Brad Orego gave a presentation about building a usability practice. He discussed different usability techniques like usability studies, focus groups, and ethnography. He explained the goals and things to consider with each technique as well as potential drawbacks. Brad also talked about discovering market fit by understanding strengths, interests, target customers, and how to reach them. Finally, he covered different types of deliverables like raw data, processed data, and prepared reports that can be provided to clients. The overall goal is to determine which services to offer, at what levels of detail, and to which types of customers.

1. Building a Usability
Practice
Madison Experience Design Meetup
6/15/15

2. Schedule
● Socializing/Mingling
● Intros/Announcements
○ Jobs/Opportunities
● Brief Presentation
○ Techniques
○ Market Fit
○ Deliverables
● Afterparty?

3. About Me

4. Brad Orego
me@bradorego.com
@bradorego
B.S. in Computer Science, B.A. in Psychology
Development Lead, MobileIgniter
MadXD Organizer
Dancer, Curler, Ultimate-er, Cyclist, Beer-batter pancake blogger

5. The “what”
Usability Research
Techniques

6. Usability Studies
Goal: gathering qualitative data about a product
Things to think about:
● Think-Aloud, Paired/Partnered Interaction
● Wizard of Oz, Conceptual Modeling
● Critical Incidence
Drawbacks:
● Costly! (time, resources)
● Easy to miss the point if not designed well

7. Focus Group
Goal: Discovering higher-level perceptions
about a problem space
Things to think about:
● Structured, Free-Association
● Non-direction, Transition
Drawbacks:
● Open to bias (by facilitator, cohort)
● Almost never interacting with actual product

8. Ethnography
Goal: observing users in their (natural) habitat
Things to think about:
● Design Ethnography (remember: say, do, use)
● In-situ usability studies
Drawbacks:
● Almost impossible to do properly
● Extremely Costly

9. Analytics
Goal: aggregate actual user interactions with
the system to see trends
Things to think about:
● How to analyze data
● What to measure
Drawbacks:
● Extremely difficult to do right
● Have to infer causality

10. The “who”
Discovering Market Fit

11. What are your strengths?
Are there certain areas you have expertise in?
...certain techniques?
...certain industries?
Do you have specific interests…?

12. Who do you want to work with?
What are their needs?
...financially?
...politically?
Big companies? Small?

13. How do you reach them?
How do they acquire your services?
...discover your practice?
...know they need it?
...leverage what you produce?
How do you empower them?

14. The outcome
Putting the “practice” in

15. Deliverables
Raw data
● full video/audio
● direct quotes
● analytics data
Benefit: Let them see for themselves
Good for: product people

16. Deliverables
Processed Data
● snippets/highlights
● high-level summaries
● infographics, data reports
Benefit: provide an overview without getting
bogged down in data
Good for: management, executives, etc

17. Deliverables
Prepared
● whitepapers
● usability summary report
● metrics suite
Benefit: show the value in your work
Good for: the industry, potential clients

18. Summary

19. Building a Usability Practice
Goal: determine which services you wish to
offer, at what levels of fidelity, and to whom
Benefits: the world needs more/better usability.
Plus there’s money to be made out there

20. A brief plug - MobileUXLab
MobileIgniter is creating a usability practice
Focus on mobile apps/services
Lab itself is mobile - technology can come to
you
Interested? Email brad@mobileigniter.com

21. Thanks!