In this our October 2019 Community Chat and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Simone Pasmore and Trevor Forrest, the panel discusses user experience studies and testing: the missing ingredient in generating conversions (sales), and how blockchain technology can help Caribbean countries reduce corruption and increase global competitiveness.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes and on Stitcher!

From both life and experience, many of us have come to realise that although an approach or process might be ‘efficient’, it does not mean necessarily mean that it is also ‘effective’. Once again, having discussed two seemingly disparate topics in our October 2019 Community Chat, some common ground still exists.

Simone Pasmore

Our first topic was on user experience studies and testing of websites, and the fact that frequently, it is the missing ingredient in businesses generating increased sales conversions, and in getting a good return on their investment to develop a website in the first place. This topic was submitted by Simone Pasmore, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Webstylze, a web and mobile applications development firm, based in Barbados. In addition to being CEO, Simone’s areas of expertise include, data science, artificial intelligence, web development, and app development to name a few.

User experience studies and testing are considered a crucial steps in the website development process. Generally, and early in the development process, a business ought to engage potential website users and customers to determine the elements that ought to be included in the website, in order to improve its overall effectiveness, along with the user experience. However, in the Caribbean region, Simone noted that the effort to either implement user experience studies and testing exercises, or at the very least, draw from well-documented precedent or best practice, seldom occurs. As a result, many websites do not perform as well as should, especially as a channel through which to realise sales conversion.

At the other end of the spectrum, our second topic, which was submitted by Trevor Forrest, out of Jamaica, was on blockchain technology. Trevor is the Chief Executive Officer of 876 Solutions, a managed technology provider serving the Caribbean market. His specialty areas include but are not limited to, web design and development, blockchain, e-commerce, big data, and network/cyber security.

Trevor Forrest

With regard to blockchain, it would appear that over the past several months, the hype around that technology has died down. However, what has remained is intensive work being done in many quarters to apply and integrate blockchain technology to address real-world problems and processes that can benefit from the key properties of blockchain:  a distributed and immutable ledger that is publicly accessible.

Trevor, who is passionate about blockchain and promises that he can talk about it all day, began to highlight how that technology can help Caribbean countries reduce corruption and increase global competitiveness. Although blockchain technology can seem complicated to many, Trevor uses real-life examples to highlight his points, including a powerful one that should resonate with many Caribbean countries that consider their country brand valuable, and have products/goods that are a point of national pride, which could be subject to counterfeiting.

 

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  3910743 (Pixabay);  S Pasmore;  T Forrest

Music credit:  Ray Holman