Usability testing is expensive. At least that has been the perception. But the idea that usability is a nice-to-have ideal that only big companies such as IBM or Microsoft can afford has fortunately evolved. While technology has improved and gotten cheaper, it’s the technique that’s become more accessible and accepted. The discount-usability movement helped emphasize the effectiveness
The System Usability Scale has been around for decades and is used by hundreds of organizations globally. The 10-item SUS questionnaire is a measure of a user’s perception of the usability of a “system.” A system can be just about anything a human interacts with: software apps (business and consumer), hardware, mobile devices, mobile apps,
What are the admission requirements? What courses are available this semester? How much exactly does it cost to attend? Where do I park for the football game? University websites are the information hubs for prospective and current students, parents, and faculty, who usually come to the site with a specific goal in mind. With such
Usability tests don’t have to be expensive or require a lot of technology. The real value is not in the equipment or technology but in the technique. Usability testing is not a focus group. Nor is usability testing a product demo. You shouldn’t lead participants through a product as if it were a demo and
You don’t need a dedicated usability lab to conduct a usability test. But if you or your organization conducts more than the occasional usability test, which it probably should (another topic in itself), you may want to consider setting up a dedicated usability lab. Having a dedicated space for testing is a hallmark of organizations
Uncovering usability problems is at the heart of usability testing. Problems and insights can be uncovered from observing participants live in a usability lab, using heuristic evaluations, or watching videos of participants. But if you change the person looking for the problems (the evaluator), do you get a different set of problems? The Evaluator Effect
User Experience is a fast growing and popular field. It’s been listed as one of the best professions offering some of the best jobs. It’s not surprising then that people are interested in learning how to both get into the field and advance their career within it. I spoke with a few attendees at the
It was another busy year on MeasuringU.com with 50 new articles, the release of the 2nd editions of two books, UX Bootcamps in Denver and Rome and talks in London and Chicago. In 2016, our articles were served up to over a million visitors. Thank You! We covered topics including: usability testing, measurement and research
The best-laid plans of researchers often go awry. No matter how carefully a research project is planned, things may still go wrong. There are many threats to the success of a customer research project. At both big and small companies, at agencies and on the client side, research projects can fail to live up to
Questionnaires are an effective way for gauging sentiments toward constructs like usability, loyalty, and the quality of the website user experience. A standardized questionnaire is one that has gone through psychometric validation. That means the items used in the questionnaire have been shown to: 1. Offer consistent responses (reliability) 2. Measure what they are intended
