UERP - Usability Expert Review Panel

Jul, 2011 by Mitchell

The official page is currently unavailible. See the following information in the meantime.

The IDG Usability Expert Review Panel (UERP) is a team of IDL (Interaction Design Lab) staff and postgraduates who conduct occasional expert reviews on various research-related software and systems. Typically the team sits together for a one hour session in a computer lab at the university, use the software being trialled in a "think aloud" mode, and note usability or other issues they encounter. This relatively informal approach is a quick and easy way to get high-quality feedback for ongoing projects. Sessions can also be about brainstorming new ideas, troubleshooting particular interaction design problems and looking at proposed research designs (such as running a practice focus group).

The panel size is usually anything from 2 to 10 according to need. Sessions take place either in the Interaction Design Lab or a teaching lab. The UERP team members have a broad range of expertise and experience in usability and system design. Before joining the department as interaction design researchers, the team members have had extensive industry experience including software engineering, usability testing, web design, graphic design and user-centred research. Ethics clearance is not required as the team act in an expert rather than participant role.

       

Computer

Example: in February 2011, researchers building a web application for a mental health context engaged the UERP to work through usability issues, immediately prior to the first trailing on patients. This allowed the researchers to fix a large number of problems before end-users encountered them, leading to better acceptance. The researchers found the process to be easy and efficient and received a great deal of valuable feedback with a minimum of time and effort expended.

Contact me (m.harrop / at / unimelb.edu.au) if you'd like more information or just find it interesting.