At the centre of last week’s discussion were the Agile government experiences of two members of the Transformation team at GDS: Dai Vaughan at the DVLA and Simon Everest at the Rural Payments Agency. Discussion was broadly focused on how best to introduce what is (often mistakenly) seen as the disruptive methods of Agile into large and established institutions of central government. Tips were shared on how to get C-level support for Agile, how to establish trust within government authorities to proceed with Agile projects, how to handle the usual “we tried Agile once and it failed” objections, and how to use Agile ‘Ceremonies’ such as stand-up meetings as well as Kanban boards to get a buzz around a new way of working and help drive change from the inside out. There were several “please-do-not-tweet-this-moments”, an indication of an openness and willingness to discuss honestly within the Agile Tea event.

Although this could be seen as somewhat preaching to the converted, for me this was a really useful session to get an insight into how the Agile community is steadily moving forwards within government. Wider, more informal discussion is always welcome as we all feel our way towards a truly Agile Digital Government. Equally welcome was the concept of “Agile pubbing” afterwards. Maybe Agile-Long-Island-Iced Tea next time?

http://teacamp.co.uk/about/

http://teacamp.co.uk/category/future-events/

We’re excited to be hosting our own event on Agile Marketing on 5 June, for more info and to register for your seat, please click:

By Jack Fitzgerald

Peter Merholz talking at UX London 2013

There is too much for me to talk about in one blog post so I just wanted to share a couple of the topics that caught my attention and imagination:

1. The rise of the machines

There were two sessions that I went to that felt really aligned – one by BJ Fogg (Founder & Dir Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University) and another by Chris Risdon (Lead Experience Designer Adaptive Path).

They talked about designing with the intention to change someone’s behavioural attitude and how in a world that is obsessed with making big statements, we need to support and celebrate small successes (our clients’, our users’ and our own).

The reality of people’s decision making process is both surprising and disconcerting – in that it’s largely irrational and based on perceived value rather tha any kind of logic – the more tangible of options and less complex of choices. You can read more on ‘hyperbolic discounting’ in a great book called: Thinking Fast and Slow

Some considerations for us in working with behaviour design is:

· To use triggers in a context that can align motivation and ability – creating an optimal environment for ‘success momentum’ rather than setting people up for disappointment .. feeling like “ugggh I’ve already blown it” or frustration “I can’t do this”. So rather than promising people that they’ll be able to take big leaps, lead them through bite sized wins. Make the product onboarding (first time install, first time on site) a good experience to build up their sense of self-

· Concepts:
o “Blossoming” plant a tiny seed in the right spot and it will grow without coaxing
o “Cascading” you don’t have to do it all at once, just keep going and trust ripple effects
o “Springboarding” small successes on to bigger things with greater impact
o “Design for the tiny thrill”
· Don’t design for ‘engagement’ it’s too abstract.

1) crispify 2) design a solution 3) iterate as needed

· Priority map: write down specific behaviours on post-its, prioritise them in two dimensions, for example axis x: what is essential for our business success and axis y: whether we think we can get customers/users to do it

· Consider the ‘choice architecture’ of your designs .. give people the same choices but organise the context in which they’re presented so as to help them get the result they’re after. This is especially relevant with the emergence of lots of products and services targeting the ‘me’ generation, and marketed on the premise that their benefits (the value received), have specific behaviourally based outcomes

· Synthesise your users data in such a way that doesn’t just visualise it, but that can assist them in their next big decision – this is called ‘feedforwarding’.

· In the future, persuasion profiling will give us depth and breadth to customisation and personalisation, by gathering critical information about you and your triggers than influence specific responses. This will assist us to find the opportune moments where we can capitalise better on a certain level of motivation. (This is not to say that we should use this information with the wrong intent, e.g. ‘dark patterns’)

A fun thing about this ‘coming together of great minds’, is that the span between two sessions, just on a conceptual level, can be unimaginably great – so much so that, one speaker, such as the wonderful Jason Silva, will take your mind to the edges of known reality with his so called “shots of philosophical espresso”, weaving in and out of subjects like ..

