Choosing the right user experience research partner is a significant decision. Watermark Consulting conducted an analysis of customer experience leaders and laggards that showed the stock performance of customer experience leaders outperformed the S&P 500 by 27% over a five-year period. Choosing the wrong research partner can truly impact the core success of your company. [...]
Years of mobile testing have led to a number of items that we, as user experience researchers, consider whenever we set out to conduct a test that takes place on a mobile device such as a personal phone or iPad. In somewhat more typical test, participants will arrive at a lab and use a generic [...]
We conduct a lot of tests at AnswerLab. We test websites, mobile apps, paper prototypes, wireframes, software, and more. For some stimuli, such as a website, capturing the computer screen for observers to see and record is easy. For that we usually rely on Morae Recorder and some kind of streaming solution such as WebEx [...]
I’ve come across this video which pokes fun at ‘difficult’ websites. It’s funny… and it’s true. Take away for the day: make sure that your user can perform core tasks from the landing page. Favorite quote: I can’t go back. That’s not how it works – I need to show you all your options or [...]
In May, we conducted our first series of usability research sessions with the iPad. The research spanned 5 days for a total of 25 participants, and very quickly we saw certain navigation patterns emerge. Participants consistently struggled with certain apps, while other apps were much easier to use and navigate. This post will outline a [...]
Suzuki recently celebrated 50 years of international racing. As part of the celebration, they designed a new website optimized for the iPad. http://www.suzuki50years.com/ At AnswerLab, we’ve heard from a number of our clients that they’d like to understand users’ expectations across platforms to help inform their design strategy. Should we design mobile apps or mobile [...]
Online gaming is no longer the purview of hard core, up-all-night enthusiasts. The newest games that are successful at broadening market adoption have lowered barriers to entry, incorporated motivational drivers for the larger audience (e.g. social elements), and improved their viral expansion loop. Ensuring strong growth within the increasing revenue opportunities of these markets leads [...]
The world has sped up, become more connected and a whole lot busier. As a result, many consumers care more about ubiquitous access to content and communications than having a perfectly full-featured experience. Increasingly, consumers will not spend time using complicated products and services. But, let’s be clear: “simplification” does not mean the dumbing down [...]
After many years of managing and performing research, I’ve noticed some similar misnomers about usability research among colleagues and friends. While I agree that research may result in creating additional cycles of design iteration or some beta programming, it is an upfront investment that almost always yields longer-term success. I know it is difficult for [...]
