The following is a mini-interview I conducted with Rainer Gibbert, a user insights lead for Xing, which I would describe as a European counterpart to LinkedIn.

PB: What does a User Insights Team Lead do?

RG: First let me shortly say something about XING – as probably not all readers will know it. XING is a professional social network based in Germany… quite similar than LinkedIn but (at least in the German-speaking region) much more active and personal… and of course much more usable!

The user insights team (actually the name of my team is “User Insights and Consulting”) is part of the product department of XING. The job of the team is to find out who the XING users are, how they work, what their needs are, how XING meets those needs. etc. And we carry those insights into the organization and consult our colleagues with regards to usability and UX questions.

So my job basically consist of two main parts. First I do lots of user research, user tests or generally talk to users. Second I help my colleagues in the product department to transform the insights we obtain into valuable and usable products.

PB: What do you like most about your job?

RG: My job is very versatile, interesting and fun. First, I talk a lot with people, learn interesting things about how people think, work and network and meet interesting personalities. Second, I work in a very nice, collaborative and inspiring team and company. And third, social networks are a really challenging, fast-changing and growing, interesting and fun topic to work on.

PB: What are the biggest things on the user experience design horizon that you’re interested in?

RG: As XING is a company using agile development, I used to work a lot on integrating UX into our agile processes in the past. And I would say that were have made good progress with this in the last 1,5 years.

Other topics that I am really interested in are persuasion design and game mechanics. How can we use those techniques to make our users more active, do the things we want them to do etc.

A last topic I would mention here is innovation management. In my team we collect loads of valuable insights that XING can use to create cool products. But transforming those insights and user needs into real problem-solving (innovative) products is not always easy. The insights have to be collected, analyzed and interpreted in the right way. After that, we need to find the right approaches to meet the user needs… I really like the design thinking approach to reach this goal.

The following is a mini-interview I conducted with Nanqian (Nancy) Xu, a design researcher who studied design strategy in the U.S. and now works for Samsung in China. I asked her to describe her work and interests.

PB: Please describe your current job role.

NX: My current job is the product researcher of Samsung Design China. Which my output will be linked to the design part. Mostly we do ergonomic research and sometimes quantitative and emotional research. We are trying to understand the local market and comparing with global market, to see what are the key driving factors of localized product usage.

PB: How design research similar, and how is it different, in the US and China?

NX: 1. Do be conservative. people in China are more conservative specially in less developed part or in higher income level (premium). Using camera (DSLR) is very disturbing while doing home visits. Not mentioned about the video. Best way to do it is to inform the people ahead, then use your iphone to take photos or videos. Do not point it to the user.
2. Do not bring foreigners. People in China will be more cautious, or curious about your peer than the topic.
3. Do check with the interviewee before your interview. Their availability, time length….Best is talk to them in person(phone), make them understanding you are not selling things or spam…
4. Methods? keep it simple. either direct or indirect, do not use complex tools. They will be frustrated than u do.
5. Gender? it really matters, or not. If you are going to a single lady’s home, might be good to bring only girls. (at least ask them before you go, to see if they are Ok with the group of people)

PB: What are the biggest things on the international design horizon that you’re interested in?

NX: To keep updated with the most best things, in every field of design.
We all know that youtube, facebook, flipboard or those good & fresh media are banned in China. Then I really need to know, and keep the social network and knowledge as a global level. To be localized in the research insights. but not be localized with the vision.
If you guys are having really good resource, like organizations, conferences,…etc, can be both online or in reality. Just let me know and I will try my best to make it spreading in the design field in China.

And last, dont get scared when I say do not bring foreigners. In a different type of research, like double mirrored room, market visit, focus group, you guys who are interested in China are highly welcomed. And with the help of local researcher, you can also peak into the real life of Chinese. People are open-minded in megacities.
Anytime in China, let me know. I will introduce some nice spots to enjoy the original Chinese living.

Cabela’s added several UX features in the past few months. The main enhancements we found in the “Summer 2011 Retailer UX Audit” were the addition of Facebook Like, product videos, and more product views (illustrated in the image below). The Facebook Like is a simple addition that every retailer should add to their product pages. It simply lets customers tell their Facebook friends that they like a particular product, and links back to the product page. It also establishes a link between the person who likes the product, and the retailer.

