Our very own Brad Haynes discusses his experience whilst working on the design of Ocado. The Ocado team were determined to "do the right thing for consumers". This meant not only being compliant, but also considering accessibility in a far more thorough way as a core goal of the design process. Brad cites  examples from Ocado including copy length, page layout, technology choice, processes & story structure, site structure and page 'weight'.

If a site is truly accessible then it's truly usable

Flow believes that accessibility is a positive design decision which achieves far more than legal compliance.

Emma Passey, Simon Pearson (National Express East Coast) and Ian
Worley (Flow Interactive) receiving the IT Excellence of the Year Award

On Thursday evening, 19th February 2009, I was privileged to be at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London for the HSBC Rail Business Awards to co-receive the Information Technology Excellence of the Year Award for the new National Express East Coast (NXEC) booking engine and website.

As any of you reading this who have used the NXEC booking engine know, it dramatically simplifies the process of finding and buying rail tickets online...not just on NXEC routes, but for any train in the UK.  We have blogged before about the intuitive user interface and its cutting edge use of AJAX technology as well as the positive customer feedback and improved business results for NXEC before.

We (and NXEC) have also received lots of accolades from customers and the industry about how great the new booking engine is.  So it fills us with a great sense of pride and accomplishment to receive this well-deserved acknowledgement from the Rail Industry for all the creativity and teamwork that went into making it happen.

It has been a long road, but the hard work and effort has paid off, not just because we won this award, but because we succeeded in creating a first-of-its-kind, innovative and successful new booking engine for trains that will set the standard for all that follow, in terms of business performance, ease of use and customer satisfaction. It is also a clear demonstration of how User-Centred Design makes a tangible difference to customers and business.

I just want to take a moment to thank the entire NXEC team from Flow:  Simon Hatch, Alejandra Obregon, Martina Schell and Kelsey Smith; our partners at Splendid: Paul Bishop, Simon Parbutt, Alistair Thomson and Karl Wortmann; the team at Atos Origin who built it:  Graham Bodman, Richard Phillpot, Ian Collier, Eleanor Waldron and Chris Rees; and the team at Tullo Marshall Warren (TMW) for bringing the marketing website together.

But perhaps most importantly, I want to thank Emma Passey and the entire NXEC team for their vision, passion and perseverance.  We couldn't have done it without you!

Congratulations to everyone. A well deserved award!

- Ian Worley, Director of User Experience at Flow Interactive

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Download Case Studies about this project:

• National Express East Coast Booking Engine Case Study (78k .pdf)
• National Express East Coast Website Case Study (92k .pdf)

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Since we've recently redecorated our offices, we thought we'd host the party there. It gave us the space to create a mural about the history of Flow and put up photos of past projects. A game of PS3 Rock Band provided a great interactive experience too.

Clients and staff enjoy drinks in Flow's newly-decorated offices

A lot to celebrate

Flow was set up by Meriel Lenfestey in 1997. From humble beginnings in Meriel's house in Stoke Newington, Flow has grown to a team of over 40 people with an annual turnover of £4 million and offices in London and South Africa.

In her speech at the party Meriel stepped us through the early years.

"In the 1990s, I could see companies jumping on the interactive bandwagon with websites that were often visually stunning, but virtually impossible to navigate - and therefore not commercially viable. I set up Flow to introduce User-Centred Design (UCD) to my clients. I'm proud to say that we're now one of the leading UCD consultancies in the world."

Lola and Ian. Mimi and Louise (on guitar). Flow's history in mural form.

User experience for a competitive edge

Next, Flow's Managing Director, John Thew, looked to the future.

"We've faced a challenging economy before and we emerged unscathed from the dotcom bust. In a risk-averse economy with tightening budgets, user experience becomes even more critical for organisations looking for a competitive edge. It reduces risk, increases loyalty and returns and reduced costs. Flow is well placed to ride through new challenges this and next year."

Thanks to everyone for coming. Thanks to all our clients for choosing Flow. And thanks to the talented folk who delivered great results and helped make Flow a success.

Venture capitalists know a thing or two about investments. Which is why user experience is one of the factors involved in seedcamp. For interactive projects, user-centred design reduces risk and increases returns.

User centred design techniques dramatically reduce the risks associated with innovating and launching new products. After all, if you've worked with your target users throughout the design process, you should feel pretty comfortable that you've made something your customers will buy.

As well as reducing risk, designing a good user experience boosts returns.The effort and money you put into research, concept and design will be paid back many times over through increased conversion and usage, a stronger brand and reduced customer acquisition costs.

Some of the literature quotes typical returns on investment at several hundred percent. It's entirely believable. In some situations, a simple usability test, or a piece of insight from the field, can prevent a key problem that would stop users from adopting an new interactive product.

Shrink to fit

Start-up ventures don't have much to invest. That's ok: the process doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. User-centred design techniques shrink to fit. You can perform basic user research with friends and family. Sketch prototypes are easy to create with just a pen and paper. You can perform rapid iterative usability tests in just a few days. When Flow worked with Moo Print during its start-up phase, the team powered through five design iterations in a week.

The point is though, that like any investment if you put nothing in, you'll get nothing back.

So here's our investment advice for all 22 teams at seedcamp. Focus on understanding your users' needs, motivations and real-world behaviours. Then use your insights to help you design and deliver the right user experience. Payback won't be far behind.

Flow worked Atos Origin and Splendid on the project. We know customers love it - let's hope the judges do too.