Userfocus Usability Newsletter, March 2013

Welcome to the March edition of the Userfocus usability newsletter.

• Message from the Editor
• Feature article: Adapting your usability testing practise for mobile
• What we're reading
• Upcoming training courses
• User experience quotation of the month

Message from the Editor

Last month, the team at Userfocus launched our online UX training course — User Experience: The Ultimate Guide. We're pleased to say it's already become one of Udemy's top selling courses.

We created an online course because we want to live in a world where easy to use software, web sites and products are the norm and not the exception — and we don't have the capacity to train every designer and developer face-to-face.

We now have a bold aim: we want to train 1,105 people in user experience before World Usability Day on 14 November.

As a president of the Unitied States once said, we do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

But we need your help. We can't do this on our own. So if you run a blog and write about user experience, we'd like you to promote our course and help us achieve 1,105 sign-ups.

As well as the glow of satisfaction you'll receive by making the world a better place, you'll also get a handsome financial reward: if you promote the course, half of every sale will go to you. That's nearly $100 for every person you encourage to sign up.

Interested? Please drop me a line (david.travis@userfocus.co.uk) with the subject line "I want to change the world", and I'll send you more information (it's easy, free and you can do it in your pyjamas).

You might be curious why we want to train 1,105 people. That's because it's one more than 1,104, and 1,104 is the most people we could train if we ran the equivalent face-to-face course to capacity every working day between now and World Usability Day.

This month's article is about adapting your usability testing practise to test mobile devices. I hope you find it useful.

— David Travis

Feature article: Adapting your usability testing practise for mobile

There's no better way to get feedback on the usability of your mobile app than by running a usability test. Although the process is the same as when testing a desktop app, there are quite a few differences in the details. Adjust your test to take account of these differences and you'll be better placed to identify the real problems that real users will have with your app when used in an authentic context. Read the article in full: Adapting your usability testing practise for mobile.

What we’re reading

Some interesting usability-related articles that got our attention over the last month:

• 91 guidelines for e-commerce conversion.
• If you sketch UIs, storyboard or create electronic prototypes, this (free) software is huge.
• How can we make CAPTCHAs even worse? I know, let's ask "consumers" to enter a "brand message".
• Complex navigation patterns for responsive design. A great resource.
• The Grammar of Interactivity. Interesting perspective.
• 10 ethnographic research videos.

Like these? Want more? Follow us on Twitter.

Usability Training: Now Booking

Face to face training: it's less efficient but lots of fun.

Axure Essentials, May 13, London.

Learn how to use Axure to build wireframes and generate HTML prototypes. More information about this training course: Axure Essentials.

Advanced Prototyping with Axure, May 14, London.

Learn how to prototype rich internet applications (RIAs) and use the advanced features of Axure RP Pro. More information about this training course: Advanced Prototyping with Axure.

Prototyping mobile interfaces with Axure, May 15, London.

Learn how to prototype mobile applications with Axure RP Pro. More information about this training course: Prototyping mobile interfaces with Axure.

How to carry out a usability expert review, May 16, London.

This seminar reveals the practitioner secrets behind expert reviews and will teach you how to think like a usability expert. More information about this training course: How to carry out a usability expert review.

Web Usability: An Introduction to User Experience, June 10-11, London.

This web usability training course will give you hands-on practice in all the key areas of usability, from identifying your customers through to usability testing your web site with them. More information about this training course: Web Usability: An Introduction to User Experience.

User Experience quotation of the month

“If the automobile had followed the same development as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside.” — Robert Cringely.

Hungry for more?

Read previous newsletters.