Media: iTracks compares Commercial Research with Usability

"Blazing a trail together: Researchers and usability engineers need that pioneer spirit" by Dean T. Barker of West Group, first appeared in Quirks Marketing Research Review. It gives a quick overview of how commercial research started out and compares it with the route that Human Factors took to get to the point today where usability and marketing are now involved in similar activities at times. But 'Sadly, practitioners in each community of practice may not yet know that their paths have crossed.

'In the age of computer software and Web development, marketing research and usability engineering professionals can often be found in the same companies...working in the same buildings...eating in the same cafeterias...working on the same projects and products...and never meeting one another.

In a bid to get the two groups of staff to reach out to each other, he reviews the commonalities and distinctions between the two communities.

'For collecting primary data there is no difference in the general approaches between the two fields. Both communities employ experiments and observational research, focus groups, surveys, and interviews. ... And, like any research, the success of a specific study lies in fundamentals such as research planning, utilization of the scientific method, development of sound hypotheses, and the researcher's ability to clearly communicate research results.'

Then he juxtaposes marketing research concerned with 'preference' and usability engineering 'concerned primarily with matters of performance'. And he points out that the 'most typical method employed for research is different in each discipline. For marketing researchers, it's a focus group. For usability engineers, it's a usability test.'

He finishes part one of his discussion on the distinctions in the categorisations that the two groups make in the way they break down groups into types.

Part two looks at how a dialogue between the two groups can be established.

Associated Link: iTracks: Blazing a trail together: Researchers and usability engineers need that pioneer spirit

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