CUA of the Month – January, 2014

Dinesh
"The most significant thing I learned from the HFI courses was the user's mental model."
 
Dinesh Joshi
User Experience Consultant,
ThoughtWorks

UX Consulting Power

by Jim Garrett

Those who do UX consulting must handle a variety of demands, including different clients, different user requirements and different business domains. Our Certified Analyst of the Month, Dinesh Joshi, has the breadth of experience and skill to meet those challenges.

Dinesh is a User Experience Consultant for ThoughtWorks, a software consulting company. ThoughtWorks is a Chicago-based company with twenty-nine offices in twelve countries.

Even though Dinesh is based in New Delhi, India, he primarily works for clients in Australia, the UK and the US. He took his CUA training in 2011 in Bangalore, India.

What is your role at ThoughtWorks?

I work as a UX consultant at ThoughtWorks. Typically we meet with a client to understand their problems, goals, and business objectives. We propose a solution which can give their customers/users good user experience so that our client can achieve their business goals.

Once started on the project, how do you work with the users?

There are typically two situations when I start any project. First, when there is some existing product/application which is not achieving its business goals. Or secondly, when there is a need to create something new. So in the first case, there is the need to do usability testing with real users to get real feedback and try to work on problem areas, rectify them, test them again, and launch. In the second case, there is the need to do user research, possibly with real users and stakeholders, to determine their goals/objectives and propose a design to fulfill them.

Do any projects come to mind that stand out as being unique and interesting?

Currently I am working on an application which will be used by back office people to manage their services. When people call the back office, the caller’s information will be captured using this application, and then processed and used to generate business leads. So the interesting part is that my first user is a customer calling and the second user is the customer service representative replying to him. The most challenging part was to place all the information in a manner such that the customer service representative can ask appropriate questions and the customer can easily answer all those questions.

You obviously work with a variety of companies and clients. Does that get a little challenging?

I think the most challenging part of any UX project is when you’re working without access to users. Without user access you can only make assumptions, where you never know how real users will use it.

Are most of the clients you work with readily accepting of the changes you want to make?

Yes, nowadays clients are aware of the importance of good user experience. Sometimes as a UX expert, I need to show them the ROI of having a UX expert on the project. It hardly matters if they want to build a backend application or public facing website; they definitely need UX expertise in the project team.

What do you find interesting about your work?

Different projects have different sets of challenges. For example, while creating designs for a mobile e-commerce website, you have to keep in mind those different users from different mobile phones with different demographics, with different goals, AND the high expectations from the client and only one design. That one design should fulfill all the users’ needs as well as the business needs.

What do you think was the most significant thing you learned from CUA training?

The most significant thing I learned from the HFI courses was the user's mental model. That was one of the discoveries which I found in the CUA course. Studying the user's mental model has been very helpful to me to understand what the users expect.

What things have you been able to apply from the training to your work?

I’ve been in the design field the last 10 years, but from getting CUA certified, I’ve learned things from the usability perspective. I learned that designs should be effective, easy to learn, and easy to use. So, now whatever I am doing, I just keep these things in mind. There is a significant difference in my work.

Any final thoughts?

I would say that HFI is doing really great work, especially for those who do not have a formal education in the human-computer interaction. People have an avenue to go and get educated and certified, and they can apply that knowledge in their projects. They can create value for themselves, their companies, and their clients.

CUA of the Month

Each month we highlight the successes and achievements of a different member of our CUA community. If you are a Certified Usability Analyst and would like to be considered for CUA of the Month recognition, please send a brief professional bio to hfi@humanfactors.com

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