The Magical Number 7 plus minus 2

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Have you heard about the Magical Number 7 plus minus 2? What is it actually? What are its implications for design?

We process information in our working memory. Our working memory has its limitations, and this limits how much information we can process at any point in time. It’s like the RAM of a computer.
The Magical number 7 plus or minus 2 is established by a cognitive psychologist George A. Miller in 1956. From his experiments, he found that the memory span, i.e., the longest list of items that a person can repeat back, is approximately 7 items.

Try this: read the following numbers, look away from the computer screen, then repeat back the number and see how many numbers in the sequence that you can get it right

6793682683

One way to help increase the memory span is by chunking. Chunking is binding items together in a meaningful manner. For example:
- 6 7 9 3 6 8   – 6 chunks
- 67  93  68    - 3 chunks
- 123456789  - 9 numbers or 1 chunk?
- Oh my God – 7 letters, 3 words, or 1 chunk?

Understanding the limitations of working memory span is very important for design. So does it mean that we have to limit the choices in a webpage or software menu tab to 7? No, this is not a hard rule, although there are other reasons why this may be a good thing to do.

1. On a webpage or a software, the menu is always visually presented, so you don’t rely heavily on your memory to make the comparison and selection.
Exception applies to people who are differently-abled, who need to use a screen reader to convert the text into synthesized speech. In this case, they will need to rely on working memory to remember the menu or the selections.
For this reason, the magical number would apply more importantly for the menu design on a voice / phone answering machine.

2. We process chunks of meaningful information, rather than merely seven number of items.
In the case of mega menu, a lot more selections are presented at the same time. If the information architecture is done right, the number of items would have been grouped to meaningful menu, facilitating chunking. And we can handle chunks of information much better.
Or another example, if we list down country names as selections, even though there are more than 100 of them, this is usually pretty straight forward to select.

3. Although pointed in #1 that all the choices are visually present, human decision making can be poorer when presented with more than less choices.
In a famous jam experiment, the researchers set up two tables offering samples of jam at a food store. One table had 6 different flavors to choose from, and the other table had 24. They found that the shoppers were more likely to stop by the table with more flavors. However, those who stopped at the table with less flavors were 10 times more likely to actually purchase the jam.

In summary, the magical number is a good reference to consider when designing your system. However, don’t take it as a hard rule.

When Online Meets Offline Experiences

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We used to think that online and offline experiences are two separate things. Online offers a wider reach to our audiences, 24/7. Offline offers tangible and visceral experiences. Can we get the best of both worlds?

Today, the distinctions between the two are blurring. All thanks to advancement in technologies such as mobile internet, social media, location based services, QR code, the internet of things, image recognition, and augmented reality. It bridges the gap between online and offline, making experiences more contextual, more personalized, and more engaging.

It changes shopping experience
eBay, well known for its online business, opened pop up retail shops in New York and London. To make a purchase, customers can scan a product’s QR code using a smartphone, which will in turn direct them to the payment section in the eBay website.

Tesco Homeplus in South Korea, traditionally an offline supermarket business, created a Virtual Subway Store where travellers can shop by scanning the QR code using their mobile phones while waiting for the train to arrive. It is practically combining real window shopping and online buying at the same time.

 

It enriches learning experience
The J. Paul Getty Museum enables visitors using mobile application to have immediate access to information about paintings in the museum’s collection. Visitors have the opportunity to listen to audio, get biographical information about the artist and learn about and locate other works by the artist.

and not to forget, games!
The new Cars game from Disney allows a player to put a real-life toy car on the iPad screen and drive around a virtual world which moves beneath it. It really blurs the boundaries between on screen digital gaming and a physical toy.

And how awesome is that when your favourite gaming app Angry Birds goes to life? In Barcelona, a telco campaign allows people to use a smartphone to play a life-size version of the cult Angry Birds game, complete with real shooting birds and exploding pigs, and a street band playing a jazzy version of the game’s theme song in the background.

 

These are just the beginning of the journey to marry the online and offline experiences. The possibilities are endless. And the impacts for brand experiences can be tremendous. What are you waiting for?

Experience Ideas for Rumah Stroberi

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Rumah Stroberi (Strawberry house) is a restaurant plus strawberry plantation in Lembang, northern of Bandung, West Java. I went there in 2006, and I recently visited the place again in my visit to Bandung in January 2012.

I loved the location. You can get fresh air, enjoy the view, and pick strawberries. I was disappointed, however, that they have gone, in my opinion, too commercial and have not stayed true to the brand and the original vision of the place.

We could still pick fresh strawberries from the plantation, but that’s it. When I saw the food menu, none of the food / drinks were made from fresh strawberries. I was hoping to get at least a strawberry pancake or strawberry juice or strawberry milkshake, but none of these are available. The only thing that came close was a pancake with strawberry ice cream. Ok, so I ordered that. When it came, there was no single slice of strawberry on the food, and the ice cream was from off-the-shelf ice cream manufacturer (maybe Campina?), which tasted like fake strawberry and it was too sweet (it was just sugar with pink coloring, really…). The rest of the menu were all Indonesian food and drinks that you could get almost at any other restaurant. Based on some searches on the internet, the food seem to taste good, but again, it’s such a shame that they don’t stay true to the origin that made them famous in the first place, i.e., strawberries!

