One of the key components of website usability is reporting the findings to the client.
There is no doubt that for the client to get any value out of the process, they need to know what all of the data means. As usability specialists, we all need to apply our expertise to the data that we gather.
The worst thing we can do is give the client the data (a transcript, DVD, etc) and leave it at that. I mean you wouldn’t give a complicated product to a customer and not tell them how to use it, would you?
Some usability firms don’t like to write reports at all (Steve Krug hates “big honking reports”), they prefer to present to the client directly. Some firms like to write huge reports (Nielsen Norman Group’ Intranet Information Architecture report – 1193 pages!) My firm likes to write concise and graphical reports and present the findings to the client.
The point is that we all (in our own way) interface with the client. It is our job to not only conduct the testing, but to tell the client what the results of the testing means to them. We need to translate the findings into something our clients can use, because that is where the value of hiring a third party to do it lies.
What’s the point of a usability study if the results aren’t usable for the client?
1 response so far ↓
Suffian Rahman // December 18, 2007 at 6:57 am
Good point, dude. I did a usability test recently and the hardest part about it wasn’t summarizing what was wrong with their site, but actually convincing them on what they needed to fix. But another client that I presented card-sorting results to immediately bought into what I had to say, perhaps because they were attuned to the process. I think the way that you present is extremely important; bite-sized information to less educated clients and the full-details to clients who actually understand what usability is and how they can benefit from it. Never give the same type of report to two different people because they’re going to interpret it differently. =)
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