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.

PB: What is Userlytics about? 

ARM: Leveraging webcam ubiquity and the targeting power of digital media to revolutionize exploratory qualitative research.

We are transforming study turn-around times from weeks to days, even hours;

We are allowing for studies with highly specific and granular demographics, almost anywhere in the world;

We are placing our clients inside the homes of their targeted personas, so they can watch and listen as they interact with websites and prototypes, react to content and advertisements, and resolve their needs and wants;

Overall it can be viewed as a mix of ethnographic studies, immersive qualitative research and remote user experience testing:

The Video-in-Video platform allows for seeing and listening to the participants, their context and surroundings, and their actions on their desktop screen, whether browser related or not.

The innovative digital media based recruitment methodology allows for extremely specific personas, recruited in a very fast turnaround, at a very affordable price point.

PB: What do you like most about your job?

ARM: I love the international aspect. Userlytics has had the good fortune to have employees from around the world contribute to its success, including colleagues from Peru, Mexico, Chekia, France, Spain, Argentina, US, Ukraine, Poland, New Zealand, Ireland, and Switzerland.

Our orientation from the very beginning has been international, and although that creates many challenges, it is also a very enriching experience, for all of us.

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

ARM: We believe that mobility will transform the user experience field. We are actively developing a mobile version of our platform, and we believe this will be the main focus of our product development for the foreseeable future.

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.

Chicos.com added two new UX features to its e-commerce offering: Customer Product Reviews and Ask and Answer. The new features showed up in time for Usography’s Summer 2011 UX Audit. Customer product reviews have been shown to increase conversion more than most UX Features, because they give consumers more confidence to purchase an item based on the advice of people who have already purchased it.

Ask and Answer is a feature that is being more frequently implemented on e-commerce sites. Customers ask questions about a product on that product’s detail page. Then other customers or employees of the retailer can answer the questions. This helps customers overcome questions or objections that they normally would only be able to address in a store setting.

Both of these added features are a step in the right direction for Chico’s. As a next step in user experience, Chico’s should look at adding social commerce features such as Facebook Like, and purchase aids like Purchase the Outfit for coordinated product selections.

Chico's product page, Summer 2011

Every retailer who doesn’t currently have a Facebook Like and Send button should follow the Toys R Us example (shown below). In the UX Audit that Usography conducted in Q1 of 2011, Toys R Us didn’t have Facebook Like or Send. Then in the Q2 audit, both buttons were slipped very neatly next to the product image, just below the title for high prominence.

These buttons take relatively little effort to incorporate, but add significant social commerce functionality to the catalog. Now customers can Like a toy, which will appear in their friends news feeds, and will also create a link between the company and the customer’s Facebook account. The Send button is a flexible share button, that lets the customer select which of their Facebook friends to send the product detail page link to. The screen captures below show the before (Q1) and after (Q2) images from the respective UX Audits.

Without Facebook buttons:

Toys R Us without the Facebook buttons (Q1 UX Audit)

With Facebook buttons:

Toys R Us with the Facebook buttons (Q2 UX Audit)

In the past few months, Walmart has added user experience features like: Facebook Like, Social Media Sharing, Customer Images of Products, and Order Online/Pickup in Store. (UX scores for all 100 retailers at: http://ht.ly/5Nx4i).

Not every retailer can do Order Online/Pickup in Store, because of logistics, but social sharing and Facebook Like are low hanging fruit. I’m surprised at the number of retailers we reviewed for the Summer 2011 Retailer UX Audit that didn’t have these basic, simple, social commerce features.

Facebook Like, Social Sharing, Email to Friend all added

Pickup in Store Option

Customer's Image of Product

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