User Experience In Montreal

Excuse this rant, but Users should count more since products and services are created for their users. If more users ranted about their dissatisfactions, perhaps the message would begin to get through.

Three examples of Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport at Dorval. For years, meeting visitors arriving on domestic flights has been a most unsatisfactory experience. However despite redesigns it never seems to get better. If only ADM would do user tests or user surveys to get inputs on how improvements could be made.

The second example is

The third example is perhaps the most extreme in terms of poor user experience. It's the site celebrating Célébrations Canada. As Kate McDonnell points out, the website's coy design and programming make it nearly impossible to find a simple listing of events. More critically in terms of user experience, it really is a disaster in so many ways.

How such examples can continue to appear is a mystery. Those companies and agencies that push for excellence know that the only true measure of performance is User Experience. For instance, just check out how User Experience Race. It cites a definition of user experience by the Nielsen Norman Group, a Fremont, California, company that is one of the world leaders in helping companies design human-centered products.

User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user's interaction with the company, its services and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience goes far beyond giving customers merely what they say they want, or providing checklist features.

The way to ensure excellent user experience is to do user tests early and often. Here is how Usability Sciences describes the benefits:

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