It is hard to manage your kids when they are far away from home.

That's the position Google seems to be taking as the Mocality debacle continues to unfold. 

After being accused of fraud and illegal data access, what’s the way forward for the internet giant? How will it maintain trust with African consumers? Does this slight stain to its reputation put the brakes on its African agenda? Lessoned learnt for Google? 

Related Stories

 Kenya’s Mocality refers Google dispute to South Africa

Was Google Kenya’s chief pushed after Mocality debacle? 

Another company makes allegations against Google 

Why you should restrict upfront and not wait until later in the process....

South Africans are Over Achievers

Last year when attempting to place my son’s name on the waiting list of the private all boys’ school The Ridge School, the procedure was pretty manual and the experience was poor.

·         Step 1– download the form

·         Step 2 – print the form

·         Step 3 – manually fill in the form

·         Step 4 – Fax or mail it in with payment information.

·         Step 5 – wait to hear back from school if they received your form and payment

·         Step 6 – Call school to check if they have received information

Speeding up the waiting process

This year the experience has been turbo-charged. There is now only 3 steps required to get your boy onto the exclusive waiting list. 

·         Step 1– Fill in electronic online form ( Eco-friendly)

·         Step 2 – Enter credit card details and submit payment (secure)

·         Step 3 - Receive confirmation email of receipt of payment (validation and assurance)

Leveraging technology to save costs, improve ROI and customer experience

To get more out of their website, The Ridge School certainly had invest a bit more. 

To deliver this experience they had to add-on:

• a shopping cart
• upgrade to a secure shopping web server - https:
• obtain a merchant account  
• and build an electronic form

What they’ve achieved:

·          

• Ease of use – as the whole process is much easier, I am certain they have increased the number of registrants. More boy’s on the waiting list (not great for hopeful parents, but certainly great for the school).  

• Increased administrative efficiencies – the electronic form standardizes data entry. Illegible writing and incorrect credit card details are no longer an administrative issue.

• Eco-friendly South African business - electronic forms don't require printing.

A True Online Registration Process

The whole process that once could take days has now been reduced to about 6 minutes. Bravo to The Ridge School!

What is Usability testing?

An evaluation of potential users' behavior when they are experiencing a product, software or website.

UT Testing

Carnegie Mellon's School of Design's Definition of Design

"Design is the process of taking something from its existing state and moving it to a preferred state." 
This applies to new artifacts, whose existing state is undefined, and previously created artifacts, whose state stands to be improved."  wikipedia

This definition of design resonates well with me. Unlike other definitions of design, this definition is broad and therefore applicable to diverse activities. The language of the definition provides me with a clear visual of the meaning which in turn better informs my understanding of the word design.

At a simplistic level the definition of design can be explained as: to take something and make it better and or to take nothing and make it something.

What have I been Designing

I am designing a program for English-as-a-mother-tongue children between the ages of 5 -12, who are being educated in French or learning French as a second language and live in a non-French speaking country.

This design solution address the following issues:

• Most of these children have only one primary ecosystem to experience their second language - their school.
• Outside of school they speak English. What's missing is an alternative and fun environment to speak French

These limitation slows down their learning of the foreign language. They experience the language primarily as an academic exercise resulting in lower motivational impulses which decelerates learning.
This program is designed to allow children to experience learning their second language in a fun, non-academic, "edutainment" environment.

Lightbox Javascript

This version has many interesting effects but it is difficult to implement.

in reference to: ColorBox Examples (view on Google Sidewiki)