The role of a 'User Champion' is to represent the interests and concerns of the user in all decisions concerning interface design, including graphic look and feel, interaction design, product functionality, and even accompanying materials such as instruction manuals.
It might not be the perfect solution, but as a first step it can have far-reaching consequences. If your organisation already has significant resources assisting with interface development, but tends to make key decisions on the basis of hunches or personal opinions, a single individual with a remit to judge the interface from the users point of view may be beneficial. Of course, any appointment must be more than a gesture. A user champion must be confident of management support and fully involved in the development and design process, at every stage.
What is the exact role of a user champion? In short, to represent the interests and concerns of the user in all decisions concerning interface design, including graphic look and feel, interaction design, product functionality, and even accompanying materials such as instruction manuals. This role may be a full time job, or it may consist of a weekly or monthly status check with an in-house design team. A user champion may be an individual from inside the organisation, a freelance consultant, or a member of a dedicated usability company.
Any of these arrangements can work - the important first step is recognising the need for the user to be heard. A simple reality check on a regular basis can help steer development in the right direction and save huge costs in future re-engineering after usability problems become apparent. In fact one of the key advantages of a permanent usability presence in the team is this time and cost saving aspect. It is far more effective to make sure nothing goes wrong than fix it after the event.
Of course a user champion cannot simply be a single individual voicing their opinion. No matter how well-informed your champion may be, his or her role is to discover the opinions of users themselves and convey their requirements to the development team. The role must encompass the organisation and conduct of user testing, requirement gathering, and evaluation programmes, whether conducted internally or contracted to an outside agency. Similarly, a champion may conclude that the organization needs to bring in specialist skills in areas such as interaction design from outside the company.
Over time, a user champion can have beneficial side-effects on the organisation itself. The very process of raising user concerns repeatedly is likely to have a knock-on effect in terms of education and awareness-raising. The user champion can then be a catalyst for the creation of a design and development team that understands the need to design with users in mind and an understanding of the techniques of user-centred design.
The end result, ideally, is a user-focused organisation creating products or services that, in usability terms are state-of-the-art.
The Benefits of Viewing User TestsThe benefits of user testing have long been established. It is still important however to try and maximise these benefits. One way in which this can be done is by viewing the user test yourself.
The Experience is KeyIt is important to remember that the experience a person has using a product or service is every bit as important as that product or services usability.
The Advantages and Limitations of Focus Groups in the Design ProcessFocus groups are a great way to collect information from several people very quickly and cost effectively. They are mainly used to gauge people’s reactions and feelings to items, however when used appropriately they can also be used as part of user requirements gathering.
Five Rules For Better Bank WebsitesInternet banking is here to stay and the major banks are all busy figuring out how to expand their business online. Online banking is all about convenience and functionality but what about the bank’s public website? It is often a struggle to achieve the right balance between information and product sales, between user functionality and marketing requirements.
Back To Basics: How Poor Usability Effects AccessibilityIn recent user testing with a range of participants including Visually Impaired (VIP) and Blind users we found that the majority of problems were common across all groups. However the effect of poor usability is more severe for users with visual disabilities. Surprisingly all of the issues are very familiar and are easy to fix so we thought we’d revisit some of the basics of accessible web design.
