GO APE is GREAT

The booking funnel on the Go Ape website is pretty good. I think that the parallax scroll to step customers through certain forms during the booking and checkout process is really nice, feels very slick. Also, found the clever use of AJAX widgets helpful.

Often it is the confirmation page, once the process is complete, that gets forgotten and is generally quite poor in terms of UX and engaging content. However I really liked the Go Ape confirmation page - it provides a really simple but eye catching agenda followed by lots of interesting information and handy hints about the site that you have just booked. Well done Go Ape digital team, good work.

There are some jitters on there like the error messaging could be a little more bold / helpful and the location of gift voucher redeem is hard to find... but those things are easy to fix...

Nice checkout experience from Howies

Just came across this and thought it was worth a quick blog...

 1/ Nice & engaging email shot from Howies - targeting my penchant for bad taste Christmas jumpers and hoodies

2/ Visit website and browse around - experience is as expected ...

3/ Add items to basket and like the way that the basket is designed - able to see item photo, desc and costs, scroll to see other items in basket

4/ Checkout is well designed with accordion layout but specifically like the predictive postcode look up and order sumary on right hand side of screen.

Great online fast food experience

I never would have thought that ordering fast food online could be such a good experience but if you are a bit of a geek, like me, and you like pizza then try ordering online at Papa Johns



The online user journey is slick and encourages you to find your local store, the offers are easily applied and the live order status (aka knowing when to get your ass in to the car) is a real bonus.

But best of all, when you arrive to pick up (they do delivery too) the order has been processed, your pizzas boxed and clearly labeled with your name and the pizza type. All you have to do is pick up the pizza, sign a slip to say you have picked up and off you go!!!

Well done to Papa Johns in having such a well executed experience that seamlessly intergrates both online and offline services.

my digital life

://ionz.com.br/ to get your own personalised infographic. One thing I hope is that my life really isn't that simple to interpret!


Great example of a personalised info graphic. Check out http

online and in-store

Over the past 5-8 years the trend has been for companies to move services online in order to reduce costs streamline business processes and attract wider audiences. Is it time that online and in-store met in the middle of the road?

Moneysupermarket.com may have started this movement with their interactive shop window on Oxford Street at Christmas time. The window allowed shoppers to quickly and easily compare prices between stores whilst shopping.

With a little bit of creative thinking there could be bundles of opportunities for online services to appear on the high street:

• Design, save, share and compare your own bathroom/kitchen/living room within the furniture department of a department store
• Use mash-up technology to find products and stock counts when in-store
• Save gondola space in entertainment stores by using the online catalogue to browse music before buying the physical products
• Make more of the valuable space taken up by fitting rooms and reduce the annoying fitting room queues by using photo sharing sites to try on clothes and makeup

Both Tesco and Argos do a good job of blending their online experience with in-store due to their ‘order online and pick up in-store’ offering… but there is still the opportunity to take retail to the next ‘interactive’ level.

customer experience is everywhere

When at a shin-dig just the other week about 7 people, other than myself, were talking the talk about the importance of designing good customer experiences.

Admittedly, approximately 99% of the people at the party were in the creative industry in one way or another but I was still quite surprised to hear these golden words on so many lips.  I have been an advocate of designing customer experiences for over 8 years and I have not encountered a similar scenario - is customer experience becoming the buzz word?

I take some heart in this as it makes my quest easier if customer experience design becomes main stream - take The Yard Creative for instance, a young and fun commercial interior design agency - their USP is all about designing with customers in mind. A great way to make your business stand out from the rest.