Testing | Akendi UX Reflections

Top 10 UX Blogs of 2017

By Amanda Billark

04.01.2018

To celebrate the new year we've rounded up our top 10 most read blogs of 2017: The Art of Asking Questions: The quality of the information relies entirely on the quality of the questions we ask. This article explains...

Why Is Usability Testing Important?

By Leo Poll

09.10.2017

Usability Testing is an essential aspect of any user-centred approach that puts the user at the centre of the development process. Adopting this approach advocates that the user should be foremost in any design and development decision...

Not Choosing Sides: Customer Experiences vs. User Experiences

By Tedde van Gelderen

27.04.2017

Ok, we’re all humans. It is a label that encompasses us all. But in experience research and design we rarely, if ever, create for or try to understand the human. It’s usually the different types of humans we’re interested in. Because...

The Art of Asking Questions

By Hamilton Hernandez

18.04.2017

Surveys, interviews, usability tests and other UX research methods are meant to elicit information to help us clearly understand a user/customer, their needs and their experience when using a service/product; to find the best...

Putting User Testing in Context

By Tobias Coe

01.09.2016

The traditional role of user testing in the product lifecycle has changed dramatically over the last 2-3 years. User testing is one of the main tools of UX professionals to ensure that product design and development meets the users’...

The Power of Three

By Dan Iaboni

17.03.2016

Is three the magic number? Culturally, and historically, the number three is very significant. In Christianity there is the Holy Trinity, and in Hinduism, there is the Trimurti. In Chinese, the word for three is considered lucky...

Doing a Press Check – it’s your Last Opportunity to Get it Right

By Athena Herrmann

05.01.2016

Even in this digital age, print collateral has its place. There are many conversations about the value of print happening right now. One website, created by Domtar paper, talks about how print and digital can effectively work...

‘I feel as though I’m cheating…’

By Lisa Min

26.11.2015

A client once said this to me after watching his very first focus group session. The concept of getting answers to questions from real potential users was foreign to him. This comment didn’t come as a surprise to me as many other...

Making Things Un-Usable (For Some)

By Michelle Brown

27.08.2015

At the hospital where Dr. Henri J. Breault worked in Windsor, Canada, a parent rushing in with a poisoned child was a daily occurrence. Medical teams would hurry to pump the child’s stomach before it was too late, but they didn’t always...

Poorly Planned Changes Create Conflict

By Dan Iaboni

18.08.2015

Commuting in Toronto can be a very frustrating experience, particularly if you are a cyclist. Despite the rapid growth in the number of cyclists that are commuting, the city lags behind in creating infrastructure. Almost half of...

Seeing is not always believing.

By Leo Poll

13.08.2015

We have 5 senses (some people claim they have six) and you cannot trust any of them. Cognitive psychologists studying exteroception try to make sense of how we make sense of our senses. The results of some of the experiments conducted...

Not All Errors Are the Same

By Dan Iaboni

06.08.2015

While driving the other day I tried to switch the radio station using the controls on my steering wheel. Instead, I accidentally redialed a friend. Depending on the mode, the controls that are used to control the radio stations are...

Making the natural ‘natural’?

By Janet Bewell

23.07.2015

Should you test in-person or remotely? What to choose when there are so many options? If the question was simply about the quality of the test session, I would say in-person, hands down. Just think about the difference between a Skype...

Smart Watch Design Heuristics

By Seneca Brandi

21.07.2015

Interaction design can be a delicate balancing act between meeting the needs of the user and wrestling with the limitations of the technology you’re designing for. This contrast is never more evident than when designing and developing...

The Perils of Choice (and how to avoid them)

By Michelle Brown

23.06.2015

One Saturday in an upscale supermarket in California, shoppers were greeted with an extraordinary display of 24 types of jam to sample and buy. These exotic jams ranged from peach to kiwi and shoppers flocked to the display to sample...

Always Be Testing

By Seneca Brandi

09.06.2015

I recently watched the movie Glengarry Glen Ross (I know, I’m about 20 years late) and although it’s an old movie, the famous message conveyed “Always Be Closing” still holds true. In the field of web design, there’s a similar mantra...

Understanding Defaults and Notifications (or, why I hate my dishwasher) – Part 2

By Michelle Brown

19.05.2015

This is part two of a two part series. In part one we went over the guidelines around using defaults and talked about some pitfalls to avoid. You can go back and read it at Understanding Defaults and Notifications (or, why I hate my...

How to Do a Paper Prototype Test in 7 Steps: The quick, easy, and dirt cheap way

By Michelle Brown

12.05.2015

Elsie had $100, very little time, and needed results. She and her team were developing a new grocery-shopping app that would substantially simplify everyday shopping for users. They’d vetted out their ideas and validated the need for...

Akendi Goes to the Movies – James Bond

By Dan Iaboni

07.05.2015

As we gear up for summer blockbusters, I thought it would be fun to take a look at how usability and user testing is represented in the fictional worlds created on the silver screen. For this initial post of “Akendi Goes to the...

The Art of Asking Questions in Usability Testing