When 97% of companies have “good customer experience” as a strategic imperative, you might want to get a vendor who is focused on world class experience engineering. Here is a sample of the criteria for choosing a UX vendor set out in this white paper: Can the vendor provide the full range of UX services?You might need assistance with a simple project now, but as you continue your program, you may need more advanced assistance. Avoid switching UX vendors midstream. A UX vendor should be able to provide or conduct: A high level cross-channel UX strategy Innovation projects Usability testing Expert reviews Experiments Ecosystem research (sometimes called contextual inquiry) Structural design Detailed design Continuous metrics-based usability improvements About the author Dr. Eric Schaffer is the founder and CEO of Human Factors International. His book, Institutionalization of UX: A Step-by-Step Guide to a User Experience Practice, provides a roadmap for companies to make usability a systematic, routine practice throughout their organizations. Dr. Schaffer also co-developed The HFI Framework™, an ISO-certifiable process for user-centered design, built on principles from human-computer interaction, ergonomics, psychology, computer science, and marketing. Dr. Schaffer has completed projects for more than 100 Fortune 500 clients, providing user experience design consulting and training. He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and a Certified Professional Ergonomist.