Over the past couple of months Vanessa and I have been supporting the development of a new web app for students. The Web, Graphics & Interaction Team invited us to get involved and help them make their new service as quick and user-friendly to use as possible. The collaboration has been a great success.

The recently launched Media Hopper service for University staff and students provides an excellent (and free) means to record usability testing sessions. We recommend you try it as a means to easily share your findings with colleagues and stakeholders.

Our final Usability Testing Service showcase session of the summer (30 June) focused on the prospective postgraduate experience using the Degree Finder and associated websites.

Last month I had the honour of giving the opening plenary presentation at IWMW 2016, the UK Higher Education web professionals’ conference, in Liverpool. My topic was Lean UX, or as i expressed it, why requirements are hypotheses. Video and slides are now available.

I joined the team as Usability Testing Service Assistant in late May and have had a busy first month getting to grips with the equipment we use, helping run promotional events and supporting a range of projects.

I’m running 4 demo sessions of the new usability testing service in the coming months. These are open to all staff to come along and see how the process works, with the first happening on Wednesday 25 May.

I was watching a presentation by Lean UX author, Jeff Gothelf, and a point he made about user-focused development – taking small steps, sensing and responding – really struck with me. So much so, I’ve written a bit of it up to share here.

Earlier this week I was supporting our CIO, Gavin McLachlan, as he ran a session on digital transformation for managers within Information Services. The presentation and mini-workshop went down very well, prompting lots of discussion and enthusiastic collaboration. Listening to Gavin’s message prompted me to pull together some thoughts and resources on the subject.

In most walks of life, a small number of things are significantly more important than the rest. To be effective as the manager of a web presence or service, you need to know what matters most to your target audiences. Fortunately this is fairly easy to do.

I’m introducing a new usability testing service for the University, for an initial trial period up to the end of July 2016. It will be an easy and convenient way to embed user insight into your development projects, and provide learning opportunities for anyone interested in trying the techniques out for themselves.