Of all the major airlines, United has the best service out of Boston. The only other options if you need to travel all over the country are American, Delta, and US Airways. Those three options deliver far worse service than United does.

This means, if I was included in a UA Net Promoter survey, I’d give them a 7 or above. That’s a good score for Net Promoter.

My score is a great demonstration of why Net Promoter doesn’t work. You see, I hate United Airlines. With a passion. As airlines go, they are really quite bad. I fly them almost every week and almost every trip, I have some experience with poor service and a bad relationship. Granted, there have been some trips where nothing bad happened, but nothing remarkably good happened either.

However, my trips with American, Delta, and US Airways are much worse. I will continue to fly United until someone better comes along, but I don’t expect that to happen any time soon. (I do like Virgin America a lot, and JetBlue or Southwest, but they don’t fly where I need them go as reliably as United, so I can’t use them often.)

I’m not recommending United Airlines because I like them. I’m recommending them because they are better than the other choices.

Net Promoter isn’t scoring my loyalty, because I’m not loyal. (I’m trapped, which is quite different.)

It’s not capturing my overall dissatisfaction with the airline. In fact, if everyone answers the survey for the same reasons I do, they look pretty good.

I think Net Promoter Score is an ineffective instrument for measuring how your customers feel about you. A better instrument is something more rigorous, like the Gallup CE11 Customer Engagement Score.

The CE11 has eleven questions, which we weight (as a Guttman Scale), including a Net Promoter-like referral question. But that referral question is weighted low, with questions like “Do you think [the brand] would take care of you if there was a problem?” or “I’m proud to be a customer of [the brand].” There are businesses that I’d score high on these other questions, but United Airlines wouldn’t be one of them.

These days, many of our clients are relying on the Net Promoter instrument (and its close brethren) to assess how they are meeting their customers needs. We warn the teams we’re working with to be careful — they may not be getting a complete picture of what’s happening and how their customers are experiencing their designs.

Pam Rodriguez and Luke Wroblewski did a nice job of posting their notes. Thanks guys!

• Steve Portigal on Design Fieldwork: Uncovering Innovation from the Outside In – Pam’s notes, Luke’s notes.
• Kate Brigham on PatientsLikeMe: Adventures with Data Visualizations – Pam’s Notes, Luke’s Notes.
• Luke Wroblewski on Designing Mobile Web Experiences – Pam’s Notes.
• Mike Lee on AARP: Designing a Strategy for Organizational Transformations – Pam’s Notes, Luke’s Notes.
• My presentation on The Essential Principles behind Great Design Principles – Pam’s Notes.

As you can see from the #UIEWAMT Twitter stream, everybody had a great time and we all learned a ton.

There’s one more stop on the 2011 tour – Minneapolis on June 27-28. Use the promo code BLOG and get $100 off the registration price.

See you there!

UIE Web App Masters Tour:
Get $100 off the Minneapolis Masters Tour with the promotion code BLOG.
Minneapolis

Visual design problems affect an application’s success in a variety of ways. In the mildest form, they slow users down and distract them from their task. In the worst cases, they confuse users to the point of giving up or needing assistance. If the application is in the organization’s revenue stream or helps reduce costs, we’ve seen visual design issues can dramatically affect the bottom line.

For some time now, we’ve been fortunate to work with the design consulting firm, Two Rivers Consulting. UIE virtual seminars from Hagan Rivers have taught you to design better navigation and her Web App Masters talk shows you techniques for navigation in web applications. Now, we are honored to share with you the other half of this talented team, David Rivers.

On November 18, David will present a virtual seminar—Visual Design for Web Applications. He will help you improve your application’s visual appearance, while taking into account those real-world considerations we all face. David will show you how to create or update your application’s visual design to make it successful and delightful.

Join us on November 18 for David’s seminar. It’s chock full of real-world examples and insight that you won’t want to miss!

What is your toughest challenge in designing visual appearance of web applications? Got some tips to share? Let’s hear ‘em. Share your stories below.

Interestingly, many web-based applications use an identical method to entice users to sign up. Every user who shows up on the site gets an instant SIGN UP NOW! form, the web app version of MARRY ME! And, guess what? It doesn’t work any better.

Recently, we’ve been seeing different approaches to the sign up challenge. These introduce the user more gradually to the application’s benefits before asking them to sign up. Because the user experiences the benefits directly, they are more likely to follow through on the sign up process.