• data mapping (recurring patterns between natural and manmade systems) and
• a quantified self revolution (backing up ourselves)

.. with such an ease and abundance of intellectual references, you start to wonder if you’ve ever really lived

.. whilst another speaker, such as the self-confessed “goofball” BJ Fogg brings out some stuffed toys on stage (to represent fictional characters), and talks about ‘tiny habits’ that give ‘big results’, referring to very tangible concepts of everyday behaviours that for one reason or another, people would like to change or influence; and suggesting humourous exercises such as using an ‘anchor’ (something familiar that you do each day without fail) as a ‘trigger’ for other new habits … like peeing .. so as to say to yourself .. “after I pee, I will _____” and matching the frequency of the anchor to the frequency of the new wanted behaviour. He also pleaded with us the audience, to “stop designing systems/products that promise people that they will help them take big leaps” and rather, make the ‘onboarding’ like a first time install, or first encounter with a site, give the user a “success momentum” that will help them to feel a sense of achievement; and encourage greater patience with the rest of the journey or eventual roadblocks.

It’s just great though that from one end of the spectrum to the next, you see certain themes or patterns or truths shine through; which has definitely been the case so far. But more sessions ahead, so more on that later! So many sessions, so many notes, so little time – #sxswproblems

Stay tuned here, or for more regular updates, check out our other reporting channels:

http://www.valtechlabs.se/sxsw-2013

https://twitter.com/ValtechSweden

https://twitter.com/anna_lantz

https://twitter.com/visars

https://twitter.com/Valtech_Anna

Over and out, Anna Leckstrom

Our delegation to Austin TX includes our colleague Anna Leckstöm, UX/ Concept developer & Interactive Art Director. Anna, being originally from Melbourne, currently resides in our Stockholm office. But for the coming days she will be reporting here about some of the interesting trends and news in our digital world.

So say hi to Anna on Twitter, and stay tuned for more from SXSW 2013 right here!

Two weeks ago, I presented at our first Lunch and Learn seminar here at Valtech. (For more events click  here). In my talk, I focused on how we went about creating our own Valtech Windows 8 app for tablets and desktops.  Many attendees were surprised that many companies, usually the ones that are at the forefront of their competition, already had a Windows 8 app and why shouldn’t they? In fact, the question that I asked the audience was: “Why are you not on there yet?”

Marketers are nuts not paying attention

Since October 2012 Windows 8 has been available for all new consumer PC’s alongside Microsoft’s entry into the tablet market. Marketers are nuts to not pay attention to this as there are more than 60 million copies sold worldwide already. Not being on the Windows Store as a company entails a huge risk to lose market share to your competitors. The Windows app store is relatively small at the moment but fortuitously other platforms have ‘trained’ your customers to visit app stores and download the app that delivers a targeted user experience. Consumers do not want to go the extra step to the browser and search engine to connect with a brand, brands must be visible at all touch points of a user journey in the case of Windows 8 this means an app.

We built a Windows 8 app

We at Valtech built a Windows 8 app for ourselves in order to demonstrate to our clients how we could easily help inject their brand directly onto their customer’s desktop in a useful way.  Through the experience of building our own app, we have advised our customers that one of the key strengths with Windows 8 is that they can use their existing web development resources.  There is no steep learning curve required, as there is to build apps for Apple iOS and Android.  This means that companies can expect to be very productive when building apps for the Windows 8 Store.

It was really easy to quickly launch something small, yet meaningful.  We also showed to our customers that we could help them grow an app over time to interact with their own customers and generate return-on-investment by adding more useful services over time.

Valtech’s own app demonstrates how in just a few days we were able to create something which puts our brand directly onto our client’s desktops.  We can now enhance this app to provide useful features and content in order to give our best customers a superior service.

Adapt or die: Why you should be agile!

