VoIP too tough to use
Asia-Pacific director of Usability by Design, Gary Bunker, claims Australian residential VoIP service providers suffer consistent usability issues. These include poor support in showing users how to make calls to the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN) or competing VoIP providers, limited access to cost-comparison data, and the fact would-be VoIP users need strong technical skills.
"There is a tendency among service providers," said Bunker, whose company bills itself as a usability research and consulting firm, "to jump into a purely technical sell without adequate explanation of what VoIP is and how end users can benefit, other than generic 'low rates' or 'cheap calls' statements. From a simple usability perspective, if people don't know what you're selling or why they should use it, they won't buy it," he continued.
Bunker said his research had focussed on software-based VoIP products, because most people would first trial VoIP services that had the lowest financial risk. Software-based products, he said, could be trialled for free and and calls made to the PSTN for a small extra fee.
Usability by Design tested offerings fromSkype, DingoTel, GloPhone, PC-Telephone, Net2Phone and Engin. The latter is the only hardware player.
However, several local VoIP providers rejected Bunker's view. (Via ZDNet Australia)
"There is a tendency among service providers," said Bunker, whose company bills itself as a usability research and consulting firm, "to jump into a purely technical sell without adequate explanation of what VoIP is and how end users can benefit, other than generic 'low rates' or 'cheap calls' statements. From a simple usability perspective, if people don't know what you're selling or why they should use it, they won't buy it," he continued.
Bunker said his research had focussed on software-based VoIP products, because most people would first trial VoIP services that had the lowest financial risk. Software-based products, he said, could be trialled for free and and calls made to the PSTN for a small extra fee.
Usability by Design tested offerings fromSkype, DingoTel, GloPhone, PC-Telephone, Net2Phone and Engin. The latter is the only hardware player.
However, several local VoIP providers rejected Bunker's view. (Via ZDNet Australia)
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