PRWD

I’m absolutely delighted to have recently brought in Matt Lacey to the PRWD consultancy team. Matt brings with him plenty of commercial experience in analysing website performance and gaining insights from consumers, and from the off he has been getting his hands dirty on a range of client projects.

Matt is working on client projects whilst also spending some of his time developing the PRWD brand and marketing strategy, something which I have to say is often neglected. The phrase “people in glass houses…” springs to mind.

With a CV that already includes working with brands including Crew Clothing, Blacks & Millets and Richer Sounds, Matt is wasting no time adding to this impressive list by working with our clients including AllSaints, Monsoon Accessorize and Manchester Central.

Matt brings with him a wealth of ideas, experiences and complimentary areas of expertise which is already paying dividends for both ourselves and our clients, and I’m looking forward to seeing Matt further develop his skills and attributes following the same approach as I have over the years – working in a commercial environment and constantly learning and developing as a usability and conversion consultant.

You can take a look at Matt’s Linkedin profile (which by his own admission needs some work in terms of recommendations!) and see what Matt has to say on Twitter.

Our Ferbruary Newsletter below provides an update of our recent work with clients Hitachi and AllSaints, along with some useful links to a recent presentation I have delivered on conversion optimisation.

In-house Training with Hitachi

I’ve recently had the pleasure of delivering our usability and user experience training course to the Hitachi team in Manchester. The full press release can be seen here, which includes comments that I’m really proud of such as this one below.

“I searched high and low for a reputable company to provide guidance and training to my team in order to further bolster our capabilities around ‘User Centric Design’. I became aware Paul’s company PRWD and was immediately impressed with the level of expertise and reference able collateral on show on their website. It was a no brainer for me; being local was also a major plus point as there is clearly a lack of expertise in this field north of London. Paul proved invaluable on the day as he led us through ‘idea after idea’ in which we could improve our services to our clients. His knowledge of the subject was clear for all to see and his approach to training very professional.”

Taz Ali, Creative Services Manager

Remote User Testing for AllSaints

Also in the last month we have been working with the AllSaints team to deliver a range of invaluable user insights, using our partner company Whatusersdo to provide the remote testing videos. The AllSaints e-commerce platform is developed and maintained in-house, and no sooner had we presented back the findings and recommended user experience improvements, they set about starting to plan in development time to. At the time of writing the first site improvements are due live in the next few days, with more to follow in early March. Below are some comments from AllSaints on the project.

“I have been very impressed with the user testing service PRWD have provided, from initiation through to delivery.

The insights that we gained from the users have been valuable, but what made the project a particular success was what Paul brought to the table. Without his considerable experience we would never have created the right scenarios for the users, or indeed have been able to glean the right information from the videos.”

Stuart McMillan, E-commerce Operations Manger at AllSaints

Lings Cars and the art of persuading visitors to buy

This truly is a fascinating site, one that generates sales of £35m per year, yet on first viewing is one of the most insane, wacky and unbelievable site designs that you will find.

I’ve recently published an article on Econsultancy examining how they employ a wide range of persuasive techniques to deliver their proposition and engage visitors for conversion. The comments are well worth viewing too, which include some extremely valuable insights from Ling Valentine who owns and runs the website.

Presentation – Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation

I’ve recently spoke at the monthly Northern User Experience session, with a talk dedicated to sharing customer insights and some performance improvements for some of the main conversion rate optimisation techniques we use when working with our clients, particularly retailers.

View full details and the slides for Applied Techniques for Conversion Rate Optimisation

This is our March 2011 e-newsletter. To subscribe simply visit our website and you’ll find a sign-up box at the bottom of every page.

Welcome to our March newsletter. As with last months newsletter this month there are a number of links to articles, training courses and events which you will hopefully find worth a click!

New Articles

We have published 2 new articles on external sites as follows:

• Smart Insights – Ask for more not less to encourage enquiry form conversions
• Econsultancy – 9 women x 9 hours = 9 usability insights

If you missed last months Econsultancy article, Shopping Basket Best Practice by ASOS, its a recommended read, both the main article and the variety of comments including insights from James Hart, Head of E-commerce at ASOS.

