take the discount on qualitative usability studies
How often in life does the cheaper of two options translate into better quality?
I recently had the chance to work with a large (national) usability services organization. The results they presented were pedestrian. There were several useful observations, two obvious plugs for more usability testing via the large (national) usability services organization, and a considerable quantity of gauzy, imprecise language that all too often seemed to be principally concerned with providing the testing organization’s opinions rather than insight into the users they were purporting to be studying.
The experience left me more convinced than ever that the advantages to discount usability testing go beyond cost. If my experience is at all typical, by going with smaller usabilty services vendors clients could get higher quality results to go along with smaller price tags. Who doesn’t want that?
