Kizmo

A great deal has been written about anticipating user needs for the purpose of design interfaces or broader user experiences. It’s always refreshing, though, to find a great example of this kind of anticipation in real life (away from the screen). While visiting Houston last year for work, I stayed at a Hilton Homewood Suites hotel. Instead of renting a car (which would have been the smart plan while visiting suburban Houston), I’d taken a taxi to the hotel. Though my lack of transportation seemed to initially puzzle them, the staff were great about helping me out as I coped, and provided a great example of not only providing for this particular user’s special needs, but anticipating them. Without being asked, they:

• Provided me a little map on which they’d marked a couple of restaurants to which I could walk,
• Asked me if I needed, and then made a reservation for, a taxi to take me to my meetings the next morning,
• Approached me in the lobby when it was clear that I’d been waiting for the taxi for quite a while to ask if I was going to be late,
• Personally drove me over to my meeting after they couldn’t find a taxi that would arrive within a half hour.

The last one is obviously a case of going above and beyond when it comes to customer service, but what was consistent during my stay was their attention to me. The manager who gave me the ride asked me what time my flight was the next morning while we were chatting. When I got back to the hotel, I had a voicemail from the desk telling me they’d booked me a taxi for the morning, and if I needed any changes to the reservation, just to give the desk a call and they’d take care of it.

We can’t all drive our customers or users where they need to go, but if we can pay attention and make them feel taken care of, we’ll go a long way in providing the kinds of products and services for which people develop passion. I know where I’ll be staying on my next trip to Houston.

Last month I went on a vacation to Hawaii, Kauai Island. It was amazing adventure and I was truly astonished from what I saw there: the climate, the flora and the fauna, the infrastructure, the people. For example, did you know that the public service places on Hawaii (like the city hall) close at 3:30 PM? I didn’t know that, therefore it shocked me!

Something else that impressed me a lot was the level of civilization I found on that island. Unexpectedly high for what I was expecting to see for an island! Let’s take look at the picture at the end of this article. I took this photo from the northern part of the island, somewhere down the road, where the actual road gets narrower and narrower as you drive, until it suddenly ends right in front of a sandy beach. Just look at the number of signs at the beginning of the beach. To me, it was so bizarre to see them all at once, especially on a place like this one almost forgotten from the rest of the world! Civilization hasn’t missed that place too!

With all the technology we have in and on our possessions, you’d think there would be a good way to inform airplane travelers about delays in their schedules in an appropriate time and manner. While traveling to the east coast over the holidays, my first flight out at 6am was delayed. There were minor delays in boarding the plane. Then, when we were all aboard, they needed to de-ice the wings before take-off, causing further delays. Upon arriving in Boston later that day, I checked my email. Orbitz had sent me a few notices. All pertained to the flight I had been on being delayed. My fault, I should have thought about the best way to send me information regarding my itinerary. I logged on to Orbitz and changed the way I was notified, from email to phone. While traveling back to San Francisco, I got to the airport within an hour and a half of my scheduled departure time. About a half hour before the flight was to leave, the airline announced that there would be a delay of about 30 minutes. A few minutes later, I my phone rings. Its 6am, who could that be? It was an automated call from Orbitz telling me that my flight would be delayed.

How nice. Thanks for the thought.

If it wasn’t 20 minutes before the plane was to leave, this might have been a help. At this point in air travel, we all know it can take time getting through the various check points, especially during high travel times, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We might forget to take all the liquids out of our carry-ons but we do make sure we get to the airport about an hour and a half ahead of departure. With all the technology we have in place to keep track of airplanes, how can it get disseminated out to everyone who needs to know. The are so many factors that influence whether or not a plane leaves “on time”, from the weather to FAA policy. The nice update from Orbitz felt like it was too little, too late.

The question is, how can travel agencies, whether they are Orbitz or an Airline, get the information out to the traveler in a timely and proper manor? In a way that makes sense. Is there a way? Presence. The presence of the traveler compared to the presence of the plane. How can these be compared and information sent out. Certainly, the plane doesn’t need to know about each and every passenger but each passenger needs to know about the plane. Orbitz has no idea where the plane is, they are getting their information from the airlines. The airline is getting their information from the air traffic controllers (ATC). The ATC’s are following rules and regulations. I’m not up on my FAA policies these days, but there must be a better way to get the information out of the “tower” and into the hands of the people effected by it.

This website by Meomi is a great example of how rich illustration design + content can be combined in a single page, creating a very strong but appealing UI. I think that the color scheme of the website is very contemporary and unexpected and it makes the website unique and definitely a lot of fun!

Another cool thing about this site is the clever use of flash animations. In general, it is very hard to find good examples of flash animation on the web. Mostly considered as “annoying”, impressive flash animations are almost missing on the web. The reason I guess is the association people have with the flashy banners ads which, I agree, could be very annoying. But in this case, the use of flash animation is pure art! It doesn’t interrupt and it actually has the opposite effect - it keeps the visitors on the site, letting them to interact and play with the interface, thus keeping traffic high on this website.

Congratulations to the design team for the great work!

Signs of life! Yes, despite over 500 days without a site, we are at last making some progress in putting together something we feel will be able to describe us to potential clients (and job applicants). One of the goals we have for our site is to provide more communication with folks who aren’t current clients. Over and over again, since starting Kizmo, we’ve been asked for news about the business, updates on projects, thoughts on the design process, and questions about some of the technologies we work with. We felt that the best way to provide some of this information is through a blog, so we’re making that the first part of our new site.In the coming months and years, you’ll find posts on a variety of topics, from all of us here at Kizmo. Thanks for reading!