At Valtech we are always at the forefront of new technologies and keep up to speed with latest trends such as Windows 8. We have a structured process to help our customers manage this transition efficiently and cost effectively called Agile Marketing (download our White Paper here http://ow.ly/hBKHf) – ultimately this helps our clients measure and optimise ROI in digital marketing channels.

What next?

Come and see us for an informal discussion at one of our “Lunch and Learn” seminars or email us at info@valtech.co.uk. For more info about Windows 8, please watch my webinar here.

Blog Post by Jamie Mitchell, Windows 8 Expert at Valtech

1.       It’s all about the subject line

If the subject line is not good enough your email will never be opened and read. Be relevant and engaging.  Know your audience and make sure it is meaningful and fits the content of the email. Good strategies are to ask a question or highlight a benefit.  Also do not use words such as "free" or "sale" and stay away from using capital letters and exclamation marks in order to avoid your email being blocked and going straight to your receiver's spam folder.

2.       Less is more

Unless you are a big brand and people know you (we are talking about the likes of Nike, Harrods,…), it is a good idea not to use a lot of pictures in the email header as they won’t be displayed automatically in many email clients. This means unless a recipient clicks on view pictures she/he will not know what the email is about and most likely delete it. Additionally, having a big picture as the email header will only display as a white empty box in a preview pane and therefore the email will most likely be deleted.  Often less is more and a simple text heading explaining the nature of the email has been proven to be more successful.

3.       Don’t use red

Colour matters. Strong, contrasting, colours generally perform better than colours that blend in with the background theme. It is proven that conversion is often improved by a third just replacing a green button with a red one. But red should never be used in emails as spam filters will most likely block emails that use red text which means that the our carefully drafted message will never be read by the receiver.

4.       It must work on mobile devices

Often people check their emails on the go or in lunch breaks. Make sure they can easily view and click your email on the go. If you email includes a call to action (which it should) such as buy a product or download a white paper, the receiver must be able to have a mobile experience all the way through the end. This also includes paying via the phone.

5.       Test, test, test

Every audience is different. Do not just assume that you know what your audience wants. Test it! By testing subject lines, from names and different preview panes as well as different times and days you can steadily improve your email marketing campaigns and achieve greater open rates and click rates and therefore the highest number of conversions.

The five points are a good start to  optimise your email marketing and get better results.

Happy emailing!

You might also be interested in:

How to accelerate from traditional marketing towards digital marketing http://ow.ly/hxDZR

Seven tools to optimise your email marketing for mobile http://bit.ly/VL0TKg

Mailchimp Resources http://bit.ly/XRYdrY

For more information read the accompanying blog post and download our white paper “Online, Mobile, Social – A white paper for the travel industry”

“Inability to compete with online competition” is a lesson for all B2C industries. Consumers are evolving – online and mobile shopping is on the rise, and increased use of social networks for shopping advice all means less time browsing and buying on the high street. Comet ignored this, and paid the price.

Despite the economic downturn the Travel & Tourism industry has continued to grow, largely thanks to a pairing of historical and deep understanding of its customers and meaningful, successful innovation. However, having weathered the storm, many travel companies now face being left behind by customers, who are spending more on fewer holidays, and therefore increasingly look for value over price. Customer behaviour and expectations have changed, moving online, onto social networks and mobile devices for their travel planning and booking. Companies are struggling to evolve with them effectively and efficiently.

So what can companies do to keep on track, and avoid becoming another Comet?

Firstly, the industry must understand how its customers are evolving. Secondly, companies must evolve with them, finding ways to better engage – adding value, creating conversations, and increasing conversions.

The evolving travel customer

The average travel customer is now online, mobile, and increasingly plugged into social networks.

Online

Travel customers’ first destination for finding advice, planning trips, researching the best deals, and booking vacations is online. They are inspired by photos and videos, and value recommendations from friends, family and respected authorities on familiar social networks and websites. Some food for thought:

• 85% of travellers consider the internet to be their main source for planning travel.
• 71% of travel research and 56% of travel purchases take place online.
• The average attention span of an internet user just 8 seconds, with research supporting the view that video content is just under 4 times ‘stickier’ than text.[1]

Multi-channel content management is a complex issue. Travel companies need to think carefully about matching the right content to the right channel to solve this issue, for example using photos and videos to inspire and draw in the customer to a type of holiday or destination, with text-based content used to recommend specific trip elements, and mobile-specific or additional sharing functions to inspire and maximise the audience, whilst building a clear path to conversion.

