Media: Five User Essentials beyond Market Research from UIE

In "5 Things To Know About Users" Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering discusses what it means to know your users. Giving a detailed case study of one woman's search for investment information on the Citibank site, he then generalises the discussion to take in why market research falls short: 'Market research can tell us age groups, income levels, geographic regions, even purchase behavior. But it can't tell us the key things we need to know.'

These essentials are, he contends, the user's intentions, context, knowledge, skills, and experience. 'Without this, the team is going to design something that seems useful, but they'll never know if it actually helps the user. The result is exactly what we see with Citibank's design - a lot of content, but not the right content.'

Spool breaks the research necessary into two pieces: information gathering and analysis. 'Techniques like contextual inquiry, persona development, and mental model analysis can make or break a team's design efforts. Without these, much effort can go into the development of the user experience, only to have it fail for the user because the team failed to know what they needed.'

Associated Link: User Interface Engineering: 5 Things To Know About Users

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
Source: UN, 2 July 2009
 
Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
Source: Interaction Group, 1 July 2009
 
The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
Source: UN, 30 June 2009
 
Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 June 2009
 
New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
Source: FutureNow Inc., 27 June 2009
 
Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
Source: FT.com, 26 June 2009
 
In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
Source: Dexo Design, 25 June 2009
 
How do you describe your job role? Here are the results of a recent 'Preferred UX/UI Title' Poll.

Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
Source: TMCNet, 24 June 2009
 
It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
Source: QUT, 23 June 2009
 
A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.