Five Sketches™

I received a brochure in the mail, titled Time for a Tune-up: How improving usability can improve the fortunes of your web site. It recommends this blend of usability methods:

• Expert reviews focus on workflows and give best results when the scope is clearly defined.
• Usability studies are more time-consuming than expert reviews, but is the best way to uncover real issues.
• Competitor benchmarking looks at the wider context.

The brochure is written by online-marketing consultants, and with Web sites in mind, but its content is also relevant to other development activities.