becoming a usability247 accredited practitioner

Becoming a usability247 Accredited PractitionerAn information booklet for freelance user experience practitioners

Contents

▪ Introduction 3

▪ Our vision 4

▪ The opportunity 5

▪ The services 6

▪ Sharing our methodologies 8

▪ Why become accredited 9

▪ How to become accredited 10

▪ Operational model 11

▪ Quality 12

▪ Commercial arrangements 13

▪ The benefits 14

▪ About Usability247 15

Copyright Usability247© all rights reserved 2

Introduction

The UX industry is changing.

The past 15 years have see significant world-wide growth in the number freelance practitioners

User experience buyers have become better educated

The agency model has not evolved at the same rate

Seemingly commoditised services are over-complicated and shrouded in mystery to those outside the industry.

Blue-chip organisations are still “discovering usability”

It is no surprise that so many interfaces still fail to meet even basic levels of acceptable performance.


Our vision

We want to change the world

…one interface at a time

so that everything is usable, everywhere, for everyone, all the time

it would be better for consumers and better for businesses

We believe there are better ways of working that can involve the freelance

practitioner community throughout the world and benefit all—customers, consumers

and practitioners.

This short guide sets out what we plan to do, how you can get involved and the

benefits available to you. It won’t be for everyone, and that’s ok because it isn’t a

competition; it’s about making progress.


The opportunity

Imagine a major global brand that wants to evaluate whether the website they are

developing works in all major markets and languages and on all device formats. At the

same time with increasing pressure on budgets and therefore time, organisations find it

very difficult to stop or slow development in order to carry out “usability”.

UX practitioners are located across the globe with access to a vast and diverse array of

technologies, languages and cultures. We intend to use this distribution to everyone's

benefit.


By connecting with the global freelance practitioner community,

Usability247 hopes to provide a research capability that is available

round the clock and has the potential to allow access to almost

any device, in any language and in any culture.

The Services

Methodologies will be familiar to experienced practitioners and our

goal is not to reinvent the wheel. We have simply adapted and

defined existing methodologies to ensure they can be delivered

with consistency anywhere in the world.

All three methodologies are designed to be delivered through the

accredited practitioner programme. Project length varies from a

couple of days to a few weeks.


We are marketing three services that can be delivered by accredited practitioners:

247:expert—an expert review similar to a usability audit

247:lab—a rapid turnaround lab usability test with 5 participants

247:online—an online task based study with 200 or more participants

Our services in brief


* un-moderated

feature 247: expert 247: lab 247: Online

expert review: multi-point UX index review

localisation: is it usable in other countries?

task testing: usability review of key user tasks *

International: testing in multiple countries

comparison: on multiple platforms, over time

benchmark: site/app against our database

customer research: quantitative research

Sharing our methodologies

We will share our unique intellectual property (IP) under a creative commons licence so that anyone can use it for commercial purposes or otherwise by simply crediting usability247.

In development is a user experience index which is intended to provide a multiplatform evaluation model that will underpin our 247:expert service. By working together with the freelance practitioner community we hope we can create a relevant and valuable methodology, particularly in mobile.


Where our services use existing practices we won’t (of course) be able to

licence these. What we plan to do here is to share our methodologies and

deliverable templates so that a wider group can benefit.

We invite all accredited practitioners to help develop the methodologies

and share in their use.

Why become accredited

Only accredited practitioners will be able to receive information about projects we have available and be paid to deliver them.

Our services vary in the amount of time required to deliver them. So a major benefit of becoming an accredited practitioner is that you can fill gaps in your existing projects whether that is a few hours, a couple of days or a few weeks.

Accredited Practitioners can display the Usability247 accredited practitioner logo on their LinkedIn profile to help set them apart from other practitioners.

Because we won’t ever deliver design services we may be able to introduce you to customers that ask us for services outside of what we do.

As an accredited practitioner you will be able to utilise the 247:index methodology and help develop and evolve it to ensure it long term effectiveness and relevance.


And finally, you will become part of the accredited practitioner

community and be able to network and share with like minded

professionals from around the world.