In today’s UIEtips, our good friend Luke Wroblewski shares his analysis of the gradual engagement process that Twitter’s been experimenting with. The results are amazing (29% pickup) and Luke’s analysis is fascinating.

Read the article, Gradual Engagement Boosts Twitter Sign-Up by 29%.

By the way, Doug Bowman, Twitter’s Creative Director, is sharing his perspective on these results at the Seattle UIE Web App Masters Tour, July 12 & 13. There are still seats to catch Luke and Doug, plus the other great Masters at this last stop on the tour.

Have you tried an approach of gradual engagement on your site? What’s been your experience with its success? We’d love to hear your experiences. Share them with us below.

Until July 8, register for Seattle and get $200 off when you use the promotion code TOURBLOG. Learn more about the tour at www.UIETour.com

Interaction with a product is more than how it’s used or how it behaves. It’s about a connection between two sides. One side is the customer, but the other side is much more than a product or service. To many people, the character and essence of a product and its company are identical. So, what is the essence of your product?

When your product behaves like a machine, your company is perceived to be a machine. It’s just another company – rigid, mechanical, and cold. Yet when your product displays a bit of humanity, your company gains a face and becomes another human.

In this webinar, you’ll see examples of how humanity exists in the design of products and services through humor, personality, and emotion. You’ll explore how just a little extra design effort and thought beyond functional needs can enrich the experience, reveal the company behind the product, and forge enduring connections with customers.

This presentation generated quite a buzz at Web App 2009. It’s a talk that’s sure to get you thinking
about your products, and how you foster the connection between your products and your customers.

In advance of the presentation, we’d love to hear from you. How do you gain an edge with your products? How does your organization show its humanity? Share your thoughts, questions, and concerns below.

To help you understand what you can expect out of this seminar, Scott has put together a preview for you:

Don’t miss this presentation! Register with the promotion code THREEPOINTS and get both our lowest rate of $99, and lifetime access to the recording of this talk at no additional cost. Share it with others in your organization to watch whenever they want, as often as they want.

In advance of the presentation, we’d love to hear from you. How is failure perceived in your organization? When is the last time you celebrated a failure? Or do you think failure should be avoided at all costs? When failure does happen, how does your team address it, or is it the “white elephant in the room?” Share your thoughts below.

Determine if this seminar is right for you and your team by reviewing Ginny’s ’s preview, just press the green “play” arrow.

As an added incentive to attend, use the Promotion Code MYARCHIVE to receive free lifetime access to the recorded presentation. You or anyone in your organization can watch it whenever you want, as often as you want!

In advance of the presentation, we’d love to hear from you. Have you ever struggled with writing something for your site? How do you know you got it right? What rules do you follow for creating effective copy? And what are your thought on how to handle those “marketing moments”? Share your thoughts below.

In our research, we’re seeing more and more evidence that a web site’s success depends on its ability to help users find the information they want quickly and efficiently. Yet, we still commonly see chaotic sites where users find it impossible to find the content they want.

Why are these content and information architecture problems still so prevalent? This week’s UIEtips article, written by our good friend Gerry McGovern, deals with tackling this question. Gerry explains how many organizations fail to focus on what’s most important to a site’s success: the site’s ability to help users complete key tasks. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

As always, I want to hear your thoughts on this topic. What content management approaches do you use in your organization? How do you manage the common tasks your customers want to complete? How has it affected your design process? Leave your thoughts and join the discussion below.

Read today’s UIEtips article.

[If you find Gerry's article interesting, you'll really want to check out his full-day seminar on Creating a Task-Based Information Architecture at UI12. Gerry is the expert we turn to about content management issues. He has spent the last ten years consulting exclusively on issues pertaining to information architecture and content management systems. You can read more about Gerry’s session here: Creating a Task-Based Information Architecture .

This is just one of the ways the employees at this particular Dunkin’ Donuts make me feel special as a customer. Because I stop by often, the employees also automatically know what I’m going to order.

Noticing your customers’ little details and remembering their personal preferences are two great ways to create loyalty with them. In a recent post, marketing expert Seth Godin discusses how flattering one’s ego is a sure way to make clientele feel important. A little recognition can go a long way. You can read Seth’s full article here: Ego.

