Who Does It?
| In the recent years Usability Testing has become a niche market. It seems that there are more and more companies that specialize in Usability Testing. Here, I have outlined two prominent companies, along with two Usability Testing jobs. |
Bravo Zulu
Bravo Zulu is a Houston based company that started out in 2003. Bravo Zulu is a naval signal, conveyed by voice radio, meaning "Well Done". Bravo Zulu.com is the brainchild of Malcolm Wolter, Donovan Buck, Greg Weir. They offer a variety of services including their own content management system. They also offer usability consulting which includes: free homepage analysis, heuristic analysis and usability testing. Along with Usability and Content Management, Bravo Zulu also offers Information Architecture services. Bravo Zulu currently underwent a merger with BrandExtract. This, they say, will provide the customers with a more powerful set of tools for developing, managing and launching content in a variety of media.
WebNauts
WebNauts is located in Germany and is a company that focuses on Search Engine Optimization and Usability. Although these are their main services, they also offer website design, programming and systems administration. They also offer accessibility testing and consulting services to ensure conformity with the section 508 and other accessibility specifications. They ensure that their services will help avoid any legal violations. Their services for Search Engine Optimization include: the creation and modification of META tags, research keywords, creation of robots.txt file, and an analysis to see if the website id following SEO rules. Webnauts does not use any "black hat" search engine marketing techniques, such as hidden keywords, etc. For their Usability Testing services they offer: conceptual analysis, user needs analysis, user interface design, user interface evaluation, and the use of programs to collect data to evaluate the usability of a website.
Website Usability - Information Architect (Job #1)
This job is with CyberCoders Engineering and is located in Columbus, Ohio. This position requires at least three years experience. The base salary starts off at 40,000.00 and ranges to 110,000.00. This job requires that you be proficient in JavaScript, DHTML, ActiveX and Flash. The job responsibilities are to determine the flow and content placement of a website, collaborations with various departments, brainstorming, and of course, presentations.
Usability Specialist (Job #2)
This job is with USAA and is located in San Antonio, TX. There is no base salary listed. The requirements for this job are: knowledge of Web Accessibility guidelines, W3C technologies and WAI guidelines, exceptional interpersonal skills, highly proficient, and highly developed in critical thinking and analytical skills. They require 3-5 years experience in closely related field. They also offer great benefits, and casual dress environment. |
