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A shift back towards Microsoft in Enterprise Apps

by Gareth Phillips |April 3rd, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve been saying for some months to expect a shift back towards Microsoft in Enterprise Apps and this is validated by a new survey by Aberdeen Group. The survey looked at mobile app deployment plans by platform—Apple iOS, Android, Windows 8/Windows Phone and BlackBerry—covering both tablets and phones.

The data show Microsoft Window

s Phone 8 and Surface tablets are about to make a big leap, with iOS devices reaching a point of saturation.  As for BlackBerry, the future looks bleak.

35 percent of respondents are planning to develop apps on the Surface tablet over the next 12 months, in addition to 8 percent currently deployed. Windows Phone fared well, too, with 25 percent planning to develop apps on Windows Phone, in addition to 26 percent already deployed.

It will be interesting to keep track of this development over the course of the next 12 months.

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Posted in Enterprise|Intranets & Technology|Mobile
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Skyron is looking for an Information Architect (permanent), London, up to £40K

by Yannis |March 6th, 2013

Are you passionate about technology, information and how we interact with them? Are you a sworn champion of users’ rights and strive to create awesome experiences for them? Are you a natural team player keen to learn, share and collaborate? If you are indeed such a rare creature, we need you!

We are a growing technology and marketing agency headquartered in London Waterloo. We have a great list of international corporate clients for which we deliver a range of solutions such as responsive websites, business applications, software solutions, mobile apps, data visualisation, ecommerce, intranets, portals, as well as our own SaaS products. We are looking for an enthusiastic mid-weight information architect to further strengthen our user experience team.

About the role

  • You will work in a multi-disciplinary team and collaborate with  designers, developers, copywriters, business analysts and  usability specialists
  • You will be involved in the whole production process, and contribute to all user experience stages: research, requirements gathering, definition of user personas and journeys, content prioritisation and organisation, information architecture, visual design, development, testing and on-going improvements
  • You main area of responsibility will be the planning, creation, testing and optimisation of interactive prototypes and wireframes
  • You will be applying the latest usability and accessibility best practices and share with the team industry insights and developments
  • Your will be a pivotal part of our commitment to improving the usability and quality of our output, and streamlining our production process

 About you

  • You have least 2 years’ experience working as an information architect or in a similar role
  • You have worked closely with designers, developers and business analysts and have a good understanding of the creative and technical production processes
  • You strive to always stay up-to-date with the latest usability theories and best practices
  • You are creative, resourceful and you enjoy complex problem solving and experimentation
  • You have excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • You are a team player, evangelize digital media and the importance of good usability
  • You love information, organisation and structure and live by the maxim “the devil is in the detail”

Our standard prototyping tools are: Axure for non-responsive and HTML for responsive interfaces. Our process however constantly evolves so we would be open to any suggestions you might have.

To express your interest in this opportunity or for more information please send your details to emily.dear@skyron.co.uk.

(Skyron has not outsourced recruitment to agencies for 7 years so, if you are an agent, please refrain from contacting us)
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Posted in Recruitment|Skyron
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Neglected alerts, error messages and other unglamorous digital touch-points can erode your brand

by Yannis |February 6th, 2013

I guess I could call myself an HTC fan. Not only because I think they produce decent products but also because I would like to believe that they follow Avis’s old moto, “We are No.2, we try harder”. Alas, they appear not to be doing so; they suffer from the same malaise that besets countless other companies with digital products and services.

A few days ago I was fiddling with the official HTC installer on my Windows 7 laptop and this shocking message came up:

Despite HTC’s efforts to provide quality service and engage with people (they were very quick to respond to some comments I made a while back on Twitter and to follow me) someone, somewhere dropped the quality ball. Alerts like this don’t just appear in a vacuum. They need to be specified, written, designed, programmed into the system that requires them, tested, approved and finally launched with the end product.

