Everyday interactions

I'm part of many thousands of supporters who are extremely happy with promotion and Barclays (who sponsor The Premier League) have used this knowledge to target us with a specific message.

I've just been looking at the latest Reading FC news on SkySports.com and noticed a banner ad from Barclays which displays a proud Reading FC kit with the Premier League badge adorned proudly on the sleeve. This image is accompanied by a congratulatory message from Barclays.

There's a good chance that Reading FC fans are going to be visiting this page and so it's a great idea to place the banner ad here. On top of this, there will be print ads all over Reading right now with the same congratulatory message.

Barclays are joining in the celebrations with the Reading FC fans and in turn making them look at the bank in a positive way.

Well played Barclays!

Marketers are always looking for ways to get our attention and with the number of communication channels increasing it seems like I'm constantly being told about new products and sales etc.

However, you really have to be careful when deciding to have a sale, that it doesn't last too long or happen too often. In the UK, there is a furniture retailer called DFS who is famous for always advertising their 'new' sale which "must end soon!". However, I don't think anyone has ever paid full price for anything at DFS because as soon as one sale ends another begins.

If you are constantly having a sale people are going to become accustomed to your sale prices. Soon the sale prices will be how your customers compare all of your products, so anything not in a sale will seem expensive.

On top of this, if you contact people telling them about a sale too frequently they will become desensitized to the message and learn to ignore it.

In the image above you can see an email I get from Costa on what seems like a weekly basis, telling me it's 'Double points' week. I've seen this offer so many times that I just assume it is always going to be double points week when I go, so it is no longer an incentive for me to visit. In fact, it is now disappointing if I visit and I don't get double points.

So next time you are tasked to come up with an idea to get your customers attention, could you think about using a new message? With so many people having sales at the moment it might even be noteworthy to announce that you're not having a sale!

However, the 'skills' section commits one of my biggest annoyances! It describes the 'skills' he has by telling people what software he can use. I see this type of thing a lot.

When you are trying to tell someone what you do for a living, you should not be explaining to them the software you use.

A doctor doesn't list scaple, stethoscope and sutures as his skills because they are just tools that help him to do his job. It isn't the how you get things done that you should be listing as your skills it is the thing you are creating with those tools that are your skills.

For example, if you are a UI designer your skills are NOT Photoshop and Illustrator, your skills are likely to be Wireframe design, Interface design and creating beautiful interfaces that are intuitive.

While I'm ranting about it, I'll also add that it is EVEN WORSE when employers list software as requirements for jobs. It shouldn't matter if a designer uses Photoshop or Fireworks or any other software to get work done. If they are the best designer out there that's what is important, you as an employer should just buy a license to their chosen programme and let them do what they do best.

I know people out there will disagree with me on this and I'd love to hear what you have to say.

The point I am trying to raise is that people are selling themselves short by stating the software they choose to use as a skill. Instead, people should focus on the things they deliver as their skills.

I was returning to Pinterest less and less because it was hard to find good people to follow and after the initial excitement of joining had worn off I noticed that there wasn't that much new content (that I was interested in) being added that often.

However, in the last few days I have noticed they have added a 'Friends to follow' feature to my homepage, which is making it easy for me to follow people from my twitter feed. I didn't know most of these people from my twitter feed were using Pinterest and I certainly wasn't going to go looking for them. Now that I am being shown people I could follow, who I actually know (and trust that they will share good stuff) I have started following loads more boards.

This is by no means an original idea, but it has certainly enhanced my experience of Pinterest since it has been added.

One really nice touch I noticed is their use of microcopy when things are loading. As you can see in the image when ever content is loading there is a quirky piece of copy. For the people who notice these messages (there are a variety of them) it makes the load time feel smaller and also gives you a sense of the light hearted personality of the brand.

Be sure to pay attention to the areas where microcopy could really help you to engage with your audience.

Dropmark were offering beta testers half price membership to thank them for taking the time to help them out. I'd love to see how many people took advantage of this offer but given the situation I'd bet it was quite high. People who have signed up to beta test an app have already expressed their interest and when they first sign in to their first test session they are highly engaged and are more likely to be susceptible.

If you are running a beta test and want to maximise conversion, you could do a lot worse than trying something like this.

One example of how not to do that comes from the new location app Everplaces. The service has been designed to allow people to create location based wishlists and to keep track of places they have been and liked. Activity can be tracked both via a web app and a mobile app and it is the early encounters with the mobile app that are less than immersive.

The screenshot above is the first screen you get when you either sign up or login to the mobile app. An empty screen with no explaination as to what to do or look for is certainly not an engaging first experience (I'll point out here that it's still in BETA so I may be being harsh). Instead, it would be a good idea to explain the app possibly by displaying example content, which gives first time visitors something to play with.

Have you seen any examples of services creating great first experiences? I'd love to see some.

Not only is the app itself lovely, but the landing page which advertises its features is also a great piece of design. One of my favourite aspects of the landing page is the interactive way they chose to show people the apps core features.

Instead of choosing static screenshots and copy to show off the features they have employed an interactive representation of the app which gets people to play with the app in their browser. It's not a fully working app but it does a great job getting you acquainted with the main features.

Not only is this an engaging way to show off the app but it also gives potential customers a very early indication of where things are so they should already feel familiar with the app after they download it.

What do you think?

However, I want to talk about a small feature of the iPhone app that made me smile while using it yesterday.

The iPhone version of the app incorporates a number of swipe gestures that allows you to maniuplate the content in various ways. One of my favourite interactions is the way in which people can choose to read the next article by continuing to scroll down after the current article finishes. This is reminiscent of the pull-down to refresh convention but you pull-up instead.

I liked this for 2 reasons, the first being just how natural the gesture felt and how easy it was to discover. There isn't a tooltip that informs you it is there, instead you are left to find it on your own. As most people are likely to be scrolling down reading the current article it is something they are going stumble upon.

Also, because the feature isn't explicity explained to people you get a sense of excitement when you find it. Sometimes it is a good idea to leave things for your audience to find because when they do they will get a sense of achievement.

What do you think?