Follow-Up Studies

A follow-up study occurs after formal release of the product. The idea is to collect data for the next release, using surveys, interviews, and observations. Structured follow-up studies are probably the truest and most accurate appraisals of usability, because the actual user, product, and environment are all in place and interacting with each other. That follow-up studies are so rare is unfortunate because designers would benefit immensely from learning what happened to the product that they spent two years of their lives perfecting

Sales figures, while helpful, add nothing to one's knowledge of the product's strengths and weaknesses.

This is not a definitive list of methods by any means, and it is meant merely to provide the reader with an appreciation for the wealth of techniques available and the complexity involved in implementing a UCD approach It is a rare organization that performs all of these techniques, and just as few conduct them in their pure form. Typically, they are used in altered and combined form, as the specific needs and constraints of a project dictate For more about these techniques, check out our list of resources on the web site ^ accompanies this book at www.wiley.com/ao/usabilitytesting Now lets take a closer look at one of the most renowned techniques of all the ones discussed, and the focus of this book, usability testing, in Chapter 2