Optimal Usability
MAKING IT EASY TO USE
If you build it, they will come…
But will they find it a positive experience?
That was the impetus behind Optimal Usability, a Wellington business that has achieved annual growth of 300-400% and in 2008 was ranked New Zealand’s 27th fastest growing company and Wellington’s faster growing exporter.
Optimal Usability was conceived in 2003 by Trent Mankelow and Sam Ng, who were both frustrated with “poor usability of systems and websites”.
“We had been involved with really big IT projects that failed to take off. Millions of dollars went to waste because no-one could be bothered to use them,” says Trent.
And so was born their company that provides consultancy services to help clients evaluate and improve the usability of products, services, environments and interactions.
“Our job is to find out what customers find confusing or frustrating, and then provide solutions to help organisations simplify their interfaces and make them more intuitive and easier to use.”
Traditional market research is great for understanding how people think, says Trent, but creating a good consumer experience requires more than that.
“We need to know how they will behave when dealing with a real situation. Usability research ensures that customers’ interactions are efficient, useful and satisfying. You cannot have a world-class consumer experience without it.”
Optimal Usability’s consulting division has 16 staff who conduct behavioural research, observing clients’ customers as they interact with products such as mobile phones and Air New Zealand’s electronic check-in kiosks, and advising on basic design concepts.
“The result encourages and enables earlier adoption and higher productivity through increased usage, improved user satisfaction and enhanced brand image.”
Meanwhile the company’s products division, Optimal Workshop, develops software to help companies design and test websites. It has four staff and the tools have been used by more than 280,000 participants in 110 countries for organisations such as Amazon, Intel, NASA, Nokia and CNN.
While most of the company’s product work is global, the consultancy arm remains a critical part of their domestic and Australian business.
The company was one of the first to enter the Creative HQ programme in 2004, and Trent says the early mentoring and advice they received from CHQ enabled them to flex their business muscles.
“CHQ was awesome at introducing us to people. The business mentors we met through them subsequently became a formal advisory board who we’ve been working with for the last four years. CHQ accelerated our success in every sense.”
