Five Sketches™

Many people are bad at estimating how often and how long they’re on the phone. Interestingly, you can predict who will overestimate and who will underestimate their phone usage, according to the 2009 study, “Factors influencing self-report of mobile phone use” by Dr Lada Timotijevic et al. For this study, a self-reported estimate is considered  accurate […]

One of the things I really like about usability research is that moment of insight, when I see a problem. In the comic book of my life, those moments look like this:

This experience—this feeling of surprise and delight—is not about finding an error. It’s about learning how the product performs in the hands of users, so […]

During usability testing, I’m always fascinated to see how creatively users misinterpret the team’s design effort. I’ve seen users blame themselves when our design failed, and I’ve seen users yell at the screen because our GUI design was so frustrating.
Wednesday, the tables were turned.
I unintentionally “agreed” to let Facepoke—that social-networking site—invite everyone with whom I’d ever exchanged e-mail. Think about […]

I was wondering whether the “design” of web sites and software is anything more than ”intermediation” (inserting a layer between the user and the raw data), whether “intermediation” is just a synonym for “information architecture,” and whether “design” must therefore be something greater—something that includes the emotional impact of the experience. Or is that last phrase merely another way to […]

Involving users throughout the software-development cycle is touted as a way to ensure project success. Does usability testing count as user contact? You bet! But since most companies test their products later in the process, when it’s difficult to react meaningfully to the user feedback, here are two ways to get your testing done sooner.
Prioritise. […]

When you’re researching users, every once in a while you come across one that’s an anomaly. You must decide whether to exclude their data points in the set or whether to adjust your model of the users.
Let me tell you about one such user. I’ll call him Bob (not his real name). I met Bob during […]

When a product’s users are scarce and widely dispersed, and your travel budget is limited, usability testing can be a challenge.
Remote testing from North America was part of the answer, for me. I’ve never used UserVue because the users I needed to reach were in Africa, Australia, South America, and Asia—continents that UserVue doesn’t reach. […]

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 […]

Do you ever wonder how effective expert reviews and usability tests are? Apparently, they can be pretty good.
Rolf Molich and others have conducted a series of comparative usability evaluation (CUE) studies, in which a number of teams evaluate the same version of a web site or application. The teams chose their own preferred methods—such as […]

Here are two usability stories that are currently underway.
The first project
This weekend I got a Skype call from a usability consultant at a very large firm that is, in turn, working on a project for a very large insurance company. The usability consultant was just assigned, but the team is nearly finished building an online […]