How to become accredited

It costs nothing to become a Usability247 accredited practitioner other than your time. Accreditation is about gaining training in our methodology and ensuring that there is 100% alignment and familiarity with our approach.

This may be achieved in a number of ways related to your qualifications and experience. In most cases, experienced practitioners will find accreditation very simple.

It is possible to be accredited to deliver one service, two services or all three as the demands for each are slightly different. 247:expert requires minimal client contact, no facilitation and no statistical data analysis skills. For 247:lab you will need to demonstrate that you have facilitated one to one usability tests.


With 247:online, where we are carrying out research with 200, 400 or 600

participants, you will need to demonstrate that you have statistical skills and can

carry out quantitative analysis. If you have used technologies such as UserZoom,

Keynote Web-Effective and Loop11 you will be well on the way to becoming

accredited.

Operational model

The accredited practitioner programme will be operated through a closed LinkedIn Group. The address of this group is: http://www.linkedIn.com/groups/usability247-accredited-practitioners


Available projects are posted to the group with details of what is required.

Most projects will be time sensitive and so we will select a practitioner to work

on the project soon after posting the message.

Accredited Practitioners are selected based on their historical availability,

the quality of the work they have previously delivered and any other relevant

attributes such as language, location, culture, industry and technology.

The LinkedIn group will be used for all broadcast communications to the

group but project work is dealt with through direct contact via email or by

sharing of documents through our SharePoint site.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/usability247-accredited-practitioners

Quality

To be successful we have to ensure that the work delivered to our clients is of the highest quality.

We will limit some of the variance in deliverables and approach by using structured methodologies, guidance notes for practitioners and templated deliverables.

We will carry out a QA process on every piece of work going to a client. This is to pick up any typos or formatting issues and provides an opportunity to clarify any points made by the practitioner before the deliverable reaches the client.


Our quality objectives are to:

be error free in grammar and spelling (the basics)

thorough in our analysis and identification of issues

insightful in our recommendations for improvement

We believe that quality is achieved by creating an environment where

people can do their best work, and that is what we set out to do.

Commercial arrangements

Each of our services plus the optional extras available has a delivery time associated to it which translates into a fee available for the accredited practitioner.

When a project is assigned to an accredited practitioner for the first time it is accompanied by a purchase order and a contract. The purchase order confirms the work required and provides details against which an invoice can be submitted.


The contract sets out the terms and conditions surrounding the relationship. The contract must be signed and returned before any payment can be made.

Invoices follow completion and will be paid no later than 30 days after the end of the month in which the invoice was received.

Accredited practitioners will be asked to provide evidence that they have in place appropriate business insurance covering public and product liability.

The benefits

▪ We can fill gaps in your schedule, between projects or during part time engagements

▪ We can provide a revenue stream from carrying out projects for us on a regular basis

▪ As we don’t sell design services we may provide you with introductions to clients looking for

additional services.

▪ You can display the Usability247 accredited practitioner logo on your LinkedIn profile. This will

help to set you apart from other practitioners because the accreditation reflects the

attainment of a practical quality level.

▪ You will have the opportunity to influence how our methodologies develop and share in their

use including templates for deliverables

▪ As part of the accredited practitioner community you will be able to network and share with

like minded professionals from around the world.


About Usability247

Usability247 is a user experience research and testing agency.

We provide usability services when our customers need them: 24 hours a day and 7

days a week.

Our vision is to change the world, one interface at a time, so that everything is

usable, everywhere, for everyone, all the time. It would be better for consumers and

better for business.

We use three methodologies, (247:expert, 247:lab & 247:online) developed to be

delivered anytime and anywhere with exactly the same high level of quality.

We provide an online booking mechanism so in-house practitioners can self serve.

Usability247 is a trading name of Miram limited a company registered in England, whose registered office is at the following address: Miram Ltd, Ground Floor, Belmont Place, Belmont Road, Maidenhead, SL6 6TB. Registered number: 7966950 VAT Reg No: 131878893



for more information get in touch:

Usability247, Siena Court, The Broadway, Maidenhead, SL6 1NJ

telephone: +44(0)1628 74 20 20

email: [email protected]

or visit our website at www.usability247.com

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