2011 in review - how we experienced the UX industry
As this is probably the last post of the year, we thought it was worth reviewing the UX industry as we have experienced it in 2011.
Hallway testing seems to be more accepted in 2011. Clients are willing to put resources into testing early and often along the design development journey. Participants are sometimes staff, but often users are recruited. Tests are short and feedback immediate.
These tests are usually with clickable prototypes or wireframes, developed in Axure. It’s especially useful for testing web processes, and uncovering problems with the workflow.
So its not surprising that many of our UCD projects this year have mostly been designing large web applications. These are the projects where the interface design just cannot be tested enough, so this is where we do loads of testing, of every sort.
An obvious one for 2011 is tablets and mobile. We have the Tobii eye tracking technology to test tablets and mobile apps, and clients are now starting to ask for it. What’s interesting about tablet technology is that standards are still developing, and users expectations are sometimes beyond the current reality.
Another area requested this year is user-centred design training for teams in medium-sized and large companies. Doing this in-house is great fun and can be specifically targeted to the project. We also have provided training in social networking for marketing. 
So its been an interesting and fun year for us.
Have a great Christmas break and see you in the new year!
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