Chris Rourke

I am a user experience consultant and Director of User Vision, a leading consultancy providing usability testing, user profiling, information architecture, eye tracking, accessibility and training services.
Prior to starting User Vision, I was a senior consultant for a leading human factors consultancy in London and have worked for clients throughout the UK, Europe and the US. I have applied usability / human factors to improve software, websites and products for a wide range of clients, both commercial and public sector including Dell Computers, Royal Bank of Scotland, Intelligent Finance, Scottish Widows, Emirates Airline, Pfizer, Hewlett Packard, NCR, Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), Scottish Enterprise, Aberdeen City Council, Leeds City Council, IKEA and more
See more: http://www.uservision.co.uk

The human phone booths of Colombia

The sharing of mobile phones is an interesting phenomenon, and an example of market competition in action.

It also means phone usability in that market is important as people switch between different phones.

Columbia - mobile phone sharing

by Chris Rourke 05 November 2008 09:30am 1 comment

IA: Bottom up meets top down in School of Everything

The innovative School of Everything offers a great chance to learn from others like you.

But will its combination of user-generated and company-generated navigation help or hinder findability in the long run?

by Chris Rourke 05 September 2008 10:00am 0 comments

Is the downturn leading to greater use of e-commerce?

Evidence suggests that as more people are feeling the pinch of higher fuel and household bills, they are seeking savings online.

Could greater use of e-commerce be a silver lining to the cloud of the Credit Crunch?

by Chris Rourke 24 July 2008 10:39am 8 comments

Who pays the price for poor usability? For air tickets online it could be you!

Booking flights online can be tricky and mistakes are common due to poor usability.

Apparently, however, many airlines are unwilling to refund these user errors or learn lessons from them.

by Chris Rourke 10 June 2008 08:45am 2 comments

Amex woes highlight common PDF accessibility problem

Recent reported accessibility problems with American Express' web statements exemplify a common challenge for financial service websites and those reliant on PDFs.

by Chris Rourke 07 April 2008 08:30am 5 comments

AJAX and accessibility - Jaws to the rescue?

RIAs like Ajax often have an accessibility weak spot since they need to work with JavaScript off to meet the basic accessibility guidelines.

Rumour has it that the next version of the popular screen reader Jaws may be able to handle Ajax interfaces.

by Chris Rourke 23 July 2007 10:18am 3 comments

Election fiasco shows importance of usability tests

The cost of failing to usability test designs before deployment has unfortunately been shown again in Scotland's controversial election results.

by Chris Rourke 08 May 2007 08:00am 12 comments

How to be PDQ on your PDA – Adaptex goes live

This week saw the official launch of Adaptex, the software from Keypoint Technologies that can help users of PDAs enter data and text much faster and easier. Communicating and buying via your PDA or smartphone whilst on the road can be a lot easier potentially.

by Chris Rourke 13 November 2006 12:46pm 1 comment

Do your users know their RSS from their elbow?

Whilst we get all excited about social software and Web 2.0, does the average web user care at all? Should they?

by Chris Rourke 30 October 2006 10:28am 0 comments

Clustering your search results

I have been thinking a lot about search lately, not only due to my reliance on Google that we all now share, but also because I currently reading an excellent book, The Search by John Batelle , about all things search and Google.

by Chris Rourke 11 October 2006 11:20am 1 comment