Tag Archives: Montreal

Montreal Online Supremacy Confirmed

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Montreal rocks online. Apple confirms it.

Montreal has often been hailed as a hub of the online world and there was further confirmation this week. No, this is not because our politicians see their Wikipedia entries savaged. Rather it is because one of the really big players is increasing its presence here.

The Gazette tech reporter Roberto Rocha first broke the rumour two days ago and today confirms that Apple will be building a flagship store on Saint Catherine Street. According to him, this would be the 10th flagship store for Apple in the world and the first such store in Canada.

As yet, Apple has not announced any release date for the iPhone in Canada. Some expressed concerns that the mobile Web in Canada might see slower growth given the elevated wireless service charges here. In turn this might have influenced any Apple decision on the Canadian release of the iPhone. However the latest move shows that Canada is very much on the Apple radar screen.

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Canadian Blogging Tournament

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Canadian 1% Army

Kim Vallee was quickly to the keyboard to announce that the 1% Army – Canadian Marketing, Media & Digital All-Star Tournament of 128 is off and running.

The rules are somewhat complex but there are a series of elimination rounds:

  • 1st Round – The Battalion of 128
  • 2nd Round – The Division of 32
  • 3rd round – The Company of 8
  • 4th round – The Final Four

The Winners are declared either General, Colonel, Major, Captain or Lieutenants on November 15th.

Always up to a challenge, the Other Bloke’s Blog is participating but seems to have ended up in a first group of four that has all the seeded players. The other worthy challengers are Michelle Sullivan, Mitch Joel and Mario Asselin. All are ?minences and some of us are grise so it won’t be easy. However good luck to my fellow combattants. At least if one of us eventually becomes a general, we can all bask in a little reflected glory.

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Your Call Is Important To Us – Roberto Rocha

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The Crowdsourcing project on Customer Service that Roberto Rocha has been conducting for the Montreal Gazette on his Technocit? blog has now run its course. Crowdsourcing is finding increasing favour and you can get an idea of the range of crowdsourcing projects at the Openeur website. Crowdsourcing has been defined as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

Crowdsourcing only works if there is a crowd that wants to get involved. This project asked Canadians to help create a feature story on poor customer service. Since all of us are afflicted from time to time by that ironic putdown, Your call is important to us, the crowd on this one was guaranteed. The project mined a wealth of material. Here are some of the more important posts that came up:

What are the important insights that come from all that material? The most important is that customer service clearly does not get the attention that customers feel it should. It’s almost as if the words customer service mean different things to suppliers of services and to customers.

It’s the old now classical distinction between being product-driven and customer-centric. In March 2000, Harvey Thompson of IBM published a book, “The Customer-centered enterprise, How IBM and other world-class companies achieve extraordinary results by putting customers first”. It would appear the message has not got through. Many banks and telecoms attempt to develop the very best products for their clients. They presumably feel that the products are so good that clients should be able to use them without needing any customer service. For that small fraction of customers who run into problems, they try to provide help in the most economic way. They do not regard the product/service package as what customers are paying for. Instead it would appear that customers pay for products and the cost of providing the customer service is assumed to reduce profits.

The Gazette Project shows that this way of thinking is not delivering what customers want. The advantage of adopting a customer-centric approach should hardly need proving now. There are many case studies to demonstrate this. Just compare the fortunes of WestJet and Air Canada if you’re not convinced. Let’s hope that the message that customers want customer service and are willing to pay for it gets through to the powers that be.

Related:
Customer Service From Telecommunications Companies
IVR (Intelligent Voice Response) Doesn?t Spell Frustration

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Do Aircraft Designers Use User Tests?

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Interior Design of Boeing Dreamliner Steeped in User Research by Ashley McKee is one of the latest articles from User Interface Engineering.

As she recounts:

Boeing has unveiled a new addition to its fleet of commercial aircraft called the 787 Dreamliner. The plane promises high fuel-efficiency, longer travelling distances, more cabin space, bigger windows, softer lighting that adjusts with the time of day, and increased in-flight humidity for greater passenger comfort. Where did all of these innovative features come from? They came from intensive user research that dove directly into the passenger experience.

She then introduces an interview with John Barratt, CEO of Teague, the firm that designed the interior for Dreamliner. This appears on the Design & Emotion website with the title Getting Emotional With John Barratt. It has some excellent insights including the following:

This new approach not only allowed, but demanded that the end user, in this case, travelers the world over, were considered foremost. We invested an unbelievable amount of time into uncovering the unarticulated needs of consumers, in my mind, those implicit needs that so often fall to the wayside should be considered equivalent, if not more important than affirmed desires.

We can all relate to that, since users rarely are able to express their needs in standard surveys or focus groups.

What is a little surprising is that there is no mention of user tests. UIE has been a strong proponent of such tests, even advocating their use in the early stages of product development with prototypes. It is very difficult for a designer to adopt the mindset of a typical user. This is why user tests are so useful and indeed often produce somewhat surprising results.

