PRWD

Due to continued growth we are looking to increase the size of our industry respected conversion optimisation team.

Who we are looking for

Our works covers analytics, user research, heuristic evaluations, development of test hypotheses, sketching, wireframing & designing user interfaces, and planning and delivering on-going testing programmes.

We’re not daft, we know that there are currently very few people out there who will have experience in all these areas, but you should certainly have a genuine passion for understanding how online experiences can be improved and the appetite to deliver optimisation programmes with our clients. You’ll be personable, genuine and have high integrity too.

What you can expect

You can expect to be working directly alongside our team and in-house with any of our phenomenal clients which include The North Face, Speedo, Schuh, Monsoon, British Cycling, The Student Room, AllSaints and Lakeland. You’ll be continually learning what techniques and experiences affect user behaviour. You’ll become an integral part of our team and someone who our clients trust, respect and look forward to working with.

If you are interested

If you are interested and you feel you have what it takes to become an industry leading conversion optimiser, irrespective of your experiences, please email interested@prwd.co.uk and tell us why.

Last week’s Conversion Thursday saw over 40 eCommerce Managers from the country’s top brands meet up to network and hear about A/B and MVT testing techniques from two of the top experts in the field. Read more to learn about the top take-away points from the evening.

Our very own Paul Postance kicked off the evening with a talk on why a culture of testing is important and how to embed it in an organisation.

Top Tips:

• Marginal gains all add up
• “It could be done better is not an insult” – let testing take the politics out of optimisation

Matt Althauser, our testing partner from Optimizely and Head of European Sales travelled over from Holland to present an interactive talk on the importance of split testing and lessons learned from over 100,000 A/B and MVT Tests. Having worked on the Obama presidential campaign, Matt used the creative, ranging from inspirational to tear jerking to see which the audience thought would perform best to surprising results.

Top Tip:

• Small details matter. Consider adding dynamic content that builds consistency in the user experience. For example, matching your H1 header tag with the search term that brought the user to your site.

It was a great turn out and fantastic to meet so many people within the industry. The free chilli wasn’t bad either. Thanks to all who provided feedback on the event too, we’ll be putting it into practice at the next event.

Conversion Thursday is a series of free international events. The next Manchester event will be held in conjunction with this year’s Sascon on the 6^th June, with talks focused on Multi-channel attribution.

Sign up now to avoid disappointment as there are only a limited number of tickets available.

If you can’t make it along, follow the action on #CTman or follow us on Twitter

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.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of speaking at the Internet Retailing Conference 2011 in London in one of the 8 workshops that took place.

I was invited to speak by one of our partners, remote usability testing service WhatUsersDo. I chose to speak about remote and moderated usability testing. Below the slides is a list of useful links providing tips and best practice about usability testing, whether moderated or remote.

My slides below look in particular at:

• how important is usability testing?
• a comparison of moderated & remote usability testing
• what business questions can usability testing answer?
• plus in the workshop I carried out a moderated test session with one of the attendees

Useful links on usability testing

• 67 questions usability testing can answer
• User Testing 101 – Good, Better, Best Approaches
• 5 Tips When Conducting User Research
• Lab Based User Testing – Objectives, Methodology, Deliverables
• The business benefits of user testing
• 9 women x 9 hours = 9 usability insights
• Conversion rate optimisation tips and best practice articles
• How Appliances Online increased sales by 9.5% through usability testing
• How Speedy gained strategic business insights through usability testing
• MMU’s fully featured usability testing lab in Manchester

We currently have some space available in our superb Northern Quarter office which we are looking to fill with a few freelancers and/or consultants.

We are looking for the likes of the following to join us in our office:

• UX/usability freelancers
• UX/usability consultants
• UX/HCI trainees/graduates
• digital freelancers (creative or technical)
• a micro web agency (2-5 people)

What is available:

• office space and desk rental in the heart of the Northern Quarter, at 22 Lever Street
• grade 2 listed building with lots of character!
• potential collaboration opportunties (see some of our clients)

Our neighbours
The companies who occupy 22 Lever Street with us are a range of movers and shakers in the digital, fashion and media industries, including:

• Jono Brain – Digital Blah Blah
• Stu Preece – Digital Cavalier
• Creative Spark
• Peter Werth
• Ben Sherman

Costs and whats included

• £185 + vat per month per desk
• high speed broadband, electricity and water rates all included
• kitchen facilities (fridge, microwave, toaster, toastie machine)
• meeting area and meeting table
• fully secured building with CCTV

Interested?
Please give me a call on 07739 745 126 or send an email to enquiries @ prwd.co.uk.

We get asked many times what does PRWD stand for, and I thought it would be worthwhile sharing this online as well as when we are with clients and prospects face to face.

PRWD, An Acronym for ‘Productivity Without Difficulty’

Typical Areas Where We Help Improve Productivity Of The User

Without Difficulty – An Answers.com definition

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

Types Of Difficult User Experiences We Rectify

• removing unwanted distractions on lead generation websites
• making unclear calls to action a more prominent part of a page or pages within a website
• making the reasons why visitors should use the company whose site they are visiting more clearly promoted
• removing confusion when submitting a checkout form online
• removing confusion when submitting an online application
• 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 being overwhelmed when using a business system
• removing frustration that the business system makes your job less productive
• removing frustration at internal processes being too complex and wasting valuable time

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

PRWD Case Studies Demonstrating Return-on-Investment

By focusing on improving productivity of web users and system users whilst removing difficulties for them, we deliver return-on-investment in many ways, which can be seen on the following case studies.

• Conversion Rate Improved by 86pc With Google Website Optimiser
• Intranet Usability Evaluation and User Testing for The Hyde Group
• E-commerce Usability Testing for Fashion Retailer Isabella Oliver
• In-house E-commerce Usability Training for The Scout Association
• Change of Marketing Message Improves On-site Conversion Rate by 215pc
• Advanced Google Analytics Training for Speedy Hire
• PRWD Increase Clients Revenue Per Employee by Over 95%