IN THIS ISSUE:
Breaking News!
User Experience Happenings
Techniques
Inside Tec-Ed
Tec-Ed, Inc.
4300 Varsity Drive
Suite A
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Contact Numbers
MI -- 734.995.1010
CA -- 650.493.1010
NY -- 585.454.7440
Email
info@teced.com
Website
www.teced.com
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New Sales and Marketing Leadership: Cynthia Zimber
This newsletter is a great opportunity to introduce myself and say hello! As the new Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Tec-Ed, I am very happy to join the terrific team here. I was drawn to Tec-Ed because of my many years of experience working with both B-B and B-C solution companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, serving end-users in many industries. That mirrors Tec-Ed's profile, but the real truth is that I love when things work the way they should!
In my software publishing years, I realized the pain of launching an application that users could not figure out, or that did not easily or intuitively do what intended users needed to accomplish. In some cases the application did not integrate with other software standards as promised.
These scenarios meant "back to the drawing board" for the product development teams, lost revenue as well as lost momentum. That's why ensuring a great user experience is a critically important product development and marketing consideration.
Of course, a great user experience is not limited only to software applications. Recently, I purchased an electronic gizmo for at-home facials, and well, for all my technology experience, I cannot figure out how to set the timer! The directions are confusing, translated from Italian, and I am frustrated. Perhaps I will call the company and tell them about Tec-Ed's services. After all, we do have clients around the world!
I just read a brief from Forrester on "Obstacles to Customer Experience Success 2009" and, based on their extensive research, customer experience remains critical, especially in a recession. Forrester polled 90 customer-experience decision makers at North American firms with annual revenues of $500 million or more. 89% said that customer experience would be either very important or critical to their 2009 efforts. (See www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,53779,00.html)
I will keep you posted on my progress with the Italian company in the spring newsletter, and look forward to getting to know many of you over time. Do get in touch if you have a user-experience initiative you'd like to address. We are the experts, and we can help! Contact me at: 734-995-1010 ext.112 or cynthia@teced.com.
Check out my LinkedIn profile to learn more: www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiazimber.
Building Knowledge of Longitudinal Research
User research often focuses on first-time experiences with products and websites, which trends the results toward discoverability problems. So how do we learn about usability concerns that persist over time?
That's the question behind "Exploring Best Practices in Longitudinal Usability," a workshop to be held at CHI 2009 in April. The workshop is part of an ongoing effort by Stephanie Rosenbaum, Catherine Courage (Salesforce.com), and Jhilmil Jain (Hewlett-Packard Laboratories) to enhance the current body of knowledge about longitudinal research.
If you're an experienced UX practitioner headed for CHI 2009 and you'd like to join the April 5 discussion of methods and metrics for longitudinal data collection, contact Stephanie Rosenbaum at stephanie@teced.com.
User-Centered Design: Partnering with You at Every--or Any--Step
User-centered design puts people who will use a product or website at the heart of the design process. Including actual users in planning, iterative design and evaluation, and development helps ensure the end result will do what people need it to do and be easy to use.
Tec-Ed's UCD services range from end-to-end user-centered design to evaluation-only projects for groups seeking objective assessment of their designs. For example, we have:
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Worked with engineers and industrial designers at a start-up to create and test user interfaces for an innovative product that optimizes the indoor transmission and reception of wireless signals.
[Read more: PDF version 44KB]
Helped a technology support software and services company gain a competitive edge by conducting participatory design activities that allowed them to create an excellent experience for users downloading their software.
[Read more: PDF version 53KB]
Tec-Ed's willingness to adapt methodologies and define custom engagements makes it easy for you to turn to us for UCD services. Contact Cynthia Zimber at cynthia@teced.com to discuss how Tec-Ed can assist your design team.
Tec-Eddie Presents at World Usability Day Event
Brian Phelps was a presenter at "Usability in Your Life and in the Products You Use," a 2008 World Usability Day event in Ann Arbor intended to explain usability to the general public. Brian's talk, "Can I hear you now?" [PDF version 1,075KB] told the story of how Tec-Ed designed and conducted usability testing of the UI for a unique new product that improves cell phone reception in people's homes.
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