Why Chelsea Apps Factory Blindfolded their audience at the Festival of Marketing
Sense and Sensibility
In recent years there has been a relentless focus on the visual aspects of smartphone development. Think the obsession with ever-improving screen quality, camera resolution, bigger and more responsive touch screens.
It seems the focus has been on them looking better. It’s not something that the majority of the population gives a second thought to on a daily basis. But what if the finer points of these improvements are lost on you because you are visually impaired?
The ascendancy of the smartphone is gathering pace in the banking sector, with the Financial Times reporting that, by 2023, 72% of the UK population will be using apps to manage their accounts. Although these changes are fantastic, businesses now have the technological opportunity to be inclusive.
For instance, a study of visually impaired people in Japan suggests that speech recognition is an integral part of their smartphone experience, but that improvements in this field are still a top priority. As banking undergoes a rapid mobile revolution that brings financial control into peoples’ pockets, it is vital that these benefits are extended to all.
The Potential of Voice Technology
At Festival of Marketing last month, Chelsea Apps Factory showcased their work for the likes of KPMG, Transport for London and Vanquis Bank. The award-winning Vanquis banking app was developed to help their customers grow their credit ratings. Encouraging them to engage with an app that they enjoyed using meant putting them back in control of their finances.
To achieve this, the most important aspect of the project was testing app functionality with a cross section of the typical Vanquis Bank demographic – in other words, real, live customers - then applying findings back into the design. It was during this testing that Pete and his guide dog showed up at Chelsea Apps Factory HQ, helping Vanquis Bank achieve digital inclusion.
Digital inclusion takes ‘accessibility’ a step further, by considering efficiency and usability as part of the user experience. It’s less about meeting a requirement, more the hallmark of a truly customer centric business.
Back to the Festival of Marketing - the audience was asked to don their blindfolds, just for a few minutes. And by temporarily depriving them of sight, Chelsea Apps Factory’s Experience Director Adam Scott, helped them to understand how voice technology can be seamless, user friendly and act as a bridge to digital inclusivity.
So the audience put on their blindfolds; attendees could hear the audio of the two most common actions in mobile banking – checking balance and making payments. The audience then understood that it was not just possible, but easy, to navigate a banking app simply by talking to it.
Wider Considerations
We live in an era when companies are pushing hard for comprehensive digital transformation. Some supermarkets, for example, are keen to move towards stores that are entirely smartphone-based, with shoppers scanning and paying for their items exclusively on their phones. Whilst this idea has an appeal, it does seem like a classic case of technology moving faster than society: not everyone has a smartphone, and not everyone would want this as the only option.
Do we really want to remove the choice of doing things the conventional way? Should businesses rush into massive technological decisions without considering their impact on the whole of society?
There is immense potential for speech recognition to become the main form of smartphone engagement for everyone, regardless of the severity of their sight impairment.
So what has a blindfold got to do with all of this?
Because it’s a neat metaphor that sums up the entire issue. It takes you away from what you know and encourages you to see with what you typically don’t.
‘Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?’ – Henry David Thoreau
This article was originally published on the Festival of Marketing blog - https://www.festivalofmarketing.com/festival-blog-2018/why-chelsea-apps-factory-blindfolded-their-audience-at-the-festival-of-marketing