Social

Customers are using social networks to share experiences online with friends before, during, and after travelling. They also expect to be able to use the same tools to engage companies and brands.

• 81% of travel consumers value reviews by others over other sources of information
• Of those using social media to research travel plans, only 48% stuck with their original plans
• 52% of Facebook users said friends’ photos inspired their holiday choice
• While on vacation:
  • 72% of users post photos on a social network
  • 46% check-in to a location on social networks.
  • 70% update their Facebook status

Travel companies have experimented with social networks, with differing degrees of success. The complexity of navigating different networks and therefore different audiences means careful consideration needs to be made before launching an effective social strategy which best fits the brand and adds value to its customers. Each social network has its strengths: YouTube and Pinterest inspire customers to explore destinations. Twitter gets messages out quickly and succinctly, and facilitates meaningful, two-way conversations. Facebook’s page-based interface, its photo- and video- sharing, and conversational functions provide a defined stage from which to showcase and discuss experiences, empowering and nurturing customers. Social elements of a company website create an empowered community of experts, enabling sharing of experiences, tips and advice with others, further adding value to company services. Choosing the right strategy is a complex task, but a company which builds a blended, multi-channel social strategy whilst maintaining brand consistency will reap the rewards of new levels of customer engagement.

Mobile

Unsurprisingly, travel customers have adopted mobile engagement faster than others, using mobile applications and websites to access social networks, find inspiration and recommendations for travel destinations, and book elements of the vacation, as well as check in for flights and hotels on the go. Already, in 2011/12, while on vacation, 85% of leisure travellers use their smartphone while abroad. However, only 7% use mobile internet internationally, largely due to unaffordable data roaming charges. Data capping introduced by the EU from July 2012 will reduce costs by as much as 95% by 2014, meaning mobile usage by travel customers will continue to increase.

Incredibly, mobile has been neglected by the travel industry – only 4 of the top 10 brands have a mobile application or website. Companies should be working to remove any gap between themselves and their customers on the move, using their relative health to build innovative mobile services for travelling customers. It’s a significant move, but by building around users companies can solve the problem of dropped engagement when customers are on the go.

Capitalising Customer Evolution

Travel companies should use the health of the industry as a springboard to innovate, and evolve with their customers. By developing more engaging, experiential websites, implementing intelligent and considered social media strategies, and providing mobile data-based services to customers at home and abroad, organisations can meet existing customer demand, drive higher basket size, and grow their customer base to incorporate new audiences.

The First Step

Valtech’s experience of the travel industry, of multi-channel marketing and of industry evolution makes us uniquely-placed to help companies move in the right direction.

Our advice on taking the first step is to:

1. think small
2. think simple
3. think hard about how your customers behave

We advise companies to build a strategy around people and their changing behaviour, focussing on improving online experience, facilitating online social interaction, and enabling customers to do all of this on the move through mobile-tailored solutions.

Lessons learned from this year’s peak season should provide a valuable launch pad for continued discussions with internal teams as well as consultants and suppliers. From this, informed decisions on projects can be made by Q1 2013, through which to continue to remain healthy.

It’s not too late to take action, and learn from Comet’s mistakes.

This is not the first time this website is awarded prizes, and the site is an excellent example of how the public sector can inform, engage and provide help to the public using the internet and e-services.

About the project

1177.se is the Swedish national healthcare website for patient advice and information. People can find and compare healthcare centers throughout Sweden and use e-services for the direct contact with clinics in order to e.g. ask questions, schedule appointments or for renewing prescriptions. Valtech has developed the site with a user-centric and agile method, to always be able to understand user needs and give them the best value and user experience. EPiServer is used as content management system.