VENDORS THAT OFFER TRAINING IN USABILITY ACTIVITIES
Throughout the book we have mentioned vendors for a variety of purposes. Here we present the vendors that offer training in usability activities. We do not have experience with all of these vendors. These are companies that we were able to find the most information about. They are placed in alphabetical order and it is not a complete list. You can always do a web search to find other references, but we recommend speaking with other people in the Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) industry to get recommendations. Additional usability consultants can be found on the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) Consultant List (www.upassoc.org/people_pages/consultants_directory/index.html). Also check out usability-related conferences (e.g., CHI, UPA, HCII – see Appendix A, page 678); they offer a range of tutorials at the beginning of each conference.
Bentley College Usability Boot Camp, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 024524705, USA
This intensive five-day course covers requirements gathering and scenario building, prototyping, usability testing, heuristic reviews, and cognitive walkthroughs.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.bentley.edu/professional/programs/usability.cfm?program=in&pagetitle=infodesign&CFID=3134960&CFTOKEN=37745411
Cooper, 49 Stevenson Street #1200, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
This consulting organization provides training in all aspects their GOAL-DIRECTED® methodology. Classes include Interaction Design Practicum and Documenting Research, Requirements, and Design. At the time of publication of this book, a certification program was in the works.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.cooper.com/content/cooperu/overview.asp
Effortmark Ltd, 11 Bridge Street, Leighton Buzzard LU7 1AH, United Kingdom Effortmark offers a half-day workshop called “Interviewing skills for usability testing.” It is most suitable for a mixed group, most of whom have experience of between one and five usability tests. Caroline Jarrett has taught it at CHI 2000 and HF2002 in Melbourne, Australia. You can find a brief description at www.iceaustralia.com/HF2002/Programs-Workshops.htm. An introductory course to usability testing is also available.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.effortmark.co.uk/services.html
Ennis Information Age Services, Information Age Centre, Ballymaley Business Park, Ennis, County Clare, Ireland
Ennis provide a training course specifically on user requirements gathering including interviewing and persona development. They also provide services for expert reviews, user testing, and persona development.
E-mail: [email protected]
Human Factors International, Inc., 410 West Lowe, PO Box 2020, Fairfield, IA 52556, USA
HFI Inc. teach a two-day seminar called “How to Conduct User-Centered Analysis.” It covers creating user profiles, developing interview questions and surveys, performing task analysis, developing scenarios, and translating design solutions to interface solutions. HFI also offer courses in web design and usability testing, as well as offering services in expert review, usability testing, and design. In addition, they offer certification. By passing an examination that demonstrates your comprehension of the fundamental principles of user-centered design you can become a “Certified Usability Analyst.”
Phone: (800) 242-4480 or (641) 472-4480
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.humanfactors.com
Lextant Corporation, 580 North 4th St, Suite 610, Columbus, OH 43215, USA Lextant teach a short course in moderator training, interviewing, and contextual inquiry techniques.
Phone: (800) 324-1613 or (614) 228-9711
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.lextant.com
Nielsen Norman Group, 48921 Warm Springs Boulevard, Fremont, CA 94539-7767, USA
Nielson Norman offer full-day tutorials in field studies, user testing, interaction design, fast prototyping, accessibility, intranet usability, useful websites, usability of PR sites, and discount usability engineering. They also offer guidelines development, process mentoring, and usability evaluation.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.nngroup.com
OTIVO, Inc., 451 Hayes St, Floor 3, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA
Otivo have given numerous one-day workshops, to the general public, to their specific clients, and at conferences. The workshops focus on planning/preparing for usability activities, test plan development, moderation of sessions, and how to summarize reports.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.otivo.com
Tec-Ed, Inc., 4300 Varsity Drive, Suite A, PO Box 1905, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA
Tec-Ed. are headquartered in Ann Arbor, but they also have offices in Palo Alto, CA, and Rochester, NY. They provide training in heuristic (expert) evaluation, usability testing, field studies, focus groups, participatory design, user interviews, and customer surveys/questionnaires.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.teced.com/ue-ust.html
University of Michigan Human Factor’s Short Course, Center for Professional Development, University of Michigan College of Engineering, Chrysler Center, Room 273, 2121 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2092, USA
This two-week course covers the design of systems, products, and services to make them easier, safer, and more effective for human use. The first week discusses human factors concepts and the second week covers human-computer
interaction. Most people register to attend both weeks, but you can register for a single week only.
Phone: (734) 647-7200, then press 2
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.umich.edu/∼driving/shortcourse
User Interface Engineering, 4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4D, Middleton, MA 01949, USA
They offer a variety of public and on-site corporate training courses targeted towards the entire development team. Topics include: how to design for website usability, paper prototyping techniques, and tricks for including usability testing in the product design process.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.uie.com
The Usability Training Centre, Userfocus Ltd, 211 Piccadilly, London W1J 9HF, United Kingdom
The Usability Training Centre offers a plethora of courses including moderating usability tests, the user centered design process, discount usability techniques (heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough), building a usability lab, and British standards and UK legislation relevant to usability and accessibility.
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.userfocus.co.uk/training/index.html
User-Centered Design, Inc., 20548 Deerwatch Place, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
User-Centered Design offer a one-day course in facilitation techniques for moderators. They also offer courses in usability testing, GOMS modeling techniques for interface analysis, and video capture and editing techniques for usability professionals.
E-mail: [email protected]