World's largest usability company opens Shanghai office
Human Factors International, Inc.(HFI), the world's largest user-centered design company, now has a strong presence in China. This local presence gives Chinese companies direct access to the most sophisticated usability consulting and training available and gives non-Chinese companies access to Chinese users for product evaluation and test marketing.
With over 6 months of preparatory recruiting, training, setup, and paperwork, HFI's Shanghai office is now rolling ahead as HFI (Shanghai) Software Consulting Co. Ltd. It is a fully licensed service company authorized to engage in all aspects of usability consulting and is also wholly owned by HFI. This company will be able to independently contract with clients in China to provide a complete range of usability consulting and training, thereby expediting clients' time to market.
For some time, HFI has been able to support usability testing in China through its wholly owned India subsidiary. Chinese clients such as Sony Ericsson and Paypal have benefited from HFI's innovative methods for data gathering and usability testing in international markets. |
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 Dr. Baili Liu
Dr. Baili Liu is Project Manager for HFI-China. She earned a Ph.D. in human factors engineering from Purdue University and was assistant professor of computing and software systems at the University of Washington Bothell. “Our team of local professionals, supported by HFI’s international resources, is knowledgeable, energetic, and uses the best practices in research, analysis and design,” says Baili. |
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Apala Chavan
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"HFI China is at the forefront of providing culturally optimized design solutions," says Apala Lahiri Chavan, HFI's VP Asia. "HFI China blends the best of global usability research and universally valid theory, with a deep understanding of the local user. This provides a great service for local business, especially when evaluating and testing designs created outside of China, but meant for the Chinese user." |
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Shanghai office entry Hall
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HFI China's Shanghai office
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View of Shanghai from our office
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According to HFI CEO, Dr. Eric Schaffer, "China is an amazing market. Companies understand how critical proper usability work and localization can be in market success. Our Chinese team is ready to review, test, and design Web sites, applications, and other software interfaces for the Chinese market. It has the traditional set of HFI processes, tools, and proven integrity. Already it is running programs for the some of the world's largest companies."
Usability is a key differentiator in technology markets, as countries like India, China, Russia, and Brazil compete fiercely for global marketshare. Those with the ability to develop more usable software, Web sites, and products gain a unique advantage. In fact, many Asian business publications made just this point in their coverage of the inaugural World Usability Day on November 3rd, 2005.
In one example, from the publication Techtree.com, "Although IT is one of [India's] major export earners, there are alternative suppliers of IT services at a similar cost advantage (i.e. Phillipines, Taiwan, Russia and China). India needs to equip its IT industry with the necessary skills to do usability work...usability is the key factor that will help the industry to move up the value chain and stay differentiated from other providers of cheap IT services."
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