The other major features, videos and more product views, help Cabela’s customers get a better feel for the products they are interested in. The videos talk about features of the product and show them in usage situations, which anchors the attention of customers in the product more significantly, and gives them more confidence that if they purchase the product, they will not be surprised to find that it doesn’t meet their expectations.

These added UX features are a big step forward for the Cabelas.com user experience. Based on our review of 100 top retailers, some UX features that Cabela’s should consider adding in future releases are: Shopping Lists (different from wish list), Expert Advice/Chat, Product Combinations, Price Drop Alert, and Spanish Product Pages.

In Usography’s recent UX Audit, we reviewed the e-commerce sites of 100 top retailers. We were looking for the presence or absence of 30 features that we had derived from previous site reviews across a wide spectrum of e-commerce sites. A summary of the results are provided at http://www.usography.com/audit.

One result that surprised us is the absence of top tier e-commerce sites that have the option of viewing a product detail page in Spanish. The only sites that we were able to find Spanish product pages on, of those we reviewed, are listed below:

- Newegg

- Lumber Liquidators

- Victoria’s Secret

- Rooms To Go

- Sears

Rooms To Go link to view product page in Spanish

I don’t want to list the sites that didn’t have Spanish product pages, but they are easy to find in the list of sites we reviewed in the audit summary (http://www.usography.com/audit ). The audit summary also has a link to the product detail pages of all 100 sites reviewed.

In Usography’s Q2 UX Audit of 100 top retailers, we’re finding that the tools companies offer on product pages have evolved since last quarter. I’m going to write more about this, but I just wanted to show PCMall’s nice orderly product page tool bar.

All the non-purchase actions you might want to take in one easy-to-find area, rather than scattered helter-skelter about the page. I also like the fact that they offer expert chat, for customers who need just a little more info to push them over the edge. But I don’t like the way the floating chat request window covers the product image.

I’ll be publishing a lot more findings about the Summer 2011 UX Audit. There are some advances in surprising corners of the digital commerce world.

Shop.org, comScore, and Social Shopping Labs have recently published their 2011 Social Commerce Study: Consumer Shopping via Social Media. The top line summary is reproduced below. Clearly, social shopping has not yet hit its stride, although the adoption curve is trending in that direction. The report recommends actions retailers can take to bring their social strategy in line with consumer expectations. In Usography’s field studies, we have observed and can confirm comScore’s assertion that mobile is a multiplier of social, not a separate channel.

1) The U.S. online shopper has gone social. Our study focused on the adult online population of the U.S. The study identified that 77% of the online adult population has adopted social platforms. Clearly the critical U.S. consumer for ecommerce is already social.

2) Consumers are ready and willing to shop “socially”. 42% of consumers have “followed” a

retailer proactively. This means that they have sought out the Facebook, Twitter or retailer blog

for a given retailer and opted-in to be contacted by that retailer via social channels. While the

overarching purpose of social media will remain to connect with friends, this shows that

consumers are also actively welcoming brands that they know and trust into a new level of

contact and dialog.

3) Consumers are following multiple retailers but this behavior is still in early stages. The

average consumer that has “followed a retailer” now follows an average of 6.3 retailers.

Consumers are liking and following retailers with – for now – low opt-out rates. The opportunity

for retailers is to build their fan base now and focus on genuine connection and interaction to

maintain that relationship long term.

4) Consumers want product discounts and deals but are also interested in product information. Retailers should consider a “VIP” execution whereby the proven tools of promotion and product information are given a unique and valuable spin for the retailer’s social fans.

5) Over half of consumers who follow a retailer say they have clicked through from a social platform to a retailer’s website, browsed products or commented. Retailers should take this established interaction as a strong indicator of intent.

6) Retailers must project their product stories on Facebook and Twitter without delay. Nearly one third of consumers who follow a retailer also indicate that they have made a purchase through a link they saw on a social platform. Also, when asked about their future intent, over one third of all consumers on a social platform said they would shop directly through Facebook if they were provided the capability.

7) Mobile is both an accelerator and a transformer of social commerce behavior. Mobile is a driver of social frequency: as smartphone usage grows, consumers increase the frequency with which they use social media, including shopping tools such as customer reviews. As retailers expand their mobile strategies, they must also consider how Facebook and Twitter interaction can be built in.

Channels are increasingly blurred to the consumer. Almost half of all consumers report accessing customer reviews using a mobile phone while in-store, a trend that will accelerate as more consumers migrate to smartphones. As women catch up to men in adopting smartphones, this trend will accelerate even more.

