User experience blog

What’s happening at Webcredible

By Trenton Moss on 1 September 2010

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Another month goes by and we head into the final third of the year and - as usual in September - thoughts begin to turn to Christmas (at least in my household!). There are a whole 4 months to go but the gift ideas and general planning - as well as the Christmas store front displays - are likely to begin very soon.

Because of this we decided to re-run the same poll we did 2 years ago, where it turned out that 1/3 of you weren’t such great planners and did your Xmas shopping at the last minute on the high street! Our latest poll is asking when you’ll do your Christmas shopping between now and December and whether you’ll do it online or on the high street. Over the years we’ve run about 20 polls, with all the results available on the site - they certainly make for interesting reading.

Other than watching the poll votes pile up, we’ve been busy as usual in the office… or at least those us left in the office have been. With holiday season in full swing the office is as usual at its quietest this month. And given the weather in London during August you couldn’t really choose a better month to get away.

Another thing that happened this month is that our training courses seem to be selling even more than usual, which is great news for us! Our search engine rankings for the courses have increased quite a lot in the past month, which is one of the reasons for this.

Our web pages always rank well in Google as there’s so much good content on the site and the pages use very efficient code. We realised however that the training pages didn’t feature the training name enough so did a bit of work increasing the keyword density (i.e. inserting the name of the course a few more times on the page) and hey-presto! For example, our social media training course has increased from 52 to 9 in the Google rankings.

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The relevance of digital marketing for higher education

By James Gurd on 31 August 2010

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Education is highly competitive and with the Government having announced a funding cut of £950m for British Universities over the next 3 years, it will only get tougher. 15-24 year olds make up 16% of the total PC-based Internet population in the UK but that figure leaps to 25% for mobile access.

Furthermore, there’s an import mature student market that needs to be considered. Are mature students more or less likely to research their options in more detail before making a decision? Either way they will need information to help them make a decision.  Choosing your education path is a pivotal moment in the your life and certainly shapes your future.

Digital marketing enables direct communication and consistent dialogue to influence people throughout their buying cycle.  Interactive online technology such as LiveChat can be used in conjunction with marketing campaigns to ensure students get the information they need when they need it.

How can higher education brands increase engagement with their customers?
We think there is a persuasion battle to be won for higher education. Students (and indeed their parents) need to be persuaded that the place they choose offers them the best solution for their unique needs. Not all students have identical demands; not all are driven purely by academic achievement, extra-curricular strength can be equally persuasive. Engagement is key and digital marketing provides multiple options for increasing communication and discussion.

Dominating search results is important
Only 8% of users go past the 3rd page of search results and 68% change the term if they don’t find what they want on the first page. It is logical, therefore, that higher education marketers need to master site optimisation and ensure that their webpages are prominent for relevant keyphrase searches. In the UK this inevitable will focus on Google given its continued market dominance, though due attention to Bing is also required.

It’s a social thing
In the words of MGMT, the youth are starting to change. Traffic from social networks to brand websites is increasing and social media is international. That’s a boon for universities and colleges with an international prospectus and a lucrative overseas market.

Surely social media gives such establishments the opportunity to connect with potential customers and influence their decision-making?

Our Webcredible article on digital marketing for higher education is coming out tomorrow so come back to read more on this. In the article we look at how higher education can embrace digital media to influence their customers and attract the right people to their courses.

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Moving to the other side: Nokia to iPhone

By Claire Savage on 31 August 2010

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Having spent years with my trusty Nokia or Blackberry I finally took the plunge and moved to the other side: the iPhone.

Although, it’s incredibly intutuive and I loved all the features instantly it did create me one major problem. Every time someone called me I cut them off.

After spending my time calling back and reassuring my friends and family that I did in fact want to talk to them, I began to look at why. It was actually very simple.

The red decline button is on the bottom left of the screen which is where I had spent years hitting receive call on my previous mobiles.

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Why Facebook is SO tempting to game developers

By Alistair Gray on 21 August 2010

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Facebook is the focus of a new gold rush for developers.  Everyone is trying to find the next Farmville.  The question is, why is Facebook so popular?  I believe there are 3 key reasons:

  1. It’s ubiquitous
  2. All your friends, in 1 place
  3. It’s so easy to start playing

Ubiquitous

Facebook is everywhere!  There’s no escape. Nearly everyone I know is on it, so nearly everyone I know can play games on it.  That is a massive market ready to be tapped.  No console game could get close to the number of Farmville players at its peak.

All your friends in 1 place

Nearly everyone likes to play games with friends.  All the way back to chess (and beyond) games have been a good way to interact with others.  Being online gives you access to millions of other players, but why play with strangers when you can play with friends?  The solution?  Friend lists.

John Vechey (Popcap co-founder) recently had some interesting thoughts about Facebook and friends lists:

I’m very pro-Facebook. I never want to make a friends list again… I hate making friends lists in games. Take League of Legends - I was playing for three weeks until I found out some of my friends had been playing!

The problems with friends lists as a concept include:

  • The need to recreate the list each time (or most times)
  • You need to know which of your friends to add - you sometimes need to stay in contact externally to keep track of who’s playing what
  • They sometimes need a complex string of characters to be entered (an email or a series of numbers). This is less of an issue with a PC, but with consoles and their less well suited input controls this turns into a real effort

Efforts have been made to reduce the pain by using shared lists. But why bother at all?  Most people have a ready made friends list in Facebook. I’ve seen Blizzard is looking to get into Facebook - and it’s not a moment too soon! I hope other developers take note.

Research is needed to find how gamers would want Facebook/the game to behave with this information. For example would gamers want their “game” friends mixing with their “real life” friends online, or should they be separated?  How would gamers like their online gaming behaviour broadcasted, if at all?

It’s easy to play

Adding a game to Facebook is easy.  No installation, very little loading screens and no initial costs. This means there’s no real technical barrier between the developers and the potential players.

Conclusion

Facebook presents a very compelling case to developers. Large markets, easy access and strong links between people. It’s also compelling to gamers. An easy access point to games, and strong social interaction with all your friends who are also playing.

All that’s needed now are iconic Facebook games that can capture peoples imagination, spare time and wallets.  Before that can truly happen, there is much work that needs to be done looking at gaming and social interaction and the interaction between the two.

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Pre-university admin tasks should be completed online - poll results

By Claire Savage on 19 August 2010

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I find it very hard to believe that 14 years on from when I went through the A-Level/Uni student application process, basic activities in the whole system are still not available online.

Just take a look at today’s typical student:

  • most will be on online via PC and mobile applications
  • most will be regularly interacting with websites, not to mention constant attachment to their social media pages

So I wasn’t really surprised that in our recent poll students would like to be able to do more of their university activities online.  Just imagine selecting your future flatmates online or knowing what modules you’re taking so you can get your parents to buy all the books before you go!  See below for results:

  • Applying for student loan - 23%
  • Applying for clearing places - 8%
  • Applying for accommodation - 12%
  • Meeting fellow students - 13%
  • Choosing course units - 24%
  • Applying for student bank account - 3%
  • Other - 7%
  • None, it should all be offline - 9%

Just think how efficient the whole system would be if students could start the process prior to the start date?  But perhaps that’s the real reason that activities remain offline.

The less easy it is to navigate the process, the less likely you are to apply and the less likely to go.  Yes, this is the perfect solution to current shortage of places… make the whole process difficult!

Photo credit: nics_events via Flickr/Creative Commons

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