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Usability Associates
38 Montpelier Circle
Rochester, NY 14618
585.442.0499
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Usability Associates' work experience spans a diversity of
projects that were done for different purposes and at different stages of the
development cycle. The scope of experience is illustrated by the following
selected projects which are arranged into three topic areas.
Product Design Projects:
Documentation and implementation of usability design.
Voice of the Customer Research: Usability evaluation
studies using various methods to bring users' perceptions and performance
results into the design process.
Special Projects: A variety of Human Factors and
usability related efforts including personnel recruitment, ease of installation,
and new technology studies.
PRODUCT
DESIGN PROJECTS
 | Improved Control Panel Design for Medical Product. Evaluated existing design of
control panel for hypo/hyperthermia machine and, using established Human Factors
principles, made recommendation for displaying output information more
effectively, making graphics more understandable and consistent, and
differentiating appearance of controls that needed to be operated differently.
All recommendations were implemented on later machines. |
| Serviceability Design Requirements.
Specified 54 Human Factors requirements for serviceability of a production
printing press. Requirements included physical handling, ease of
removal/installation, ease of disassembly/assembly,
visibility/accessibility, and functional stereotyping. Human Factors
requirements were incorporated into overall Engineering Requirements
Document. |
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Design Specifications for Wearable Medical
Device. Specified usability requirements and design ideas for development
of a new medical device to be worn by patients. Factors addressed included
display, controls, wearability, and patient self-reporting capability. |
| Kiosk User Interface.
Supervised iterative design and internal usability testing of customized
kiosk user interface for capturing images from customer videos. Final UI
design iteration was used in external market test. |
| Design of Graphical User
Interface for High-Volume Printer. Served on team with product
planners, graphic designers, and software developers to redesign user
interface for new features being incorporated into the printer. Resulting
design contained enhanced graphics and improved usability. |
| Web Site Usability
Upgrade. Specified readability and navigation improvements for an
existing small business web site. |
| Digital Camera User
Interface. Developed and wrote user interface specifications for the
presentation and navigation of display screens on a new digital camera. |
| Appearance and Usability
Design of OEM Copier Control Panels. Led Kodak Human Factors team for
redesign of two vendor copiers to Kodak specifications. Major portion of
effort involved establishing layout of control panels and defining the
microprocessor logic that controlled their operation. Originated and
maintained a functional specification document which served as a focus for
long distance communication and my monthly face-to-face negotiations in
Tokyo. Developed and implemented testing plan to verify compliance of final
product to functional specifications. Planned and conducted two-day training
session in London with Kodak European marketing personnel responsible for
translating copier legends and messages into their home languages. |
| Ergonomic Design
Guidelines for Displays on Home Appliances. Interviewed client's key
personnel doing research and development for washers, dryers, ranges, and
microwave ovens to (1) determine their perceptions of relevant display
design considerations and (2) understand their process for selecting
electronic display components. Delivered a research report giving
specifications for nine visual factors for control panel displays and
graphical legends. Also identified guideline usage considerations and
provided an implementation checklist. |
| New Control Panel
Display. Proposed and justified need, location, and design for an
additional new display as part of a project to design a new feeder accessory
for an existing copier. Identified 35 possible jam recovery situations and
compared operator responses required in each situation for the proposed
design and the previous baseline design. Showed that using the proposed
display required simpler operator responses in more situations than the
baseline design by about 4 to 1. Proposed display became new baseline for
feeder accessory. |
| Hardware Design
Certification. Evaluated serviceability of a production printing
press to determine if design of hardware components and interfaces met
predetermined usability requirements. Considerations included physical
handling, visibility/accessibility, and ease of removal/installation, and
disassembly/assembly for dozens of replaceable components. |
| User Interface Assessment. Evaluated
operators’ understandability of screens and navigation when performing key
tasks on a production printing press and an associated peripheral device.
