Paul Rouke - Usability Professional

Since my last post there has been a fair bit going on at PRWD, some of which I can talk about and some of which we can’t make publically available as its work through partner agencies.

Testing Testing 1, 2 3

We’ve been busy working with some of our existing clients such as Contact Packaging (selling printed tape) and new clients such as The Translation People (providing document translation services) in optimising their conversion rates through analysis and testing (split and mutli-variate).

Event Speaking

Following on from my successful and rewarding presentation at the recent How Do conference in Liverpool, Rob Knight (PRWD’s lead technical architect) has spoken at an event titled Developing With Adobe AIR, which had a keynote from Adobe. Rob’s presentation was titled Business Systems With Adobe AIR and it featured the work we’ve done with a manufacturing company to deliver a user-centered designed business system for them. We have also developed a micro-site detailing our business systems and e-commerce services for manufacturers.

Case Studies

We’ve also released a couple more case studies of some of the work we have been doing and the results we’ve had, in particular on improving online sales by 400% for one of our clients and a technical case study on using Adobe AIR for business systems.

Twittering

I’ve been twittering over the past few weeks (not consistently I hasten to add!) and along the way picking up quite a few new followers, some of which I would put in the spam category. We have also been updating the PRWD twitter account although you tell its alot younger than my personal twitter account!

Featured Supplier In Econsultancy’s User Experience Buyers Guide 2009

We were delighted to be asked to feature as one of the 26 agencies who specialise in user experience and usability in Econsultancy’s annual guide on this topic. I also spent time providing feedback on a number of questions relating to the industry, and if you download the full version you will see various quotes from myself.

After a slightly later than usual start to the day we are back working today after our fantastic Christmas evening with some of our clients last night.

We started with a few mulled wines on the Albert Square European market, followed by a sumptuous meal at Tampopo (highly recommended if you haven’t yet tried it!).

We finished off with a few drinks in Beluga, exchanging stories of Christmas parties which have not gone according to plan (think people having a few too many drinks and people letting off steam with one another!) plus looking ahead to 2009 and the projects that we will be working together on.

In reference to the post title, I’m referring to the fact that the clients we invited out are some of our long term clients who we have built extremely strong relationships with – so this certainly won’t be the last time we share a meal with these clients!

Oh and before I forget, I hope readers of our blog have a fab Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Having not previously made the definition of our company name acronym visible electronically, we felt now would be an ideal time to share this with our readers.

PRWD, An Acronym for ‘Productivity Without Difficulty’

Productivity – A Wikipedia definition

Productivity in economics refers to measures of output from production processes, per unit of input. Labor productivity, for example, is typically measured as a ratio of output per labour-hour, an input. Productivity may be conceived of as a measure of the technical or engineering efficiency of production.

read the full definition of Productivity on Wikipedia

Types Of Productivity We Improve

Without Difficulty – An Answers.com definition

Something not easily done, accomplished, comprehended, or solved. A laborious effort; a struggle.

read the full definition of Difficulty at Answers.com

Types Of Difficult User Experiences We Rectify

A few examples which you may relate to are as follows:

• removing confusion when submitting an application form online
• removing being overwhelmed when using a business system
• removing concerns of trust and privacy when considering an online purchase
• removing complexity when navigating through large sets of information or products
• removing frustration when a website doesn’t do what you need it to do
• removing frustration that the business system makes your job less productive

As you can see from the examples provided above, combining productivity and ease of use can relate to any number of web applications, business systems, marketing activity and brand experiences.

Delivery ROI Through The PRWD Acronym

By focussing on productivity metrics whilst removing difficulties for users when using a system, we deliver return-on-investment in a way which we have recently documented in a case study on User-Centered Design.

If you’re wondering its the trade association for digital businesses in and around Manchester, of which we are a member of (you will see a quick camio from me at around 56 seconds speaking about the benefits we have experienced by being a member).

Take a look at the video below which tells you more about Manchester Digital and the benefits to employers, employees and educational providers alike…

It’s only a taster of what in store, but comes not a moment too soon.

The PRWD website is getting a much needed makeover and will, over the next couple of months, grow in terms of rich media content to include interactive pages, video and bags of personality. It will not only act as a great platform for selling the business and what we do here at PRWD but will also act as a great source of information on current industry topics and research. The site will be a ‘place to stop by’ on the web with its regularly updated content, keeping both our customers and blog subscribers up-to-date and informed.

Paul Rouke, founder of PRWD, admitted that the revamp was long overdue but as the business quickly rocketed into its new market place with some very big clients on the books, the website took the back burner.

“With Katie coming into the business as our marketing and brand development executive, she has wasted no time in highlighting the areas (and there are certainly quite a few of them!) where the business needs to significantly improve from a branding and marketing perspective. Not only does the business site need some much needed personality, it was completely lacking in informing visitors of our expertise and credibility in the Usability and Web Development industry, as well as not shouting about some of our exceptional blue chip client wins.

With our new blog design and now the now business homepage both live, visitors can at last begin to fully appreciate the work we are doing and the expert people that are behind PRWD.”

Light at the end of the tunnel

Having taken on several new members of staff over the past couple of months we are now able to begin addressing the website so that it does PRWD justice.

I think you’ll all agree the new homepage for the website make a huge difference. We hope you enjoy it.

Our new homepage…

And what we used to have…

The website’s preview will be launched later today, with the major rebuild underway and likely to go live later this summer. We’ll keep you posted.