Usability Audit

Most programs and web applications are created by programmers who, thanks to their technical way of thinking, design software that meets technical needs. From a programmer's perspective, the important thing is for applications to communicate properly with databases, to be stable, and easy to maintain.

However, other people think completely differently; they have no clue as to what technologies were used, and don't understand a user interface designed from this perspective. Their main motivation is to achieve a goal, to complete a task, or to find certain goods in a web store.

A usability audit consists of a group of services we perform to analyze your applications. We discover areas that cause problems for users, and recommend solutions. The most thorough method is the Usability Testing. We find actual users whose characteristics correspond to those of your customers. They get a set of assignments to perform using your application. A system installed in the room where they work permits observers in the next room to watch their actions. During the test, the users talk about their steps, expectations or puzzlement. The result of the project is a report in which we identify problematic areas and propose a solution.

A major advantage of this method is that we provide you a contact with actual users of your applications. It often turns out that procedures and terminology that seem entirely self-evident to programmers are incomprehensible to users, and can even annoy them.

When using this method, we place great emphasis on the proper selection of participants, on task definition, and especially on interpretation of observations. Here our consultants apply their extensive experience of testing, user interface design, and psychology.

In the method called Expert Review, our consultants examine the tested application in detail, and based on experience identify areas that can cause users problems. They then propose a solution for these problems.

This method's indisputable advantage is the rapidity with which results can be achieved. An expert review is especially effective in the development phase, where our consultants take on the role of an independent arbiter who brings a certain level objectivity to the development process.

When using this method, we place great emphasis on the experience of the reviewers, their knowledge of user habits, and their aforementioned objectivity, which allows us to discover problems that development teams overlook due to their daily contact with applications.

International usability testing