Alucid Provides User Research Lab to Leading Delivery Company

December 2003 - Alucid was contracted by the world's largest package delivery company to provide a portable user research laboratory to enable both on & off-site usability studies. The Alucid technical services team developed a specific training course for members of the company’s internal user experience team on the laboratory equipment as well as providing continuing technical support.

With this laboratory acquisition, our client has positioned themselves to continually incorporate user feedback into development cycles and create general visibility for the human factors group. This client generates vast revenue from customers who perform package shipping functions on the company website and thus intuitive and easily accessed features and information is vital to this revenue stream continuing to be successful – research tools provided by Alucid are an integral part of this commitment to meet customer needs.

Alucid Conducts User Testing of ‘Cool’ Hairstyle Products Website

March 2004 - The east-coast based Alucid user-experience team was contracted in March 2004 by a leading interactive agency to conduct post launch user testing of a redesigned hairstyling products website for a leading cosmetics company. The site and study is targeted to teens and young adults who would be considered ‘cool, hip & trendy’. The study was conducted in New York City and included both qualitative discussions with respondents as well as performance data related to site interaction and navigation.

The Alucid team developed the test plan, interview scripts, moderating sessions, and produced the findings and recommendations report. As part of the test plan development Alucid performed a condensed expert review of the navigation structure and taxonomy of the site for the purpose of incorporating potential points of confusion into tasks to be presented to respondents.

Data from this study enabled our client to make tweaks and revisions to the site to further accommodate the needs and preferences of its audience. Alucid helps to improve site and interface acceptance, both through summative and formative testing.

Alucid Conducts User Testing of Major ISP Website

March 2004 - the Atlanta user-experience team of Alucid conducted respondent driven testing of a semi-functional prototype design of a major U.S. web-hosting company website. The focus of this study related to site architecture, nomenclature, and overall site intuitiveness. Of particular interest to our client was measuring the comfort level of potential customers completing a purchase of web-hosting services, using the site and without speaking to a CSR. This included measuring appropriateness and sufficiency of content in sections of the site leading up to making a credit card purchase.

Samples of three distinct personas were included in the study, which occurred in the Alucid lab during a two day period. The learning from this study equipped our client with a better understanding of perceptions and particular needs of consumers and professionals who are in the market for web-hosting solutions. This testing was purposely conducted at this stage of development so that necessary revisions can be made prior to additional coding within the prototype.

The Alucid recruitment department handled all aspects of locating and scheduling respondents including development of profile screeners and locating candidates who met the persona requirements. Our moderator and data collection personnel ran and documented each of the test sessions, and subsequently developed a findings and recommendations report and client presentation.

By providing all required services from beginning to completion of user research engagements, Alucid is able to ensure attention to every detail along the way, and that resulting data is elicited from an accurate audience representation, documented in a manageable fashion, and presented in a concise and actionable format.