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EVENTS

Insights & Blog_In Here and Out There

Our observations of the world around us

  • My thoughts on World Usability Day by Katie Kimble on November 21, 2008

    Recently, Sri Putrevu, Kendra Shimmell, Jim Couch, and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Miamisburg, OH and present Lextant’s point of view at the World Usability Day Conference at Lexis Nexis. For those who aren’t as focused in usability, World Usability Day (WUD) is a “holiday” of sorts organized by the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) designed to celebrate of the practice of usability and its efforts to “Make Life Easy’ and user friendly’. All over the nation on Nov. 13th, usability experts across the world joined together to learn, share, and celebrate usability research and methodologies.  Leave it to us usability buffs to create a holiday for ourselves!

    The most impressive aspect of this year’s WUD was its record attendance! At Lexis Nexis, Darren Kall (Senior Director of Global Experience Design for Lexis Nexis) did an excellent job of publicizing and raising awareness for the event. With a start time of 1 pm on a weekday, the conference requires the majority of attendees to take time out of their work day to attend earlier presentations. As one would expect, attendance of any presentations that take place before 5pm is usually relatively light. However, for Lextant’s presentation at 3pm, we were moved from a conference room to an auditorium to accomodate our 54 audience members. This is an incredible turnout for a local event!

    Lextant presented our philosophy of Experiencability, the marriage of Usability and Experience. At Lextant, we believe that a product’s usability is important, of course, but we also believe that the emotional aspect of the interaction plays an equally strong role in the user’s experience. Traditionally, usability testing does not address the user’s emotional experience. Lextant has developed a set of methodogies that address all aspects of the user experience in a way that leads to a more actionable and accurate design. Our presentation was well received at World Usability Day and we intend to continue spreading our message as other opportunities arise!

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  • Motrin Hits a Big Miss with Ad Aimed at Moms by Anna Swank on November 21, 2008

    This past Saturday, Motrin launched a new installment in their “We Feel Your Pain” ad campaign that targeted moms, particularly moms who “wear” their babies.  By Monday morning, it was the ad execs who were reaching for the Motrin, as moms across the blogosphere let them know just how badly they’d missed the mark.



    The ad has been removed from the company’s website, and an apology has been posted in its place.  Before it was taken down, the narrative, read by a 20-something mom, included lines like, “Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion… Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom.” It ended with “… if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.”

    Many moms (this one included) were immediately offended at the tone of the ad.  I wear my baby because it’s fashionable? I don’t know what’s best for my baby?  I look tired and CRAZY??  Alright, I have five kids, so that last one may not be too far off the mark, but still… insulting me probably isn’t the best way to convince me to run out and buy Motrin.

    Lesson #1: Pay attention to your target demographic

    We moms are an emotional bunch.  We love our children fiercely, and want to do what’s best for them.  And because it seems everyone has an opinion about what’s “best,” we often must vehemently defend the choices we make.  Translation: we’re well versed in parenting philosophies, and we don’t make decisions lightly.  Positive or negative, intense reactions should be expected when playing in this space.  Blame it on hormones or sleep deprivation or the monumental responsibility of keeping another human being alive and well. Whatever it is, we don’t make flip decisions when it comes to our baby’s care.  To imply that we do is patronizing, and a good way to alienate us.

    Had this ad run ten years ago, the lesson likely would have stopped there.  But today, things are different. 

    Lesson #2: Not all press is good press

    Moms talk.  A lot.  With family dispersed far and wide and neighborhoods that aren’t quite as neighborly as they used to be, we connect online.  We chat, we blog, we tweet.  And when something ticks us off, word travels fast.  The Motrin ad went live on their site Saturday morning, and by Saturday evening, it was the most tweeted subject on Twitter. 

    If you’re targeting moms, you want Mommy Bloggers on your side.  Perhaps this is only my perception because I am a Mommy Blogger, but I would wager that we have the loudest voice on the web.  Smart companies use this to their advantage and engage us to do their advertising for them.  A couple of great examples are P&G and gDiapers.  In 2006, P&G armed some 600,000 moms with coupons and product samples and sent them out on a huge word-of-mouth campaign.  Similarly, gDiapers harnessed the enthusiasm their consumers have for their product and launched the “gMums/gDads” program that enlists parents as gDiapers advocates both online and in real life.

    Moms are a huge target audience for a wide range of companies.  It would serve these companies well to get smart about who moms are today, what we’re passionate about, and what drives our decisions.  Get it wrong, and you’ll get the message loud and clear.

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  • Time to vote by Taylor Lies on November 04, 2008

    On Election Day it’s exciting for us at Lextant to be in the “battleground state” of Ohio, regardless of which candidate each of us supports. Even more exciting is knowing that we’ve had a hand in helping Franklin County (home to Columbus, the state capitol) assure that lines at the polls move quickly and smoothly so that everyone can vote. Earlier this year we partnered with Sagata Ltd. in a research effort to reduce the likelihood that record turnout and long ballot initiatives will negatively affect how it takes to residents to vote. As you may know, in 2004 in Franklin County an estimated 20,000-30,000 people were deterred from voting due to long lines. That’s to say nothing of the countless who were disturbed or disappointed by their experience, but still managed to cast a vote.

    Our study concluded that the problem is real – from the County’s perspective the expected line lengths will likely be considerably longer than in 2004. From the voter’s perspective, it will be even harder and more frustrating to simply do your civic duty. The good news is that the county has taken action based on our study results. The county established in-person early voting, reallocated voting machines to areas of need, and reduced the amount of space allocated to ballot issues on voting machines. And importantly to the county, their decisions are based on solid data. According to Dennis L. White, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, “We want voters to know there was some fair, serious method that went into [this year’s allocation of voting machines].” As opposed to previously, when “It was all gut instinct. Now, we’re using fair, defensible information.”

    Lextant is certainly proud to have done our civic duty and are thankful for the many other efforts going on nationwide! Speaking of which, it never hurts reinforce that there is clearly ample opportunity to use the same expertise that our profession commonly applies to commercial products, services, and digital interactions to our public, social, and civic institutions. Drop a comment and tell us about other efforts you know of.

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