One-on-One Lab Testing: A great deal of Alucid user-experience testing is conducted as one-on-one sessions in our own lab facilities or by using our portable lab systems off-site. An Alucid moderator will elicit both qualitative input and quantitative measures from respondents within your target audience. While this, or any method, is not a single source solution for learning all there is to know about your audience or their interaction with your product, it is widely recognized as a top methodology which produces rich data with relatively low costs and resources.

Group Discussion Qualitative Studies: ‘Focus groups’ as they are often referred to, are an effective means of gaining insight to target audience likes and dislikes of virtually any topic, product, or interface. Led by an Alucid moderator, to keep the discussions focused & on time, these studies may be conducted in one of our lab facilities ideal for hosting both the focus group individuals and the client team observing. We’ve used discussion groups for assessment of a competitor product, reactions to client ad and media campaigns, and collecting qualitative data related to a host of other products and concepts.

Remote & Online Testing: Alucid routinely conducts user testing and interviews of web and software products with a user base that is simply too far reaching geographically, or the required sample size is too large, to effectively conduct lab testing. In these instances we rely on web based solutions and techniques to administer online surveys and/or interactive sessions with a product interface. While this method has its own set of tradeoffs, it can be a cost effective means of documenting regional or cultural variations in navigation strategies, reactions to content organization, etc.

Field Studies & Contextual Inquiries: Both field studies and contextual inquiries help to better understand where and how your customer works, lives, or uses your product – these studies put your product in context, as opposed to the interaction occurring within a controlled lab setting. Alucid conducts this type of investigation in a variety of ways, one of which includes incorporating our Mobile-ULab™ to enable our clients and other team members to observe the study in real-time or it may be used to simply conduct interviews or observation with specific user groups at their location. These methods are extremely informative both during product development and post-release.

Nomenclature & Taxonomy Testing: We’ve all had experiences where either semantics prevented us from fully understanding the intended meaning of a statement, or when we were unable to find something because it was not located where we thought it should be. These two points are the premise behind testing websites, software, and even documentation to assure the naming and information architecture is appropriate and intuitive. To test these areas further, Alucid often times conducts card sorting exercises or user testing incorporating a semi- or functional wireframe prototype receiving input within your target audience.

International Product Localization: Related to nomenclature and taxonomy testing, the need for localization is vital to internationally marketed and accessed products. An interface or document cannot be simply translated into languages beyond its original authorship, but the design & content should also undergo localization testing using moderators fluent in the native language. This is a very important step to ensuring that your product & content is specific, relative, and socially accepted within the local area of use.

Prototype & Style Guide Development: Incorporating a style guide into any interface development effort is a good practice that will increase the consistency between screens. Using a style guide can also reduce development time and create a certain adherence to usability guidelines. While style guides do not take the place of user testing and other validation methods, it does provide a consistent foundation to work from. Alucid style guide and prototype model development is typically driven by findings from user-experience testing or other data. Our team can create mock-ups in HTML, clickable wireframes or other interface models to serve as guidance or for early user testing.

Compatibility Testing: The Alucid computer lab accommodates both web browser and operating system compatibility testing. Our technicians can assist with planning for compatibility testing, and determining the platforms, brands, versions, and service packs your web based or software product should undergo. Akin to quality assurance testing, compatibility testing is one of the final and essential steps prior to releasing any web or software product that will be viewed or installed on a variety of computer environments.