According to the survey of ICM Research, 78% of the population of United Kingdom know contactless cards, 28% have such cards and 12% have already used them. Of course, this ratio is better in the capital city, but is no wonder as they are used in public transport every day. Expansion of NFC, which is the technology of contactless application, has started. NFC is quite popular in the field of identification – just think about corporate entrance cards, passports, identity cards in some countries, but in case of payment solutions about PayPass bank cards or the above mentioned Oyster cards used in London public transport.
The secret of success is the easy operation and that the use of the chip embedded into the card is secure. Of course, the latter one is inverse, it is rather based on that spiteful attacks that would basically change the users’ impressions about the cards are not in the news. Perhaps it is the most important: the users trust in the product and it can be used simply – they only touch them to the terminal. This is the key. It can be heard many times that NFC-based mobile payment will be launched in Hungary, too. It means we will touch our NFC phones to the terminals and with the assistance of a bank card downloaded to the mobile wallet, the goods will be paid. How simple will it be? How many solutions will come into general use? How will I chose my card on the phone’s screen and how quickly will the phone and the reader communicate? These are going to be the questions that determine the success of mobile payment. These all are technological questions but the answers are not technological matters. They are already issues of user experience (UX) subject (sciences).
In case the use of the product is approached from the aspect of the user experience, the result might be quite different. The well-known publicist, Seth Godin writes in his blog about customer services. He thinks the workers sitting at the customer service should have only one task: to change the clients’ feelings. The facts that happened to the clients cannot be modified but the feelings –whether the customer is angry or disappointed- can be changed. The single measure of the customer service’s successful operation is whether the client would recommend the company to his/her friends after the conversation. But customer service is different on mobile. Recently, one of the noted online agencies and a leading telecom company presented their conceptions about mobile customer services on a mobile conference. They started developments on a quite different basis that’s success cannot be doubtful.
User experience will be important for all companies in the future; even if they produce any kind of products – even if the company’s management consciously prepare themselves to it or not. If they are prepared, they might stay successful; if not, they will fall. Users’ needs have changed due to wide spreading use of smart phones in the field of any kind of products or services.