Ethnography is a research technique that focuses on people or citizens’ lifestyles, behaviour and attitudes. This technique involves the observation of people in their usual environment as well as interviews to collect personal comments about how they feel. Sometimes it’s also called “Wayfinding”
This activity highlights how users actually perform everyday tasks with a product (at home, while commuting, in the car, while shopping, at work…). A quantitative study usually follows the interviews in order to validate the trends with more participants.
Benefits
- Understand the people in their own context, their daily lives, lifestyles, social relationships, behaviours and attitudes, how they use the technologies and their real surroundings.
- Reveal design solutions that are based on real user interactions and experiences (this technique moves beyond the technical specifications of the product).
- An opportunity to put oneself in the citizens’ situation and to see the world through their eyes (to see what they see, to feel what they feel, to hear what they hear).
When to use
- At the strategy and ideation phase to support strategic decisions evaluating ideas and concepts to shape the user experience.
- At the development phase to gauge user reactions and modify the product experience accordingly.
What you gain
You’ll receive a strategic recommendations report including real insights into how people live, act and react. This report containing, videos, personas and experience maps, enables you to design your product or service according to users needs and expectations.
Contextual Inquiry
Benefits
Contextual Inquiry provides techniques to discover how people work and what impact processes, policies and organizational culture have on their productivity. Great product ideas derive from a marriage of detailed understanding of a user’s needs with an in-depth understanding of technology.
When to use
This activity is very useful when thinking of optimizing or redesigning complex applications (ie. Call Centers, work applications and B2B solutions). As an interviewing process, Contextual Inquiry successfully extracts data about users’ work in detail as well as their work environment.
What you gain
This work reveals the 4 models:
- The context model shows communication across a whole work domain which includes procedures and policies, expectations and constraints as well as users involved with the system.
- The physical Model represents the physical space and systems that affect the work.
- The flow model shows communication across a whole work domain, not only among current users of a system.
- The sequence model show the specific tasks users perform and how the work can be simplified by optimizing the tasks.
Focus Groups
A recognized method for gauging customer opinion.
Composed of 4 to 6 people, focus groups aim to collect perceptions, expectations, habits and motivations related to a product or service. We voluntarily limit the number of participants to a small group to get more meaningful insights. The focus groups can also be executed remotely with participants located in different part of the world.
Benefits
- Understand the perceptions of a target sample and evaluate differences of opinion.
- Get to the heart of the opinions, emotions, motivations and behaviours surrounding a product or service.
When to use
- At the conception phase to support strategic decisions evaluating ideas and concepts.
- At the development phase to gauge user reactions and modify the product experience accordingly.
What you gain
You’ll receive a strategic recommendations report. This report enables you to optimize your product or service according to users needs and expectations.
Usability Testing
In-lab Testing
Simulate real-world contexts of use.
We conduct multi-platform and multi-screen tests (using e.g. computers, tablets, smartphones, television and second screens etc.) in order to capture what obstacles which users face and what aspects of the experience work well in an critical usage scenario.
Benefits
Participating in user testing enables product managers, design teams and developers to observe users’ reactions to the product and to make evidence-based decisions.
When to use
- In-lab user testing may be performed all through the project phases.
- Ideally, tests are performed frequently and iteratively to refine a product up until the time it is launched.
What you gain
Following user testing, you receive a detailed report including quantitative and qualitative findings, as well as an experience map, and recommendations for user experience enhancements.
Remote Testing
We conduct multi-platform and multi-screen tests (e.g. computers, tablets, smartphones), and test digital products and services remotely throughout Canada or internationally – whether at the concept stage, during development or post-launch.
Benefits
- Remote methods enables a deepened understanding of usage context since participants remain in their own environments under typical conditions like background noise, interruptions that users face at home or in the office.
- Attend live broadcast tests allows stakeholders and the Design team to observe the reaction of the users while using their product, learn and adapt.
When to use
Remote user testing can be performed at all project phases. Usability remote testing can be adapted to an Agile development.
What you gain
Following user testing, you receive a detailed report including quantitative and qualitative findings, as well as an experience map, and recommendations for user experience enhancements.
International Testing
Yu Centrik is the sole Canadian representative of UXalliance, an international organization composed of the words top user experience firms.
This expert network enables us to offer world-class research on a global scale, drawing upon the expertise and recruitment capabilities of our 27 partners in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia.
Benefits
- Access to an international network of 500 user experience professionals with in-depth knowledge of local markets and over 27 countries.
- Translation and live streaming.
- A wealth of testing methodologies for websites, intranets, mobile devices, call centres, GPS tools, digital TV across sectors. See also our international case studies.
When to use
International usability testing is suitable at all project phases.
What you gain
Following international user testing, you receive a detailed report including quantitative and qualitative findings as well as recommendations for user experience enhancements, an experience map and localization strategy.
Product Testing
Product and service testing reveal consumer perceptions, how customers use products, engagement with particular functionality, and global performance. We evaluate a variety of consumer products, digital devices, tools and appliances.
Benefits
- Test your product with real consumers before launch.
- Validate how people react with the product (unboxing and usage).
- Conduct tests with a narrow or wide sample of representative participants.
- Validate concepts using a series of iterative tests and rapid design interventions to evaluate product market readiness and placement strategy.
- Simulate context of use in the lab environment. We transform the lab into e.g. a kitchen to test a household appliance, or a hospital room to test a medical device.
When to use
Consumer product testing may be used at any phase of product development.
What you gain
Following the testing, you receive a detailed report including quantitative and qualitative findings as well as recommendations for user experience enhancements.
Some of our clients who have put their trust in us
Contact
+1 514 605-9823
1435 Saint-Alexandre Suite 435
Montreal QC (Canada) H3A 2G4
Google Maps
