Paul Rouke - Usability Professional

The videos from my presentations from Usability: What’s The Use? are below for watching.

My presentation slides and further usability resources from the event are also available for reference.

Manchester Digital Introduction and Usability Primer

Usability – Stripped Bear from Paul Rouke on Vimeo.

An introduction to Usability: What’s The Use? by Shaun Fensom from Manchester Digital, followed by a short primer to usability by Paul Rouke, User Experience Director at PRWD.

No matter how many job titles there are in the usability and user experience field, at least all professionals share 1 common goal…

Usability – The Importance For Internal Business Systems

Usability – The Importance For Internal Business Systems from Paul Rouke on Vimeo.

Paul Rouke, User Experience Director at PRWD, talks about the importance of usability for internal business systems, specifically around staff productivity and process efficiency.

The presentation touches on common barriers to staff productivity, some of the main reasons for these barriers, plus a short video of a manufacturing company who are embracing user-centered design as a way of combating the traditional software development issues on a companies productivity.

The presentation also asks business owners a few key questions, such as do you listen to your staff, do you staff waste valuable company time doing repetitive tasks, and do you know what is the on-going cost to your business if you use un-usable software systems.

Usability – The Importance For Websites and Online Marketing

Usability – The Importance for Customer Facing Websites from Paul Rouke on Vimeo.

Paul Rouke, User Experience Director at PRWD, talks about the importance of usability for businesses communicating with both new and potential customers.

Featuring a case study of how a company improved their revenue-per-employee by 95% over a 2 year period, along with some attendee participation, this 17 minute presentation touches on a wide variety of websites and activities, such as lead generation sites, information portals and search engine marketing campaigns.

Most significantly conversion rates for e-commerce websites are discussed, where usability can have a remarkable affect on a companies bottom line, if the right decisions are made in making improvements.

After a slightly later than usual start to the day we are back working today after our fantastic Christmas evening with some of our clients last night.

We started with a few mulled wines on the Albert Square European market, followed by a sumptuous meal at Tampopo (highly recommended if you haven’t yet tried it!).

We finished off with a few drinks in Beluga, exchanging stories of Christmas parties which have not gone according to plan (think people having a few too many drinks and people letting off steam with one another!) plus looking ahead to 2009 and the projects that we will be working together on.

In reference to the post title, I’m referring to the fact that the clients we invited out are some of our long term clients who we have built extremely strong relationships with – so this certainly won’t be the last time we share a meal with these clients!

Oh and before I forget, I hope readers of our blog have a fab Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

We’re recently added a new page to our main business site which you may be interested in looking at, which provides an overview of UCDcommerce, our best practice driven, user-centered e-commerce platform.

Usability Testing and Usability Evaluations for Retailers

The new page also features links to our e-commerce research services, usability testing and usability evaluations, which can be invaluable for existing retailers who are looking to develop the business case to replatform.

Having not previously made the definition of our company name acronym visible electronically, we felt now would be an ideal time to share this with our readers.

PRWD, An Acronym for ‘Productivity Without Difficulty’

Productivity – A Wikipedia definition

Productivity in economics refers to measures of output from production processes, per unit of input. Labor productivity, for example, is typically measured as a ratio of output per labour-hour, an input. Productivity may be conceived of as a measure of the technical or engineering efficiency of production.

read the full definition of Productivity on Wikipedia

Types Of Productivity We Improve

Without Difficulty – An Answers.com definition

Something not easily done, accomplished, comprehended, or solved. A laborious effort; a struggle.

read the full definition of Difficulty at Answers.com

Types Of Difficult User Experiences We Rectify

A few examples which you may relate to are as follows:

• removing confusion when submitting an application form online
• removing being overwhelmed when using a business system
• removing concerns of trust and privacy when considering an online purchase
• removing complexity when navigating through large sets of information or products
• removing frustration when a website doesn’t do what you need it to do
• removing frustration that the business system makes your job less productive

As you can see from the examples provided above, combining productivity and ease of use can relate to any number of web applications, business systems, marketing activity and brand experiences.

Delivery ROI Through The PRWD Acronym

By focussing on productivity metrics whilst removing difficulties for users when using a system, we deliver return-on-investment in a way which we have recently documented in a case study on User-Centered Design.

It’s only a taster of what in store, but comes not a moment too soon.

The PRWD website is getting a much needed makeover and will, over the next couple of months, grow in terms of rich media content to include interactive pages, video and bags of personality. It will not only act as a great platform for selling the business and what we do here at PRWD but will also act as a great source of information on current industry topics and research. The site will be a ‘place to stop by’ on the web with its regularly updated content, keeping both our customers and blog subscribers up-to-date and informed.

Paul Rouke, founder of PRWD, admitted that the revamp was long overdue but as the business quickly rocketed into its new market place with some very big clients on the books, the website took the back burner.

“With Katie coming into the business as our marketing and brand development executive, she has wasted no time in highlighting the areas (and there are certainly quite a few of them!) where the business needs to significantly improve from a branding and marketing perspective. Not only does the business site need some much needed personality, it was completely lacking in informing visitors of our expertise and credibility in the Usability and Web Development industry, as well as not shouting about some of our exceptional blue chip client wins.

With our new blog design and now the now business homepage both live, visitors can at last begin to fully appreciate the work we are doing and the expert people that are behind PRWD.”

Light at the end of the tunnel

Having taken on several new members of staff over the past couple of months we are now able to begin addressing the website so that it does PRWD justice.

I think you’ll all agree the new homepage for the website make a huge difference. We hope you enjoy it.

Our new homepage…

And what we used to have…

The website’s preview will be launched later today, with the major rebuild underway and likely to go live later this summer. We’ll keep you posted.