I have been trialling the Dosh Wallet, in an attempt to find the innovative solution to my wallet woes. My main issues with wallets are receipts falling everywhere, what to do with coins, easy access to bus passes, and a pocket that fits bills in their long form. I hoped the Dosh wallet would be the wallet 2.0 solution (Kristi is trialling another candidate, the Wallet 2.0).

Unfortunately, the Dosh has not lived up to my initial excitement. When it first came, I carefully slipped my cards into the slots allotted, put my bills into the large folder compartment and curiously tried to fill the square clasped compartment. I thought how handy that compartment would be for bus passes or loyalty cards. At first, it was pretty good - the bill pocket was large, and the material the wallet is made of seemed fairly indestructable. I found that the credit card holder was ok (but I needed a few more slots), and the clasped compartment was good for the bus passes. However, as time went on the hard plastic started to wear. My credit cards would fall out if the wallet was turned upside down and the door to the clasp compartment loosened, so cards were falling out the sides. So on a bad day, I had credit cards and bus passes falling out (luckily, I caught them all - some off the sidewalk).

Even worse, there was no place for coins. In Australia, this is significant since 1 and 2 dollar pieces are plentiful and useful to have with you.

I therefore am still seeking the next wallet innovation that solves all my issues. Perhaps something that I can hang a key off of, crumple receipts into, clip bus passes onto on the outside, and generally organize my cash and cards with. I am thinking we are going to have to turn a wallet inside out -

Recently I went to a restaurant in Sydney for a Cajun meal. New Orleans cajun/creole type food is rare in Sydney, so I was looking forward to the experience. The restaurant was fairly new and had done a good job using the local restaurant review websites to increase awareness and provide coupons. We arrived to the restaurant and noticed people had roses on their tables and most seem to be there for special occasions. There was even a piano player in the eating area. The whole atmosphere was great and the decor was cool. We started looking through the menu and noticed good food, good drinks, and a footnote.

The footnote got our attention as it mentioned that we should ask the waiter to explain the pricing scheme. Further pages had notes explaining the ordering rules and surcharges. For example, if a plate was shared, there would be a 30% surcharge. Also, if only mains were ordered and not an entree or a dessert, a surcharge would apply at the manager’s discretion. On certain nights, there was a 10% entertainment surcharge. Yes, we started getting confused and discussing whether it was cheaper to be surcharged for sharing a dessert or to order two desserts and throw one away.

How awful that a night that was meant to be enjoyed turned in to a night discussing a new style of restaurant pricing. The owner of the restaurant overheard our discussions and came over for more conversation. His belief was that this new pricing scheme was better for customers as they could see what they were paying for. He was also of the mind set that people should have food left on their plate because they just were so full, therefore sharing was unacceptable (and a drain on owner resources).

Well, my feeling is, if I don’t see it , I won’t notice it. Incorporate all those charges in to the price of the meal. And, if we are great customers and order a lot of drinks, then comp us a bottle of wine or give us a 10% discount. Our goodwill will go a long way to word of mouth and repeat business. As it stands now, the restaurant is doing everything right with sending follow up coupons for birthdays, advertising, and having roses and wine for anniversary’s complimentary.

And yet, it’s empty. I guess that goes a long way to say that people aren’t quite ready to pay for all the costs that go in to a night out. Let me enjoy my night and make my dish price high and I will have no issue paying the bill. Hit me with surcharges I am not used to seeing and I start to get annoyed. What do you think? Is this an innovative pricing structure or the demise of customer experience?

by Kristi Barrow 

Last week I picked up a “Wallet 2.0″ from my favourite baggage / luggage / cool stuff stuff store, Rushfaster. It’s a new concept around Wallet design that was so crazy, new silly but possibly ingenious that I had to try it out.

Starting tomorrow, Monday the 17th of September, I am going to Road test the Wallet 2.0 to see if it’s really tops or a complete dud!

See Rushfaster’s blog on the Wallet 2.0 here “What will happen to wallets in the future? “

by Alex Spurzem

I’m a big fan of well designed products and with design I mean the way they’re used, not necessarily whether they present well or not. Apple does a great job at both. I prefer Macs over PCs because I find them easier to use. I have an iPod although it has less features and a higher price tag than other players just because it’s easy to use (with iTunes). And most of all I love to think about what other products would look like if they were built by Apple.

However, it’s not only the design. Usability starts with the product name. Recently we had a discussion in my company, a small Australian Insurance business, on whether we should call our product “Motor Vehicle Insurance” or “Car Insurance”. We only insure cars but for some of us “Car Insurance” didn’t sound dignified enough.
I guess that’s also the reason why you find consumer electronic products with names like “HTS9800″. I’m not kidding. That’s the name of my stereo. Or is it a lack of creativity?
My view is that product names should be aligned with what the customer understands. Have you ever searched for “Motor Vehicle Insurance” or would you look for “Car Insurance”?

The same thinking applies to web sites. In my job I’m responsible for a number of web sites and I’m quite passionate about getting to a point where they are easy to use. My grandma who has seen the internet maybe a couple of times should be able to use them.

