Back to Basics

Design and optimize products around basic features. The result--you will sell more products and improve the chances of people using secondary features (such as value added services).

Szuc, Daniel and Gerry Gaffney. Apogee (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability

Chinese Home Site Visits: Tips and Hints

You may only get one opportunity in a home visit and good planning and preparation is important. Here are some tips and hints from recent home site visits in both China and Taiwan.

Wong, Josephine. Apogee (2005). Articles>Usability>Regional>China

The Constant Design Balance

Usability is about understanding your users, and designing and testing with and for those users. However, there are other competing needs that need to be considered to ensure product success. In architectural and technical drawings, different layers or transparencies are often overlaid to assemble the complete design solution. A similar "design transparency" approach can ensure that product teams are working towards a common goal, gaining a balanced view, and increasing the chance of success.

Szuc, Daniel and Gerry Gaffney. Apogee (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability

Customer Support on the Web

Customers avoid web-based customer support if information is not relevant, out of date or hard to find. Without a business commitment to addressing these issues, customers will continue to prefer contacting a service representative by phone.

Szuc, Daniel and Gerry Gaffney. Apogee (2005). Articles>Documentation>Help>Online

How Product Teams Benefit from Usability

Product teams can leverage usability in three simple ways. First, usability can disambiguate requirements. Second, it can push a product closer to perfection with a small investment. Finally, usability helps product teams inform the organization about potential and expected support issues.

Rhodes, John S. Apogee (2006). Articles>Usability>Collaboration

How to Deliver Bad News to Customers

In order to be effective in the usability business, you have to face the fact that you'll have to deliver bad news. You have to talk about what's not working. You might have to bruise egos and make your client uncomfortable.

Rhodes, John S. Apogee. Careers>Consulting>Usability>Collaboration

Personas: Focusing on Getting the Design Right

The individual components of a persona are described and an example persona relating to the SecureCam case study is provided.

Meighan, Fiona. Apogee (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas

Planning for User Research Success

Planning is crucial if you want your user research efforts to be effective. You need to think about what information you need to gather, and why, before embarking on any research. Good planning, well communicated to the client or project, and followed by careful implementation will ensure your research is effective.

Szuc, Daniel and Gerry Gaffney. Apogee (2005). Articles>Usability>Research

CEOs and Usability

Talking to a CEO about usability can be wonderful or terrifying. The difference between raging success and total failure comes down to understanding exactly what the CEO needs to know and then adjusting your usability message to fit. This article explains how to understand various contexts, and in turn, how to position your usability message.

Rhodes, John S. and Daniel Szuc. Apogee (2006). Articles>Management>Usability>Collaboration