"It's another example that among the most critical things to know are What to ask, who to ask, when to ask it, how to ask it, and what the answers mean and don't mean."
Yes we have clients who either have a Usability Tool in mind e.g. Usability Testing or want guidance on which tool or hybrid of tools to use to find the right answers. Dependency here on the usability maturity of your client -- sometimes starting with a tool which is not exactly right at least gets your foot in the door and the client on the road to better understanding their users (hence championing longer term UX thinking) We have started many a project with Usability Testing and this has lead to the client wanting a deeper understanding of their users -- which has then led to introducing other tools to help them e.g. Site Visits, User Interviews, Usability Reviews, IA restructures, key landing page redesigns, walkthroughs, focus groups etc Also helps to show the "Elements of UX" diagram to open their eyes beyond the visual layer of UX! Thanks JJG :) Rgds, Daniel Szuc Principal Usability Consultant Apogee Usability Asia Ltd www.apogeehk.com 'Usability in Asia' The Usability Kit - http://www.theusabilitykit.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Katie Albers Sent: Friday, 2 November 2007 12:41 AM To: Kaisen Wang; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] (no subject) Heaven save me from the User Acceptance Test.... 1) Is that your aim? "acceptance"? Not delight, not pleasure, not relief, not excellence, but "acceptance"? Aim higher 2) User Acceptance Testing frequently goes hand in hand with statements like "Marketing *is* the users. They defined the requirements." and there are so many things wrong with that statement I cannot even begin to go into it. 3) UAT tends to be all about the function...not the user. Does this piece of SW do what we want it to do? In other words, it's standard QA with a different group of testers. About 10 years ago I worked with a stellar group of people, including IxD and usability folk, developing Web sites of various ilks and for a long time our decor included a box of the sort SW usually comes in that had been made into "Web Site in a Box Only 29.99, includes links, branding, and usability" *We* knew it was a joke -- we also knew that it was what we were always getting asked for ("It shouldn't take more than 3 weeks to do a redesign of our corporate site, right? You just change the colors and move the buttons.") I think User Acceptance Testing -- like Focus Groups -- belongs in marketing (if it belongs anywhere at all -- which is a whole different discussion), when you're still deciding whether it's a good idea to Make That Thing. But still, only in those cases where That Thing fits within a recognizable group of Things. No focus group and no UAT would ever have predicted that VisiCalc was a good idea (and would be used for myriad applications in unforeseen fields like Naval Engineering). It's another example that among the most critical things to know are What to ask, who to ask, when to ask it, how to ask it, and what the answers mean and don't mean. And you won't get that in a box for 49.99 :) katie At 10:57 AM +0800 11/1/07, Kaisen Wang wrote: >I totally agree with what Jay Kumar is saying, that suddenly so many >companies are offering usability that it's getting unreal. > >It also quickly becomes obvious that these companies do not know what >they are talking about when they start to refer to "Usability Test" as >"User Acceptance Test (UAT)", which to them basically involves giving >the prototype to users to use, and get them to write down their >comments, and fill in a likert scale survey to rate how good it is. >There is no moderator, no actual test, no asking of users to find out their motivations etc.. > >As for UT being offered for 49.99, which company is actually doing that? >It'll be interesting to find out... ________________________________________________________________ -- ------------------ Katie Albers User Experience Consulting & Project Management [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
