Electronic Ink matures with the Web

August 24, 2007

PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL – Harold Hambrose founded Electronic Ink Inc. on the idea that the design of software for computers, automated teller machines and other devices should be based on how people actually interact with those products.

“When we started out, this was a completely novel idea,” Hambrose said.

That was in 1990. Today, if Electronic Ink’s success is any indication, it appears to be gaining acceptance. Consider:

The company now has 82 employees in four offices – its Center City head–quarters; London; Raleigh, N.C.; and, most recently, New York;

Hambrose said its revenue, which he won’t reveal, is on track to double from last year; and it completed installing a second lab for testing software and Web sites for user–friendliness in its headquarters.

Hambrose, who is Electronic Ink’s CEO, thinks much of the company’s success is being driven by the maturation of the Web. As doing business online becomes habit rather than novelty, people’s tolerance for hard–to–use Web sites is diminishing. And companies are realizing this and putting more effort into making sure they get their sites right the first time.

“The Web channel is becoming more and more of a primary focus for businesses of all industries,” said Chris Bagley, a customer experience manager in the e–commerce department of AIG Direct, which had Electronic Ink do usability testing on its Web site for consumers.

“You need to really pay attention to how usable a site is, how intuitive it is and how well it serves customers’ needs,” Bagley said.

That’s what Electronic Ink’s usability labs enable its customers to do.

The two in its headquarters – it also has a mobile one – feature two rooms separated by a one–way mirror. One is for people to try out software or Web sites; the other is for observers to watch them.

In addition to human observation, Electronic Ink uses eye–tracking software to see what catches people’s attention on the Web sites or computers it’s evaluating.

The software produces visible patterns over the sites or screens on a computer in the room where the testing is being done and a computer in the room where the testing is being observed.

One set of patterns consists of dots that look like depictions of precipitation on Doppler Radar, only instead of measuring storm intensity, the colors show how long a person stared at a particular spot. The other has numbered circles showing where people looked and in what order, and X’s showing where they clicked.

Data from both sets can be quantified and exported to spreadsheets.

“We’re able to compare quantitatively one Web site to another,” said Max Snyder, a senior human factors analyst with Electronic Ink.

The human factors group is the one that sets Electronic Ink apart from typical Web design or software development firms. It contains 10 people from a variety of backgrounds, including anthropology and cognitive psychology, and its purpose is to make sure the products of Electronic Ink’s customers are designed with real people in mind.

Electronic Ink can build and design those products itself through its other two groups – technology and design. But it also can work with – and for – software developers and Web design firms.

“Probably half our revenue this year is from technology companies saying, ‘Our product can just be a lot better,’ ” Hambrose said.

To capture the increased demand from tech companies, Hambrose is planning to open a West Coast office within 18 months.

The office also would help Electronic Ink get established in California before major competitors that specialize in its approach to digital design arise. Today, the largest companies it competes against with a similar approach are design firms that do a lot of things besides digital design.

Hambrose knows that won’t last.

“The marketplace has finally matured and people are asking for the service, so competitors are going to sprout up,” he said.

About Electronic Ink

From its headquarters in Philadelphia – and at offices in New York, London and Raleigh – Electronic Ink improves the design and usability of software applications, enterprise software and browser-based applications. The company’s staff of nearly 80 experts is dedicated to conducting groundbreaking work in data visualization, user interface design, usability and human factors, and business process analytics for an elite client roster. For more than 18 years, the company’s solutions have earned superior results for the world’s most notable brands in energy, financial services, health care, media and government. Across all categories, clients continue to select Electronic Ink for its proven ability to impact efficiency and maximize productivity.