Business case for Technology X was: [thelist] flash accessibility/usability

martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com
Wed Feb 27 04:48:00 CST 2002


Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

-------------------- Start of message text --------------------



Subject:    RE: [thelist] flash accessibility/usability


>simply giving the user the ability to see the scooter in 360 degree via
>flash is not an uneducated assumption.  however, thinking that doing so
will
>close sales without first doing the research to prove one way or the other
>is an uneducated assumption.

And that's why many of these debates are somewhat pointless. Good business
sense tells us that it is not possible to predict (with any degree of
accuracy)
what will be the most effective (ie give the better return on investment)
of
any given approach, although "Will exclude x% of your audience" and
"users have real problems registering" can be very useful pointers.

The *only* way to find out is to test. What you *should* do is:
1) Test during the development phase (this is classic usability testing,
    testing prototypes at paper model, HTML model and working system
   stages)
2) Test as a pilot before rollout. Test different versions (and yes, as
Jeff
    pointed out, they have to be of equal effort to avoid bias) with single
    variables changed (or *everything* changed), and test new against
    best existing. Test more than just creative approach (it's rarely the
    most significant element). If your site has a transactional element,
    measuring is easy. If not, you'll have to do regional splits and
measure
    more general factors (name recognition, incremental revenue etc).

    Amazon do this - they test new features, sometimes with a small %age
    of the userbase. Successful features which add sales get rolled out.

These do imply a flexibility in your site development, though, and for
many people, that's difficult.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
> see, its all information. discarding *any* piece of
> otherwise relevant and helpful information, whether it
> be a flash animation showing you how the scooter wheels
> work or a paragraph of text explaining it to you, is the
> 'uneducated' thing to do IMO.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

>it's only uneducated if you run off and make a decision about the
>[in|ex]clusion of any of the delivery mechanisms without properly
>researching your audience and their demands/needs/limitations.

And more significant than researching market opinions is testing
market behaviours - they're the ones which make you money after
all.

Cheers
Martin


--------------------- End of message text --------------------

This e-mail is sent by the above named in their
individual, non-business capacity and is not on
behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers may monitor outgoing and incoming
e-mails and other telecommunications on its e-mail and
telecommunications systems.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to
which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged
material.  Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or
taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or
entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.   If you received
this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any
computer.




More information about the thelist mailing list