Remote Usability Testing, Evaluations, & Lab Rental

Normal Modes' team of user experience experts provide prioritized, actionable analysis of your application or website, customized to address your business needs - anywhere in the project lifecycle.

Overview, Benefits & Timeline

Considering an evaluation? Overview (Slide 1 of 9)

Expert evaluations are a quick, cost-effective means of determining your application or website's strengths and weaknesses. Combining industry best practices with our years experience, we deliver prioritized, actionable information that can be put to use immediately.

Save Money Benefits (Slide 2 of 9)

When budgets are tight, a usability evaluation helps you prioritize where to spend funds. We often recommend usability evaluations before, or in lieu of, usability testing because of their efficacy in identifying low hanging fruit that'll reap the greatest ROI for budget dollars.

Save Time Benefits (Slide 3 of 9)

Usability evaluations also prioritize changes based on frequency and severity ratings, so you don't waste precious development time working to correct a problem that's low frequency and low severity. And when time is limited, usability reviews yield faster results than usability testing.

Kickoff Phase 1 of 2 (Slide 4 of 9)

When we begin your project, we'll set up a kickoff meeting to discuss your project and any specific concerns your team has. We'll ask about what your users are reporting, and we'll want to know about your organization's strategic objectives, technical infrastructure and any known limitations to the front or backend. This information helps us review the application through the eyes of a user, with the knowledge and experience of an expert.

Graded Heuristic Evaluation Phase 1 of 2 (Slide 5 of 9)

We use a proprietary checklist that measures conformity to industry best practices, established usability principles, and known human limitations. Typically 1-3 unbiased experts complete the checklist, assigning a score to each item on the checklist and grouped by topic area. Many teams find scoring helpful in objectively measuring progress toward business goals.

Expert Review Phase 1 of 2 (Slide 6 of 9)

Not every aspect of the user experience can be measured on a checklist. Expert reviews investigate that gray area: does the application meet the end user's needs, abilities, and motivations? Do the mental models make sense? Is workflow clean, logical, and elegant? From the business perspective, does the application meet company business objectives? All expert evaluations are conducted by experts with 10+ years professional and/or academic experience. (Most have advanced degrees.)

Analysis & Reporting Phase 2 of 2 (Slide 7 of 9)

When our work is complete, we'll meet online for an hour to discuss our findings and provide specific recommendations for how to best resolve issues. Everyone's invited to attend and encouraged to ask questions. We're no pie-in-the-sky outfit; we understand (and can empathize with) the real world constraints most organizations have.

When's the best time to do an evaluation? Timeline (Slide 8 of 9)

Evaluations can be done anywhere in the design and development process. Some companies even have us scheduled for evaluations at fixed intervals in their project plans. Evaluations take anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks, depending on scope.

Is a usability evaluation a good fit? Conclusion (Slide 9 of 9)

If you're looking for an honest, unbiased and prioritized method of evaluating your application or website, please get in touch. We'd love to help you plan a path toward a better user experience.

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Case Studies

Each company has its own set of issues (and none are immune.) Without naming names, here are some of the most common challenges we encounter:

High unexplained call volumes after a major redesign.
Company needs to improve UX to grow or become more profitable. (UX is only competitive differentiation.)
Internal politics resulting in ground war between two ideologies, and productivity is the main casualty.
Need to improve usability in response to major customer complaints.
How to most efficiently recover from a botched platform migration?
How to increase team member appreciation and understanding of user needs?
Users report application is too difficult to use, but project is at risk of going over budget.
User mutiny and revolt. (We couldn't make that up!)
After another project didn't go well (late, over budget, or both), the team wants usability baked into the process for the next project.
Business stakeholders disagree with technical team about what's "usable."
Organization has hired an agency or software development company and would like a 3rd party review of work.
Agency/software development team wants outside review new client's existing infrastructure, usually an independent "report card" of as-is to measure against "to be" in order to demonstrate value.
Department has extra dollars to spend at year-end and wants to lay groundwork for the next year.

Normal Modes's recommendations provided insight into Acuity for the customer's enjoyment and the business benefit. It was the combination of business savvy, thorough competitive analysis, and usability ideas that set them apart. This exposed several easy ways to immediately improve customer experience and major changes we could work on in the long term. We were even more impressed when all this was completed and delivered in under a month!

We've seen an increase in paid signups (but stable free signups) after the smoother in-line upgrade notifications. Also, support emails have decreased!
—Gavin Zuchlinski, Acuity Scheduling

Pricing

Mini Approximately 2 pages, 1 expert review, 1 site/application, completed in 1 business day	$850
Basic Approximately 7-9 pages, 1 expert review, 1 graded heuristic evaluation, 1 site/application, completed in 3 business days	$2,750
Value Approximately 20-25 pages, 1 expert review, 1 graded heuristic evaluation, 1 site/application, certificate of usability evaluation, completed in 10 business days	$7,750
Robust Approximately 40-60+ pages, 2 expert reviews, 3 graded heuristic evaluations, up to 2 sites/applications, certificate of usability evaluation, completed in 21 business days	$12,500

*Approximate number of pages is used as a proxy for approximate level of detail. Actual number of pages may vary.

Simple Pricing.
No Surprises!
All fees are prepaid.

All packages include:
PDF Report
Reporting Meeting, including a 1-hour call with key stakeholders to review findings

Usability Evaluations

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