Consulting
My freelance/consulting offerings can be applied to nearly all products (digital or physical) and at any point in their development (i.e. conceptual through post-release). Since not everyone is familiar with the Human Factors arena, below are the three key areas of human factors for which I offer services, with general definitions provided by the wonderful Wikipedia.
Usability can be thought of as the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also refer to the methods of measuring usability and the study of the principles behind an object’s perceived efficiency or elegance.
Information Architecture can be thought of as the art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support findability and usability.
User Experience Design is a subset of the field of experience design which pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user’s perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting “all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used.”
To determine what type of offering is best for you, I would recommend determining what your goals are and at what point in development you are so that the best results can be obtained. Below is an example of different services that can be effectively applied across the stages of product creation.
Early Development Stage |
Mid to Late Development Stage |
Post-Release Stage |
| User Profiling | Usability “walkthroughs” | User Acceptance Testing |
| Competitive Analysis | Expert/Heuristic Evaluations | Benchmarking |
| Rapid Prototyping | Usability Testing (Design & Moderation) | Usability Testing (Design & Moderation) |
| Storyboarding | L/M/H Fidelity Prototyping | Competitive Analysis |