You can market by telling or you can market by showing. There’s no doubt that interactive marketing, marketing where you actually deliver something of value, is far far more powerful than telling. Telling is just bragging. Telling is ignored. Showing, on the other hand, is about me. Me, me, me! It’s about providing an interactive experience that touches me.

There is definitely great value in offering people an unforgettable interactive experience with your product or brand. Demos, free trials, and free samples all provide a way for people to try out what you’re offering with no strings attached.

You can read Seth’s full article here.

Why do these headlines suck so much? Fear. Fear of saying too much. Fear of saying something clever that someone might think is stupid. Fear of saying something revealing that might turn someone off. The headlines try desperately not to exclude anyone. In doing so, they succeed at boring everyone.

The “Hey” phenomenon is rampant in the corporate world. Branding is nothing more than a company’s personal ad, and companies are as bad at it as singles. Gap (NYSE:GPS), for example, is the “Hey” of fashion, thus its recent woes. And Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) –who, exactly, does it want to date? Brands with enough scale think they can get away with being generically likable. And some can, at least for a little while.

Dan and Chip touch upon a common mistake we’ve observed in our research: When design teams focus on satisfying the needs of everyone, they often fail to entice the people who actually matter, the target audience. Time and time again, we’ve found that the most successful teams focus on their specific users’ needs and create messages targeted just to them.

Every time I give a talk, someone always asks, “That’s all good and nice that helping users learn is the key to creating passionate users… but who’s going to do all that extra work? Who’s going to make the extra tutorials and better docs?” Answer: your user community. Think about all the things a strong user community can do for you: tech support, user training, marketing (evangelism, word of mouth), third-party add-ons, even new product ideas.

You can read Kathy’s entire post here: User Community and ROI.

How are you engaging your audience?

When she arrives at the store, she initially doesn’t know where to go, as no visual clues present themselves. After a ten-minute wait at the customer service desk, she’s told she’s in the wrong place and needs to find another desk, this one labeled “Online Receiving”. Once she finds that desk, the clerk, who obviously can’t wait for his shift to end, sighs and says the camera she’s purchased is out of stock. She can buy a different camera at this point, but to receive a credit for her original online purchase, she needs to call an 800 number. She ends up leaving the store without a camera and a charge on her credit card she needs to resolve.

This scenario highlights the difference between usability and user experience — a question I get quite frequently these days.

Usability answers the question, “Can the user accomplish their goal?” In the case of our camera shopper, from the perspective of the site’s design, she did accomplish the goal, being very satisfied with the result.

User experience answers the question, “Did the user have as delightful an experience as possible?” The store portion of the experience canceled out the online portion.

If the online portion was the only thing involved, our customer would’ve been delighted with the results and likely shopped again. Because of the total user experience, she’ll likely resist shopping with the brand again.

In this organization’s case, the usability of the site involves only those people who directly influence the design of the site. However, to create a pleasurable user experience, we now have to involve people from all over the organization, including those people dictating how the store operations are designed and implemented.

User experience takes far more effort to do well, but the results have far better impact.

Are you focused on the user experience?

So, what can we learn from In-N-Out Burger?

In-N-Out Burger does a great job of using preconceived notions to their advantage. They take a step beyond the expected and pleasantly surprise their customers. By offering fresh ingredients, outstanding quality control, and made-to-order food, In-N-Out exceeds the standards of the typical fast food joint. They don’t use microwaves or freezers, their fries are hand-cut and prepared on site, and the building is actually clean.

Going against the grain got In-N-Out Burger noticed. In their case, being the black sheep doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s interesting how In-N-Out offers a peculiar variety of drink choices. While they could have saved money by only offering Coca Cola or Pepsi products, they chose to offer customers Coke, Diet Coke, 7-Up, and Dr Pepper; the latter 2 produced by Cadbury Schweppes. In-N-Out strives to produce the best experience to customers even when it meant branching out to more than one beverage distributor.

Creating a sense of intrigue and exclusivity can do wonders with customers. A good story can often stimulate people’s interest and keep them coming back for more. Did you know In-N-Out has a secret menu? The customers that are aware of the secret menu feel like they are part of the in-crowd, and find great joy placing an order “animal style,” only to hear the folks around them inquire what that is. In-N-Out also doesn’t have any restaurants more than a day’s drive away from its main distribution center. While I’m assuming this is done for quality reasons, it also allows In-N-Out to remain exclusive to a certain area. Whenever I am in In-N-Out territory, I make it a point to go, as do many other people.

