Steve Bromley - User Research

Usability and User Research for Websites, Software and Games

Conducting an Expert Review

Within our HCI classes, we have started reviewing the UX of an upcoming multi-platform game from a prominent client, and are performing an expert review on it.  An expert review, as opposed to a user-based study, involves having usability experts play the game themselves, and uses tools and their expertise to find faults. This is…

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The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin

Along with GOMS can be a useful tool to help compare interaction times, but should not be used exclusively. Raskin also documents a number of problems with current interaction, with a particular dislike for modes (i.e. interactions that do different things in different concepts). A simple way to explain modes is the ‘caps lock’ key;…

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The user experience of Ticketmaster ruins Christmas

I told you it was coming, and here it is – Ticketmaster’s design faults from a user centred perspective have annoyed me enough to blog on them. And then deliver the killing blow by suggesting how they could be improved. If you’d just let me buy those Paul McCartney Tickets, it wouldn’t have come to…

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How to present a UX Report

This week I’ve been working on producing a UX report for an iPhone game, and have been thinking about the best method to present your findings to a client. A UX report needs to consider the client’s needs. They are likely to be busy, and are most interested in your findings, with your methodology and…

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7 aspects of successful usability questionnaires

This week in HCI we’ve been thinking about questionnaires. They can be an important usability tool, although there are also many limitations. Primarily questionnaires are used as a quantitative data collection method (i.e. it will give back a large amount of responses), and so, compared to a qualitative methodology, are useful in pinpointing where problems…

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