Category Archives: usability

Stop using PDF and MS-Word Forms

May
13
2010

Doorway

Look around the web, you’ll find them all over the place. MS-Word and PDF forms that you have to download and complete.  I would be forgiven for thinking that we have not progressed on the web since 1995.

I know I’m not perfect I have been party to this crime against UX as well.

We know they are bad, so why are we still using them.

Let’s Consider

You’re feel inspired to join a professional association.  The website seems pretty good, it lists all the benefits. There is a professional air about it.   You can see that some of your respected peers are already members.

User Surveys – Do it Right or Not at All.

Feb
17
2010

You have been registered.

I have been involved with many user surveys over the years. Some have gone well. Some have been a complete waste of time and effort. The main distinction between them is the surveys that were professionally developed and pretested would succeed. The ones that had been knocked together by a well meaning manager were often destined to failure.

It comes down to this – unless you have experience designing surveys, then it’s best to either hire someone who has had experience and training, or find another way to collect the same information.

Wake Up! Test Analysts, Do Usability Testing Correctly

Jan
4
2010

Read it all, there will be a test later

I’m seeing an interesting trend here in Perth. Recently,  job adverts and recruiters looking for Test Analysts to do usability and accessibility testing as part of their duties. Now this is a good thing in a way.

At least the traditional roles of the IT software project are understanding the need for usability and accessibility testing in web and general software projects. I guess something is better than nothing, right?

Well maybe not.