Commentary in the Sunday Telegraph

On Sunday 24th February Paul was featured in an Internet Retailing supplement in the Sunday Telegraph. Read more about the supplement & the article which was titled ‘The importance of good website design’ as well as a link to a pdf of the full supplement.

Event Speaking

Over the last 4 weeks Paul has spoken at 2 events:

• Usability & User Experience 101 –10th Feb – view slides & resources
• Conversion Thursday Manchester – Thursday 24th Feb – How to improve basket to checkout conversions – the ASOS way

Upcoming Events & Conferences

There are a variety of upcoming events and conferences that we are either speaking at, attending or recommend you consider taking a look at:

• Digital Pathways – 9th March – we will be attending this alongside our partner MMU, to promote user testing and the MMU user testing lab – view event details
• Conversion Thursday London – 10th March – unfortunately we can’t attend what we’re sure will be another superb event, following on from last months 1st Conversion Thursday Manchester that we spoke at – view event details and register for FREE
• Internet Retailing Expo 2011 – 23rd/24th March – we are attending on the 23rd – view expo details and register for FREE

New Press Release

Following on from our initial work with Lakeside Hotel, who are recognised as the best 4 star hotel on the shores of Lake Windermere, we have been delighted to see that our work has already had a positive impact on the performance of their new website.

View the press release – PRWD Help Improve Online Bookings for Lakeside Hotel by 20%

User Experience Buyers Guide 2011

Recently we were invited by Econsultancy to have our company profile in the User Experience Buyers Guide 2011 . In the words of Econsultancy, the guide is an invaluable resource for those investigating the market for user experience agencies, with profiles of 27 suppliers, the latest market trends and tips and pitfalls for buyers. The 263-report covers issues and trends affecting this sector, and contains information about best practice, as well as useful advice for those seeking a suitable supplier.

View the press release – view the buyers guide and download a sample

Training for Econsultancy

Over the last few weeks Paul has delivered 2 public training courses for Econsultancy. Both these courses are also delivered to clients directly, full details are below.

• E-commerce Usability & Best Practice training
• Usability & User Experience Training

New Date for E-commerce Training

Due to popular demand there has been a new date added for the E-commerce Usability & Best Practice training course – 3rd May 2011 in London. View details and book online.

We’ve Won an Award!

We were delighted to find out that our 1 submission into the WhichTestWon annual split testing awards won an award, in the business to business lead generation category

View the winning entry and take the test – PRWD’s winning split test project

Usability Resources

We have updated our list of usability resources to include more presentation slides and new articles that we have published online.

• Usability & UX Resources, Tools and Presentation Slides

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your week.

The PRWD team
PRWD

After just over 2 years working alongside me at PRWD, in March this year Rob decided it was time for him to move on and pursue consultancy opportunities, starting in June 2010 with contracting for Capgemini in London on one of the largest Drupal platform developments in Europe. Rob’s Linked-in profile explains more…

Along with thanking Rob in person for his significant contribution to the development and sales growth of my business during his time with me, I’d like to take this online opportunity to thank Rob for all his hard work.

Being a micro business working through a recession, with a proposition which as yet isn’t in too much demand, especially in the North West of England, has meant we certainly experienced a rollercoaster ride over the past 2 years. Thankfully, as our December 2009 newsletter demonstrated, last year was actually more successful than we dared to imagine at the time.

Amongst Rob’s many technical achievements, including BenchmarkingApp, our user-centered design Adobe AIR application and the Drupal website for our client ResPublica, the Conservative Party Think-tank run by David Cameron’s philispher king Phillip Blond, I was very proud to see Rob presenting at a variety of events to showcase his technical and commercial skills. Prior to joining me I think Rob would be one of the first to say that speaking in front of large audiences wasn’t somthing he was looking to start doing! One such presentation was at an Adobe AIR event, where Rob spoke about designing business systems with Adobe AIR.

I wish all the very best in his new Drupal consultant role and if you are looking for a Drupal expert in London then Rob is your man! I’m sure our paths will cross in the future too…

Onwards and Upwards

Having replaced Rob, we are looking forward to continuing with Rob’s fine work by developing more user-centered websites using both Drupal and Magento E-commerce.