Considerations included consistency, terminology, icon appearance, human
memory requirements, task flow, and accessibility of help information. |
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VOICE
OF THE CUSTOMER RESEARCH
| Risk Analysis and Usability Testing of User Manual for Medical Product. In
compliance with FDA requirements, (1) performed risk analysis on use of handheld
over-the-counter medical product and (2) evaluated comprehension of instructions
with emphasis on content affecting safe and effective operation of the product.
Resultant report of findings included recommended changes to both the user
manual and the product design. |
| Heuristic Evaluation and Usability Testing of Consumer Product. A potential OEM
product was evaluated against three competitive products to inform management
decision about marketing the product. Both the heuristic analysis and usability
testing found the product to have inferior usability to its competitors.
Consequently, the product was not launched. |
| Usability Testing of Touchscreen Digital Camera. Conducted
usability testing on a UI software prototype for a new digital camera with a
novel touchscreen user interface. Planned and administered recruiting and
usability test, analyzed data, reported results and recommended improvements.
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| Comparison Testing of Competitive Digital Cameras. Conducted
usability testing on a software simulation of a new digital camera with novel
graphic animations and its two key competitor models. Planned and administered
recruiting and usability test, analyzed data, reported results and recommended
improvements. |
| User Interface Improvement for Medical Software Application: In a
series of moderated usability sessions, physicians were shown current and
proposed GUIs for a software application that assists them in making diagnoses
for dermatological diseases. In each session, a pair of physicians evaluated
the GUIs by discussing their concerns and preferences. A final report
summarized the key deficiencies identified for both GUI versions and
recommended improvements to address them. |
| Document Processing System
Prototype. Coordinated, designed, conducted, and analyzed end-user
usability tests of graphical user interfaces on a system of workstations.
The testing took place on a prototype development system consisting of
networked computers, high speed document scanners/processors, and manual
scanners located at the Internal Revenue Service's development facility in
Detroit, Michigan. |
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Evaluation of User
Interface for Entertainment Kiosk. Planned and conducted
usability testing for the graphical user interface of a kiosk intended for
use in a public entertainment venue. The highly interactive user interface
provided a fun user experience with pictures and included keyboard and
trackball input capability and voice, music, text, and graphic output.
Arranged rental of usability lab and participant recruiting. Planned and
administered test, analyzed data, reported results and recommended
improvements. |
| Evaluation of Operating
Instructions. Developed and ran usability test to determine which of two
different forms of jam recovery instructions should be marketed with a new
copier. Test participants used both forms in a balanced experimental design
and their performance was recorded as they attempted to complete a set of
jam recovery tasks. The results showed a poor completion success rate for
both instructional forms and so neither was used. Instead, the
microprocessor logic was redesigned to simplify the jam recovery procedures. |
| Words versus Symbols on
Control Panel. Conducted a study to designate whether words or symbols
should be used on the control panel buttons of a copier being designed for
use by casual, walk-up operators. Used paper and pencil prototypes of both
word and symbol control panels and compared the two in terms of subjects'
performance in "running" copier jobs and their preference. As a
result of the study, which was done late in the copier development process,
symbols used on engineering models were replaced by words on the production
models. |
| Desktop Blood Analyzer
Development. Planned, conducted, and analyzed customer feedback sessions
to assess alternative designs for a blood analyzer. Over the course of two
days, customer groups were rotated through three different feedback sessions
running in parallel. The feedback sessions addressed different human factors
aspects of the product design. |
| Appearance and Usability
of Advanced Image Capture Device. Planned and moderated focus groups in
major cities to evaluate preferences for appearance and usability of
concepts for a new hand-held image capture device. Incorporated an
adaptation of the Pugh concept convergence technique into the group
sessions. Conducted internal pilot focus group prior to taking it external.
Led interdisciplinary team of internal and external resources to develop
twelve alternative product designs to use in the focus group evaluations.
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| High-speed Copier
Mainframe and Accessories. In separate studies, developed and moderated
numerous customized focus groups to identify preferred design concepts,
measure attribute tradeoffs, and evaluate sensitivity to product quality for
copier mainframe, form feeder, and finisher. |
| Alpha Testing of Copiers
in European Market. Coordinated and conducted internal trade trial to
collect user behavior, preferences, and attitudes during launch of copiers
in Belgium, The Netherlands, England, France, and Germany. Established and
documented testing procedure and trained country marketing representatives
in its administration. |
| Beta Testing of Copiers.
