When using a mobile phone, we take for granted the fact that we can feel the shape of the keypad. It lets (some of) us touch-type, or select certain applications without looking. Touch feedback, like the click of a key, also backs up the visual cues we get from the display and makes the phone easier to use. But those touch-based tricks aren't possible on a device which is "all screen", like the iPhone.

A team from the University of Glasgow has come up with a "haptic" keyboard for the iPhone (the word haptic describes all things to do with touch). When you press an on-screen key, the iPhone's built-in buzzer (its actuator) gives a little buzz. They call the buzz a "tacton" - a tactile icon. Apparently, the haptic feedback does make a useful difference.

The team are also working on a haptic application launcher for the iPhone.

Providing a broader range of tactons will mean that devices can communicate more through touch. Adding actuators at several different places in the device can create different sensations, as they buzz in different patterns. There's also research into creating a "laterotactile display" that can create richer tactile interactions with the tip of your thumb!

There are also other ways you can interact with a phone without looking: tilting and twisting it. Accelerometers can tell a device how it is being waved around. Nintendo Wii is already using this kind of interaction for games, but could it work as an everyday interaction mechanism for mobile devices too? NTT DoCoMo have tried it on their Foma904i handset. Shake the phone twice to start an email...

All this proves yet again that making new technology really match what humans need and want is a rarely straightforward. We want multi-touch displays. But we also want haptic feedback, one-handed use and use-without looking - depening on the situation. We want gestures. But we need them to be practical gestures that are not disruptive to our environment and don't cause discomfort.

Looks like there's plenty to keep haptic and gesture-based designers busy for years to come.

Thanks to Aziz Hendricks And Bertus Kock for the pointers.

For cost-effective air travel, everyone thinks of easyJet. But easyJet also offers hotel booking, car hire and travel insurance. Helping customers to discover those newer offerings, and come to associate them with the easyJet brand is not straightforward. Bolting hotel and car hire offers onto a flight checkout process doesn’t do them justice, and can look like “hard sell”.

Flow and Splendid (our favourite visual design agency), working with Microsoft, recently undertook a user-centred design project for easyJet. They wanted to explore whether rich applications could be used to increase the number of flights booked, build customer loyalty and expand those newer revenue streams.

We started with user research, created user personas and mapped out their travel lifecycles. The concepts and detailed designs were usability tested with target users, and iteratively improved based on the feedback.

The Flow/Splendid team implemented a proof-of-concept for easyJet using its new Silverlight technology and users told us in the tests that the results are really compelling.

Microsoft made a video case study of the project which was featured on the MIX08 conference website. Take a look. There are interviews with Flow, easyJet and Splendid as well as some screen shots of the actual application.

When and where you want to go

We worked with individual target website users in our labs and got them to map out their most recent travel booking experiences with paper, pens and sticky notes. We created 3 personas, each with their own lifecycle diagram, to sum up target user needs, behaviours and motivations in a way that the whole team could relate to easily.

Research showed us that the easyJet site catered well for people who knew where they wanted to go and knew when they wanted to travel. So to increase the site’s appeal we focussed on design for other groups:

• People who know where they want to go, but not when. They need help finding the cheapest flight, possibly in the space of several weeks/months ahead.
• People who don't know where they want to go, but know roughly when. They need to compare destinations and prices.
• People who don't know where, and don't know when. They need to find advice and inspiration.

Research also emphasised some design drivers that we seen time and again when designing travel site.

• People value honesty about the fares, and facilities to compare prices across a range of destinations and dates.
• People are really hungry for information about their possible destinations. They will happily digest a lot of content.

Fare-finding and destination-finding

Flow's strategy was to provide users with a more integrated experience addressing their whole travel lifecycle, rather than trying to add on other products during checkout. The final proof of concept included:

• A fare finder that gives you the total price for your party, and lets you flip through different dates easily without resubmitting a query.
• A chart that helps you find the cheapest dates to travel if you’re sure of your destination.
• A destination finder that shows destinations on a map based on criteria you choose, including activities, dates and budgets.
• Rich destination information - text, video, photos and maps in a full screen format all helped to give a real feeling for what a visit to each destination would be like.

To top it off, we designed a streamlined booking process, to ensure that the user experience stayed good right to the end.

By the time we reached the last round of user testing there were few surprises. Our tests showed that users liked the full screen video guide, the clarity of the flight details and the transparent pricing. The simplified flight booking process went down very well too.

Paul Curtis, head of application architecture at easyJet had this to say.

”We were really keen that what we built was what our customers want so we’ve got something really good to build on for the future. Working with Splendid and Flow enabled us to use a user-centred design approach.
We’re really excited about what this new interface will do for us.[..] For us as a business it's about increasing customer conversion and we really feel that with these new technologies and this new customer experience we’ll be able to do that.”

Congratulations to the team: Peter Otto, Beau Ginbey (Splendid), Claire Mitchell, Catherine Pierce and our Director of User Experience, Ian Worley. Thanks, also, to Splendid and Microsoft!