Read more Read more

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Posted in Branding|Content|Customer Service|Interface|Mobile|UX
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How People Really Use Mobile

by Gareth Phillips |January 11th, 2013

 

SOURCES “Seven Shades of Mobile” study, conducted by InsightsNow for AOL and BBDO, 2012. In the first phase, 24 users completed a seven-day diary and in-depth interviews. In the second, 1,051 U.S. users ages 13 to 54 were surveyed, data on 3,010 mobile interactions were collected, and the mobile activities of two-thirds of those users were tracked for 30 days.

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Posted in Mobile
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Share The (Real) Love

by Yannis |December 17th, 2012

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Posted in Skyron
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7 Content Marketing Ideas To Steal From The New Coca Cola Corporate Website

by Yannis |December 10th, 2012

The new Coca Cola website is a great specimen for a new generation of corporate websites that turn the traditional monolithic company description into a humanised, dynamic and engaging narrative.

We have isolated 7 features that make this website an inspiration for any organisation looking to improve the way it engages with its audience.

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Posted in B2B|Branding|Communications|Content Marketing|Content Strategy|Corporate Communications|Humanisation|Social Media|Websites
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Skyron purchases MDB Consulting and expands technical capability

by Yannis |November 20th, 2012

Skyron has purchased MDB Consulting, a northwest based software and technology firm. Founded in 2003, MDB Consulting delivers complex data integration, systems integration and business-enabling software for blue-chip firms such a Centaur; Compass Group; Defaqto; and 3i.

Commenting on the purchase, Skyron’s managing director, Gareth Phillips said, “The purchase of MDB Consulting takes our technology offering to a new level. Our goal is to create beautiful technology that makes a difference to our clients’ profitability and productivity. This purchase takes us ever closer to that goal”.

MDB Consulting’s founder Martin Bell said, “Agreeing a deal with Skyron, allows our technically focused team to work with class leading business insight, creativity, UX and user interface development skills. We expect this fusion to offer greater value to our existing client base.”

In parallel to this purchase, Skyron has also established an offshore software development service. “This move has allowed us to up-scale our offering adding further skills in both server-side and mobile application development. Coupled with the purchase  of MDB Consulting, it is further evidence of our intent”, said Gareth.

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Posted in Skyron
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You’re as cold as ice – Why you need emotion in your corporate comms and how to introduce it

by Yannis |October 16th, 2012

More likely than not, emotion is absent from your corporate communications. Why is emotion important and how can you introduce it?

Are you as cold as ice?

How good are your website, mobile apps, intranet, customer extranet or CRM system? Do users go into a “Like” frenzy when in front of your content, or do they throw their hands up in the air in frustration and vow never to come back? The answer is probably neither. The likely scenario is that your digital properties are just ok; functional, usually reliable, offering an acceptable user experience and featuring adequate content. Not a bad feat considering the monstrosities corporations used to launch until recently. So is there a problem?

Unless you are one of the very few exceptions, your corporate communications are likely to be painting a not so exciting picture of your company: formal, sterile, dry, formulaic and above all impersonal. What is missing from this picture is the human touch: emotion, personality and a narrative to deliver it. The good news is that you are not the only one; your competitors, partners, suppliers and clients probably suffer the same ills. The bad news is that you are missing a great opportunity, first to differentiate and second to connect with your audiences in a more meaningful, rewarding and long-lasting way. Aarron Walter, lead user experience designer at MailChimp, recently said:

Until recently, emotional design has not been a high priority in web design because we’ve been fighting battles on other fronts–spreading the word about web standards, translating the history of layout in graphic design into our medium, and making our interface design process user-centric

In his book “Designing for Emotion” Aarron included the graph below (slightly amended by us) that illustrates the nature of the problem. Most companies have managed to reach a point where their digital properties might be functional, reliable and usable but, being devoid of any personality, they are also unable to evoke any emotions.

Read more Read more

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Posted in B2B|Branding|Communications|Corporate Communications|Creative|Customer Service|Humanisation|Insights|Skyron|Social Media
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Windows 8: Early conclusions from a business and mobile perspecitve

by Gareth Phillips |October 9th, 2012

I have been using Windows 8 for just over a couple of weeks now. Purists would argue that it isn’t a pure Windows8 experience as I am running it using VMWare on my Mac and I haven’t experience the Tablet or Mobile version yet, but I think there are some interesting conclusions to be drawn already.

