The Usability Company Archive

The Usability Company, the UK’s foremost provider of business-focused usability consultancy, today announces the appointment of Jennifer Thomson as Usability Specialist.

Jennifer joins the company from New York’s most established customer experience consultancy, Creative Good, where she held the position of Senior Customer Experience Analyst, working with Fortune 500 companies such as Nokia, Credit Suisse and Procter & Gamble.

Jennifer also worked at e-learning company Indeliq, a US Accenture company, creating educational simulations for corporate training needs.

Jennifer commented: “The overall concept of customer experience is more developed in the US, but the UK market has a far deeper understanding of the processes of usability.

“I look forward to developing my experience at The Usability Company, an established consultancy with an enviable FTSE 100 client base.”

Paul Blunden, CEO, The Usability Company, added: “Jennifer brings with her a different background, perspective and approach, which I am certain will benefit our best practices and keep the company at the forefront of the customer experience movement in the UK.”

Leading online usability consultancy to use web analytics solution for key client work.

London: The Usability Company, the UK’s foremost provider of independent business-focused usability consultancy, has entered into a partnership agreement with WebAbacus, a leading supplier of web analytics software, that will see The Usability Company using WebAbacus to provide online behaviour data as a key part of its services.

Web analytics is an increasingly important tool in the assessment of a web site’s ease of use, providing invaluable data about how users are progressing through particular tasks, such as a check-out process, and which areas of a site are driving traffic away. By combining the data from WebAbacus with data gathered in its usability labs, The Usability Company will be able to provide the best possible advice to its clients, and measure the impact of changes that it recommends.

“The analytical power of WebAbacus gives us a perfect complement of services, providing quantitative metrics on traffic patterns and user habits to support our qualitative usability research.” commented The Usability Company’s CEO, Paul Blunden.

The deal will also enable WebAbacus to offer The Usability Company’s services to its clients, many of whom are unsure how to act on the information they gather from their web analytics activities. The two companies will offer a usability package that will allow organisations to benefit from The Usability Company’s expertise and WebAbacus’s advanced analytics capabilities, providing a tangible demonstration of ROI.

WebAbacus CEO Dan Drury is enthusiastic about the prospect: “Many of our clients now understand that it’s not sufficient merely to measure the behaviour on a web site; you have to act on what you’ve learned. By integrating The Usability Company’s expertise into our own solution offerings, we can offer a closed circle of measurement, analysis, action and feedback, which sets us apart from our competitors.”

London, The Usability Company, the UK’s foremost independent provider of usability consultancy, today announces the appointment of Toby Turner as Senior Sales Manager.

Toby brings with him extensive experience in selling business-orientated services and solutions to FTSE 100 companies. Toby joins The Usability Company from Hemscott Plc, where he held the position of Relationship Manager with special responsibility for investor relations, client retention, professional servicing and new business development.

Whilst at Hemscott, Toby dramatically increased upsell to clients during his first year, while his renewal retention rate was significantly above target.

Toby Turner commented; “It’s exciting to have the opportunity to work for such a dynamic firm as The Usability Company, and my experience to date fits well with the company’s existing business strategy. “My main objective is capitalise on The Usability Company’s strong market position and add to their already impressive roster of bluechip clients to cement their position as leaders in their field.”

A survey out today by the Disability Rights Council shows that many websites are failing to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. The Act requires all businesses to provide equal physical access to services or face prosecution.

• Four out of five sites do not meet accessibility standards for disabled web users
• Only nine per cent of website operators had tested their site on disabled users
• Possible compensation and legal costs against the website operators could be upwards of £50,000
• Britain’s 8.7 million disabled people have a yearly retail spend of over £50 billion

Catriona Campbell is Chairman of The Usability Company, the UK’s foremost provider of independent, business focused usability consultancy.

As one of a panel of experts from voluntary, Industry and government sectors and academia that advised on the Quality Framework for UK Government Website Design, Catriona can provide a unique insight into this issue.

London: The Usability Company, the UK’s leading provider of business-focused independent usability consultancy has appointed Carl Kim as Usability Specialist. Carl has over nine years’ experience in developing and implementing digital interfaces for leading-edge internet operations.

Carl joins the growing Usability Practice Team at the consultancy, which has been inundated with work particularly over the last few months. Carl’s expertise in delivering solutions that satisfy even the most exacting of business and user requirements has been demonstrated in work with Henderson Global Investors, Ingenta, and in particular with Westpac, Australia’s third-biggest bank, and leading internet bank. Under his direction Westpac’s online arm achieved considerable success with a 97% customer satisfaction rating, and the highest take-up rate (35%) of internet banking by a customer base.

