For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Pump Up Intranet Adoption With User-Centric Design

by Tim Walters, Ph.D., Matthew Brown, July 7, 2009

Few businesses fully appreciate the importance of an outstanding corporate intranet. Yet Forrester expects that companies will continue their decades-old march toward "self-service" workplaces, making large administrative support staffs either a dinosaur . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Six User-Centered Design Best Practices

by Vidya L. Drego, February 17, 2009

In recent research, Forrester uncovered six best practices in the user-centered design process — for example, Medco links business objectives to customer goals, Wells Fargo uses scenario-starter exercises to gain early stakeholder buy-in, and KeyBank . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Map User Goals To Business Objectives

Focus On The Right Customer Goals To Drive Business Success

by Megan Burns, December 18, 2008

Customer experience professionals spend much of their time thinking about how to help users accomplish their goals online. But it's equally important for them to think about how user success or failure affects business success. Why? Because doing so allows . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Medco's Rx For Online Prescription Success

An Examination Of The Design Principles And Practices Behind My Rx Choices

by Elizabeth Boehm, May 1, 2008

The healthcare industry has been slow to adopt the disciplines of scenario design. But an examination of one of the industry's most successful sites proves that designing with a clear understanding of personas and user needs is as applicable in healthcare . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

Scenario-Engaged Consumers

Digital Lifestyle Applications Drive PC Value And Usage

by J.P. Gownder, January 26, 2007

The price consumers are willing to pay for a new PC continues to decline every year, yet high-value customers do exist. Digital lifestyle scenarios, which bring together hardware, software, and services to create rich application experiences, can help . . .

Creating Good Online Content Experiences

Usability Beats Unique Content, Hands Down

by Charlene Li, October 24, 2006

What do users want from their content sites? Unique content does matter, but the basics — such as clear navigation, easy-to-use search, and ads that don't interfere — matter more. Personalization has its role for a certain group of people but often suffers . . .

Common Persona Misconceptions Debunked

Understand What Makes A Valid Persona To Avoid Failures

by Moira Dorsey, September 6, 2006

Personas are valuable tools that enable firms to correct misconceptions about users and make quicker, more reliable design decisions. But even as firms seek to take advantage of the benefits personas offer, misconceptions about what makes for valid personas . . .

Evaluating Web Design Alternatives

Minimize Bias And Extraneous Variables To Determine The Best Design

by Kerry Bodine, June 21, 2006

Prototypes are effective tools for creating, iterating, and evaluating potential site designs. But the process of evaluating Web design alternatives can get derailed when project teams don't control extraneous variables in prototypes or when they let . . .

Who Should Create Web Prototypes?

The Right People And Skill Sets Depend On The Prototype's Purpose

by Kerry Bodine, June 5, 2006

Prototypes are complex artifacts: They have many different dimensions and can be created with a variety of low- and high-tech tools. As a result, the activity of prototyping requires a multitude of skills. With the appropriate tools, business generalists . . .

A Web Prototyping Primer

How To Create Effective Web Prototypes That Support Business Objectives

by Kerry Bodine, June 2, 2006

Prototypes are attractive to development teams because they have clear benefits. They facilitate communication by exposing design assumptions, drive ideation, and provide a vehicle for gathering user feedback. But prototypes are complex artifacts: They . . .

How To Craft User Goals For Expert Evaluations

Where To Look For Useful Data When Qualitative User Research Isn't Available

by Moira Dorsey, December 23, 2005

Ideally, user and goal descriptions for expert evaluations should be derived from design personas and the qualitative research that they are based on. When qualitative user research doesn't exist, managers of the interactive system to be evaluated can . . .

Web Sites Must Temper Creativity With Usability

by Harley Manning, December 13, 2005

Web sites that Forrester evaluated in 2005 fare far better at supporting their owners' brand positioning than they do at providing basic usefulness and usability for target customers. While pass rates for Brand Image criteria range from a high of 85% . . .

