On this page go to:
▼    Usability walkthroughs
▼    Usability testing
▼    Heuristic evaluations
▼    Competitive analysis

Usability walkthroughs

Process

• Usability walkthroughs are a process of evaluating rough paper mock-ups to identify any potential usability problems before technical development commences.
  
  
• Usability walkthroughs involve the facilitator presenting users with a set of rough paper mock-up designs & getting users to complete tasks (letting the facilitator know what they would click on)
  

Outputs & outcomes

• Walkthroughs deliver a set of designs that have been reviewed with users, so will deliver a lower rate of unforeseen usability problems.
  
  
• Walkthroughs may add time to project plans initially, but they reduce the overall time required to identify & fix usability problems.
  
  
• It is accepted industry knowledge that for every $1 it takes to fix a usability problem in the paper mock-up stage, it costs $10 to fix during development & $100 to fix after launch due to the added documentation, training & marketing.

Usability testing

Process

• Usability testing is the process where an experienced usability testing facilitator gets users to complete tasks using a working prototype or live system
  
  
• The technique can be applied to:
  
  • web sites
    
    
  • Applications
    
    
  • mobile technologies such as browsing 3G mobile sites
    
    
  • all centre service quality / response times
    
    
• Users are asked to complete tasks & usability problems identified.  Solutions to the usability problems may be conceptualized & discussed with users during the session, or in subsequent sessions.

Outputs & outcomes

• Usability testing delivers a set of problems that users have completing tasks with a web site, extranet, intranet or application
  
  
• A report can be produced after the testing that documents the findings,  These can be used to brief management about the issues & determine the design / development trade offs with various design options & solutions
  
  
• The testing is generally used to brief developers on changes that need to be made to services to help the organisation achieve its business goals (e.g. increase sales, reduce help costs or maximize compliance with legislation)
  
  
• Usability testing is often used as an input into customer experience strategies & competitive analyses (see below).

Heuristic evaluation

Process

• Heuristic evaluations are usability evaluations that involve reviewing a service against a set of well established usability principles
  
  
• Our experienced usability consultants generally know the principals thoroughly & complete the evaluations quickly.
  

Outputs & outcomes

• Heuristic evaluations provide a quick way to identify usability problems, which can be documented & provided to management or developers
  
  
• Heuristic evaluations are often completed before or in parallel with usability testing.  The usability testing often helps the usability testing consultant identify issues that may be domain specific or unique to a set of users (e.g. labels that confuse share traders), whereas heuristic evaluations often focus on industry best practice (e.g. standard link design or best practice layout)
  
  
• We recommend that usability evaluations include a mix of Heuristic evaluations & usability testing. The combination of heuristic evaluations & usability testing do not add significant time to a project (e.g. 1 day) but deliver significantly deeper insights into areas that designs need to improve.

Competitive analyses

Process

• Competitive analysis is the process of reviewing web sites & services against other sites that are identified as best practice, or which as perceived as key competitors
  
  
• Competitive analyses are generally completed using comparable web site, although they can be completed using web sites from different industries (e.g. to see what sites offer the best investor relations section), or using different channels (e.g. comparing call centre response time compared with web tasks)
  
  
• The analyses can be completed using any of the usability evaluation techniques, although usability testing is most strongly recommended.
  

Outputs & outcomes

• Competitive analyses provide organisations with insights into how they compare to competitors or other ‘benchmark’ services
  
  
• They serve as a critical input to organisations developing a customer experience strategy or road map
  
  
• They help organisations prioritize design & development effort
  
  
• During the design process they help determine options that are most likely to meet user needs, or deliver greatest cost benefit
  
  
• They help identify last minute problems with areas that are easy to change (such as labeling problems).