User Centric a Leader in Large-Scale Usability Research

CHICAGO, March 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- When a user interface reaches millions of people, it has to be right.  Consider an application that is intended for mass market or a product that needs government agency approval, usability testing is a fundamental step to the product life cycle.  In some cases, user research methodology requires testing hundreds of users in multiple locations; large-scale research like this is where Chicago-based firm, User Centric, Inc. excels.

Large-scale studies expose design flaws in products that might not appear during early, more formative, research. For example, some large-scale studies, like summative human factors validations, are used to confirm the usability and safety of medical devices late in the product life-cycle, and require that a sample of each target group of end users is tested to reveal potential user experience issues.  This sometimes translates into hundreds of participants.  

However, not all large-scale research is tied to safety concerns. A difficult-to-understand product in a global market can lead to commercial failure and unintended support costs. Validation testing in multiple markets will lead to a more successful product launch as the study design includes local market insights.

Few user experience agencies are capable of conducting large-scale research. Edmond Israelski, Director of Human Factors at Abbott, commented on working with User Centric, "User Centric has shown its resource capabilities and reliability in planning and executing large-scale global studies. Their work has been flawless in all aspects including equipment logistics, recruiting, protocol creation and translation, data analysis and reporting."

In 2010, Managing Director, Robert Schumacher, shared the winning strategies employed by User Centric in the Handbook of Global User Research, the first book to focus on global user experience research. The book collects knowledge from its global partners in the UXalliance, an international alliance of over 20 user experience firms, and shares real-world examples of challenges involved with global user research and provides approaches to these issues.

Having literally "written the book" on large-scale user research, User Centric consistently provides seamless management of all project elements and clients are confident in project execution, regardless of the number of data points or continents the research spans.

SOURCE User Centric, Inc.

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