Persona Best Practices Of Web Design Agencies

by Harley Manning, November 18, 2005

Reference personas provided by Web design agencies for the recent Forrester Wave™ evaluation show major improvements compared with just a year ago. The very best work stands out by virtue of superior writing quality, efficient formatting, compelling . . .

Full-Service Brokers' Home Pages Fail Usability Test

Forrester's Web Site Review Methodology Uncovers Problems At Five Sites

by Bill Doyle, October 24, 2005

How do full-service brokerage firms use their Web sites to reach millionaires who are active online? Not well, according to Forrester research. Our reviews of the Ameriprise Financial, Edward Jones, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Smith Barney home . . .

Pharma: Use Scenario Design To Rekindle Intranet Portals

by Laura Ramos, July 12, 2005

Trying to meet the disparate and conflicting needs of thousands of employees, pharma firms deal with portal design from either a broad, corporate view or a narrow, departmental focus. The result? Portal projects that wander off course and fail to give . . .

How To Design Better Car Insurance Web Sites

Forrester Applies Its Review Methodology To 30 European Car Insurance Sites

by Benjamin Ensor, July 5, 2005

In Europe, more Net users research and buy car insurance online than any other financial product. To find out how well insurance companies are serving these online customers, we used a modified version of our Web Site Review methodology to evaluate the . . .

How Brands Succeed Online

by Harley Manning, June 9, 2005

Building brand is a top business goal for site decision-makers and a top consideration when deciding what content and features to improve. But how good is the Web brand experience offered by major sites today? To find out, we graded 16 B2C sites on how . . .

Companies Deliver Subpar Customer Experiences

Forrester Examines Results From 18 Months Of Customer Experience Reviews

by Bruce D. Temkin, January 7, 2005

During the past 18 months, Forrester has completed more than 300 customer experience reviews of Web sites, phone self-service, kiosks, email, and cross-channel transitions. Looking back on the data from these reviews, we found that most experiences fail . . .

Four Essential Practices Of Good Web Design

by Harley Manning, December 13, 2004

Confronted with a broad range of design guidelines and advice, companies can freeze up like deer in headlights. What are the essential practices that no firm can do without? Site managers should ensure that if nothing else, their teams: 1) Get low-cost, . . .

Top Agencies, Clients Share Best Practices

Insights From A Web Design Panel At AD:TECH New York

by Harley Manning, November 16, 2004

Top firms from the recent Forrester Wave™ evaluation of Web design agencies recently appeared on a panel at AD:TECH 2004. Together with reference clients, they shared tips and tricks that help their firms succeed. Critical Mass and client Dell outlined . . .

Overcoming Barriers To Persona Creation

by Harley Manning, November 11, 2004

Despite the undeniable benefits of design personas, many companies find reasons to avoid or delay using them. Common objections include a mistaken belief that customers are already well understood, a lack of understanding about how to develop personas . . .

Carriers' Customer Portals Need Scenario Design

by Maribel D. Lopez, September 29, 2004

Carriers are plowing big bucks into customer care portals, but do enterprise customers care? More than 20% of the firms interviewed found portals very important, but many users were neutral. To move portals from a nice-to-have to a must-have, carriers . . .

Scenario Design: A Disciplined Approach To Customer Experience

by Bruce D. Temkin, July 19, 2004

Firms know that customer experience is important — but they deal with it haphazardly. As a result, customers suffer through needlessly painful interactions. That's why firms need a more disciplined approach to customer experience. Forrester recommends . . .

How To Choose A Vendor For Design Personas

by Paul Sonderegger, June 17, 2004

Web site projects depend on a seemingly endless parade of decisions, each changing the user experience to some degree. Design personas are instrumental in keeping those decisions coherent – provided that they're well-crafted. To make sure your design . . .

Software That Fuels Persona Development

by Harley Manning, March 8, 2004

CDTools is the first software product from services firm InContext Enterprises. The tool brings much-needed discipline to the process of collecting and analyzing the primary customer research that feeds today's more sophisticated design projects. What's . . .