 | American Psychological Association | |
|---|---|---|
 | Usability Professionals Association | |
 | Human Factors & Ergonomics Society | |
Usernomics can work with your company to develop Technical Training Programs.
The Training DilemmaSimilar to Documentation, Training is often one of the last things that a product designer thinks about. Invariably, the assumption is that a product is "intuitive" and needs no training. Usually, it is only after new users provide feedback to the contrary, does the need for training of some kind becomes evident. A product's usability, acceptance, and marketability are often dependent on the user feeling that it is easy to learn and use. Good training increases the understanding and subsequent comfort level with a product, which translates into product acceptance and use.
Our RoleUsernomics can assist your company with Training for hardware, software, or systems. We design Training programs for a variety of platforms including: computer based training (CBT), self-instructional tutorials, instructor led training, simulators, multi-media, online-help, and using real-world hardware or software. We can help to make your product usable, effective, and accepted by end users.
We apply a rigorous and systematic technique when developing training materials - Instructional Systems Design (ISD). This process culminates in empirical testing to ensure that the training program achieves the intended result. Our Instructional Design is distinguished by our additional expertise in designing user-centered products and procedures.
Usernomics' Instructional Psychologists focus on the instructional integrity of each program while our Engineering Psychologists focus on designing usable products and procedures. This permits us to view training as part of a cycle for making products and jobs usable: user-friendly design / user knowledge / user productivity / user acceptance.
Training is usually not associated with User-Centered Design. That concept is most often applied to product design. However, many Training Programs focus on the product rather than the user, making the Training Program ineffective. A good Training Program is one that centers on user needs to ensure that learning is achieved. We apply user-centered techniques to all of the Training that we develop for hardware and software.
We also specialize in Usability Testing to ensure that your Training and product works as expected for the end-user. Our usability testing takes the guesswork out of the instructional design process. This empirical testing of all training greatly increases the likelihood of product or system mastery.
We are happy to apply our expertise to projects varying from high tech consumer products to larger systems... computer software and hardware to aircraft and automobiles.
Please contact us if you would like further information or wish to discuss our consulting services.