Services

Domain analysis is used to understand the full context and environment in which your product operates. We use a selection of approaches aimed at understanding your business, the environment in which your business operates and how your users interact with your business and/or product.

Tasks may include:

• Expert interviews (internal and/or external)
• Contextual inquiry
• Field observation
• Competitive analysis
• Process analysis
• Technology analysis
• Business domain modelling

Selection of tasks can be tailored to suit your scope, time and budget.

The number one rule in any user centred project is to determine who your users are and what they want to do. We use a variety of approaches to understand your users' characteristics, the tasks they need to complete and the expectations they bring to the process.

Tasks may include:

• Surveys and questionnaires
• Contextual inquiry
• User interviews
• Scenarios and use case studies
• Usability testing
• Focus groups

Benefits of user research include establishing a realistic foundation early in the project, exposing hidden requirements and ruling out unfavourable ideas before it is too late (and costly) to make changes.

During the requirements analysis phase we identify the current and future needs of both your business and your stakeholders. These requirements then act as a touchstone for all ongoing development and provide the basis for translation into a design concept.

Tasks may include:

• Business process analysis
• Stakeholder management
• Requirements management

Our capacity for conceptual design sets us apart from the usability crowd. This often neglected phase is the powerhouse where clear requirements are converted into a focused model, forming the DNA of the design solution.

Tasks may include:

• Requirements Analysis - Analysing the formal results of our process to identify patterns, relationships and directions
• Affinity Diagramming - Organising ideas to form and explore conceptual relationships
• Design Brainstorming - harnessing creativity to translate directions into design models.

Interaction design builds on the information and conceptual design framework, adding functional elements through which the user is able to control and receive feedback from the system.

Our approach involves analysing the steps within a user's activity to ensure the product interface supports effective and accurate task completion. Identified user goals and processes are addressed through applying a comprehensive range of tools and methodologies. The outcome is an optimised solution for user interaction.

Tasks may include:

• Collaborative design
• Control and feedback design
• Procedural design
• Feature design
• Cognitive walkthroughs

Deliverables from the interaction design process include sets of screen blueprints or wireframes for use by developers. Alternatively, a business process diagram, flowchart or report may be provided for management.

The Information Design phase of a project relates to the organisation and shaping of data or content across the site. During this phase we gather, structure, and present information in line with proven user centred principles.

Tasks may include:

• Information analysis
• Internal content workshops
• Workflow diagramming
• Card sorting.

Deliverables from the Information Design phase include Information Architecture Diagrams, Site Maps and Procedural Flowcharts.

Where information architecture focuses on grouping information, content design focuses on the information itself. A content plan maps the content required for the product. We can also write or translate content for web presentation while providing "writing for the web" training which will train your content writers to publish the right content to your new website.

In prototyping we develop the proposed user interface in order to test various aspects of the design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feedback.

Prototyping reduces the risk and cost of building a product which may prove less than optimal to users' needs and therefore require further refinement. There are two common approaches to prototyping:

Paper Prototyping allows users to interact with paper-based representations of the product keeping the cost of the user testing to a minimum. This approach tests the interaction design and gathers feedback which will determine the need for further testing and analysis.

Electronic Prototyping involves an electronic model of the proposed design. Although less cost and time efficient than paper-based techniques, this model closely represents the proposed interface allowing us to observe users' reactions to a semi online environment. As with the paper prototype approach, this method provides feedback about the interaction between the user and the interface allowing us to add more cycles of testing, more subjects, or more prototypes as required.

We have demonstrated expertise in translating the findings from research activities in to an interface design.

In this phase, we produce up to three design concepts which visually represent the research and analysis conducted during the user interaction phase.

Our visual design forms an integral component of the usability framework, reflecting both business and user objectives.

The result is a visual style/concept, representing a detailed visual approach for your product. A visual style guide can also be provided which captures specific design elements and branding requirements. We can also supply a CSS to ensure the design elements retain their integrity as they are brought across to your website.

By using Stamford's usability standards and guidelines together with best practice heuristics from formal usability process, we can rapidly assess the usability of a product.

Where time is short and you need an immediate opinion to validate the usability of your product and advice on how to make improvements, our expert review service is an ideal starting point. On average, an expert review can generate more than 50 ways of improving your product.

Heuristic Evaluation

Our team of experts is experienced in evaluating products against a defined a set of user-centred design criteria, or heuristics and presenting findings in clear recommendations.

10 common usability heuristics or usability criteria:

1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist Design
9. Error recovery
10. Help and documentation.

