user-experience

Nobody gives a f*** about your website.

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It’s true.

OK, so it’s not entirely true in all circumstances.

YOU care about your website because it’s your job to, and your boss cares because she signed off the budget, and your web designer cares because he’s a web designer. But… nobody else does, least of all your customers. So, even though it’s not completely true – here’s why it’s a good attitude to have, and how taking it to heart can improve user experience, deliver better results for your organisation and ultimately make the world a better place™.

First, let’s consider what a website actually is. Usually, it’s a series of lines of code in what’s basically a text document, stored online on a server somewhere. When a visitor types in the address of a particular page on that server, their web browser is sent that document. The document carries instructions to the browser, eg ‘First, make the background blue. Next, print a title that says “Welcome to this Website”. Next, go and get an image and display it on the left” – and so on.

Essentially, a website is a delivery mechanism for content. The content could be words, pictures, videos, or a combination of all of those things, plus maybe some forms or widgets that make other stuff happen. That content and those things are what’s important. Those things are the ONLY reason people will visit your site. Those things are what your boss should have approved a bigger budget for.

All the website does is present content to visitors in a helpful way. It’s basically like a set of magic shelves that – at a minimum – makes it easy to see where things are. At best, it tries to anticipate what they might want to look at next, and move that shelf forward so the thing is easier to reach.

Remember when you used to go and buy things in actual, tax-paying, shops? (I’m harking back like this because the metaphor is more effective. If you’re Gen Z, ask your mum.) 

Did you ever, even once, say “hey I bought this great thing and, guess what? The shelf it was on was AMAZING.” No you didn’t. Unless you’re a shopfitter or some other weirdo with a special interest in that kind of thing. The shelf just did its job. The only reason you would notice the shelf at all is if you were just about to pick up the thing you wanted to buy and, as you touched it, the shelf collapsed and the thing smashed and then the proprietor pointed to the “you broke it, you bought it” sign and then everything was bad. 

Or – a more likely scenario – you couldn’t find the thing you wanted – so you poked around on the shelf where you thought it should be, and then finally got the hump and stomped off to ask someone.

In either scenario, you’re only noticing the shelf because there’s a problem.

And that’s why, not only does nobody give a f*** about your website – but nobody should even NOTICE your website. And if they don’t – but they can do what they need to do there easily and quickly – then your website is working perfectly and you should go and hug your UX designer and give them some cake.

PEW – Global Sharks Campaign

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Working in conjunction with a global environmental research group, we designed a standalone interactive presentation tool that could be updated in-house by the client.

The tool has since been used in successful campaigns to persuade regions such as the Bahamas to treat Sharks as a valuable resource and to protect them from overfishing.

Interactive E-cards

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Back when Flash was a thing, and before Facebook reminded you when your best friends’ birthday was – people wanted a way to send (and preschedule) electronic greetings. We created an interactive e-card service – joandjoe.com – with an underwater theme.

The site allowed you to send beautiful, animated personalised greetings. Some of the cards were fully interactive – others more like a short video story.

The cards were loved and used by thousands of people around the world and adopted by organisations including WWF, The Wildlife Trusts and PADI / Project AWARE.

(More info to be added soon).

Graphit.com Product Configurator

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GRAPHIT is a tube-and-bracket system used in industry to create structures for moving, storing and displaying materials.

We conceived and managed the design, development and launch of an online configurator that would allow customers to configure their own structures (within a preset range of designs).

The app was custom-built using cutting-edge technologies including React & WebGL. It was optimised for desktop, tablet and smartphone use. We conducted a series of User Testing workshops with existing customers and key stakeholders from the client organisation.

An internal framework for rapid addition of new products was developed, and a roadmap including Augmented Reality to enable customers to instantly visualise structures in situ.

The app was the first of its kind in the industry, and swiftly spawned imitations from competitors.

ETI Infographics

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Working closely with the comms team and heads of engineering, we created an extensive series of infographics for Energy Technology Institute’s stakeholder engagement programmes.

Part of a presentation on how HDV efficiency is critical to meeting carbon targets
This complex infographic explained the Innovation Funding Landscape around low-carbon energy generation
The Energy Systems Modelling Environment explained, using the familiar device of the London Tube Map (with permission from TFL)
Smart Systems and Heat – Relationships between Technologies

Start-up Strategy: Explanimation

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In 2010 a wide range of subsidies and incentives for renewable energy technologies came into force in the UK. 

The tariffs were incredibly generous and, almost overnight, a new industry sprang up to meet the exploding demand for installation. 

Some of the technologies, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, were pretty simple to understand. Others, like Air-source heat pumps, were counterintuitive and the basic principles hard to explain. In addition, the tariffs themselves were complex, and the rates changed every three months.

Having already done some creative work in this sector, and with a strong personal interest in renewable energy, we identified the widespread need for small/medium businesses with limited marketing budgets to explain the technologies and tariffs to their customers.

With video rapidly ascending as the premium content format for online marketing, we created a set of renewable energy explainers using an clean, minimal 2d animation style. We devised a way to add customer branding to the videos, a custom online player, and a brandable video file distribution system. We created a licensing model that protected our IP but allowed for customised content and, most importantly, we updated the videos live every three months or when tariffs changed.

This way, for a simple, scalable monthly or annual subscription fee, businesses could show branded explainers on their websites and in face-to-face sales scenarios, with always up—to-date tariffs and worked examples of cost savings. This avoiding the one-off costs for producing highly-researched animated content which would then have to be periodically amended.

The service was immensely popular and, relying almost entirely on carefully researched direct marketing (for larger customers) and natural viral propagation (for everyone else), we captured a huge slice of the market and ran highly profitably for several years.

Eventually changes to environmental policy drove down (or wound up) the available tariffs – the industry shrank back accordingly and we decided not to grow the business any further until renewable energy returns to the UK government’s priority list.

Our Explainer Videos combined stylised explanations of mechanical processes with clear visual presentations of tariff data and calculations.

Key Achievements

  • Produced some of the most effective explainers ever made about renewable energy technologies across 16 topics
  • Devised innovative content-licensing model to protect our IP in customer-branded materials
  • Developed online app to part-automate video creation process and remotely manage access
  • Customers included UK Government, EDF, Wolseley/Plumb Center, Saint-Gobain as well as hundreds of SMEs