Usability Testing
Usability testing allows you to understand which aspects of your product design are working, and which may need refining.  This can include functional aspects such as navigation and ease of use and also softer aspects such as emotional responses and motivations for usage. A typical test follows a qualitative research approach and involves users performing tasks in a controlled environment. Through observation and analysis our consultants provide you with actionable recommendations, whatever the stage of development.

Contextual / Ethnographic Research
Some products or services really have to be observed in their everyday situation rather than a lab to understand how people use them, and the many factors that may influence this use. Our consultants visit participants at their work, at home or wherever the product is used, to reveal any issues or uncover opportunities for development.

Device Benchmarking
Device benchmarking is a comparison of different devices in a given product category e.g. mobile phones, medical devices, domestic appliances. We measure each device using the same metrics e.g. task completion, severity of issue, required time, subjective satisfaction.  The results can show: 1. issues identified with your device 2. a comparison with other devices which provides a clear basis for benchmarking.

Expert Reviews
Expert reviews represent a time and cost-efficient means to gain know-how as to the optimisation of interfaces. Reviews are typically conducted without any users and involve one or more consultants. Expert reviews can either be conducted either heuristically (i.e. against current usability/accessibility standards) or cognitively (i.e. the consultants walk-through typical product use), or a combination of both. 

Focus Groups
Focus groups are a time-efficient means of gathering the opinions of several users. They can be used at all stages of development to gather feedback about what users want from a product or service, or gather reactions to a design or concept. Group discussion can provides the ideal environment to discover unexpected ideas and needs that may give developers more profound insight.

Field Trials
Field studies can be used to understand both usability and user satisfaction of complex equipment, interfaces and services that may be used for longer periods of time and cannot be simulated during a one or two-hour test. Field trials may also be supplemented by visits to the participants’ place of use and focus groups at the end of the trial.

Remote Usability Testing
The UXa partners have developed User Zoom and LEOtrace, both remote usability testing tools that enable testing to be carried out in the participants own environment, to capture the natural user experience. The benefits of this technique are that hundreds of users can participate within a short time, different geographical locations can be covered, and scorecards and benchmarks can be developed.  Tests can either be performed with a moderator, or unmoderated. 

In addition, the UXa partners have expertise in a wide range of related services including prototyping, information architecture, persona development, standards and style guide development. Please contact us to find out more about any of our services.