTunes store.
Their latest feature seems to be showing you an up-to-date "album price" that dynamically adjusts as you purchase songs from an album. For example, take a look at this screen shot of the new Avril Lavigne album, pre-purchase:
Now, after making a purchase (of track #1, "Girlfriend"), look at the screen shot (I've highlighted the area that changes):
The "Complete My Album for $9.00" is now showing based on me having purchased track #1 from the album. While this may look like a great convenience feature on the surface, it is horribly annoying if you're picking and choosing multiple tracks to buy. The reason why it is annoying is because each time you click "Buy Song," it spawns a refresh of the entire album page to update the "complete my album" price. This is a problem when your track list is scrollable (due to multiple songs). Because the entire page refreshes, it doesn't remember your scroll-to-point, and starts you back over at the top.
This may work for individual album releases -- but it really breaks down on larger album compilations and iMixes
This becomes particularly annoying on larger, compilation albums or in the iMixes area of the store where you're always going to pick and choose your favorites out of 10's or even 100's of tracks. Previously, I could just zip down the list and click "buy song" on each line item and it would queue up several purchases for me within a matter of seconds. Now, with this new design, I have to click "buy song," wait for the page to refresh, re-scroll to my previous location, and click "buy song" again on the next track I want...and repeat.
Will it increase conversion to full album purchases?
I hope they are evaluating whether or not this helps convert to sales of entire albums (I secretly hope it doesn't so they ditch this new functionality). I really don't see how it will considering people probably pick and choose what they want, rather than buying a song or two, then convert to purchasing the entire album.
Usability shouldn't get in the way of consumers spending their money with you
If I were Apple, I would eliminate this feature for now because it's such an inconvenience and makes it painful for users purchasing multiple tracks. It can always be added later when the iTunes browser can support Ajax or dynamically update content within a page without forcing an entire page refresh. For now, it's a big pain point for me that makes spending money difficult -- usability shouldn't get in the way of consumers spending their money with you.
Blog by Eric Long
I'm an experienced online marketer, information architect, digital strategist, and social media enthusiast. I'm passionate about providing outstanding cross-channel experiences for considered purchases (with a focus on mass customization).
About Eric Long
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