|
|
Project Overview
Released in mid 2010, version 1 of the Australia Post universal iPhone and iPad app achieved over 600,000 downloads and demonstrated that there is significant appetite for customers to engage with Australia Post and self-serve via the mobile channel.
The recently released Australia Post iPhone and iPad app version 2 is a significant upgrade for Australia Post, providing users with dramatically improved user experience and responsiveness, as well as introducing some innovative new features and services.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Australia Post & Deloitte Digital teams
Project Brief
The project brief included a number of pillars, all designed to propel the Australia Post Mobile offering into a digital showcase for Australia Post.
Upgrade User Experience and Responsiveness:
- Convert the app to a fully native experience (the original version 1 was a hybrid application, designed to deliver an iOS application and mobile website within a relatively short timeline)
- Introducing a number of elegant and highly noticeable interactions
- Make the app leaner and faster to use
- Align further with the evolving Australia Post digital brand
Introduce innovative features that would not only take
advantage of the expanding range of Australia Post digital services, but compliment the upgrade in user experience and overall usability
Introduce new functions that are starting to become core to the Australia Post online experience, such as Currency Converter and closer integration to bill payment
Upgrade elements of user engagement and marketing to bring the customer closer to Australia Post
Project Innovation / Need
Embedded through both user design and use of technology, there are a number of highly innovative enhancements to the version 2 application:
• Barcode scanning for bill payment and online tracking - making these services even more convenient and simple to use, as well as utilising the optimised iPhone and iPad camera capability
• Optimised loading and interaction time - it's now even faster to access and operate. The app also integrates with a range of hosted and third party services (Australia Post CMS, PostBillPay to name a few)
• Offline postcode search - no Internet connection needed
• Securely save your bills and credit card details for next time - fast and hassle-free bill payment
• Tracking history - track all of your items with ease, including saving your favourite items and allocating a nickname
• Currency conversion and ordering
• Fully optimised iPad version – making full use of the larger form factor
• Configurable marketing and sales messages – all managed from a central hosting repository
User Experience
User experience was a key pillar of the project brief, and a core focus of the project team:
• Convert the app to a fully native experience. Whilst the original version 1 application was highly successful, and the hybrid architecture ultimately the correct choice at the time, it was time to start benefiting from a fully native iOS experience. Converting the app in this way allowed the team to fully re-think the overarching user experience and IA of the app, as well as take advantage of the native phone functions such as the device camera
• It’s the little interactions and touches that count – the team put as much time into these small (but important) features as it did the overarching design. Benefiting from the fully native architecture, these gestures and interactions means that the app is not only functional, but a delight to use
• Making the app leaner and faster to use was achieved in a number of ways. Firstly, caching data on frequently used searches (such as Postcode Search) allows the app to provide an almost instant response to the user. The postcode search data can be automatically updated by the app, so the user has access to updated information. Secondly, data saving mechanisms such as tracking numbers (with nicknames) and PostBillPay biller codes provide added convenience to the user
• Align further with the evolving Australia Post digital brand was important, as the public website had experienced a significant refresh in late 2011
Project Marketing
The marketing execution strategy took on a two phased approach seeding out all marketing activity in conjunction with PR to saturate the market creating a halo effect.
*Phase 1- achieve critical mass of app updates
PR
iPhone/ iPad "how to" video
Onsite banners (Australiapost.com.au)including homepage takeover
Australia Post iPhone App landing page
*Phase 2
Consumer eDM presence
Business eDM presence
Onsite banners and social media
Utilities
This category relates to utility applications such as text edit, diary, translator, document viewer, industry directory.
More Details