First is the dual mode experience. It is like Microsoft has layered a tablet experience on top of Windows 7. It is a simultaneous experience: you can switch easily from a tablet to desktop and back again easily. But, it is interesting to note that the applications are that are available in each view are actually different applications. Even third party apps open in different windows if you access them through the different modes. I was under the impression that that this wasn’t going to be the case: one OS for all devices I thought meant one version of an app for all devices. We shall find out shortly with the development of our first Window 8 mobile app.

Second is that it took me 24 hours to get the complete hang of the ‘tablet’ UI on a desktop. Tapping and swiping is always going to be easier that pointing and clicking. But still… and it didn’t help that the “start” button has gone missing even in desktop mode!

Third is that there are some hidden commands that need to be found out to be make use on a desktop better.  Here’s a couple: “Windows + I” brings out the setting bar. Moving the cursor to the top left bring up a nano window to allow toggle between windows. Moving the cursor to a right hand corner – either top or bottom – until the Charms bar appears (a Charms bar is the Search, Share, Start and Devices menu). You can also use the WINDOWS + C keyboard shortcut to display Charms. There’s a lot more listed here on CNET.

On the subject of making a desktop experience better, the Tablet mode with its full screen layout, heavy use of white space on so on really does start to create a ‘lean back experience’ on a desktop – especially with the three finger swipe trackpad of a Mac. You start to create a different interaction experience with a desktop. This will be in an interesting consideration for Enterprise apps.

As will the use of live tiles on the homescreen on the tablet view for pulling in information from across the business. You can see sales data, latest Yammer posts, task data from mobile apps etc all being pulled into the live tiles on desktops and tablets.

So what have we learned so far?

  • It might not be one app for all versions
  • The UI and hidden commands might mean that it takes a little time to be understood in the workplace and therefore get adopted (as will the licensing agreement and compliance drive this)
  • The blurring of the ‘lean back’ and the ‘lean forward’ experience will be useful for businesses apps in terms of productivity
  • Live tiles could become that fabled Enterprise
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Posted in Intranets & Technology|Intranets/Extranets|Thought Leadership
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Self service from hell: How large corporates serve an insulting user experience to job applicants

by Yannis |September 11th, 2012

Are you a manager recruiting on behalf of your large corporate employer? Are you a director hoping that your managers get their hands on the best talent out there? Are you in HR and certain that everyone is having a field day with the third party recruitment solution you invested in?

Below we reveal the misery your online job candidates are likely to be  subjected to, along with 25 tips on how to make things better.

Your organisation is likely to be investing quite a bit of effort and money into recruitment to ensure that it attracts the best candidates. There is probably a nicely written and designed careers website, a YouTube careers channel dedicated to company videos, interviews, employee testimonials and departmental presentations, social media career chatter on Facebook and Twitter and maybe a blog with polished corporate news and views written with job prospects in mind.

In our research we came across numerous examples of such online recruitment initiatives, most offering a decent experience. And yet, behind this sparkly, über-optimistic career-fest lies a big rot: the online job application process. As soon as a job candidate crosses the lovely shop front and enters the back room of online account opening, job searching, CV uploading and job applying, all cuddly content and design fade away. Instead, the unsuspecting user is asked to go through a clinical, impersonal, confusing, badly designed, badly written, patronising, and sometimes even impossible to complete, process.

This embarrassing for the employer and insulting to the candidate debacle is more often than not owned by third party recruitment solution providers such as Oracle’s Taleo, Kenexa, or SAP’s Success Factors. Yet, this should not be an excuse for a poor user experience.  If you fail to attract the best talent out there, it is the future of your company that is at peril.

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Posted in Branding|Corporate Communications|Customer Service|Design|Enterprise|Insights|Recruitment|Skyron|UX
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