Hive Link Assisted Living

    A major government priority is to help older, vulnerable people stay independent for longer. It is also what older people themselves want. Read how we worked with Hive to help make this possible.

    • Energy Systems Catapult

    Energy Systems Catapult

    Evaluating the experience of buying Heat as a Service is one of the longest and most important projects on which we’ve been engaged. Read how consumers got on with buying heating in units of Warm Hours rather than kWhs.

    Hive Active Heating

    Usability testing and longitudinal diary studies for Centrica Connected Home looking at the early customer experience of the Hive smart heating system's thermostat, app and website.

    Responsible Travel

    Usability testing of this travel portal website by having participants who were already in the market to book a holiday go through the full journey uncovered key misconceptions about how the site worked that led to a major redesign.

    TalkTalk HomeSafe

    Depth interviews with teenagers and participatory design sessions with parents gave us the insights to help TalkTalk create a simple and compelling service that helped distinguish its brand in the undifferentiated ISP market.

    TalkTalk router set up

    Observing out-of-box set up in 20 customers’ homes revealed problems with the set-up experience that led to a redesign of the support CD, user guide and even the router configuration, resulting in dramatic reductions in propensity to call (PTC).

    TotalJobs

    A service trial with follow-up interviews revealed different types of mobile job seeker and their related needs, allowing Totaljobs to make their new mobile service relevant and compelling.

    Three in Touch

    3’s new app allows customers to make and receive calls to their mobile number even when there’s no mobile coverage. Usability and communications testing helped ensure that the app was easy to use and customers would grasp this concept.

    Sony Xperia

    Product trials across multiple countries involving in-home interviews, online diaries, focus groups and video blogs helped Sony rethink the user experience of their mobile handsets, to recapture a leading position in a competitive mobile market.

    OD2 music

    OD2, founded by Peter Gabriel, wished to launch a CD labelling tool in partnership with Hewlett Packard. Ethnographic research into how people created labels for their music CDs uncovered three key opportunity areas for the tool to support.

    Royal Mail routing labels

    Contextual interviews with staff in sorting offices helped identify key requirements for ergonomic routing labels that would simplify sorting and reduce errors. Usability testing of a concept design then led to a redesign.

    Microsoft Xbox TrueSkill

    Ethnographic observation of people playing Xbox in their own homes uncovered confusion around the TrueSkill rating and ranking system that led to recommendations around changing the graphical interface.

    Metro mobile and music service

    Before Metro newspaper launched its mobile and music services we had readers try out Beta versions of the services over a five-day period while reporting through a daily online diary. The findings informed some important changes that were made before launch

    Vinspired youth volunteering

    In-home, depth interviews with 12 young people revealed that they were interested in volunteering opportunities that matched their interests and aims. The research uncovered the volunteering journey and highlighted a strategic role for the site within this context.

    Ravensbourne College

    In-depth interviews with students and A-level school students revealed the key stages of the decision process that prospect students go through when choosing and applying to a university-sector art school. The insights supported a redesign of the website aimed at converting interest into applications.

    Morphy Richards

    Ethnographic research involving in-home observations and interviews, and an ergonomics analysis, followed by ideation sessions with the client, revealed opportunities for innovation in the ironing market to make ironing more convenient, and offer benefits of greater sustainability.

    Hiscox Insurance

    RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation) testing allowed Hiscox to evolve their new quote process from ideas to user-vetted designs quickly, within just 1 week.

    HSBC Intranet

    Ethnographic research in branches, call centres and head office uncovered three key usage modes that supported a redesign of the company’s intranet.

    Metro Fantasy Football

    Eight avid Fantasy Football players were recruited to play against each other within a ‘mini league’, during the World Cup allowing us to identify a range of improvements that could be implemented for the Premier League season.

    Visit England

    Usability testing and extended natural trial of the prototype site in UK, Germany and USA supported development of a new site that would inspire tourism within England.

    E.ON Older Customers

    Expert interviews, in-home observations and diaries helped E.ON better understand the needs of its older, more vulnerable customers when it came to managing their heating and hot water.

    3 mobile broadband

    Observation of the out-of-box set up experience revealed misconceptions and faulty mental models about how the service worled, that impeded set up of 3’s mobile broadband

    3 Handset User Guide

    In-home interviews generated insights that allowed us to develop a simplified, multilingual handset user guide for 3

    Vodafone app store

    Depth interviews, online diaries, focus groups and video blogs enabled us to model the app shopping experience and create personas. Working with an artist we created posters that helped the Vodafone design team understand their users.