In-N-Out has also chosen to remain relatively small in comparison to other fast-food chains, which allows them to adapt quickly while holding steadfast to their tried and true values. I recommend to many of our clients to avoid striving for world domination, that way they can stay true to their loyal audience base. Just as Seth Godin points out in his new book, Small is the New Big, there is an advantage to being small. Small companies can do big things. In-N-Out is a family-owned chain that refuses to franchise. This allows them to foster an extremely close relationship with their associates and customers while staying true to tradition.

Finally, In-N-Out keeps their choices simple. Their menu is one of the simplest I’ve encountered. When I make my burger choice, there aren’t any complex decisions I have to make. Think about Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice. In a culture where we seem to have limitless choice, Barry argues that more choice doesn’t necessarily lead to greater satisfaction or superior alternatives. He believes more choice leads to psychological and emotional detriment. Either you want a burger or you don’t; no wasting time and effort choosing among 50 different menu items, frustrating yourself, wondering if you made the right decision. The menu is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Leave it to me to relate everything to food…

[Photo courtesy of Christine Perfetti]

I’m listening to Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg right now (in their session: Creating Persuasion Architecture Online), and Bryan is telling us that, like a kiss, every banner ad is a promise. When you view a banner ad, it is setting expectations about what you should find at the other end…when you click it.

But most banner ads fail to deliver on their promise. Or, rather, most landing pages fail to deliver on the promise made by the banner ads. Most are disconnected with the ad that sent people there, often changing the subject, style, or mood of the ad. This change is detrimental to success. Conversion is all about consistency, consistency, consistency in message. The Eisenberg’s preach this message rather…consistently.

The Eisenbergs (who, as brothers, seem connected at the subconcious level…they finish each other’s sentences with amazing clarity) suggest that the failure of many banner ads isn’t caused solely by the difficulty of the medium, but also because they’re created by different teams or people who don’t create a compelling, seamless experience.

Many banner ads, it seems, aren’t very good lovers. Their promises, for the most part, mean very little.

Yahoo seems to be suggesting that instead of going to the homepage to search I should bypass it and search from my browser instead.

My guess is that this is an attempt to take market share away from Google, whose engine is the default search option on Firefox, the browser I was using. If Yahoo can get Firefox users to switch from Google to their search engine, they’ll see a growth in advertising revenue. As you have probably heard, advertising revenue from search is a huge market, coveted by all and solely responsible for Google’s tremendous growth. A while ago I wrote about how Microsoft and Google understand the Power of the Default. Add Yahoo to that list.

But I wonder: Are there any downsides to this? Does it hurt Yahoo at all if I don’t go to the homepage when searching? From a purely functional standpoint, I don’t think it does. People will still get the value out of the search function that they got before, assuming the results are relevant. Branding-wise, however, there might be downsides since Yahoo relies on services other than search (unlike Google). Each time someone goes to the Yahoo homepage to search they see what are essentially advertisements for services. Does this advertising have a positive effect over the long term? Will someone be more likely to return to Yahoo after having seen one of those services, even if they were there for a different purpose?

In design there is always a tension between discovery and task. Designers want to help people complete their task, but also want to introduce new things along the way. How else would people find out about new, exciting things if it weren’t for some vehicle of discovery?

One option would be to extend what we at UIE call seducible moments to the search results page. Seducible moments are moments when users can be persuaded into taking some new or additional action. Usually this moment comes right after they have completed their task.

However, nearly all of the content on Google and Yahoo’s results pages is either search results or 3rd party advertising. What if they took advantage of the seducible moments on those pages and advertised their additional services there?

Imagine if, somewhere on the search results page, Yahoo’s designers presented this message: “Looking for secure, web-based email? Try Yahoo Mail today. It’s free.” Now, it might be that users ignore everything on the results page and the seducible moment happens when the user reaches the site the results suggest. If that’s the case, however, it is too late for Yahoo to do much of anything.

If that’s not the case and people are open to discovery on the search results page as they seem to be with 3rd party advertising (testing could verify this), then Yahoo has room to explore. Indeed, Yahoo would need to explore in this space if a significant number of people come from browser search. When users search by way of the browser the results page becomes the only place that Yahoo can show off their services. In an increasingly search-driven world where people can search from anywhere, the results page becomes even more important than before.