by Ernest Kim

We’re very proud to announce the launch of our latest project, the completely re-concepted, re-architected, re-engineered and re-designed Maxis.com.my—the online home for Maxis Berhad, Malaysia’s only integrated communications service provider.

Maxis has a clear vision: To bring the future to its customers’ lives and businesses, in a manner that’s simple, personalized and enriching. And the company has worked tirelessly to bring this vision to life, having launched Malaysia’s first high-speed network in 2005, Malaysia’s first 4G LTE network earlier this year and, today, offering the nation’s largest high-speed network.

But Maxis recognized that its Web site was no longer delivering on this commitment, so the company partnered with XM Asia Pacific to conceptualize and implement an entirely new online experience.

Built from the ground up around responsive Web design principles by the XM Asia team, the new Maxis site renders beautifully across the range of devices in use today, from phones to tablets to traditional PCs.

“Maxis wanted to break away from the typical telco Web experience,” recalled Hema Thiagarajah, Consumer Experience Director at XM Asia Pacific. “The norm for the industry is to list products and services based on an internal org chart, and to sell using telco-speak that most consumers find perplexing. But Maxis felt it was crucial to connect with their customers and reach them in a way that would be familiar and useful … to have a conversation.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Charles Florman

The importance of a user friendly interface is unquestionable today and few people can deny this. I personally think that we have the touch interface (and Apple) to thank for that. Developers have realized that a well-developed interface together with touch can feel very natural if it’s executed well. Even my 20 month old niece is swiping and tapping the iPad like she was born for it, and that is something extraordinary.

It is an exciting time we are living in, but it is also challenging. Over the years, user behavior has changed dramatically. If an app doesn’t look good and/or isn’t user friendly, then the user will delete it and move on to another app and you will never see that user again. The same phenomenon is true for Web sites today. If the site doesn’t make an immediately good impression, then the user will switch to another site quicker than the time he took to enter. And there, you get a bounce.

The vast array of options we have today has made users picky, and they ought to be. Today, there is no reason for them to settle for something that isn’t focused on creating that all-rounded experience. It’s not only about delivering content, it’s about delivering the right content in the best possible, most user-friendly way—that is the key to convincing your user stay on your site longer and to come back again.

It’s very cheap to discover mistakes early in the process and its very expensive to discover them late.

These are two important things that you can (should) do to improve the user experience and get your users to stay on your site:

• Understand the user when developing. Do research about your customers and the market! You need to know what your customers are looking for so you can give them the information that is relevant to them. Ask yourself: Is the content relevant and of quality to your users? This is especially so when the users come in to a site based on a search keyword—the user needs to find what he’s looking for immediately or he’ll leave as quickly as he entered.
• Never assume anything. You will truly realize how different users interpret the logic of the interface when you conduct user testing. In fact we did user testing on different airline sites last week. One of several things that we found was that some sites assume that the user will search for the city that they want to travel to and that is a dangerous and costly assumption. The test showed that users searched for the country and expected to see the available destinations for that country. Seeing no results, these users assumed the airline doesn’t fly to that specific country and ended up leaving the site. You can see in the screenshots below how easy it is to lose a customer just because you haven’t done user testing to find out how they actually interact with your site.

Poor search functionality on this airline’s site leads users to believe that the airline doesn’t fly to Thailand, which it does. Learn more about the capabilities of our Consumer Experience Lab at our Web site.

You should always do testing and you should start early in the development process. It’s very cheap to discover mistakes early in the process and its very expensive to discover them late. Do testing on simple prototypes and you will always find problems. Check out popapp to see how easy it can be to test an interface in an early stage.

There will always be issues that need to be solved. Finding the same problem in a late stage when the site is almost finished will cost you a fortune in both time and money. Do user testing right—and early—and you shouldn’t have to do anything more than refining small details in the late stages. Your users and clients will thank you for it.

How high is your bounce rate? Are you delivering a user friendly interface and experience to your customers today? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, please do get in touch. We have to tools, expertise and passion to help.

We’re thrilled to announce two big wins by our XM Gravity team in Indonesia.

As noted in Campaign Singapore: “XM Asia Pacific’s Indonesian unit, XM Gravity, has been named Digital Agency of Record (AOR) for HokaHokaBento, one of Indonesia’s largest Japanese restaurant chains, as well as Nestlé Indonesia.”

“XM Gravity has shown the capabilities in understanding our consumer needs,” said Lalita A Mardjuni, head of marketing services at PT Nestlé Indonesia. “This will be our first partnership foundation to be built in a long-term period.”

This only adds to the momentum already established by the XM Gravity team and we’re incredibly excited to partner with these fantastic brands to make work that matters.

1.) Its not translation, its localisation
- always use local translators as they have intimate knowledge and understanding of syntax and nuances unique to each country.
- always ask for a few paragraphs of localised samples and get a real consumer to read through (corridor test). Some research spending at the start can yield greater rewards after.

2.) Engage category experts to vet content, and propose terms/phrases unique to that category. If we want to write for the experts, we need to sound like experts.

3.) Recognise country-specific differences within languages
- Hong Kong Traditional Chinese vs. Taiwan Traditional Chinese. Enough said.
- English language messages also need to be localized for countries such as Canada, the UK and Australia. That includes differences in phrasing, such as “ring me” instead of “call me” or “petrol” instead of “gas,” as well as differences in spelling.

4.) Respect Cultural Differences
- US and UK markets tend to use a more aggressive, sales-oriented approach but the style will not play well in other parts of Europe and even in Asia
- No showing of skin pictorially in conservative countries like Middle East; Patriotism and flag imagery may work well in US but not so much in Canada.

5.) A picture says a thousand words
- British customers could tell their advertising photos were of US employees, due to slight differences in clothing, such as the way a tie was knotted
- Caucasian models might not always resonate well with Asian countries, especially Japan/China

https://www.mastercardmoments.com/edm/2010/02/monthly/chs/edm_spring.html

Credit goes to Marketing Sherpa for some of these great points

OK our latest installment to Sony Football Asia – introducing the KICKATHON. Can you kick your way to South Africa? Well if you can there are some 2010 World Cup tickets in it for you – check it out here.

At the recent Young Guns International – MunHoe Tung one of XM’s creative leaders got his feelings back when he scooped up a bronze for his work on the HP Wake up your Feelings campaign.