Usability - Out-sourced or In-house?

This is a question that we often encounter when working with clients, many of whom are keen to establish their own usability departments. Of course there is no short answer - depending on the client's situation either alternative may be valid. But there are good reasons for thinking carefully before making a decision either way.

In-House

For many organisations hoping to move usability work in-house, cost is the over-riding priority. There is no doubt that creating in-house capability can be cheaper in the long-term, particularly if there is an ongoing need for iterative testing of a product or service. Although employing a full usability 'team' might be expensive, training up existing staff (some of whom are probably already involved in interface design) is an obvious alternative.

An in-house presence will also be helpful in maintaining a continuous 'eye' on development work being undertaken in any other departments. This type of ongoing guidance can be particularly useful in organisations that are built around an ongoing (and usually never-ending) development process. True user-centred design relies on this type of input, and in-house teams are ideally situated to provide it - and remain on the premises to argue their corner.

However, there are some obvious disadvantages to the in-house approach. Firstly, it is only truly suitable for larger organisations which can support genuine usability 'teams'. In a smaller business, a single employee asked to watch over development in order to optomise usability is clearly in a perilous political position, and will all-to-easily be sidelined. One person is also unlikely to have the full range of skills, experience and perspectives that may be required when evaluating a site or interface.

A second disadvantage is the tendency for in-house employees to become too 'close' to the product. This can manifest itself in a variety of ways. More obviously, familiarity may mean that many potential issues are not recognised - an obvious example being an over-use of jargon that will not be picked up by someone familiar with the terms being used. Similarly, test design can often unconsciously focus on areas that are known to be a problem, rather than starting from an understanding of user requirements and common taskflow.

External Consultancies

Those worried about these issues will probably consider using an external consultancy of some description. This approach will help overcome some of the issues involved in using an internal team. Specifically:

• An external consultancy is unlikely to be bullied by any particular department or individual into producing results that suit the organisation. Conversely, of course, there is a risk that any final report or deliverable is simply ignored if the client does not like the results.
• An outside agency is much more likely to provide neutral feedback, working from first principles and seeing the application or site with 'new eyes'.
  Consultancies which focus on usability will have gained extensive experience throughout the industry, probably working on many similar projects in the past. Staff are likely to have a wide variety of experiences and perspectives, which may be difficult to simulate in house.

Of course, there are disadvantages. External consultancies may not always have the same developed insight into business issues even customer needs that exists within the client organisation. There may be a difficulty in terms of integration with the development team. Some consultancies may attempt to apply their own techniques when they are not appropriate. And of course, as mentioned above, they can be expensive and may not keep a close-enough eye on things.

Combining The Two

Perhaps the best solution is to combine the two approaches in some way. This could take the form of using external input solely during evaluation and testing, thus providing neutral feedback but also ensuring an internal usability department maintains control of design and development.

Alternatively, external input can help in the creation of an internal department. Frontend have performed this task for clients in the past, typically when a large organisation becomes aware of the need for a usability strategy. In this case, a combination of hands-on training, knowledge exchange and an initial run of user tests can help develop the necessary skills in-house to implement a genuine user-centred design process.