This whitepaper on test drive booking online summarises findings from our evaluation of UK car brand sites. We’ve used 12 principles developed from published best practice as well as our own research in this field.

The results appear to be a paradox: 32 sites carry this functionality, suggesting that it is a standard component for user experience; and yet only a handful offer a truly viable, useful experience.

On the face of it, this new case study for Direct Line could seem run-of-the-mill. Direct Line very sensibly wanted us to gather user requirements and ideas before they embarked on a redesign of their ‘On the Road’ iPhone app.

But what’s important is how we did it.

Having been in business for nearly a decade, we at Foolproof have heard a lot of excuses down the years as to why there is no need for user research in a design project. We thought we’d heard them all, but a new one from a ‘full service’ digital agency is worth passing on.

The market split for the use of web browsers is changing more rapidly than ever before after anti-trust laws forced the recent browser selection prompt for millions of users.

In a piece of recent research consumers were supplied with a mobile phone so that they could receive and use an SMS message whilst using a website. The interviews were short and the user had little time to orientate to the device before starting the task.

Original blog by former Foolproofer Rachel Orton.

The research world has seen increased numbers of people making research participation a paid hobby. While the majority of reputable online panels have processes in place to prevent respondents from being over used, they cannot control the number of surveys provided by other companies that the respondent may choose to participate in.

I finally got a chance to read a book called ‘Neuro Web Design’ over Christmas. I’d heartily recommend it to anyone involved in buying, planning or executing user research.

We hit on an interesting approach while looking for insight to help us design a better motor insurance shopping journey.

I have recently been conducting user research in Dubai. What a place! There is such a rich cultural mix you could do an extensive round of global testing from here. During the first day we interviewed respondents from the UK, France, Kenya, Philippines, South Africa and India. The list went on in the days that followed.

Here’s a paper by Sean Smith which sheds some light on the important question of do labs bias results. While running a lab pilot for a big online survey, Sean noticed the opportunity to compare lab responses with those gathered in the field.