How to carry out a usability expert review

For people in design teams who need to spot usability problems in prototypes and finished products, “How to carry out a usability expert review” is a 1-day seminar that teaches delegates cost-effective methods to evaluate designs. Unlike courses in usability testing, this seminar teaches delegates how to find and fix usability problems without involving end users.

After attending this course, you will be able to carry out a range of usability inspection methods, such as Nielsen's heuristic evaluation and a cognitive walkthrough.

This seminar is led by Dr. Philip Hodgson who has over 20 years experience in the field of user-centered design.

The course clarified a major sticking point for me - the difference between a heuristic evaluation and a cognitive walkthrough. I also found the information about different sets of heuristics to be very useful. It was good that the course focused on practical application and experience, rather than information that you could learn out of a textbook.

Course Delegate

Duration

This is a one-day seminar.

Overview

Usability expert reviews are a great way to identify "usability bloopers" with a product or web site. They are quick, cost-effective and provide an immediate sanity check for the design. Expert reviews are also an ideal way to ensure that a product or web site will meet usability standards.

But many people find it difficult to identify specific usability issues from generic usability heuristics. Beginners also find it hard to derive action-oriented recommendations that can be passed to the design team. This seminar reveals the practitioner secrets behind expert reviews and will teach you how to think like a usability expert. As well as a set of comprehensive notes, you will leave the seminar with detailed usability checklists, workbooks and step-by-step instructions to help you carry out the most valuable techniques.

You will learn how to:

Appreciate the difference between a usability inspection and someone's personal opinion.
Learn and practice some quick techniques for carrying out usability reviews of prototypes and finished products.
Find and fix usability bloopers before they become hard coded.
Apply Jakob Nielsen's "heuristic evaluation" technique to software, products and web sites.
Uncover the elements of your design that lead new users to make errors, using the task-based "cognitive walkthrough" method.
Learn to spot usability problems in prototypes and finished products.

Detailed lesson plan for this expert review seminar (pdf format, 192 kb).

Here's what people say about this course:

"A great introduction to carrying out expert reviews for UX professionals and project managers alike. One thing that stood out was the way the trainer catered for the needs of everyone in the group."
"A concise course without any waffle or information overload."
"Invaluable supporting material to take away and adapt to my own needs."
"A well structured course with good exercises to practice the techniques."
"I've been to several courses that mentioned Cognitive Walkthroughs but none explained it very well. This course finally demonstrated what it was all about."
"The demonstrations and practical activities gave strong reinforcement and understanding of the theory."
"The practical examples and feedback sessions on review methodologies has really given me the confidence to carry out my own expert reviews."

This seminar is for you ...

... if you are looking for practical, cost-effective methods to evaluate designs. This is a hands-on course and is most effective for delegates who have day-to-day responsibility ensuring product, software or web usability within their organization. The course will also be valuable for designers who want to understand usability principles or who want to see examples of usability checklists.