1. Findwise Skills
User Experience
How do you make sure that your Findability solution does not only fit technical requirements but is also easy to
use and support users in finding information? Findwise can help you choose, plan and perform various activities
to ensure that employees and customers gets a satisfying user experience. Once the solution is accepted and
used, you will get the business value you are looking for!
Why?
Forgetting about users and neglecting usability and design activities normally results in a user interface
reflecting the technical structure behind it. User’s who don’t understand this structure, typically find
these systems difficult and time consuming to use. Taking a usage centred approach to design can result
in a Findability solution that:
 Provides information that users need
 Supports users with suitable functionality
 Ensures high usability and happy users
 Requires less time spent on training and adjustments
 Boosts your online services and create a stronger company brand
What?
Optimising the user experience involves designing system behaviour and appearance in accordance with
the actual purpose of the solution, including business goals and usage requirements. The main idea is to
involve real users in the design process in order to obtain the following specifications:
 Interaction design - behaviour, communication and interaction between system and user
 Graphical design - colours, fonts, icons and imagery
Interaction design and graphical design can be hard to separate as they are intertwined and developed
from a number of separate usability activities. A Findability project normally include the activities de-
scribed in the following sections.
Target group analysis
A Target group analysis serves to explore potential target groups and identify
requirements for a Findability solution. Potential users grouped by for example
experience, knowledge or tasks, are described and prioritised. There are several
techniques for the analysis: usage diary, user observation or interview (all per-
formed in a normal working environment). The purpose is to get an accurate
view of the users as a basis for future design decisions. Insight into values, ex-
perience and level of knowledge creates an understanding of which functionali-
ty and what information is relevant to the target group and how it should be
presented to ensure a satisfying user experience.
Findwise | www.findwise.com | info@findwise.com

2. GUI Expert evaluation
The main reason to evaluate a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is to identify
usability issues in an inexpensive manner. The evaluation is performed on
an existing GUI or a design suggestion, by Findwise consultants with
extensive knowledge of:
 Human cognition - memory, perception and information handling
 Interface design - guidelines, standards, colour and shape
However, a GUI Expert evaluation will not result in all usability problems
being identified as some of these will not appear until the solution is in use.
Hence, a usage test is a valuable complement to an expert evaluation.
Usage test
In a usage test, real users perform interactive and realistic tasks whilst being
observed with the purpose of identifying usability problems. Usage tests can
be performed on an existing system or a design suggestion, using a paper or
computer prototype. To improve the reliability, the test should be performed
in a realistic work situation.
Studies show that with a usage test involving only 5 participants, one can
successfully identify 85 % of all usability problems associated with a product.
Also, usage tests can give early indications of usability issues which can be
corrected with minor efforts, as opposed to testing a finished product where
changes will be both costly and time consuming.
About Findwise
Findwise helps you to reach your business goals by making information findable. Our impressive track
record includes implementing hundreds of search driven Findability solutions that have provided easy
access to all desired information, both inside and outside the firewall. Findability by Findwise is all about
meeting your various information access needs and maximising business value from search technology
investments. Our customers are located in various countries and industries with a common desire to
make relevant information available to both employees and customers.
We are a vendor independent expert with knowledge and experience from the leading enterprise search
technology platforms: Autonomy IDOL, Microsoft (SharePoint and FAST Search products), Google GSA,
IBM OmniFind, LucidWorks Enterprise and Apache Lucene/Solr (Open Source). We take pride in offering
a large number of unique search related skills in areas such as usability, linguistics, information manage-
ment and security. By combining our technical expertise and unique skills we can help you avoid the
common pitfalls, tailoring a Findability solution to meet the needs of your organisation, today and in the
future. Will you be next to benefit from Findwise expertise?
Drottninggatan 5 Sveavägen 28-30 Valkendorfsgade 13 A, 1. sal Postboks 40
411 14 Göteborg 111 34 Stockholm 1151 København K 0137 Oslo
Sweden Sweden Denmark Norway
+46 31 288 400 +46 8 213 600 +45 6180 9540 +47 97 767 606
Findwise | www.findwise.com | info@findwise.com 2011-05-19 v. 1.3