Participated on marketing teams responsible for launch of various copiers.
Helped plan logistics and data collection procedures. Observed, surveyed,
and interviewed copier users at customer sites. |
| Desktop Photofinishing
User Interface. Conducted usability testing for the implementation of a
new algorithm to enhance photos. Planned and administered test, analyzed
data, and reported results. |
| Desktop Printer User
Interface. Conducted usability testing of a web-based user interface for
system administration of networked printers. Planned and administered test,
analyzed data, and reported results. |
| Web Sitelet Usability
Testing. Tested usability of alternative web site page designs for
incorporating images into an e-commerce web site. |
| Mailing machine User
Interface. Tested intuitiveness of control panel operation prototyped in
Visual Basic. Planned and administered test, analyzed data, and
reported results. |
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SPECIAL
PROJECTS
| Event Analysis. Determined Human Factors considerations potentially
contributing to the occurrence of a specific event in a hospital setting. Used
contextual observation and interviewing to identify factors related to
information displays as well as workplace layout and environment. |
| Hedonomics. Built a database of quantitative methods for measuring
usability, emotional response to products, and product branding. Discovered 64
references through extensive literature search. Categorized the nature of each
method along six dimensions and linked each method to an annotation of its
details. |
| Global Co-Development. Conducted interviews with U.S. product
design and usability managers about their experiences with multinational
collaboration for product development. Focused on process and outcomes that
contributed to success or failure. Deliverables included lessons learned about
planning/organizing/interacting and fishbone diagrams of outcome causes and
effects. |
| Product Accessibility. Coordinated logistics and briefings for a
corporate program contracted to a university for evaluating user accessibility
to a representative sample of the company’s products. |
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Benchmarking Study. Interviewed product
design and usability managers from five major companies about their
contribution to the design of total user experience, organizational best
practices, and vision of the future. |
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Mailing Machine Usage Survey. Utilizing
network of call center resources, conducted effective phone survey of 200
customers under a tight deadline. |
| User Interface Development
for Image-capable Workstation. Wrote successful $1,000,000 unsolicited
proposal to Internal Revenue Service for developing an interactive
simulation showing how, in ten years, IRS personnel could be processing
taxpayer account data. Supervised Human Factors team in implementing
proposal under contract. Deliverables included software code for GUI
prototype, a UI usability test whose participants were IRS personnel coming
to the test site from different IRS Service Centers, a videotape
demonstrating the user interface design, and a 200-page document defining
details of the user interface design. |
| Wizard-Of-Oz User
Interface Prototype. Originated a wizard-of-oz continuous voice
recognition laboratory demonstration of an information management system for
potential customers. Used a man-in-the-loop ("behind the screen")
for demonstrating capability to research how users would vocally interact
with user interface before the speech recognition technology to do so was
available. |
| Post-WIMP User Interfaces.
Investigated research being done on post-WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and
Pointing devices) user interfaces with emphasis on haptic and eye gaze
technologies. Collected information by surveying literature,
phone-interviewing researchers, and visiting MIT Media Lab. |
| High Volume Copier/Printer
Installation. Observed and analyzed installation procedures,
instructions and packaging. Documented problems and causes in a database
usable for defining improvements to reduce installation time. |
| Desktop Mailing System
Installation. Observed and analyzed installation procedures,
instructions and packaging. Recommended improvement to increase success rate
and time to install. |
| Professional Recruiting.
Recruited Human Factors candidates for manager, senior, junior, and intern
levels at Fortune 500 company. Seventy-five percent of candidates referred
to the company for interviews were hired. |
| Participant Recruiting:
Complete recruiting and incentive payment services were provided for dozens
of usability tests for two companies. Users of consumer
and commercial products were screened for various experience qualifications
and scheduled for testing times. |
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