http://www.userfocus.co.uk This RSS feed keeps you up to date with articles and resources in usability written by our consultants. en-uk Mon, 1 Dec 2008 9:05:00 GMT Mon, 1 Dec 2008 9:05:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/basketusability.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/basketusability.html With consumer budgets tightening, retailers need to fix every potential leak in their e-commerce site. Many sites lose customers during the series of screens that appear after the customer clicks the checkout button. We've observed hundreds of e-commerce sessions in our usability labs and the best performing sites demonstrate these 9 features. helpdesk@userfocus.co.uk (Phillip Gardiner) Mon, 1 Dec 2008 19:05:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/screeners.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/screeners.html "Know thy user" is the first principle of usability, so it's important that you involve the right kind of people in your usability study. These 8 tips for screening participants will show you how to recruit articulate, representative users for your research, quickly filter out the people you don't want and help you avoid the dreaded "no show". david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Thu, 6 Nov 2008 11:05:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/creditcrunch.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/creditcrunch.html Being frugal during economic hard times is good business practice. So how can you squeeze your usability budget and still deliver great insights? These 10 suggestions for streamlining your usability efforts explode the myth that usability is expensive and time-consuming. philip.hodgson@userfocus.co.uk (Philip Hodgson) Wed, 1 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/unmoderated.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/unmoderated.html In an unmoderated usability test, a computer automates the process of administering a usability test. This means you can test with much larger samples than with a conventional test, calculate reliable measures of usability and feel confident that you're capturing your customer's context of use. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Thu, 4 Sep 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/field_interviews.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/field_interviews.html Site visits are the best method we have of gaining real insight into the way customers work — to understand what customers do, rather than what they say they do. But to get the most from a site visit you need to polish your interviewing skills. Great interviewers show 5 characteristics from which we can learn. gret.higgins@userfocus.co.uk (Gret Higgins) Sat, 2 Aug 2008 8:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/morae.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/morae.html Targeted at both new and experienced users of Morae, Morae for Usability Practitioners is a step-by-step guide to using Morae 2 to plan, execute and analyse usability tests. Packed with insider tips and expert advice, this guide will help you use Morae to its full potential. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Sat, 2 Aug 2008 8:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/axure_grids.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/axure_grids.html Designed for use with Axure RP Pro 5, this resource will help you layout prototype web pages using the 960-grid system. gret.higgins@userfocus.co.uk (Gret Higgins) Thu, 3 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ISO20282.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ISO20282.html ISO have released a new standard for measuring the usability of every day products, like ticket machines, mobile phones and digital cameras. This standard, ISO 20282, includes test methods for quantifying the usability of consumer products to ensure they meet a pre-defined quality level. This development is exciting because the standard's focus on usability measurement reflects a sea change in the evolving practice of usability. In the old world, usability specialists just found usability problems with a design. In the new world, usability specialists also answer the question: 'How usable is this design?' david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 2 Jun 2008 10:03:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/dataloggingtools.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/dataloggingtools.html How should you go about collecting data in usability tests? This article examines the data collection process in usability studies and describes some popular data logging solutions. Since most of these tools are expensive, we show you how you can use Microsoft Excel with Visual Basic macros to collect the data. todd.zazelenchuk@userfocus.co.uk (Todd Zazelenchuk) Tue, 5 May 2008 10:03:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/stats_not_maths.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/stats_not_maths.html Many people enjoy behavioural research, whether it's running a usability test, fielding a survey or observing people doing their jobs. Finding things out and making new discoveries excites our natural human curiosity. But when faced with the task of analysing the data behind the research, many people feel their excitement drain away. Most of us are not excellent mathematicians and the notion of using data to test scientific hypotheses can be intimidating. But data analysis is an important aspect of virtually all research. So how can you overcome a fear of maths to learn how to use statistics? tendayi.viki@userfocus.co.uk (Tendayi Viki) Tue, 2 Apr 2008 10:03:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/datalogger.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/datalogger.html Most people use Microsoft Excel to analyse the results of usability tests, but did you know you can use it to collect the data too? This spreadsheet allows you to measure task completion rates, analyse questionnaire data, and summarise participant comments. It even includes a timer so you can measure time-on-task. The spreadsheet is highly customisable. todd@zazelenchuk.com (Todd Zazelenchuk) Tue, 2 Apr 2008 10:03:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/satisfaction.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/satisfaction.html Most usability tests culminate with a short questionnaire that asks the participant to rate, usually on a 5- or 7-point scale, various characteristics of the system. Experience shows that participants are reluctant to be critical of a system, no matter how difficult they found the tasks. This article describes a guided interview technique that overcomes this problem and includes a spreadsheet to generate and randomise the word list. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Mon, 3 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/picnic.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/picnic.html Are you a CIO, purchasing officer, or IT manager, about to invest in productivity software for your company? If you are, here's a question you should ask your supplier before you sign on the dotted line: "Just how usable is this product?" Astonishingly, most companies won't be able to answer, and those that try will answer the question only vaguely. But now help is at hand. It's called CIF. And it's about to change the game. philip.hodgson@userfocus.co.uk (Philip Hodgson) Mon, 4 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/dragon.html http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/dragon.html It's easy to get caught up in the promise of new technologies and lose sight of the fundamental issues that make a product successful. By listening to the questions venture capitalists pose when reviewing new products we can develop a checklist to assess the viability of a new product idea. david.travis@userfocus.co.uk (David Travis) Sat, 5 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT