Update 3/29/13: This blog was the basis for: Article: Lebson, Cory. 2013. "UX Adventure: Enhance your resume, improve your career potential, and feel the excitement!" UX Magazine, Article No. 983. March 22, 2013. Radio Show: Lebson, Cory. 2013. "How to Turn your Tech Career into ...
As a consultant specializing in user research, studying how users interact with Web and mobile resources, I wish I could give my clients a short contract to sign promising that if they work with me, they will definitely incorporate usability into their project. They will ...
Back in 2008, although I had been involved in what was then UPA as a member who attended events, my only UX leadership role was in the workplace. Upon switching from being an employee to being a business owner in the middle of that year, ...
[Update 3/29/13: This post was part of the basis for Lebson, Cory. "Care About Your UX Career? Network Now!" User Experience Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 1 (First Quarter 2013).] By the time Twitter emerged into the public sphere, I was already primed as a regular LinkedIn ...
[Update 3/29/13: This post was part of the basis for Lebson, Cory. "Care About Your UX Career? Network Now!" User Experience Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 1 (First Quarter 2013).] It was 2003 and a good friend from high school who had moved to Japan sent ...
A client hired Lebsontech for user experience related work, but partway through the process decided to use Lebsontech staff to address some other priorities that weren’t specifically user experience (UX) related. Since I knew funds were limited, using the funds and my team for this ...
A US government agency hired Lebsontech to conduct a focus group to better understand how they should translate and post web content in non-English languages and how they should transition between languages. The focus group participants included people with a specific interest in the agency's ...
I have now entered my third year as the president of the Usability Professionals’ Association DC chapter (UPA-DC). I joined the board (as UPA-DC Secretary) in 2009 and in 2010 became chapter president, a role that I have held ever since. At the beginning of ...
Update 3/29/13 This blog has been the basis for: Lebson, Cory. 2012. "Making Usability a Priority: Advocating for the Value of User Research (PDF)." Intercom Magazine. October 2012. Lebson, Cory. "Making Usability a Priority: Advocating for the Value of User Research." Society for Technical Communication (STC) ...
I get at least one email message or phone call from a recruiter almost daily. They want to tell me about a great job opportunity. Would I be willing to become an employee of their company (or in many cases of their client)? If so, ...
Update 3/29/13 This blog has been the basis for: A reprint on usability.gov (May 28, 2014) Lebson, Cory. 2012. "Making Usability a Priority: Advocating for the Value of User Research (PDF)." Intercom Magazine. October 2012. Lebson, Cory. "Making Usability a Priority: Advocating for the Value of ...
How many sessions should a stakeholder observe? In an ideal world, the stakeholder would be able to observe all of the usability test sessions live. The stakeholder would get to see those that succeed with ease, and those that may have a fair bit of ...
A usability test, user interview, or any one-on-one qualitative research really isn’t entirely one-on-one, at least not in an ideal setup. Ideally, it involves two research staff members to do research with a single participant – a moderator and a logger. A focus group should ...
A friend asked me if I could take a quick look at a web interface that he was building. I reviewed the site and emailed him a few usability suggestions to consider. The suggestions basically focused on his approach to include a number of additional ...
I’ve been teaching usability training workshops for a number of years now, and I invariably prefer a team-teaching approach. However, I was challenged on that principle lately. A client asked why I would suggest two trainers, when I, as a single trainer, should be capable ...
A long-term Lebsontech client asked me to report on how often my usability recommendations were followed. The truth is, I didn’t really know. I had done research on a number of different sub-sites for this client and produced a ton of reports. While I had ...
Classic usability studies involve a lot of hours to prepare, to conduct the research and to write up a robust report of findings. There is often a recruiting fee for someone to recruit the “right” participants, and participants often get paid, typically $75 to $100. ...
My initial training in usability occurred during my undergraduate years, within the framework of my bachelor’s degree in psychology. The research methodology that was applied to usability fit well within an experimental psychology approach. After graduating with my psychology degree, I decided to pursue a ...
I’m a small business owner. My office is in my basement. The basement was converted into a two-room “in-law suite” apartment by the prior owners. We use one room as my office and the other room as my wife, Aviva’s, office. We also have a ...
[Update 3/29/13 - This blog has been the basis for: Lebson, Cory. 2011. "The Critical Importance of Web Usability in Disasters: Agency-Wide Efforts to Promote Usability at FEMA (PDF)." International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 11. November, 2011.] In the last ...
[Update 3/29/13 - This blog has been the basis for: Lebson, Cory. 2011. "The Critical Importance of Web Usability in Disasters: Agency-Wide Efforts to Promote Usability at FEMA (PDF)." International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 11. November, 2011.] Lebsontech has been ...
There are a number of American job types that have been somewhat successfully outsourced to other countries with cheaper labor. For example, with the low cost of telephone calls these days, in many ways, it does not really matter where a call center is located. ...
Although I interned in a usability lab while a psychology undergrad at University of Maryland, my undergraduate senior honors thesis was actually in the field of cognitive neuropsychology. Specifically, I conducted in-depth qualitative research on patients with frontal lobe damage, focusing on their ability (or ...
Last week I got to do something very cool. Wearing my hat as the Usability Professionals Association’s DC-chapter president, I got to introduce one of our speakers for the evening, Dr. Kent Norman, the professor at University of Maryland who first got me interested in ...
One of the most cost effective ways to evaluate a site is to do a heuristic review. A heuristic review is a systematic evaluation where the site is examined by one or more evaluators against a checklist of usability principles known as heuristics. There are ...
I spoke with a colleague on the phone last week. We hadn't talked on the phone before but found that we had a lot in common. We both run small user research firms and both enjoy doing similar kinds of user research. There was a ...
Twice last year, I was asked by job assistance agencies - one here in the DC area and one up in Baltimore - if I would speak about how to use social networking to help get a job. I spoke at both with a presentation ...
I love interacting with people but have never particularly enjoyed those interactions when over the telephone. No matter how clear the voice on the other end is, no matter how great it is to catch up with someone, I still have the vague impression of ...
Recently, a client said to me of another consultant that this consultant did not exhibit a passion for the work or for the company. This consultant generally produced good quality work, but that lack of passion was a serious impediment to the company’s perception of ...
Update 7/2/12 - I wrote this blog post about 1.5 years ago and again am in a similar situation. Actually worse as it's been 3 days since my home (and thus my office) has had power. Some ways that I've improved the process of business ...
1995 It was January of 1995 and I had just turned 21, graduated college, and pretty much immediately found a job as a “human factors consultant” (for “web usability consultants” would not exist for a few more years). I was content for about 6 months ...
My earliest memories of loving to write were as a 6th grader, deciding one nice spring day to sit alone under a tree during recess and write a short story that I had been contemplating. I was so wrapped up in penning my story into ...
