Companies and individuals need to do more than just create technology.
They need to optimise the services and goods they provide, especially when
introducing new concepts to developing markets such as Cambodia.
That was the message from one
presenter at last weekend’s T3CON12-ASIA conference in Phnom Penh.
The conference focused on bring
professionals and enthusiasts from the Web and mobile development fields
together to exchange ideas about use ability, publishing to different devices,
website optimisation, quality assurance, IT infrastructure management and
business best practices.
It also offered three days of
training in using TYPO3, an open source content management system, as well as
Web development for those interested.
Sam Ng, co-founder and director
of Optimal Usability a user experience consultancy group, spoke on Saturday
about the concept of “user experience as your core competence”, which he
described as “a nice way to say how we make things easy for people to use and
how we make people feel good when they’re interacting with technology”.
The essence of Ng’s presentation:
think of the users first, then think of the systems.
“[Good design is] one of the new
competitive advantages in a sluggish economy. And even in a thriving one, if we
look at things that people can copy very easily, technology is certainly one
that is increasing commoditised.”
He went on: “There are lots of
products that are effectively ‘me too’ versions of each other, but experience
in terms of how we can deliver really good customer service or how we can get
word-of-mouth, good word-of-mouth, more systemically is something that is
incredibly hard to replicate and also is something that is incredibly hard to
do well, consistently.”
Dominik Stankowski, the executive
director of Web Essentials and organiser of the conference, offered this
thought on good design: “Whilst we do not see so many good user interfaces in
local websites, I am convinced that user interfaces will also make a big
difference in the useability and adoption of Web technology in Cambodia.”
But being user-friendly isn’t
enough, he added. “It is not only the user interface itself, it is the validity
of the information and the service that comes together with the product that
will complement the user experience. For instance, an e-shop needs to go
hand-in-hand with good logistics and a call centre that can handle requests
efficiently.”
Ng and Stankowski agree that a
good user experience is the key to Cambodian companies moving into the global
market.
“To be competitive in ASEAN and
in international markets, Cambodia should absolutely focus on developing design
capabilities. Doing what everyone else does gives you what everyone else gets,”
Ng said.
“Businesses are coming to Cambodia
because labour in places like India, China and the Philippines are getting more
expensive. Without a sustainable competitive advantage, this will last a few
years until businesses find another country that is even cheaper. But imagine
if Cambodia could offer great price and well-designed solutions – over time
businesses will stay even if Cambodia is not the cheapest.”
Ng suggested Cambodia work toward
developing a strength not often found in Southeast Asia.
“Good design is how well
something works. That applies not just to the products and services but to the
interactions themselves – how enjoyable is it to interact with Cambodian
businesses and government departments? It’s possible for Cambodia to be an
economic leader in ASEAN if it focuses on making design one of its core
strengths. It’s something none of the other ASEAN countries are particularly
accomplished at.”
Stankowski concurred: “Usability
is also a topic that is not yet enough taught at universities. It is hard for
us to find good front-end developers and designers, because IT curriculums
generally focus on programming and not usability.”
Stankowski said keeping tabs on
global technology trends is essential, and the government must move with the
times as well.
“To go internationally, designers
and developers need to understand what is going on internationally on an
e-commerce level. Additionally, Cambodia needs an e-payment system that can
handle credit card sales efficiently and legislative efforts need to be made
for an e-commerce law,” he said.
On the home front, Ng sees the
already crowded mobile-phone market as one sector where user experience is
likely to be the trump card for any savvy company to win customers and maintain
their loyalty.
“You have 10 mobile phone
providers to choose from, and customers are choosing based on the difference in
price. It’s a race to the bottom,” he said.
However, appealing to the growing
middle class will be in large part based on customer experience.
“At the low end of the market,
you tend to compete on price, but there’s a rich middle class and it will only
grow – how do you encourage brand loyalty and reduce churn for those segments?
Customer experience,” Ng said.
Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt,
who did not attend the conference, acknowledged Ng’s point: “At the present
moment, price sensitivity is largely dominant over user experience and product
quality. This is absolutely not limited to telecommunications services, but is
a general phenomenon.
“The very limited purchasing
power among the vast majority of the population is the reason for it. However,
with an increasing level of wealth, quality will become a significantly more
important factor.”
Hundt agreed that user experience
would become more important.
“Price-wise, the bottom has been
practically reached. Yes, user experience will be factors to focus on even
more,” he said, adding that Smart Mobile was excellently positioned to take
advantage of this shift.
Hundt listed the numerous
additional services on offer, such as clear voice calls and text messaging,
mobile internet and “value added services” as the key differentiators that made
his business viable for the future.
Ng’s advice for the future is to
look at areas, such as mobile phones, where Cambodia doesn’t have a legacy to
contend with, and develop from there.
“There are opportunities to
leapfrog and bypass some of the things done in developed countries. For
instance, mobile technology is one of those things that is a massive enabling
technology. When we have more affordable accessible data on mobile devices and
a high penetration rate, you can do a lot of things differently.
“Developed countries have a lot
of legacy to deal with. They’ve invested heavily in old infrastructure and the
cost of change is significant. Developing countries can skip some of these
stages. Good design can inform how we use technology effectively to leapfrog
developed countries,” he said.
Gregory Pellechi
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com
No comments:
Post a Comment