Personally, I don’t necessarily need this. I’m a bit of a geek. Especially with gadgets. I like to do my research before I buy something and contrary to many other people I often read the entire manual just to be sure that I know about all the features my new phone / bike / whatever has. On my Mac I still use the command line every once in a while and I don’t get too confused by the name of my stereo.

Still I like when things are easy and intuitive to use. I regard it as a degree of respect that the company, which produced a product or service has for me. Respect for the fact that I spend hard earned money on their product and don’t want to subsequently spend a lot of time on figuring out how to use it.

Does your company respect their customers?

Yes? What about the name of your product? Do you also respect your potential customers before they buy your product or do they need to figure out what ‘HTS9800′ stands for or that you mean ‘Car Insurance’ when you say ‘Motor Vehicle Insurance’?

With regards to websites I recently found a book that I highly recommend and that summarizes it with “Don’t make me think”. That’s also the title of the book. The author is Steve Krug.
He suggests that you test everything on your site as to whether it requires thought. My favourite example is how people name the jobs section on their website. Customer friendly is: “Jobs”. That’s obvious. Somebody looking for jobs will click this. Slightly worse are companies who call it “Employment Opportunities”. This already requires a millisecond of thinking by the visitor to translate it into jobs. You may be thinking that doesn’t take much effort and doesn’t make a difference but the point is that all the little question marks for the customer add up. The worst case is if a company is locked into some corporate policy to call this section “Job-o-Rama” or similar…

Now, what does that have to do with innovation? Well, obviously, with every product, service, or process innovation it’s essential that you consider your customers. Before and after purchasing. Clearly, if something is useful it has chances to succeed but how much better are your chances if it’s useful and easy to use and easy to buy?

Innovation is a complicated and hard to predict process and has nothing to do with the corporate suggestion box or guys in white lab coats. I find you should not only follow Steve Krug’s advise to not make your customers think but also you might want to ask yourself where you can do the opposite and make your customers think for you. Just because consumers like easy to use products doesn’t mean they are not a smart resource to use in developing such products. Consumers invented entire industries like mountain biking and everybody is an “expert” at something.

Recently, consumer innovation has gotten a lot coverage in the media. P&G is structuring large parts of their business around this. Many web sites try to innovate on a crowd-sourcing basis (e.g. www.theoscarproject.org). And it seems there are already good results: Kraft foods introduced the 100 kcal pack based on an idea in their user forums.

Find out what kind of products and services your customers could be interested in and make them think about how they would use this product or service so that it doesn’t make them think .

All this has gotten a lot easier with the internet. Can you use the internet to involve your customers to think for you so that they don’t have to think when buying and using your product?

by Krista Walter

I have just gone on a tour of the wineries outside of Adelaide. One of the discussions I always like to bring up with the various wineries is how they feel about the current seal debate, ie. natural cork vs. synthetic cork vs. screw cap vs. zork vs. vino-seal debate. In Australia, the industry is heading toward producing only in screw cap bottles unless it is for export. I had a discussion at the Rosemount winery about this topic, and they mentioned they had been using synthetic corks, but decided to switch to all screw caps. In fact, they were even so bold as to change the shape of the wine bottle. It seems, Australians are willing to accept the thinking that the wine keeps better with a cap than with a cork, as the screw cap seals in the proper amount of oxygen that the winery actually formulates. In addition, the feeling is that storage is easier as the wine can be stood on its base as the bottle is designed, rather than on its side, which is precarious.

Recently, I spent three months in Italy as part of my MBA. Touring the wineries there, I asked about the screw cap v. cork debate. I got very strict answers that cork was the only way to seal a wine bottle and that the only people who would use screw caps do so for mass distribution. Synthetic cork was being considered by a few, but this was taken as a very experimental position.

In the United States, there is the general attitude that screw caps indicate a cheaper wine and a cork is indicative of a better wine. I have also heard the argument that screw caps decrease the experience of the wine, as opening the bottle doesn’t have the same flair, and there is no cork to smell. In addition, if screw caps are used then there is no reason to first examine the wine before drinking as there is no chance of it being “corked”.

Clearly, experimentation is being done for a reason. Apparently, cork is getting more expensive as it becomes shorter in supply. The amount of marketing being done around the use of natural corks seems to be growing. I am told glass corks (Vino-seal) are even being developed in Europe by Alcoa. Is the drinker becoming more sensitive to the impurities that can be introduced by the use of the real cork? Or is it more about taking the power away from the cork industry? Or is this incremental innovation at work? One interesting trend to watch is the response of the natural cork industry to these innovations. It may very well mimic that of other technologies which have become obsolete or “out of taste” with consumers. Perhaps there is an alternative way to defend its market share?

I would be interested in hearing from wineries, wine drinkers, and manufacturers from various parts of the world what their feelings are on the different types of seals that are available for wine bottles. Is there an alternative that is now more feasible than any of the traditionally shaped seals being used now? Do these current innovations ease the cost of manufacture?

I am also curious about the shape of the wine bottle itself. If the seal changes, does that mean the bottle shape could evolve into something easier to ship and store? Is glass the best material for wine storage? Is a square bottle better than a rounded bottle?