Life or death usability
Over the last couple of years I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in the R&D programme for a ground-breaking medical device to help diabetics manage their insulin treatment. Part of the project was to reach a regulatory milestone, which has now been achieved. To reach this milestone we tested the usability of the device [...]
Customer Experience conference in NZ
Next week I’m presenting at this conference. With the US and Europe groaning under the weight of web-focused User Experience conferences, it’s refreshing and encouraging to see this offered in New Zealand. I’ll be sharing some experiences from a home-grown design research project. From what I can gather I’ll be the only researcher presenting and [...]
10 tips for usability studies with children
Children are some of the most demanding and discerning users of interactive products, making them difficult to design for and challenging to moderate in a usability or UX research situation. Whilst they can’t always articulate their thoughts and you can’t rely on what they say, with a careful approach you can generate incredibly useful design [...]
Are we headed this way?
With UX still taking shape in New Zealand I think we can learn a lot from what’s happening in other centres. Having just returned home to New Zealand from User Experience research contracts in London, I thought I’d share a few observations: Everyone’s hiring, especially UX recruiters There are now several recruitment companies who cover [...]
Skype takes the hassle out of remote usability
Remote research brings cultural relevance to usability findings, providing the kinds of insights which can only be gained by being there…virtually at least. I recently ran some remote website usability sessions for a Kiwi startup whose main customer is in the U.S.A. … sure, ‘isolation breeds innovation’ and all that, but when your customers are [...]
The tip of the User Experience iceberg
Some websites provide more of an experience than others, but the number of web agencies and even individuals who offer User Experience in their list of ‘services’ indicates there’s a chunk of lip-service being paid to what has become an almost industry-specific buzzword. Although many techniques and approaches to UX have been honed and made [...]