On a recent blog post, we were thrilled to see that the first question you should ask when hiring a web design firm is, “What is your approach to usability?” Naturally, we think the best answer is, “We partner with a user experience firm.”
In addition to the questions you should ask when hiring any professional services firm (i.e., “Have you worked on other projects like mine?”, “Can I meet the team?”), here are five questions to help you distinguish the best usability firms from the rest:
1. What is your approach to usability testing?
Starting the conversation with this open-ended question will help you confirm that you’re talking to a bona fide usability professional. Listen for an approach that includes “one-on-one testing” that is “task-based,” with “representative users” completing “scenarios” while “thinking aloud”. Be wary of firms that use pre-recruited panels of participants, conduct testing only online without a moderator, or focus on gathering participants’ opinions rather than observing their behavior.
2. What percentage of your firm’s work is usability testing?
Many web design firms or market research firms list usability testing as one of their services, but they don’t conduct it frequently enough for it to be a core competency. Look for firms that focus on user experience; these firms are likely to spend 50-75% of their time working on usability testing projects.
3. Tell me about the background and skills of the research team.
You’ll benefit from working with usability professionals from human-computer interaction and/or behavioral science backgrounds who also have design experience. The best user experience professionals combine a rigorous understanding of experimental methods with the ability to translate findings directly into design changes.
4. What do you see as the big issues with our website?
Ask for a quick review of your application to see how the firm might approach your project. A thoughtful usability professional will ask you to describe your business objectives and target audience, and may suggest hypotheses about the design to explore in testing (e.g., “Can prospects determine which of your services is best for their needs?”, “Are users willing and able to create an account before checking out?”) Be wary of firms that suggest design changes off-the-cuff, without considering your goals or how users might interact with the site.
5. Can I get a sample usability report?
The most effective usability reports consist of concise, scannable findings and concrete, actionable recommendations. Look for illustrated documents (most often in PowerPoint) that use screenshots and bullet points to summarize and diagnose usability issues. Recommendations should state clear actions that can be taken to resolve usability problems. Here are some examples of recommendations:
Less valuable: “Reduce the number of steps in your check-out process.”
More valuable: “Combine billing and shipping information on the same screen; enable the user to copy one address to the other.”
Ensure that the research team will also be available to present their findings and recommendations to enable discussion.
We hope these ideas will help you find the usability partnership that works for your organization. What questions have you found helpful when hiring usability firms?