9) Consumers are not engaging with retailer blogs. Only 4% of consumers surveyed stated that they followed retailer blogs. With the exception of larger brands and lifestyle brands, retailer blogs have very low usage by consumers and may be better suited to goals other than community. Each brand must make its own call whether to develop a community on its site (blog, etc.) or to drive community using Facebook or other tools.

10) Consumers want access to what their friends think about products on the retailer’s site.

Retailers should consider Facebook Graph API tools as a way to bring the friends along.

More details at: http://ht.ly/5I2Yk

Nokia announced some changes that emphasize a push into Location Based Services. Although Nokia’s competitive position has suffered in the past few years, the move adds weight to the industry’s adoption and support for mobile user experiences based on GPS location.

Specifically, Nokia announced that it’s combining its Navteq mapping division with its social location services business, into a unit called Location & Commerce. I’m surprised they left off the word “social.” The new unit will offer mobile commerce services to third-party device manufacturers, app developers, Internet service providers, businesses and advertisers.

Michael Halbherr from Nokia’s Berlin-based services business will lead the new division. “Focusing on location and commerce is a natural next step in Nokia’s Services journey,” Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said in a statement. “We will provide next generation social-location applications and commerce to differentiate Nokia. We also aim to extend our content and services offerings to all consumers by making them available to partners and customers on a wide variety of devices and operating systems.”

Although the Nokia announcement doesn’t impact retailers directly, because Nokia’s device share for mobile shopping is relatively small. But it does lend weight to our recommendations pertaining to retail location-based UX strategy and planning. Retailers need to do the ethnographic, in-store and in-home research that helps them figure out how they will meet customers in all the various touchpoints that customers can choose now, with features that they will find compelling. Usography is helping retailers meet this challenge with UX research and strategy services, both on a project and a retainer basis.

Usography conducted a review of 100 retailer web sites in March 2011, and created the Retailer UX Audit to present the results.

We rated the sites according to a list of 30 user experience (UX) feature criteria. The evaluation criteria categories were Social Commerce, Purchase Support, Catalog Navigation, and Multichannel Shopping. The Audit, along with a list of the evaluation criteria, is available at: http://www.usography.com/audit.

The winner, with a score of 16 out of 30, was: Sears.com!

The sites who came closest to Sears’ score were:

Amazon.com: 13

Buy.com: 12

Nordstrom: 12

QVC: 11

Sears.com had the highest UX Audit score

Some UX features, such as “Email a friend” and “Product Reviews” were available on a majority of the sites reviewed. Others, such as product videos and price drop alerts, were only available on a small percentage of the sites.

The Retailer Audits are part of a regular series of retail web site evaluations performed by Usography, a leading UX Strategy consultancy. Usography produces customized competitive and best practice reports for top retailers on a monthly and quarterly basis, so that all UX team members and executives can stay current in the state of the art in retail user experience. The next publicly available Audit will be a Spring 2011 update to the Retailer Social Commerce Audit.

The Audit, along with evaluation criteria and screen captures of all 100 retailer product pages can be viewed at: http://www.usography.com/audit. To find out more about how the study was conducted, or to request prices on more detailed competitive and best practice reports, send an email to: audit@usography.com.

The criteria used in the UX Audit were:

Social commerce features

1. Email To A Friend

2. Product Reviews

3. Wishlist Or Registry (giftin)

4. Share Via Social Media

5. Facebook Like

6. In-page Product Question & Answer

7. Customer Tags

8. Customer Images Of Product

9. In-Page Discussions

10. Shop Together

11. Video Product Reviews

Catalog navigation features

12. Next, Previous Product In List

13. Category-Specific Filters

14. More Like This

15. Narrow Product List By Keyword

16. View Product Page In Spanish

Purchase support features

17. Alternate Images Visible

18. Expert Advice (Chat, Callback)

19. Coordinated Products, Outfit

20. Video Of Product Or Subcategory

21. Interactive Product Demo

22. Multi-Store Marketplace

23. Price Drop Alert

24. Express, One-Click Purchase

25. Virtual Try On Or Try Out

Multichannel shopping features:

26. Print Page

27. Find Product In Local Store

28. Save To List / Favorites / Bookmark

29. Order Online, Pickup In Store

30. BFF Us / Text Me