Blogs

We are getting very close to our 2008 event. It is exciting to see so much activity, both on the ground and online.

Please keep your eye on our website as we launch the Global Transport Challenge for World Usability Day 2008.

Elizabeth

In support of World Usability Day on Transport, UPA HK has invited Octopus, Hong Kong’s pioneering transport and small payment card, to share how a focus on simple usability for both cardholders and the transport operators contributed to its success.The Octopus card was launched by a consortium of the major transport operators (metro, rail, bus and ferry) in 1997. It is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading automatic fare collection systems and has exported its operational expertise and central system to both the Netherlands and Dubai.See - http://www.usability.com.hk/event3_2008.htm

You are alone in a new city called "Hong Kong".

• What does it feel like to be a tourist in Hong Kong?
• Do the signs tell you where you need to go?
• Does the transportation help to get you where you need to go?
• What do you need to use the transportation effectively?
• Do people in the city help?

Apogee - www.apogeehk.com decided to be tourists for a day in our home city of Hong Kong. This journey talks to an experience tourists may have with the transport in order to get where they need to go. Does transport improve the tourist experience? Or did it get in the way of having a good time? Try this in your own city and let us know how you went :)

How inexpensive is it to have your car become a wifi "hotspot", find out here!  Is it safe?

 Social gap widens from outer to inner MelbourneSUBURBIA is bearing the brunt of rising fuel prices and extreme mortgage stress, a major study of Australian cities has found. Governments must step in to provide outer suburbs with better public transport or risk extreme social breakdown, it warned.

Can the $7.00 for a pillow and blanket kit now being offered by Jet Blue make up for the increased fuel costs? Will customers pay for it? Read on!

How many cars does the US Government own and run?? 642,233?? Couldn't be or could it?  More.

With two of the bridges that are the main spans across the Charles River in Boston in need of major repairs, what would happen if they were both unusable?  Read on!

But all of that history, all of that "brand-building," means nothing in a world where the customer experience means everything. I mean today's customer experience. If those passengers could have torn up their virtual JetBlue frequent flyer cards to board a Virgin America flight right then to JFK, there would have been a long line at the Virgin America desk. The basics of the customer experience - on-time departure, on-time arrival - are so much more important than any marketing nonsense on a billboard or TV commercial.http://goodexperience.com/2008/07/the-jetblue-customer.php

As part of a User Research project in China this month we are running in depth interviews in both Shanghai and Dalian. We arrived at Shanghai airport yesterday (7 July 2008) taking the super fast Maglev from the city expecting to take an afternoon flight to Dalian. Well ... that was yesterday and this is today and we are still waiting (fog over Dalian apparently making it hard to land the plane). The plus side is its forced us into a situation to sit at the airport for a longer time than usual and provides a nice opportunity to better watch airport operations when a flight is delayed.http://www.apogeehk.com/articles/TheAirportUserExperience-TravelDelaysInShanghai.html