Marty Carroll, Director of Usability Practice at The Usability Company said: “With his outstanding track record in developing commercially successful, highly-usable websites, we’re obviously delighted to have Carl on board. His appointment emphasises our commitment to providing the very best in business-led usability consultancy with the highest calibre of staff.”

London: The Usability Company, the UK’s leading provider of usability consultancy, has appointed Tobias Misera as Head of User Centered Design. For over eight years Tobias has been active in developing frameworks for organising digital information.

In his role at The Usability Company Tobias will be responsible for guiding the optimisation of clients’ information architectures – whether internet, extranet, intranet, iTV or any other digital medium – to ensure that businesses’ objectives are met, and that users are able to access information as quickly and easily as possible no matter how large or complex the data environments.

Paul Blunden, CEO of The Usability Company, said: “Tobias’s considerable expertise is invaluable as we prepare to launch our User Centered Design Service. Whether we’re talking about commercial websites, corporate intranets, or any other information environment, it’s vitally important that information is arranged in a way that meets the expectations of businesses and their audiences. Tobias’s appointment further strengthens our ability of assisting businesses create information structures that allow precisely this.”

With a strong track record working in digital design, Tobias’ career includes five years at the Centre for Design Research in Newcastle, part of the University of Northumbria, which draws on its academic work to provide organisations with consultancy on multimedia design. Tobias has provided consultancy to numerous blue-chip clients including KLM, BT Cellnet and Tesco.

London: The Usability Company, the UK’s foremost provider of independent usability consultancy, has joined the WebTrends Insight Network (W.I.N.) to help customers improve and maximise the success of their Web initiatives through the combined use of WebTrends Web analytics and usability analysis.

The WebTrends Insight Network is a group of interactive agencies and Web analytics consulting firms around the globe that provide organizations with best practices and methodologies using WebTrends Web analytics to help customers meet business objectives for their online initiatives. The Usability Company will assist its customers by defining and measuring Web site goals and metrics, providing recommendations for strategic Web site design and assisting in the ongoing improvement and measurement of the world’s leading Web sites.

Participation in the WebTrends Insight Network follows the launch of The Usability Company’s Usability Analytics™ service, which, by combining usability analysis with web analytic data, allows businesses to optimise online offerings cost effectively. Usability Analytics™ enables organisations to:

• understand how users behave on a site
• identify a site’s weak areas
• conduct targeted research on weak areas
• measure website performance against business objectives
• assess ROI on website development.

Given the current tight economic situation, Usability Analytics™ provides businesses with the assurance that expenditure on online development is being deployed most effectively on website areas most in need, and that ROI on improvements can be accurately measured.

“By using WebTrends Web analytics within their consulting practice, firms such as The Usability Company bring unique value to their clients because they can provide them with tangible results that impact a clients’ bottom line and help them achieve business objectives,” stated Dan Meub, senior vice president and general manager of the Web Analytics Business Unit at NetIQ.

Paul Blunden, CEO of The Usability Company said: “With the combination of The Usability Company’s unique ability to provide expert analysis of user behavior on a Web site and WebTrends Web analytics, we are poised to help our clients optimise ROI of their Web initiatives.”

The Usability Company is to offer courses on website accessibility to provide businesses and other organisations with a clear understanding of the various guidelines, standards and legislation surrounding the issue. The courses, which begin in June, will also provide practical advice on how to implement a simple, practical, and effective approach to accessibility within organisations’ websites.

The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 requires all organisations to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure services are accessible to everyone, and in 2002 the Disability Rights Commission confirmed that this applied equally to online services.

A number of companies are currently offering consultancy on DDA compliance. However, until the legal first case is prosecuted such consultancy is limited in offering only a subjective interpretation of the law. Furthermore, the existence of various national and international accessibility standards, combined with a lack of practical experience in this emerging area, means that many organisations are confused about which standards to implement, and how to do this on a practical level.

The Usability Company’s courses will enable participants to negotiate the maze of accessibility guidelines and standards, and, using examples from real-life situations, will provide businesses with a firm grasp on how best to integrate accessibility considerations into their websites.

Paul Blunden, CEO of The Usability Company, said: “Organisations are understandably keen to ensure that their websites are accessible to everyone. However, there are a plethora of accessibility standards out there, and it’s difficult for businesses to be sure exactly which recommendations and guidelines to follow, especially bearing in mind budgetary considerations. By the end of the course participants should have a clear understanding of the issues surrounding web accessibility and will be able to make their own informed decisions about which steps exactly to implement, and how to do it.”