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User Interface (UI) Design
Dannay Consulting offers User Interface Design services where we join a software development team to insure the application of
UI principles, develop the UI design, create UI specifications for a product, or establish UI standards across projects. We work with
your team to understand the business and user requirements. Task flows, wireframes and mock-ups are used to validate design concepts and
interface requirements.
Expert Review
Dannay Consulting offers an Expert or Usability Review that provides the first step in improving your customer interface
by identifying issues and providing specific recommendations for product or application improvement. Usability
reviews for software applications evaluate the application against key human factors principles in Navigation,
Functionality, Control, Language, Feedback, Consistency, Error handling, and Information presentation/layout.
Usability reviews for equipment or products also include ergonomic and anthropometric considerations.
Expert Reviews are valuable in quickly identifying potential usability issues that may inhibit
the use and acceptance of a web application. The process includes understanding the profile(s) of key users and
walking through typical tasks and scenarios. Each website page is reviewed individually and as it supports a
task sequence. A usability review can provide answers to questions like:
- Can the user determine where they are, what options are available, and what to do next?
- Is the content credible, authentic, and believable?
- Can the user accomplish required tasks?
An Expert Review is somewhat subjective as no real users are involved. An Expert Review is meant to evaluate the user
experience. It is not meant to evaluate the site content or the technical implementation.
The deliverable for a Expert Review is a detailed report that reviews the application in general and by each component.
The report identifies specific issues, explains the context for each issue (as applicable) and makes recommendations.
Usability Testing
Usability testing is a useful tool to validate design concepts and prototypes during development, thereby insuring an application
is usable as intended. If done early enough, the feedback can be incorporated back into the design to
insure greater user acceptance during rollout. Usability testing is also valuable to highlight design flaws with existing products.
In either situation, Dannay Consulting works with your team to plan and design usability test sessions, including task sequencing,
supporting materials, release forms and questionnaires. Dannay Consulting also acts as an unbiased facilitator,
insuring objective results. All usability testing is followed up with a written and oral report of the findings
and recommendations.
Formal usability testing encompasses having 6-8 participants each complete a 60-90 minute session on the application
with specific objectives in mind (e.g., specific tasks to accomplish). The facilitator provides an orientation to the
user, obtains signatures on NDA(s) and may insure the user completes a Pre-test questionnaire usually focused on
identifying profile information (e.g., experience levels, background). The facilitator observes the user through
pre-determined task sequences and guides the user to "think out loud" obtaining valuable information on how components
of the interface are perceived. The session is completed with the facilitator providing a participant debrief and usually
requesting the participant complete a detailed questionnaire relating to the tasks they just completed.
Usability testing provides the following advantages:
- Observation data is key to understanding design elements that work and don't work (few users are able to accurately
articulate the issues they encounter - even if they recognize that something is not as it should be). A trained usability person
facilitates the session and observes key behavior that cannot be captured by any other method.
- It uses real users, on real tasks to obtain realistic and unbias feedback
- Provides both visual, oral and written user feedback on the application
- Testing is completed and key issues are identified in one to two days (depending on scheduling)
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