January 11th, 2011
The great folks at Above the Fold Design recently interviewed Christine Perfetti about the benefits of usability testing and ways to get teams immersed in the research. Here's an excerpt:
How do you get stakeholders excited about usability testing?
Fortunately, these days many more clients come to me already excited, but of course, there are many who are not. I never try to sell these stakeholders by pitching them on “Why testing is important.” Instead, I say, “Let’s start by bringing in one person and watch them interact with the design.”
When stakeholders see a real customer use their product, there are inevitably a few “Ah-ha!” moments that literally cause jaws to drop, as something they thought was a given turns out to be untrue; they learn new and surprising things about their products and the people who use them. After that, the idea of usability testing sells itself.research.
You can read the full interview on the Above the Fold blog.
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September 20th, 2010
By Christine Perfetti – September 20, 2010
Social web sites and applications are everywhere: Facebook, YouTube, Craigslist, and Digg are just a few of the web sites taking advantage of the power of the Social Web. Social web sites are the fastest growing properties on the web for good reason: they connect people, motivate, and engage them. As a result, they grow very quickly and successfully.
We hear all the time from clients working on all different kinds of products, ranging from e-commerce web sites to financial web applications, who want to take advantage of social features to get people engaged and excited about offerings. Unfortunately, most teams aren't sure where to begin.
We recently talked with interface designer, Joshua Porter. Josh is the author of the wonderful book, Designing for the Social Web, and focuses on helping organizations incorporate social features into their designs. We're also thrilled Josh will be teaching his one-day workshop, Designing for the Social Web, in Boston, Massachusetts this October.
In part 1 of our interview, Josh introduced readers to the Usage Lifecycle, the four main stages users traverse with web sites and applications. In this second installment, we discuss the evolution of social applications and how to effectively measure the success of applications.
Here is what Josh had to say:
How can designers pinpoint areas of their social application that aren't working?
Well, first there needs to be agreement on what “working” means. There are lots of ways something can fail to work. But usually it means that the site isn’t doing something that it’s supposed to. And, ideally every design team has a list of their most important metrics, which are those things that really matter to the success of their product or service. I’ve found that without a clear picture of which metrics are important, design teams tend to lose focus over time and fail to continually iterate and improve.
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August 25th, 2010
By Christine Perfetti – August 25, 2010
Social web sites and applications are everywhere: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, Craigslist, and Digg are just a few of the web sites taking advantage of the power of the Social Web. Web sites and applications that incorporate social features are the fastest growing properties on the web for good reason: they connect people, motivate, and engage them. As a result, they grow very quickly and successfully.
Design teams working on all types of products, ranging from e-commerce web sites to financial web applications, want to take advantage of social features to get people engaged and excited about their offerings. Unfortunately, most teams aren't sure where to begin.
That's why we recently talked with interface designer and co-founder of Performable, Joshua Porter. Josh is the author of the wonderful book, Designing for the Social Web, and has been focusing for years to help organizations incorporate social features into their designs. Josh will also be teaching his one-day workshop, Designing for the Social Web, in Boston, Massachusetts this October.
Here is what Josh had to say about Designing for the Social Web:
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June 7th, 2010
By Christine Perfetti – June 7, 2010
The tasks you create for a usability study are essential for gathering the right data. The tasks determine what you'll test and impacts what parts of the design your team fixes. If you give users the wrong tasks, you risk focusing on the wrong parts of the design and providing your design team with misleading recommendations. Yet, teams often overlook the importance of creating robust tasks for their studies.
When creating tasks for a usability study, you'll want to ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your users' goals with the product? List out the specific actions users most commonly complete with your product.
- What are your business goals? In what way does your product or web site help increase revenue or reduce organizational costs? The best tasks focus on areas of the design crucial to your organization's business goals.
- What are the greatest risks with the design? If there are certain areas of the design where you have little knowledge as to how users interact with it, this is a good place to focus the tests.
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May 26th, 2010
By Christine Perfetti – May 26, 2010
In March 2010, WebEx launched the beta of their new product offering, WebEx Meet. The designers of WebEx Meet intended to create a solution that helps users meet and collaborate with each other in a faster, more efficient way.
I recently had the opportunity to talk about the beta launch with Jon Nakasone, one of the product design leads within the User Experience Group at Cisco WebEx. Jon's group is responsible for bringing innovation to WebEx's online collaboration products and focusing on doing more for the users.
Back in the summer of 2009, Perfetti Media worked with Jon and the WebEx team to conduct a series of usability studies to evaluate the WebEx Meet design. In our interview, I talk with Jon about the launch of the WebEx Meet beta and the WebEx team's approach to design and user research.
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