Knowing the needs of your (future) users is the best prerequisite for successful products and high standards of usability.

To understand user behaviour and expectations, USEEDS° analyses usage requirements from 3 perspectives:

 

1. User groups - Who uses the product?
An important part of the analysis is devising typical user profiles for which an IT solution is to be designed. Using the persona method, USEEDS° experts and the customer jointly identify realistic user groups to whose requirements the product is tailored during the development process.

 

2. Usage scenarios - how is the product used?
Usage scenarios describe how individual user groups use a product to achieve a specific goal. The user is then offered the required options and information step-by-step. When developing the product the method makes it possible to concentrate on that part of the functionality that receives the greatest use and where usability plays a particularly important role.

 

3. Context analysis - What is the context in which the users find themselves?
In addition to the users' needs, the prevailing environment such as legislation, technical capabilities and business objectives must also be factored into product development. Because only an IT solution that takes account of the context can be successful in the marketplace. The third analytical area therefore concerns itself with the circumstances in which a product’s users operate.

 

The results of these analyses are translated into interaction concepts in conjunction with the interaction architects.

 

In parallel with usage analysis, USEEDS° provides the ability to use BTU analysis (Business processes, Technology, User) to shed light on technology and business processes as factors driving innovation from the user perspective. Innovative technologies can often be used to simplify usage processes, thereby enhancing the User Experience. In the business processes arena the focus is on analysing the potential for optimising the way in which business processes interact with usage processes.

 

USEEDS° is one of only a few usability service providers to take account of these aspects in the consulting it provides. This therefore makes us your partner in the user-centred product planning arena; a partner capable of calling on a network of experts in the technology trends and business process optimisation fields. See also Strategic UX Consulting.

 

Based on the results of the analysis, interaction architects create the product’s information architecture. They define the principal areas of the application as well as the options and functionality being offered to the different user groups. The interaction architects also define in diagrammatic form the navigation between the individual content areas and the page structure, thus ensuring from the ground upwards a high degree of usability for their products.

 

We can use our USEEDS° Fireflow working environment to implement these steps from initial scribbles to interactive prototypes in an extremely efficient way. In the process, our USEEDS° Interaction and Behaviour Pattern Library ensures that the selected patterns are technologically feasible and optimally use-based.

 

While the design process is underway our interaction architects are constantly running usability tests to obtain feedback from end-users and are therefore able to modify their concepts at an early stage.