Canada: The emerging UX design test bed
by Shane Schick — Aug 19 '13
It’s becoming the truism that technology firms everywhere are starting to learn: If Canadians appreciate good user experience (UX) design, chances are the rest of the world will, too.
A story in VentureBeat recently profiled the success of Lumosity, an app that provides educational brain-teasers to iPhone users, and how a recent overhaul brought it to the top of the Apple App Store charts. In an interview, Lumosity CEO Kunal Sarkar talked about how the company approached its redesign:
“You risk getting terrible reviews. I think that’s the biggest thing that could have gone wrong for us. We managed this by doing more user testing and UX than we had ever done in the past. We launched the app first in Canada,” he tells VentureBeat. “We spent the next six months iterating on that app, fixing it and making it better, and then relaunching it in different countries.”
The lesson here, of course, is that if Canada is emerging as a test bed for U.S. firms to pursue UX excellence, local entrepreneurs with dreams of global success may enjoy a sort of home-court advantage by launching innovations here first.
The gamification of intimate relationships is bound to be a controversial subject, which may be what attracted CANOE’s Lifewise Sex Files column to profile the app Kahnoodle. Described as a social network built for two, Kahnoodle provides activities and incentives to keep coupes, um, engaged. Writer Simone Paget raises a critical question:
“There’s no doubt that ‘gamification’ has proven to be an effective marketing technique, however should we really apply the same strategy to our love lives that we do to seeking out that discount latte?” Read the piece to hear how a Vancouver-area couples counsellor weighs in.
If you want to see how interactive display may evolve, you might want to take a look at the Grid IQ Research and Collaboration Centre in Toronto. Operated by General Electric, it was highlighted in a recent blog post on Xconomy that looked at how companies like Prysm are attempting to bring expensive videconferencing systems within closer reach to more organizations. The post is worth reading because it shows how videoconferncing and in-room displays can work really well together.
Elsewhere:
If it sometimes seems hard to strike the right balance between user needs and available resources, there’s a reason. Read Thandi Guilherme on Memeburn explain why getting UX right is like walking a tightrope.
Digital signage in the tub? Watch this video that shows how researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo has created an interactive display on the surface of water, also known as the “Acquatop.”
Apparently membership really does have its privileges: A story on Meetings & Conventions shows how American Express is using gamification with Citrix that will reward its client’s employees for obeying corporate travel policies.