No amount of theorizing, even with the best supporting data, can match the immediate insights that come from practical experimentation. The interview would seem to suggest that the theorizing approach has been used rather than the experimentation approach. Clearly it may be difficult to do user tests with prototypes when it comes to designing an aircraft. However it would be most interesting to know whether such user tests were done, particularly in the early stages of the aircraft design.

Related: User Experience In Montreal

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User Experience In Montreal

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User Experience – A Measure Of Excellence

Excuse this Rant, but Users should count more since products and services are created for their users. If more users ranted about their dissatisfactions, perhaps the message would begin to get through.

Three examples of poor user experience came up this week. The first was a reader exchange in the Gazette about the difficulties encountered at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport at Dorval. For years, meeting visitors arriving on domestic flights has been a most unsatisfactory experience. However despite redesigns it never seems to get better. If only ADM would do user tests or user surveys to get inputs on how improvements could be made.

The second example is the Gazette itself. There are many small items that complicate the user’s ability to navigate the paper. For the second time this week, we again have a 1 1/2 page “pop-off” around the outside of the paper that makes reading the paper more difficult. It’s even more irritating than the pop-up ads that clutter up some websites. Again user tests would perhaps show the publishers the error of their ways.

The third example is perhaps the most extreme in terms of poor user experience. It’s the site celebrating Canada Day, to be found at celafete.ca produced by C?l?brations Canada. As Kate McDonnell points out, the website’s coy design and programming make it nearly impossible to find a simple listing of events. More critically in terms of user experience, it really is a disaster in so many ways.

How such examples can continue to appear is a mystery. Those companies and agencies that push for excellence know that the only true measure of performance is User Experience. For instance, just check out how IBM is involved in what might be called the User Experience Race. It cites a definition of user experience by the Nielsen Norman Group, a Fremont, California, company that is one of the world leaders in helping companies design human-centered products.

User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience goes far beyond giving customers merely what they say they want, or providing checklist features.

The way to ensure excellent user experience is to do user tests early and often. Here is how Usability Sciences describes the benefits:

Benefits of Evaluating User Experience and Conducting Usability Tests
  • User experience obstacles are revealed. Many times designers and developers are so familiar with the product or site functions that they are not aware of potential problems that can cause the user experience to be unpleasant or difficult.
  • Internal debates are more easily settled. When insights and recommendations are supported through user testing or research, there is no more debate. Positive user experience and success based on intent are the goals, after all.
  • It saves you time and money. Testing during the design and development stage can catch critical user experience improvements that will later save considerable amounts of time and money once the website or product is launched. It just makes sense to build in a positive user experience from the start.
  • Bottom line – it gives you a competitive advantage. At the end of the day, the company who offers their users the best experience wins the race.

One can only hope that more and more companies and agencies will realize there is a user experience race and they should be trying to be winners.

Related:
ADM (A?roports De Montr?al) Needs ‘User Experience’ Help
Website Usability and the Montreal Gazette

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Branding Greater Montreal – NOT

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Let’s Brand Montreal and drop the Greater

The project, Branding Greater Montreal, is the subject of much discussion and criticism. Robert Charland, Chair; economic development, Montreal Metropolitan Council, comes to its defence this morning in the Montr?al Gazette. As he rightly says:

At a time when Montreal is competing with such cities as Boston, Barcelona and Toronto to attract investment, tourists and talented workers, the need for an active promotional role on the international scene is the object of wide consensus among the various business, cultural and community leaders consulted by the Montreal Metropolitan Community before undertaking the important exercise of branding the Greater Montreal region.

That’s very true and some high-priced consultants have now been engaged to handle the project.

The discussion seems to centre on the whole question of cost and benefit and whether this is right in the mission of the Montreal Metropolitan Community. What never seems to get discussed is whether this is the right branding decision. Some cities seem to have done quite well with such branding exercises, and Glasgow is often quoted as a success. Regions have had a more difficult time: for example East of England does not seem to have grabbed any attention.

In this case Montreal already has an incredible awareness around the world. Trying to create another brand, Greater Montreal, will do more harm than good. One hopes the consultants will so advise their client.

Related:
Branding Greater Montreal – le d?fi
Brand Montreal

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Branding Greater Montreal – le d?fi

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Which Brand? Montreal or Greater Montreal.

Developing strong brands is always difficult. Those who are now attempting to brand Greater Montreal would seem to be accepting a particularly difficult challenge. There is of course the task of ensuring in parallel that Le grand Montr?al fait sa marque.

As the website tells us:

For a city?s actions on the international stage to be effective, there must be cohesion among the various socio-economic, political and cultural players that represent it.

The Montreal metropolitan region is encouraging us all to help:

Make your mark, by suggesting your ideas, slogans, logo designs and thoughts on an international brand image for the Montreal metropolitan region.

* What are Greater Montreal?s strengths?
* What features should Greater Montreal emphasize on the international scene?
* What sets us apart?
* What words or images best evoke Greater Montreal?