Formal Usability Inspections

In a formal usability inspection we perform both individual and group inspections, using elements of both heuristic evaluation and a simplified form of cognitive walkthroughs to assess your product.

User testing involves carrying out specific assessment tasks with carefully recruited, representative users in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a design or product.

Tasks may include:

• Usability walkthroughs
• Prototyping and testing
• Tracked testing.

User experience evaluation is a process used to assess a sequence of screen presentations against user goals, business and functional requirements. A number of aspects are taken into consideration including user interactions, system responses and environmental factors.

We understand the importance of ensuring websites and intranets are accessible to all users. Providing accessible web based communication is not only best practice but makes good business sense.

Using a combination of automated validation and a manual review, our accessibility audit will identify barriers to accessibility on your website or intranet and provide an evaluation of compliance against W3C Guidelines.

We will provide you with an accessibility audit report advising where your site requires further changes to comply with either A, AA or AAA levels of the W3CGuidelines.

A content audit can take place while you are redeveloping your website and before you transition content to a new site.

An audit catalogues content, making it easier to identify outdated or irrelevant pages. A content assessment can then take place to further identify incorrect, inconsistent or badly written content and prevent "dirty" content from being transitioned to your new website.

We can also write and/or edit content for your new or redeveloped website. Another service we provide is "writing for the web" training and facilitation to ensure skills transfer and the professional development of your people.

Web Brand Management involves understanding and translating your brand in the online world. This involves a holistic appreciation of not only the visual and content aspect of your website but also the interactive level and how this all impacts on user perception and overall brand.

Providing an online presence exposes the brand to a new range of perceptions and expectations around usability, accessibility and content values. User experiences online have an impact on sales, credibility and brand perception potentially impacting on adjacent communication channels such as email or your call centre.

At Stamford we ensure the solutions we recommend produce an online asset, rather than a digital liability.

Managing the user experience means being aware of the entire user-experience lifecycle from first contact, through to engagement and transactional outcome.

We can identify your users and find out their end-to-end needs and wants. We analyse and prioritise their requirements from a holistic, practical point of view.

Our services cover the totality of the user experience, including user support (such as product documentation and call centre support), fulfilment, billing and branding. By understanding the user experience cycle we can then evaluate all the channels through which you and your products interact with your customers.

By "road testing" your product concepts early, we can help you assess viability and avoid the increased cost of errors later in the design process.

In the early stages of development, we examine the viability of your product or idea through workshops, expert evaluation and user consultation. We work with you to assess use propositions from three perspectives - usability, usefulness and engagement.

Ignoring website usability will cost you more in the long run.

A common formula applied in the industry is the $1:$10:$100 rule. What does this mean? Once a product is in development, finding a solution to a problem will cost 10 times more than fixing that problem in the design stage. Once the product has been released, it will cost 100 times more to fix the problem than if a usability solution had been applied in design.

We avoid unnecessary cost by assisting you early in the product lifecycle to determine ROI metrics and cost-justifying usability.

We will train your content team in effective web writing techniques.

Students learn the important differences between writing for print publications and writing for the web. Through progressive exercises, they learn how to re-purpose print documents for online publication and how to write web content from scratch.

• Understanding the differences in how people read print and online content.
• Identifying your audience and how to write or them
• Scannable content employing keywords, lists and chunking
• Writing techniques and editorial voice
• Writing style and editing techniques.

We will outline IA techniques such as open and closed card sorting and more recent technologies such as Card Sword.

Participants learn some of the common pitfalls experienced in the design of information architectures. They are introduced to powerful technique called Card Sorting which can be used to design effective information structures. Case studies and two exercises cement student's understanding of the technique.

• Common issues with information architecture design
• Overview of card sorting
• Open and closed card sorting techniques
• Step by step method
• Exercises 1 and 2 for practice and consolidation
• Software tools to support the analysis process
• Presenting the results of card sorting

We will provide a general introduction to the principles of usability. This course is suitable for a general audience.

Participants learn the basics of usability testing. They are introduced to informal and formal techniques, usability waltkthroughs and heuristic evaluation techniques. Students are given step-by-step instruction on how to conduct a usability test and a practical exercise helps then to put into practice what they have learned.

• Formal and informal usability testing
• How to set up and run a usability test
• Usability walkthroughs and their benefits
• Software tools to support usability testing
• How to conduct an heuristic usability evaluation
• Reporting the findings from usability tests

We will cover evaluation techniques such as heuristic evaluation and usability testing.

We will cover techniques such as paper prototyping, collaborative design and usability walkthroughs.

We will provide an explanation of techniques such as focus groups, site visits, user workshops and stakeholder interviews.