Usability Engineering

Usability and a valuable user experience do not happen by coincidence!

In order to assure a systems durable quality for the human (user), one has to focus on the development process at first. There is a broad range of efficient methods and techniques which enable a targeted "engineering the quality" for the user. These methods can be applied at various stages of any development process, starting from the first ideas for a product or system up to its "going live" and serving in practice.

Ideally, a development process should follow the whole usability engineering lifecycle. The usability engineering lifecycle is an iterative process which covers all required user oriented quality assessments. The major activities concern

• the analysis of users, their requirements and tasks and context of use
• the conceptual design (information architecture)
• the detailed design (graphics, wording)
• prototyping at various stages of the development process (paper, computer-based)
• and the implementation (programming, finalization of contents, etc).

All these activities should be iteratively evaluated concerning their validity, correctness and sufficiency. These evaluations assess the results and outcomes from the user´s and usage viewpoints.

For various reasons, the implementation of the whole usability engineering lifecycle may not be possible sometimes. To nevertheless ensure the quality of your product or system from the user´s point of view, we can set up a tailored assembly of activities which suits your established development process, time schedules and budget. Please contact us to learn how we can assist the success of your development.

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