Research services

Card sorting is a user-centred design methodology used to inform the design of an information structure.

It is a reliable method for finding patterns in how users would expect to find, navigate to, group and label content. Analysing these patterns can provide valuable insights in user’s mental models, that is, their thought process for how something works in the real world.

Ethnography is a method used to capture information about behaviour in the context of people’s real world environments. It can be used to obtain unarticulated needs, motivations, and drivers to develop innovative designs.

Ethnography is an effective user research method because it gives insights into the elements that constitute an overall customer experience. It is also useful in helping to map and explain the relationships between the elements of the whole customer experience.

Emotional Engagement Measurement™ (EEM™) provides organisations with an assessment of their customers’ emotional response to an online experience and recommendations for how the experience can be improved from an emotional perspective.

It does this by providing measurement across five key areas of engagement:
1. Cognitive attention, 2. Visual Attention, 3. Emotional Attraction, 4. Emotional Engagement and 5. Apprehension / Excitement index.

Eye tracking is the online tracking of people’s eye position whilst they are engaged in a particular task. Eye tracking is a very powerful and sophisticated tool that provides a direct measure of online thought processes and unconscious behaviour.

Many thought processes do not reach the level of consciousness necessary for verbalisation.

Virtually everyone has had the experience of trying to find information or products on the Internet but being unable to do so.

In parallel, many organisations find their business has outgrown their original content structure or they have difficulty creating it in the first place.
Making information as accessible as possible ensures that users achieve their objectives and in turn your organisation achieves its business goals.

‘User Panels’ provide a vehicle for proactive research and feedback for your users. Panels are particularly suitable for: Post use/purchase/booking, Cross comparative studies, Reviewing future plans/developments/concept testing/beta testing and Competitor comparison.

Panels create a bank of profiled customer information over time and allow for in-depth research. Panels provide an ideal base of opinion for research on a broad range of topics.

Personas are fictional – but realistic – character sketches based on a break-down of the target audience into groups of users that exhibit common characteristics. They are created using knowledge drawn from previous research, for example user groups and surveys that have been carried out with actual users. Personas are used throughout a site review or re-design project.

What sets a Foviance consultant apart from those that focus on wither physical or cognitive ergonomics in isolation, is that we can combine the two. We have the skills to investigate a product holistically by using our large, established and extensive range of research methodologies to investigate both physical ‘hardware’ and digital ‘software’ aspects of a product.

A site map, which is also known as ‘flow diagram’, ‘process map’, and ‘site architecture map’, provides the overall structure and organisation of a website or application.

Site maps should be produced during the analysis and design phases of site/application development or re-development as they provide the information and interaction blueprint.

Here at Foviance we have been using email and online surveys as standalone pieces of customer research and part of our user centred design services for many years. We have strategic partners with whom we work to provide fast, cost effective feedback direct from users or customers in real time.

Social Media Research is a set of research services to help companies understand the social space in relation to their sector, business and customers. These services can help them make informed decisions about a social strategy.

Social Media is a very broad subject area that encompasses a whole range of technologies and therefore research methodologies.

The process through which Foviance ensures the goals of the business and of the user or customer are taken in to account when developing a website and that the end result delivers the optimum performance.

User Centered Design UCD focuses specifically on Business goals, Users, Audience, Site & Content and Familiarisation.