The Marketing Observer

New Times website - a usability disaster?

Out of mere interest, as I really doubt I will become a subscriber, I signed up for the new Times website trial. Remember, this is the site that people will be forced to pay for in a month or so.

The instantaneous reaction to the new site is that it is a substantial retrograde step, although there is a clear attempt to bring the online branding and "look n feel" closer together. Using serif fonts for the page text as well as the titles flies in the face of received web wisdom. The wrapping and the line spacing is also unhelpful for readability.

Furthermore, the colours are far less attractive and monochrome which will make usability poor.

The navigation is changed too. The structure is radically different and presumably replicates the paper version. Breadcrumbs have been removed which makes locating your position in the site harder.

Pages on the current free website accommodate the full length of an article - the new site makes users click through to subsequent pages just to finish reading the same article.

All-in-all it will be fascinating to discover how the Times justifies all of these changes. They make the website far harder to use, particularly for someone who isn't intimately familiar with the paper version - ie the vast majority!

#fail

What is amazing is that the content is substantially different on the homepage and that the text sub-headings are being re-edited and different images are being used. The sheer workload increase that this entails is extraordinary if replicated across the entire site.

Barclays have almost annoyed me enough to overcome interia

Generally I think that Barclays have a very good online banking system.It features real time updates and you can normally carry out pretty much any action you need in order to service one's account.However, they seem to have been sucked in by the web security brigade and as a result, yesterday, it was easier for me to walk to my local branch and talk to someone than to try and "self-service".

I tried to send some money to another account and I am now no longer able to do this without PINsentry. This odious device will not fit into any pocket easily and certainly not into my wallet.I already have a membership number, a PIN and a password check to get into the account so this does seem rather over the top to me.

Furthermore the bank has completely failed to communicate this change in policy to its account holders as far as I am aware.When I eventually got through to someone on the phone I could barely understand them as they could not speak English coherently and was told that they could not talk to me because I did not know the exact date of a standing order (end of the month wasn't accurate enough). It was suggested I ring back when I had a statement in front of me! So no online banking with Barclays from me anymore then. A 5 minute walk to the branch producer a result quickly.

What my investigations did reveal was a complete lack of analysis of the usability or user experience of online banking in the UK - there appear to be no studies paid or otherwise that I could find on Google. Does anyone know of a study? I do know for example that the First Direct system works well but doesn't give you the ability to name your accounts.

Thoughts?

COS

I like COS as a brand, I really do.

Coolish clothes, nice materials and not too outrageous prices.

They really messed up on the email front yesterday though.

I was due to attend an invite only mens clothing evening with 20% off last night but couldn't make it.

Glad I didn't as at about the time I should have been attending that evening event I received an email saying the mid-season sale was starting today (the following day) with discounts of 30-50%. How annoying would that have been?!!!!

Internet Retailing event

I attended this event yesterday.

Surprised by the non-appearance by certain ecommerce platform providers.

For example where was Venda?

I saw guys from Portaltech, CSI, E-in-B, Snow Valley to name but a few but no sign of the "market leaders".

Are they too busy?

A rant about English in advertising

I was prompted by a conversation in our office today to put fingers to keyboard.

There are several inaccuracies in current marketing speak being used today.

The two which particularly frustrate me are:
Better than half price - better for whom? The retailer or me?
The example that immediately springs to mind is the Holland & Barrett Better Than Half Price Sale.

And the real classic:
More than 10x savings - I mean what absolute rubbish is this? Ten times what?
Does this actually mean 90% off - maybe I'm atypical but this is rather more appealing to me.

I feel more like Lynne Truss every day!

Does anybody out there have any strong views?

A transitory world

This is a post of contrasts!

The other day I resolved to get my blog back up and running and then I found that TypePad wouldn't let me upload anything.  This has been well documented... here and officially here

This occured after I was talking with a chap from be the brand experience - an MRM provider - about this blog.  The call was due to an ancient post I made on e-consultancy (www.e-consultancy.com).  What is surprising is that I am one of only 2 people to actually post on MRM on e-consutlancy. 

For those of you who don't know MRM stands for Marketing Resource Management and is the term to describe the marketing back office systems that larger organisations need to make marketing work effectively.  It is a growing field of software and services that probably hasn't reached the critical mass it deserves within the marketing community.

• An aside here about the use of URLs and branding - I couldn't remember the URL for be the brand and tried looking it up on Google, yahoo, MSN etc - couldn't find a thing.  Eventually found the URL - http://www.be-thebrand.com/ - not exactly intuitive chaps - and  no PPC or SEO effort to make sure it came up when I searched for "be the brand" on the search engines.  Morale of the tale - if you cannot get the right URL then change the company name.
  

The other thing to mention is that due to my inability instantly to sate my desire to post on my blog (albeit after a long layoff), I have lost the transitory point I wished to make.  You cannot imagine how frustrating that is!!!!   Must have been too many beers with Freddie on Friday night.

London gets a mile of free Wi-Fi

As an Islington resident, albeit not one close enough to benefit, I am really pleased that the local council has set up a mile long wi-fi zone on Upper Street - also known as restaurant alley.

A while back whilst working for TBWA\GGT (now Tequila\London) I investigated the possibility of advertising on splash pages provided by Wi-Fi hot spot providers.  I wonder how this market has moved on, as I could not find a provider who would do such a thing, although it was deemed feasible.  Maybe now's the time?

 

Now my bank is spamming me - on my phone

I have been a long standing customer of First Direct and recently signed up to SMS alerts in case anything untoward was happening to our account there.  At the same time I asked First Direct to stop sending me so much irrelevant junk mail.
As a consequence of this I am now getting spammed on my mobile phone by the bank.

Why can they not understand that I did NOT GIVE THEM PERMISSION to abuse me in this way when I signed up to the bank balance by SMS programme.  Another call to them will be required and another bit of goodwill has been lost. 
Furthermore they are not following best practice  as I cannot even unsubscribe by SMS...

Is First Direct thinking I might want a relationship with my bank...
As if!

At least I am blaming the sender in this instance.  Apparently SMS spam is a major reason to change mobile phone providers.  As ever, thanks to the Register!

Ocado CRM email almost works

Just received what I guess would be called a CRM email from Ocado.  They are offering me £5 off if I order over £75 worth of shopping for delivery tomorrow. Great in theory, but they clearly don't understand the nature of shoppers...
I haven't stopped using them because I have gone to Tesco.com, but simply because I like seeing stuff I buy before I buy.  So, I went to Waitrose at the weekend.  The CRM systems there obviously don't link up with Ocado, unlike Tesco's integrated system.
This means that whilst I like the idea of £5 off, I don't need £75 worth tomorrow.  They should allow a longer time window for this type of promotion...
Unlike many companies with which I deal, I am happy with the idea of a relationship with Waitrose/ Ocado but there is no way for me to reply to their automated email and let them know what I think of their offer!
Having said this - Ocado do have a fantastic level of integration between DM and email.