That third question is particularly intriguing, “What sets us apart?” It presumably does not mean what sets Greater Montreal apart from Montreal. That potential investor sitting in North Carolina will never understand the distinction.

Focus, focus, focus. That’s always powerful advice. It’s enough of a challenge to find the most appropriate brand for Montreal. That single word, Montreal, has already strong brand recognition around the world If we want to remind potential visitors or investors, all we’ve got to do is to think of a short tag line that reminds the reader of the riches of Montreal .. and of course it should be ideally bilingual. Montreal, La Ville Vibrante is still available.

Related: Brand Montreal or USP Montreal

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Visa Conference Montreal 2007 – Small Business and the Web

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Visa supports small business owners.

The Visa Small Business Big Thinking Conference took place on June 4th. It was targeted at small and mid-sized business owners, including those working from a SOHO (solo operator, home office or small office, home office whichever you like). There’s an interesting post today by Bill Slawski as a counterpoint to that. Its title is “11 Steps to Developing a Web Literacy“. The opening sentence gives a sense of what is covered:

The Web reaches out to embrace businesses online, even if the owners of those businesses hesitate at the attempt. There are many that haven’t taken the step of placing themselves on the Internet, and yet they are there, even without a Web site.

That certainly didn’t apply to the eager participants at the Visa conference. As George Torok described his session, “It was a packed room and an explosive session.” For more Post Conference Highlights, you will need to check back with the Conference website in mid-July when you’ll be able to view the speakers’ presentations and download session notes from many of the conference workshops.

The eBusiness track was equally lively. Michel Leblanc, Senior Partner, Analyweb Inc. gave a good overview on how to sell more profitably on the Net. Then Martin Lessard, Web Strategy Consultant, ZeroSeconde.com gave a detailed listing of the best e-business tools that are available. The panel discussion, which I chaired, allowed participants to home in on the particular topics that interested them. The other two panellists were Simon Lamarche, Adviso Consulting Inc. and Chris Emergui, President, BAM Strategy Inc. All three of us were unanimous in stressing the importance of developing the right website that had high usability and good search engine visibility. Then the right effort must be put into making the website work for you. The session got somewhat lively when the relative merits of blogs (or even slogs) and traditional websites were discussed.

The conference was pulled together by Rick Spence, of PROFIT and L’Actualit? Magazines, and he deserves much credit for the Conference’s success.

Related: Visa Small Business Big Thinking Conference

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Union Montr?al – Brand New

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Union Montreal

As Michelle Lalonde tells us in the Gazette this morning, the Montreal Island Citizens Union (MICU), has been rebranded. If you are not sure what that group represents, then think of it as Mayor G?rald Tremblay?s party. In French that party was in even greater need of rebranding. The Union des citoyens et citoyennes de l??le de Montr?al (UCIM) is hardly a catchy title.

If you want to know more of what Union Montr?al can do for you then you should visit the slick new website. It relies heavily on video clips to communicate party messages to users. You don’t even get the opportunity to switch off the sound. G?rald Tremblay wants to make sure you get his message.

Union Montreal RSS news feed

For the enthusiastic visitor to the website it certainly is most impressive. There’s a great deal of information and we are told it is worth a daily visit. Unfortunately on a number of technical issues, the website could have been better constructed. A high performance website will be visible to search engines and very usable for its visitors. The website also suggests that there is an RSS news feed. Regrettably at this time it does not seem to exist.

Nevertheless top marks should go to Union Montr?al for their initiative in launching this improved way of communicating with the citizens of Montr?al.

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Conference Montreal June 2007

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June in Montreal for a Conference of your choice

If you did a Google search for “Conference Montr?al June 2007″, what conference were you possibly looking for? Someone did just that and arrived at this website. They might be interested in finding details on the Visa Small-Business Big Thinking Conference or possibly the Conference of Montr?al. However Google didn’t find either of those the most relevant link for this particular keyword search.

Perhaps it’s symptomatic of just how strong Montr?al is as a center for conferences. In fact the most relevant conference according to Google for this particular search at the time of writing is the Metaheuristics International Conference 2007. If you need to ask what metaheuristics is, then undoubtedly this conference is not for you. On the other hand, if you know what it is then possibly you are intending to be there already. It’s taking place from June 25-29, 2007. The conference venue is the main building of HEC Montr?al, the business school affiliated with Universit? de Montr?al. Apparently some of those attending will already have been there in early May to attend Optimization Days.

One interesting reflection is why Google would rank this conference so high against the somewhat formidable competition. Does this lend weight to the argument that .edu domains are given more authority in the Google search algorithm? Or is Google seeking to curry favor with these optimizing gurus by ranking their conference highly. I note that some experts in metaheuristics support the No-free-lunch theorem. This proves that over the set of all mathematically possible problems, each optimization algorithm will do on average as well as any other. Not something Google wants talked about, I would have thought. Of course the easiest explanation is that these gurus also do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well.

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