So what could Rumah Stroberi possibly do to stay relevant to their brand? Here are some experience ideas that came to my head:

1. Home-made food and drinks made of fresh strawberries.
This is very fundamental and very important, as customers would have expected them to at least serve these. Strawberry pancake, fondue, cake, ice cream (home-made, not the fake one from the factory!), juice, milkshake, yoghurt, etc.
And what would make the experience better is, if customers could pick the strawberries themselves, pass them to the chef and choose what they want to make out of them, see the chef make the food/drinks using their strawberries in front of them, and serve them straight away.

2.  Education about strawberries. 
Most of the customers who visit this place are families, and they come with young children. Would it be perfect to use this to educate them as well? Have a tour or write up about all people need to know about strawberries: what are the benefits, what vitamins it contains, how it grows, what long does it take to produce strawberries, how to select a good strawberry, which climate is best to grow strawberries, etc. And maybe to have some quizzes or games to make it more fun!
This kind of experience stays in a person’s head for a long time, and makes the brand more memorable and close to heart. Plus, parents would be happy to see their children learning something new (maybe they themselves have no idea about strawberries that they could learn about it too).

3. Mini workshops. 
This is a combination of idea 1 and 2. The customers are can pick the strawberries themselves, and learn how to make a simple dish out of it. All the other ingredients are supplied by Rumah Stroberi. This can be held once a week on Sunday perhaps, at certain hours, with a small group of people. And a special event for the Valentine’s Day! say, bake or decorate a strawberry cake for your loved ones?
Female customers would absolutely love this :)

4. Adopt a strawberry plant.
Imagine if the customer can buy a strawberry plant to adopt and give it a name, and decorate the name plate to stuck on the pot. Because they may not know how to take care of a strawberry plant, they can leave it there at the plantation for the experts to take the best care of it, but they can always visit it anytime.
To push it more, Rumah Stroberi can use social media like Facebook or Twitter to tag the customer’s profile to his adopted strawberries. Think how this could give them more connection on social media! And they can provide monthly updates or pictures on how your plant is growing up. Oh! how about giving notification when the strawberries from your plant are ready to pick and send you an invitation to visit?
This offers continuous engagement and emotional attachment to the brand. And off course, the impact of social media can bring more spread and peer influence that is invaluable for the business.

There are just a few of many ideas. Just thinking about this makes me feel so excited. I think the brand holds so much more possibilities and uniqueness to be different. I would be more than happy to share these ideas with them and enhance their brand experience.
Now, it’s time for a strawberry yoghurt! yum!

Clear and actionable content

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I sent a cancellation letter for my insurance policy to Prudential a while ago, and last week I received a letter from them:

“We refer to your letter dated 18 December to cancel the above policy from inception. However, we regret to advise that the outstanding requirements have not been fulfilled. As such, we have treated your request as cancelled.”

Hmmm… What does it mean? I read it over and over again, and still couldn’t really understand what it means. Does it mean that they can’t cancel my policy because I haven’t fulfilled some requirements? What requirements? I am not aware of any. What action should I take next?

As an insider within the organization, it’s sometimes too easy to forget that other people may not be aware of the company’s policy. If you don’t explicitly explain and suggest possible actions to take, it will just leave customers in wander.

Good content should be clear, easy to understand, and actionable. Maybe if they give more explanation such as

“We are unable to process your request because you have not [here, specifically mention the requirements or the reason why you can't process the request]. Please [here, state clearly what action the customer have to do in order to achieve her intention].”

It would have been much clearer, and I will not spend the customer service’s time when I call them.

Social Media – should I?

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Today I attended a workshop with InfoCommUnity today on using social media for good. Here are some of my takeaways:

In the old days, communications happened one to one. When mass media started, the communication can be broadcasted from one to many. Now, with social media, the conversations are happening many to many, and they are “narrow casts”.

If your company is not in social media, it doesn’t mean that your customers are not. They are there, they are using it, they are having conversations, with or without you. So you better be part of it. And know how to manage it well.

But how do we start? take small steps, find your sweet spots.

1. Start with defining your goal – what do you want to achieve? higher awareness? higher conversion rate?
2. Identify and listen to existing conversations – who are the influencers? what are they talking about?
3. Empower and encourage internal organization to participate – have principles, policy, governance, training and tools for the people in the organization to use social media
4. Create and cultivate conversations and communities – choose audience who are likely to engage, go where they go, and stand out from the crowd
5. Incentivize participants to participate
6. Measure success, and continuously adjust your strategy

and once you start, you can’t stop.

UX education in Singapore

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Are you keen on getting formal education in UX-related area? Or keen on getting students for your industrial internship program or other UX projects? Or keen on supporting the UX education system?
Here are several schools (poly and university) in Singapore that offer such education.
And please, let me know if I have missed out any other.

The two universities (NTU and UNISIM) provide more in-depth theoretical knowledge on human cognitive, physical, psychology, anthropometry, etc., those required to really have good understanding of human capabilities.
The polytechnics, on the other hand, offer more practical training on how to do and produce the design outcome and implementation.
So depending on what you are looking for, each course has its strengths and weaknesses.
Update: Orita Sinclair is going to start an Interaction Design Diploma soon (hopefully).
Thanks, Wolf, for the updates :)